HenryW

THIS. This is what needs to happen. If you come in on a 7 average you should not be allowed to drop below that. A young Brit coming in on a 3 average doesn't get to drop below his assessed average, why should anyone else? I wouldn't allow the drop in average first year. I might, however, allow someone to start dropping average after 10 years of service or something like that... If someone still wants to sign Max Dilger or Rafal Konopka on a 7 they are welcome to do so but they have to take that hit to the team average.

The Aussies shot themselves in the foot as it turns out. Campton was the 3rd highest NSW rider in the New South Wales state final but out of state riders finished above him leading to his permit refusal...Oops!

Didn't he have a little problem with public urination after some celebratory drinks following one of Toruns meetings during that period?

Matty Wethers as well according to Workington's latest press release.

There are 2 US National Championships listed for 2014. One a series and the other a one of meeting. Not sure which one counts but Manzares was 12th in one and didn't contest the other. He also didn't make the top 4 of the California State Championship. He may not have raced in that either. However, if top 4 in a state title is what is required he could maybe be replaced by Adam Mittl, Dave Clark, Jesse Diem or Jerry Harman who were top 4 in the New York state title

The decent ones, those that are actually deserving of a visa, probably wouldn't be able to be replaced at least not without excessive costs...There just aren't the riders available and interested in racing over here. If there was a large delay I would expect facilities (guest/rider replacement) to be granted to teams due to the exceptional circumstances and that would actually help to prove that these riders were genuinely required in the leagues. As you are implying, anyone who can easily be replaced by a rider who doesn't require a work permit probably shouldn't be eligible for a work permit in the first place, and there are probably a few on the list of riders currently signed that might fit that category.

And yet the suggested rule would do nothing to fix this...After all that presentation, as long as the rider was still on his bike doing his gardening then he is safe, he is apparently only causing a problem if he is off his bike, which makes no sense. Do as the SGP does and get a clock out to show the 2 minutes...The riders can then take a look and know how long they can do their gardening for and can work out whether they have time to get off their bike to do it or not....The stadium announcer knows exactly how long he has to talk about each rider to build up the tension and the person in charge of the music also knows exactly how long they have to get their mood making music playing... Essentially, everything fits much better for presentation if there is a fixed and easily viewed time limit before a race is ready to start...Whether a rider gets off his bike during that time or not is utterly irrelevant.

Yes, this is exactly the same petition that gustix has been talking about. The creator of the facebook group that he has been so closely following and informing us about has linked to this petition, there isn't a different one on facebook. I have to admit that I have also been witness to riders drinking the night before they have raced on many occasions. Whether they were still over the regulated limit when their meeting started the next day I have no way of knowing... Whilst drinking the night before a meeting probably isn't the most professional approach, I have always just assumed that they knew the limit to keep themselves inside the rules and if they wanted to be something less than totally professional then that was their business. Let's not forget that Darcy himself was tested in Poland the day after the British GP last year as there were suggestions that he had been pished the night before and he passed the test fine... There are a lot of people on this thread that seem to be getting wound up about riders drinking the night before a meeting...I have no issue with a rider that drinks the night before a meeting as long as they are under the regulated limit when it comes time to take to the track. Any perceived lack of professionalism is between them and the team they are representing. As far as I can work out, the most sensible approach would be to make it compulsory for every rider to have to pass a breath test before every meeting that they are in...If it's enforced at every meeting you don't need to make it a big punishment for failure. Currently the potential big punishments are all about making an example of those that are caught because the testing isn't complete and that's fine for drug testing where it's relatively expensive to test at every event and the results aren't available immediately. Alcohol testing is cheap and easy. If you tested everyone before every meeting then a failed test would just lead to exclusion from that meeting...Missing that meeting would then be punishment enough.

Wow...So only about 350 of the 4,671 on that group actually signed the petition...That says a lot.

I'd be interested in the answer to this as well but it looks like you aren't getting an answer

I'm utterly bemused by the "gardening" rule change. Just what exactly is this supposed to achieve? It solves absolutely nothing. As screamer said earlier it would have been far better to follow the example of the gp series and use a 2 minute clock with all riders requiring to be ready to race when this expires.

To be fair, if he marginally failed the test then technicalities such as the calibration of the testing equipment are pretty damned important. Some people have mentioned that the other 2 riders tested passed OK, but they were probably providing zero readings. If there is a question around the calibration of the testing equipment it casts doubt on the accuracy when dealing with low positive numbers. Darcy has admitted that he had some drinks the night before, which I am not condoning, but if the results were marginal then it's entirely reasonable that he and his lawyers question the quality of the testing equipment. A difference of 0.01 in his reading could have been the difference between him becoming World Champion in 2014 and him sitting out the end of the 2014 and the whole of the 2015 SGP seasons.

