wtf

The only alternatives to Guests is for the UK to run squads. If you want to retain people in a squad there has to be some financial reward if they are prohibited from riding elsewhere and have to practise. Seeing as how the UK clubs can only just pay seven riders they have now and in some cases not, I'm not sure squads are affordable? Squads do require signing on fees, which are pretty much gone from UK speedway now. BTW, the main reason overseas riders ride the UK is because they DONT have squads. You sign up, and barring injury you are much more likely to get all the meetings scheduled than overseas where one poor performance will see you left out for the rest of the year.

Yes, if there is a bump you can avoid it and the track is RIDEABLE not RACEABLE. The guys would like to try and entertain and race their bikes, not just stay alive

That's a bit of an understatement.

Not sure Jason would want to turn up to every ipswich meeting for some petrol money and to fill in a programme, compared to what he gets now. If you want to believe he's here for the love of the sport and to give something back, that's up to you. I think you'll find he's doing very nicely out of both jobs right now.

People will believe what they want to believe, the press will print what THEY want you to believe, clubs and riders will issue statements and tweets about what THEY want you to believe. The smell of BS is overwhelming.

I imagine the league will be based around Championship payscales, but depending on the Eurosport deal, might be "badged" as at Premiership level, but strangely missing what's left of the Top -ish level riders

Unfortunately, the "mental health card" has become the new "race card". It will invariably be abused and ruin it for those genuine cases. No one is allowed to question it, end of.

You just can't stop yourself can you? The one place Batchelor can ride is Monmore. 11+1 and 12+1 this year. I'd be the first to agree if you said he couldn't ride Sheffield.

He's also a lot better on a smooth slick track

I agree. Many on here blame the riders for holding the sport to ransom and insisting on huge wages. the promoters always make their case for being the victims. Yet I can recall at least 3 attempts in the last 10 years when the promoters have agreed on a pay cap and then within literally weeks of agreeing it, one or two of them have gone way outside the agreement to get one over on the others. You can't blame a rider for being paid what one idiot is prepared to pay them. It's a bit like someone refusing a pay rise insisting they are not worth it. It's the idiot prepared to pay them an inflated wage in one breath and then moan about it in the next. Can you imagine any other place of work where if you weren't being paid, so you refused to work because the terms of your contract had been broken, the people owing you money could stop you working elsewhere? Speedway in the UK is run INSPITE of the people who run it, not because of.

Somebody has got to agree to pay them, you can't blame a rider for being overpaid, when a promoter agrees to pay it. Its a bit like people blaming MacDonald's for being fat.

I think you need to start looking at who built the team, who signed the riders. When you start bringing in riders quickly after the start of the season, you've got to start asking why they were left out, dropped, or not in other peoples teams from the start. Richard Lawson has been a good addition, I think Connor mountain is a cracking little rider but being asked to do an awful lot at the moment. Ricky wells, well there's a reason no one included him from the start of the season, Heeps doesn't look fit, or fast or that interested. As for building a team spirit there. I think there's too many cooks stirring the pot.

We waited 30 minutes so people could race safely and you bitch and moan, but you do that about most things.

Says a man who has clearly never done it. If you think tear offs and roller systems provide beautiful clear vision, your wrong. If you also think 14 guys want to turn up at a track, spend costs on fuel, mechanics etc and then go back with zero income you're wrong. They'd just like a better than average chance of earning a living without dying for no good reason. Yes everyone has a different opinion of what's safe to ride in, but I'd tend to listen more to those who are doing it than those who are not. They do not want to go home unpaid believe me on that. Peterborough is a fast track, the usual racing line is not far from that lovely comfy air bag that they are bound to just bounce off like a bouncy castle. They want to ride, but riding and racing require different conditions.

Has he all of a sudden learned how to gate?

