SteveEvans

Chances are looking good for Team USA to make a welcome return to a UK tour this Spring. We are competing the UNDER 21 WORLD CUP semi in Germany on April 28th so we'll be looking to get ourselves warmed up prior. Ideally we will stage 4 matches between April 17 and 23rd before the Team goes to Germany on the 25th. Already confirmed on the squad are Gino Manzares, Austin Novratil and Rocco Scopellite. All three are lookig to move into the Premier League as soon as they can and each already has more than one club showing interest. King's Lynn's Scott Campos, with American parentage is also likely to feature in the squad. The Team is not entirely restricted to Under 21 riders though the plan is to have 4-5 on the squad. Unlike previous tours which have been private endeavors, this one is likely to be an officially sanctioned squad.

Chances are looking good for Team USA to make a welcome return to a UK tour this Spring. We are competing the UNDER 21 WORLD CUP semi in Germany on April 28th so we'll be looking to get ourselves warmed up prior. Ideally we will stage 4 matches between April 17 and 23rd before the Team goes to Germany on the 25th. Already confirmed on the squad are Gino Manzares, Austin Novratil and Rocco Scopellite. All three are lookig to move into the Premier League as soon as they can and each already has more than one club showing interest. King's Lynn's Scott Campos, with American parentage is also likely to feature in the squad. The Team is not entirely restricted to Under 21 riders though the plan is to have 4-5 on the squad. Unlike previous tours which have been private endeavors, this one is likely to be an officially sanctioned squad.

Except Auty rides for a friday team.

I think the Swedes at reserve may be a bad idea - the 42,50 limit essentially will give more depth at reserve for the teams. I'm sure they will do better than last year but if the standard his higher they may struggle to improve their average as much as we think.

He could excel somewhere else. I can see a case for keeping him on that average but we can't keep recycling pieces of the 2009 title winning squad and filling in the gaps. I think some freshness is needed and nothing against anyone we leave out as someone has to be. Do wish him well!

We'd win an Over 40's World Cup with ease!

I'll pass that on! The more we ask the more we can hope

Billy rode in 2012 to show (with Greg) the winning Team USA ways from days gone by to the younger rides. He will be heavily involved in 2013 but no riding plans....as yet!

We like being the spoilers and underdog

Book your travel plans now Brits! This is a great venue with a roof so no rain offs! And one week later its Anaheim Super Cross - A Cardiff sized occasion!

It had a perfect ring to it in the 80s and 90s!

13 heat format might not be so bad for NL. Run it as old skool speedway. Tac subs too. Might get some more fans by being different. Run a 2nd half with all the riders in after. 13 heats also makes double headers easier to run which may attract some EL or PL teams in with limited dates. Just my thoughts.

Great ideas and yes, would be great if the SWC landed in the USA! None of our regular tracks are FIM sized and as with a US GP, this is probably the biggest issue as things stand.

Not with talent we have in the pipeline. Much work but a bright future is upon us!

There were 9 teams in the tourney this year with the Swedes seeded. As we outscored the Germans we are ranked 8th, they are 9th. Shame we never got to the easier Lynn round where we could have raced the Czechs and had a better measure of if we are better or how far the gap is to bridge. Certainly full respect to the Czech team who did well at Lynn.

Except for that's not the rules. Any team that finishes top of the table but loses the play offs will always make this claim. But the rules that all teams vote on in their AGM are the rules.

On one hand its great that a new place like Prague has the final. However, from the standpoint of Team USA, it makes our 2013 all the tougher. This year we tracked our best team since the first time in 2006 and ended up 8th in the World, which was our goal. We knew we were good enough to qualify and anything beyond would be a pure bonus. The next obvious goal for us would be to displace the #7 (Czech) and thus not need to qualify for 2014 It's not so much the Czechs are in the final for 2013, but now are seeded for 2014. The gap between the Czechs and the next team (Team GB) is quite something for us and even to catch the Czechs and get 7th under normal circumstances is a hard ask! Regardless we will give it our all though our real job is the rider development occuring in the USA led by Billy Hamill.

Hope Lewis is able to continue racing. He was a pleasure to deal with as far as racing in USA last week. Income wise the double up for British riders has its merits of course. However it isnt all good and sometimes does more damage than good as far as rider development. The likes of Ben Barker and Josh Auty, both talented riders, do their riding in UK in essentially on a world stage at its highest is the 4th and 5th strongest competitions. British riders to be gotten into Sweden and Poland is the way to elevatte the SWC team but it needs someone behind the scenes to be managing these riders and making such occur.

Wish Tai all the best - needs a fresh British face after Harris's sad struggles vs occasional flashes. With the system we have there can always be arguements for a riders inclusion or not. In the GP's there seem to be about 8 riders at a different level of consistency and behind that there are perhaps 20 riders in the world who are very close on ability. Being the best Brit in that pool of riders right now gets you into the series. Its a marketing decision, maybe not right, but even in F1 you have drivers not there on ability but other reasons too. The truth is the best 15 riders in the world is not a black and white thing - it change week upon week. MJJ as a GP winner can feel definately wronged by this decision but his time will come. His win was impressive but there is still consistency to achieve to be a long duration GP rider. I personally would like to see an improved qualifying system, regionalized like the old days and then in the challenge including the 7 riders who did not make the GP top 8. Have 5 of them qualify still leaving open 2 spots, but those spots should go to riders like Hampel who missed rounds through injury as a priority.

Its a fine line in fixtures I think. If you cut them it may help for those who pick and choose but on the other hand, not running every week can get fans out of the groove of going. I certainly agree with the 'enhance the quality of the whole experience' part.

You can only run with the # of teams you get. The 2012 format in my opinion was not good. If it stays at 13 I'd prefer the EL format of select B fixtures and run 18 league matches home and away and a then a 4 team play off at the end.

Don't know how the fans of the teams feel (which incidentally is the most important thing) but it seems its really difficult with the number of teams in the PL to get a good format for the league. Last year was the 'one league all season' format, whch got very confusing with the B fixtures not being decided until August. This year it went back to the pre league regionalized cup (lopsided groups do to the northern teams outnumbering the rest 8-5), League, Cup and now these round robin play offs. All these competitions to me get very confusing and if you throw in the likes of the Pairs and Fours its simply too many title's you can win. To me neither format is perfect - 13 is a bad number, possibly the worst as its only 12 actual league fixtures unless you use the 2011 format or vary it like the EL does with a limited amount of B fixtures. One thought I would have is when the league had 16-18 teams you had enough dates for most of a full season - anything like a League Cup would be just 3 matches at the start which was more of a warm up versus 1/3 of the season. The league has had teams in recent times that dropped out because it was unviable - Stoke, Mildenhall, IOW. Would it be better to lower the costs of staging PL speedway to get these clubs back and have more teams (as well as easing the financial stress on clubs right now who are not making it at this level)? As it stands right now if Leicester move up, Plymouth move down and Workington close thats just 10 teams next season. I suppose you could go twice around but thats some long drives between the north and Southern outposts.

I wouldn't be opposed to loaning Tai for a year. Nothing against him just would give a more balanced and less decimation if he or Freddie is hurt and R/R simply not good cover. I think he would come back a much better rider and #1 should Freddie decide not to do EL after his testimonial year.

At least the above team shows some imagination and creativity rather than the same old faces and a few Poles who have no intention of riding in the UK.

If I can get California weather and petrol money I'm in.