The FIM only rule over motorcycle sports. It was the FIA that hammered McLaren.

Stewart was using Adderall and his defence was that this use was to treat his ADHD. After the failed test he applied for and received an exemption that said he was allowed to take the drug and still race. However, as he hadn't applied for this exemption before being tested he was given the ban regardless as he failed to follow the correct procedures.

Whilst I agree with most of what you said, this last statement is a little more difficult to be so clear on. I like the play-offs but the impact on crowds overall is quite difficult to judge. For some teams at the top, meetings that would previously have been critical for the title chase become meaningless little fillers whilst they wait for the play-offs to start. Having said that, the fact that teams lower down the league continue to have something to race for late into the season probably more than makes up for this but as I say, it's hard to judge the overall impact on attendance across the entire league season.

The final Wembley track record is actually 66.8 seconds which was set by Erik Gundersen in heat 6 of the 1981 final.

Because of Marc Marquez.

So for the examples that you gave, these riders would now have to wait a further 7 months to make their full World Championship debut as they would have contested the Grand Prix Challenge at the end of the year rather than the World Final. Not exactly a mammoth wait in the grand scheme of things. Having said that, no-one has managed to get to the top end of the GP challenge quite so quickly after the start of their career so either there are no riders coming through that are of the calibre of Louis and Lee or the rest of the riders are of a higher standard these days and it isn't so easy to break through to the top level.

Is that really true? Does this happen in many other sports? I am genuinely interested to know of what other sports have a qualification system in the same year as the World Champion is decided as none of the sports that I follow do this. I am honestly not sure that the qualification being done the year before makes all that much difference but I do agree that only 15 permanent riders in the series is too few. During the few years where 22 permanent riders were included in the series it seemed to be better to me. The format of the actual meetings might not have been ideal but the extra 7 places being available made a big difference, not to mention the extra wildcard being available each round.

I certainly didn't say that. However, any rider who requires a work permit to race in this Country has to prove they have a fairly high level of competence by establishing themselves either in their domestic competitions or in other nations before they are allowed a work permit. Quite simply, that is what the Government demand of all sportspeople requiring work permits for this Nation. The standard that was agreed with the Government several years ago equated to a 7 point average in the Premier League and that actually seems fairly generous given the wording of the law. All that is happening just now is that the Government are enforcing this after a few years where the speedway authorities were allowing riders in on lower averages without the explicit approval of the Government to do this.

Maybe a better question would be why a rider "who has never rode in this country or abroad" would be eligible for a work permit in the first place? The requirements for a tier 2 sportsperson visa state that you must be "...an elite sportsperson or qualified coach recognised by your sport’s governing body as internationally established at the highest level". A 7 point average in the 2nd division doesn't seem like an excessive ask for a rider established at the highest level and that appears to be what the UK Government are now properly enforcing.

And important to note how long it took the FIM to rule on former World Champion James Stewart. Failed test in April, decision made in December...Things move slowly in the FIM. It isn't the case that the fim are just slow with speedway decisions.

I wonder how you determined that fans didn't want this...Crowds have been tumbling whilst clubs hold on to the race nights they currently have, so why do you think that fans want to keep these nights?

It isn't just them that have had this problem, though. Alex Loktaev has had similar problems when it comes to racing in the UK in recent years.

If the play-off teams were decided by the reserves, would that actually be a bad thing? The original claim was that this was a move to encourage the British youngsters. If that was genuinely the intent and it wasn't just about saving money, which I think most suspect it really was, the reserves being a deciding factor would surely be a good thing! If a team needs to have good young British riders to win the league then surely teams will learn that they actually need to invest in young British riders so that they can win the league...That surely delivers the on the claimed intent to encourage British youngsters. I disagree that the claiming of assets was a bad thing. Personally, I think that the biggest flaws of the system this year were the "draft" and the fixed points money for FTR riders (although I'm not sure whether that was actually enforced). If you want to genuinely benefit the young Brits surely you keep the race format the same but get rid of the draft. Why not let teams fight for the young Brits financially rather than having the draft and a set pay scale? If the reserves are crucial to winning the league it should become an incentive for teams to actually work on developing young talent or at least encourage them to pay other teams that are willing to work on developing riders. Aside from transfer fees it also encourages teams to offer good money to the kids and encourages the local companies to sponsor the kids that can make a big difference to the league winning chances.... Is that not what we really want? Rather than money being thrown at the middle order Dane, Swede, Czech, etc, the money gets pushed towards the young Brits?