RoundTheBoards

Marson wanted to find a full-time CL place as well as NDL outings to make it worth coming over from Aussie. He accepted that he was only a placeholder in the Poole team until the end of June, which made it worth his while. But to kick his out in early May to take advantage of another placeholder until June, seems pretty low.

Redcar to Manchester isn't a huge trip on a Friday afternoon. Just take half a day off work and get Friday tickets.

Peter Schroeck. (Would have been Sam Ermolenko, but he's retired to spend more time with his wooden spoon collection.)

Seem to have missed the answer to the question... Champions of Great Britain 2016 Danny King 2017 Craig Cook 2019 Charles Wright Yes. They wouldn't get anywhere near Gilkes even. And two of them are dead.

World No.2, World No4., Six former British Champions. Apart from the injured Tai Woffinden, who else exactly do you want in there?

Turns 15 next January.

Yes, and because they have a facility they can use any 2.00 CL rider as a guest. If they didn't have a facility, they'd be limited to using someone who is in NDL only.

Yes. With a facility they can use a 2.00 guest from another CL team. With a "reduced facilty" because he's below 2.65 they couldn't use the 75% option and would have to use a NDL rider.

Doyle and Sayfutdinov both had 8+1, so I think everyone would see that higher than 7+2. Like you say both gave excuses for ducking out, leaving Thompson as next in line.

Think your maths is a bit wrong. Going by Speedway Updates (Ignoring heat 15) the Ippo top-scorers should have been: King 10+1, Brennan 10, Ellis 8+2, and a toss of a coin between Doyle 8+1 and Sayfutdinov 8+1. Brum should have been: Jepsen Jensen 9, Jeppesen 5+1, Rew 5, Vuolas 2+1 So it looks like the pay rates couldn't have been too good as Doyle, Sayfutdinov, Jesper Jensen, Jeppesen and Rew all ducked it. Fair play to Thompson, Musielak, Hume and Edwards for taking part. I'd say it reflects worse on Doyle and Sayfutdinov for ducking out as it's their home club.

Who is offering Ipswich -16 ? Bet365 have it at -28

Not like you to talk sense. I expect you did it by accident. Leicester protected him as their RS so no one else could have him. Then drop him straight away once there's nowhere else he can go.

No doubt the pricing was spot on. The "It's going to be an empty stadium" brigade are very quiet now.

Anyone heard anything about Owlerton Stadium? Apparently Stock Cars have been kicked out with immediate effect due to lack of space, with the stock car pits being taken over by solar panels and their associated storage batteries. Rumours also that Greyhounds are on borrowed time? Where does this leave speedway? Anyone close to the club know anything?

You're spot on. In the early days of cinder tracks it was hard to produce a good starting area, as the back wheel spinning dug big ruts, worse than the ruts dug in modern shale tracks. Also electric cables to operate the starting gate etc often ran under the track and needed protection. In those glorious days before Health & Safety, the easiest solution was to concrete over the starts. Again, as you say, this was dangerous due to a lip being created which would act as a take-off ramp, and dangers due to the increasing grip on change of surface. (As previously discussed with riders hitting a concrete kerb and taking off - the coefficient of friction between a rubber tyre and concrete is much higher than that between rubber and shale). Also, as anyone who has looped a bike will attest, landing on a shale track hurts a lot, but landing on concrete hurts a hell of a lot more. As track preparation techniques improved, with better quality shale surfaces replacing cinders, concrete starting grids were banned.

LOL no. Seems I wasted all those years studying physics, back in the day. Not to mention the 50 years of watching speedway from both sides of the fence. Going to have to recondition my brain now, so that it thinks all those riders that I've seen hitting the kerb and picking up from the excess drive, never happened.

So a speedway bike sliding on shale, suddenly hitting a solid concrete kerb with the back wheel wouldn't pick up traction and be driven forward in a straight line? Well you live and learn eh?

Those averages are correct. Are you suggesting some kind of fiddle has been allowed "in the best interests of the sport"?

Correct. Klindt at 2, Kvech at 3.

Got to be the silliest post so far (and you had competition) No one said it would sell out in 24 hours. It will however sell out. Probably a lot of people hoping it doesn't sell out before next week, since a lot of people only get paid at the end of the month. p.s. Please tell me you weren't sad enough to count the dots on the seating plan.

Nothing has been announced yet. Could use the highest placed non-GP rider from the British Final for both or, since they are 2 separate GPs, could use the first and second highest, and let 2 riders have the experience of one GP each. Can't really make my mind up which I think is the fairest.

The back straight standing is showing a few tickets available for either night now. I suspect some people may have put tickets in their cart when they were released this morning, but not completed on paying for them, so they've been released back for sale. Other than that there's still some in the temporary seating. Looks like it is selling very quickly though

I see Birmingham's secret weapon has just turned up! (Not so much a secret, but he's certainly a weapon)

Klindt is at 3. Iversen at 4 Kildemand at 2 for Oxford. Riss at 4