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An interesting take on circuits from Dan in this week’s Star. It’s good to hear an informed opinion from one of the most skilful & adaptable riders currently in action. Here’s what the world number 3 had to say. "We will see what happens with the new promoter," Bewley said. "But I would love to see more temporary tracks and have that bit of guesswork again, where no-one has an advantage." Someone who hasn't ridden a bike might also notice the lack of small tracks on the calendar and suggest this is also to the detriment of a championship largely raced on high-speed Eastern European ovals. Bewley has a very different take and insists the circuits are more varied than meets the eye. He said: "When it comes to tracks like Lodz and Gorzow before it, or even Torun, the closest track to those in Britain is probably Leicester. You actually really have to turn the bike a lot on those tracks. "People have this conception that all the Polish tracks are big and easy and you just ride around in a circle. It's really not very accurate. We go to Landshut and we're doing 80mph at the end of the straight but then we are under the bars to try and turn it. "All the tracks we ride have slightly different material. You could argue Belle Vue and Wroclaw are the same track but they are actually completely different with the material. There is a big difference between them. I actually think there is quite a variety between all the tracks now." In the 2000s, it was often widely assumed that Polish riders struggled to adapt to Britain's tight and technical tracks. But a new age of purpose-built speedway stadiums such as Torun, Gorzow and Lodz seems to have given those competing in Poland a more technical grounding. "Gorzow is more technical than Wolverhampton used to be, for example," Bewley said. "Wolves wasn't very difficult. People thought that I couldn't ride it. The difference was I wasn't very good off the start back then. I could easily ride it. The track was really not that difficult."If anything, Gorzow is probably a lot harder than most British tracks to ride. I know we're not going there for SGP this year but it's a real track. "The track in Lodz is a little bit like Eastbourne was - just a bigger version of it. It's similar in a way. The kerbs are a bit funky.If you put a third on to the size of Eastbourne, it probably wouldn't be far off this. A lot of tracks in Europe are more technical than people think." Bewley seems pretty adaptable wherever he goes, as a SP bronze medal in 2025 suggests. A famous win at Manchester's first event, coupled with second spot in Landshut, third places in Gorzow, Malilla and Wroclaw, and fourth at the finale in Vojens, earned him a first-ever podium.

Kids are more interested in WWE, UFC, boxing, judo, karate and the like. But yeh, you’re right we don’t want them seeing such things at a speedway meeting.

Eastbourne did a tremendous job of helping Tom from raw junior to last pick RS and clubs like that are sadly missed. Seeing him rise from last pick RS to FIM gold winner then occupying the 2nd heatleader spot at Birmingham after we released him was marvellous. I’m proud of all The Aces number 1 alumni and look forward to their visits to the NSS.

Some being the operative word. Many didn’t embrace the big picture thinking and the fact that six was better than five for the good of the sport as a whole. Some of the cartel pushed back with one jumping ship completely. In another point, it’s ace to see Jaimon & Tom lining up at number one for their respective teams.

I was only thinking of the bonus against the tigers, it was more about getting another win at Leicester. Brady scored 12 last year and our Tom’s 3 was disappointing despite his best efforts. Like you say, that’s speedway. I think Sheffield is our worst away track. I’d have loved a run of results there similar to what we’ve achieved at Foxhall. I think you’re correct about us having a better chance for the bonus. Since Covid and prior to your fabulous title winning season we managed nine out of the ten aggregate wins on offer. We just need Cook (10+3), Peter (9) or Norick (6+3) to go well, as they have done in the past and hope Brady (3) doesn’t have another early season stinker at Foxhall again.

Agreed.

Someone mentioned this inane post from you. Lots of riders get injured but I know of only one that has been referred to as a turd. When Connor was replaced aside from a flash in the pan performance at Oxford, he was averaging around two points. You can look at his rolling average or use bigger picture thinking (please try it) and see the lad was struggling. He’s the only rider we have replaced in seasons yet you and others continually mention it whilst other clubs can drop riders with impunity. Biased or what. Kerr never rode for us so why lie to try and make us look bad, really why do it? If you’re going to mention the hose incident from years ago (different promotion, different management, different bleeding stadium) then you might as well bring up when Alice Hart cancelled the meeting with New Cross due to her PMT. It beggars belief the utter nonsense you and your crownies spout on here. Why??