Visibility is so overrated. maybe you would prefer them to be blindfolded and sent out for your amusement. Drizzle is probably the worst kind of rain for visibility, worse than heavy rain as it doesn't bead up and run off the surface of your goggles readily. But please carry on with the expert opinions

You would like to think Anlas would be absorbing the costs, but then depends on how well you did you due diligence on the contract you signed. (I'll not answer how well scrutinised that would have been) It would be pretty disappointing and typical if the original tyre testing had been done at one of the tracks now needing 2 tyres by who knows? a couple of National League riders because they happened to be there and were free? I mean, you get a proper test like that rather than getting a half decent experienced top level (UK) rider to put them through their paces and give you some proper feedback. But hey, they might want the costs for their expertise and equipment use covered for the day. Whereas giving a couple of national league riders a bit of free track time will be just as good won't it. But this is just speculation Unfortunately speedway still is yet to learn that you get what you pay for. Peanuts and primates

Poland are using the Mitas and the 003 Anlas, the same tyre as we have here. Difference is obviously, yes each edge only does one race over there, same as they are now doing here with 2 tyres, bar heat 15

Believe me, they are very busy trying to swat it away and hide it under the carpet. Rumour has it there's now a special Anlas Lubricant that must be used on the inside of the tyre when fitting to make all the problems go away. You couldn't make this stuff up if you tried. If this lot had another brain cell they'd be a plant.

Try proving it. Someone is going to have to get a very expensive lawyer and some expert witnesses on board. They cost money, that some people won't want to spend This isn't formula 1

Richard Lawson recorded the highest temperature for a tyre in Heat 15 on Monday. They aren't getting any hotter on the surface temperature than the old Mitas Tyres. The problem is both the construction and compound. (pretty much the whole tyre then) Pressure rises were normal. tyres are losing big chunks after just one ride. They disintegrate at very inconsistent rates. Some lasting well, some not even 4 laps. The sidewall and bead construction appear to be of most concern at the moment, and the vulcanisation of the rubber to the carcass. The SCB are only involved because its a big safety issue and someone has signed a big commercial contract with a tyre that isn't fit for purpose. The problem will also be that those with all the data and testing aren't tyre experts themselves, don't really know what they are looking at, and certainly won't get an expert outside opinion from someone who is. The old Mitas tyre would wear at a predictable rate and when the knobbles were torn off the didn't expose the carcass underneath. In short, they wore out consistently. These things are going to get someone hurt if they aren't careful.

Name me one rider who's career moved forward on the Rob Painter Team Revolution Jawa sponsored programme. The idea of Lewis having the bikes looked after elsewhere and him just riding them was a good one. Just entirely the wrong bikes (Engines). It was like night and day when he got back on some decent kit

There will certainly be a number of riders who have decisions to make. Interesting one for me now will be whether the BSPA are clever enough to use and maximise the one draw and advantage they have over all the other speedway leagues. I bet they won't The advantage that Sweden and Denmark offer to any rider in Poland is that the travel is less, and you can do both leagues on one set of equipment. One van, one set of full time mechanics, one workshop, one set of bikes. You can even do the GPs with this same single set up. If you want to run in the UK, you have to have a complete other set up, and you pretty much cannot use it for anything else other than racing in the UK. That adds significant costs to riding in a country that doesn't pay great compared to the others, so what is the attraction of racing in the uk apart from the "technical tracks" ? Simple. No Squad System, and lots of meetings. You are not going to be asking any top riders about choosing the UK over Poland, it's how do you attract them away from Sweden or Denmark. Now would be the perfect time for the powers that be to announce that there can be no team changes in the top league other than to replace injuries, and that you want a full calender of racing, 2 home and 2 away plus playoffs with a guarantee of say 28 meetings. Ask any rider who has been frozen out because of a couple of poor meetings on the continent whether they would rather do that or run the risk of sitting on the side lines. Most top level riders like riding the uk as it starts early, so they can get dialled in for the season on the continent and it guarantees them lots of meetings and time on the bike. opportunities to show how they're going should they struggle overseas. They won't do it though, they are too stupid to understand the only real draw they have to attract the higher level riders and maximise it. Hence they've been talking about a squad system for the last few years. Poland will do what they want to do, over here you need to understand what strengths you have and how to make the most of them. Just watch our "genius's" miss an open goal

Speedway.......... The only motorsport I can think of that specifically uses a control tyre to reduce costs, even the playing field, and prevent a tyre war. And then allows the use of another alternative tyre. You couldn't make it up. Anlas have only been courted by various speedway bodies over the last few years as Mitas have been threatening to pull out for a while. So they allowed their use to keep them around, same as their encouragement with the Golden Tyre in the past. Can you imagine Ferrari turning up at the next F1 Grand Prix and saying, we want to use some other tyres because we don't like these Pirelli's and my best mate just took a kick back off of this other manufacturer. Speedway exists in spite of the clowns running it, not because of.

some riders that night didn't fancy it