DaveWayne

Sheffield won the KO Cup and topped the league table in 2024 with Edwards and Gilkes.

I think Belle Vue are out whatever happens due to their negative points difference. If Sheffield and Leicester each win their home legs and Leicester take the aggregate point, all 3 teams finish on 5 points but one of those 2 will end up with a positive points difference, so it's impossible for Belle Vue to finish top.

The irony of this being that Belle Vue did get the graveyard gate early doors but were only 6 points down. The damage was done in heats 7-11 when Sheffield had gate 3 for 4 consecutive races.

So it's exactly the same then. Tac subs allowed in the league phase, but not in the knockout phase.

Are tactical substitutes allowed in the playoffs ?

You missed all the excitement leaving that early. All the Aces fans suddenly woke up and chanted "Bewley, Bewley, Bewley" when you finally got a heat advantage in heat 12. Pity the match was already over by then. 😉

Belle Vue fans won't need to worry about what it's called soon anyway. By the end of the Easter weekend they will be concentrating on the league. 😉

Just out of interest, how would the two of you suggest that they run a knockout cup with 6 teams ? Assume 2 would be seeded into the semis, so would that be the 2 finalists from last season ? As Northampton would be one of the quarter finalists, that would delay the whole competition as they are not going to be ready to ride at home until the end of the month. Yes, we can all be cynical about it, but I would say the format chosen for this year is probably the best option in the current circumstances.

That's ok - they will be in the same league as at least one Nottinghamshire team next season, possibly two if County come up to join us. 😉

Scunny had stock cars last night and again on Saturday, so maybe logistically it made sense to not have speedway in between if they have to make any infrastructure changes.

Belle Vue to win on Monday, but then lose out on the aggregate point on Thursday.

So Leicester were called the Hunters at the same time as the Brafield Flying Foxes existed. 😉 Far from it being an 'attempted appropriation' or a 'lack of local knowledge', it is historically accurate in returning to the name of the original team that rode at the same stadium. Most 'older' stock car fans still refer to the stadium as Brafield rather than Northampton.

I'm not sure I understand all this stressing about the name. People are talking as if Foxes is synonymous with Leicester. If that is the case then why are the Speedway team called the Lions, and the Rugby team called the Tigers ?

The flaw in that plan is that Stock Car racing isn't a 'local sport' and is very much a 'travelling circus'. There are fans in all areas, but the bulk of the fans at Northampton on Saturday night would have been at Kings Lynn the previous Saturday, and will probably be at Scunthorpe next Saturday. I would hazard a guess that on average, only about 10% of the crowd at a stock car meeting live within 50 miles of the track. I do 35-40 meetings a season, but my nearest track is about 35 miles from my home, and most other tracks I visit are around 60-90 miles away, with others further still, such as Taunton at 220 miles, and St Day (Cornwall) and Cowdenbeath (Scotland) both just over 300 miles. F1 stockcars still have a strong following in the North West due to past history, despite there no longer being any tracks up that way, so many fans at their meetings are travelling from North and West Yorkshire, Manchester and Lancashire.

The tractor tyres are not the problem as they are easily moved. The issue is the grass you can see behind them as that is raised several feet above track level with a plate fence on the track side, and there is no inner kerb so the shale is right up to the plating.