Brady’s performance on Monday really highlighted the big miss he was in our KO Cup campaign. These things happen but it would be easier to take if we had missed out as a full team rather than the usual, it is what it is. 12 points makes the bonus point interesting. I’m expecting things to get back to normal for us down at Foxhall after the witches fabulous championship season. Prior to that barnstorming year, Foxhall was our happiest of hunting grounds with The Aces going well there. The last ten fixtures at Foxhall prior to the witches title winning year were DLLLWWWLLW with one of those losses being a last heat decider. 50% success rate for the witches, so I’m hoping we get back to winning ways down there again.

The tedious attempts at points scoring with regards to attendance is all a bit pointless as NOBODY has any right to crow about their attendance as they are all rubbish. I few hundred more here or there is no kind of win for a sport that use to attract thousands. Sure discuss on track battles but with regards attendances we need to lose the me me me insular thinking of the previous guy and look at the bigger picture collectively. Given the well documented and well know issues at Belle Vue we are still the only club to have had support that allows us to remain in the top tier. Other clubs chop and change when their support drops off again and this impacts us in our league as we don’t know who we will be against from one year to another. Having said that I’m not expecting Ipswich to drop down again as Colman is a breath of fresh air when compared to the cartel member he rescued the club from. I think he will be a wonderful ally but hope he doesn’t alienate himself from the home crowd as the wind of change takes hold.

A game of two halves with the first being very gate’n’go that played into the witches hands given their preference for that type of heat (which I’m expecting to change with Colman onboard). Heat 8 onwards was terrific if you like racing and The Aces pulled away. Happy with the contribution from all Aces and pleased to see our Tom still mixing it. I thought we’d be outgunned at reserve but I’m happy with the 6-7 match up. Enjoyable but chilly night.

Some shocking posts about Tate and using him to have a weak pop at the club as a whole lacks class. This lad was showing bags of promise before his awful crash, a crash that saw his bike dismantled whilst he was still impaled on it. There’s a few posters on here who delight in sticking the knife in with comments like “sick note” and “turd” for riders still working through the after effects for racing injuries. It’s a special kind of scum that gets their kicks that way.

Tricky one to call this due to it being our last fixture before the German GP. Both Brady & Dan (and no doubt Norick) won’t trouble to scores too much as they will be concentrating of their forthcoming world championship bid. I’ll go for a narrow witches victory sealed in a heat fifteen advantage. Above post produced by AI when asking for a prediction using BSF as source material.

I’m with you there but unfortunately this goes against the majority of the cartel and those on here. I hated Cradley back in the day but marvelled at the racing antics of Jan O etc. Yes we may have lost but the speedway was exquisite. Bigger picture thinking by looking to make the sport as a whole more appealing doesn’t go down well with the old school currently strangling our wonderful sport. We are now in the era where winning is all and if that means tedious gate’n’go speedway then so be it. The problem there is if you are a newbie who is not yet invested in the team then the lack of thrills and entertainment means you ain’t coming back.

I have both eyes open and a metaphorical baseball bat to beat the BSF/BSPL cartel with. I can acknowledge it’s a losing battle though.

In 2021 Ipswich’s number 2 Anders Rowe (5.49) guested in place of RS Josh Bates. Anders had opted out of the system, signing as Ipswich's reserve (Kemp being their RS). I questioned his eligibility and was told that due to him being on the list, he was free to hop in and out of the system. The tigers beat The Aces by 2 with Anders scoring paid 6 (Josh’s best score being 2). There is a chance that this was cartel nonsense and once out of the RS system for the season that is that and it could just have been another verses Aces thing.

Anyone going to discuss the elephant in the room here or are we just rearranging the podiums on the deck of the Titanic?

He’s on the current list so can opt in and out whenever he wants to. https://www.scbgb.co.uk/risingstars

FTG

The only hope is to continue chipping away at the old brigade and ideally move out one or two board members from the 2025 bunch every season. Lone voices never had any traction in the past but if people like Coleman join the cause and the old school/self interest driven can continue to be ousted then there is hope.

What a sad state of affairs our sport is in when we are calling on our riders to make better starts to win meetings. Wouldn’t it be lovely if the promoters saw their riders struggle to pass and next time prepared a racetrack.

Bad idea. I remember seeing Sam Ermolenko getting sucked off in Prague.

Streaming, big screen, looking after riders and a couple of passes in the first six heats. I’m becoming a witches fan. Mayfield, shall we link arms? We can do this!

Do the witches post the first/pre 30mins of their broadcast on YouTube? I’d like to see where they are at with a view to purchasing in the future.

Do the witches post the first/pre 30mins of their broadcast on YouTube? I’d like to see where they are at with a view to purchasing in the future.

That’s the way to do it. Implement something and post on socials for maximum effect/ awareness. Other promotions seem happy to implement things quietly whilst most don’t even implement. Love the streaming idea btw. All allies welcome.