False dawn

Plymouth used all theirs to dry out a certain rider

If people want foreigners who ride for British Clubs to be eligible to ride, we will have to rename the meeting as The British Open Championship. Or perhaps we should just call it the Premier League Riders Championship The British Final is to find the national champion i.e. British

The wizard of balance

Yes, I've heard that before. Odd though, since leg trailing also preceded the JAP era.

Unlike some who can't help themselves when there is a comment about the lack of shale at Poole, eh? Fishing lesson: You need to use the right bait

One aspect of racing styles that I guess I took for granted back in the day (70's) was a rider putting weight on the right footrest. Thinking about it, riding styles started from there and varied from there up, so-to-speak. Then someone came along and showed it was not necessary to put any pressure on the footrest. The one that springs to mind is Bobby Ott. I'm sure he wasn't the first, but the first time I saw him corner with his right leg pointing horizontal, his knee on the saddle and his foot miles off the peg, I just stood there with my mouth open wondering how the hell he could do that. In the modern era, riders seem to rest their right foot on the peg without applying any great pressure. Indeed you'll see riders flick their leg to right when trying to regain their balance. And then there is the left leg forward, "supporting" the bike aspect of all this. - Discuss A simplistic analysis, as I'm sure some will tell me. Just a personal observation.

Shale? I thought this was at Poole?

See, I was right. Just got the wrong competition. I'll get my coat

I'm not saying anything. (see GP Challenge thread)

It's a bit of a coincidence that you should say that. One of the staff told me on Saturday that the council won't allow car racing of any kind at Beaumont Leys. Odd really, as you'd need binoculars and a very tall set of step ladders to see the nearest house.

The crowd wasn't bad for an NDL meeting (the 50-50 was £265) and I saw fans from several "away" tracks. Not sure what was happening early doors. Apart from the twins, hardly anyone seem to be confident to attack the corners. The track wasn't doctored and later on there were several riders posting good times and racing hard. Elliot Kelly certainly gave the twins something to think about in the final.

My apologies. Old age must be kicking in because I thought I remembered a long discussion on here a few years back where we all agreed how unfair it was that the 4th place didn't qualify automatically if one of the top 3 qualified some other way.

Sadly, no. The vacant spot becomes an additional FIM nomination.

Mildenhall

You're probably right. And I'll be supporting the twins since they started their track appearances at Brandon. But your comments are similar to many who don't support the NDL at all. And the criticism is often unfair. Many riders in this league give 100% every time they appear and the quality of racing is generally very good. Oh, I know that I will get a lot of stick. "We only get overtaking because of amateur mistakes". Well that's not completely wrong but it is not fair to many NDL riders who are truly entertaining. The winners only win the final. There are 14 (?) other races. So I will be there and I'm expecting it to be good value for money.

Forget the soup, those root vegetables make a very passable whisky type wine (assuming you keep it long enough, which I haven't, generally ) Hey, this is better than talking about averages or Poole, for that matter

I went to Odsal for league meetings and a World Final. And I went to the old Wembley more times than I remember, including the 1981 World Final. There were some great meetings in amoungst all of that. But Cardiff is different. I love the NSS, but I wouldn't go to Manchester for the weekend. Or London, for that matter, if the GP was there. Here's a novel thought. Is there no one out there that could improve the Cardiff track so that the racing is up to scatch? A change of material, a bit more banking, a change of shape (there is scope for this, I was looking on Saturday).

I guess I must be a "True Speedway Fan" then? Especially as I now believe I was suffering from a touch of heat stroke after Saturday (seriously). But I do have a few observations. Where did the 19000 figure come from? And please don't say FaceBook. Is that an official attendance figure? Because if it is, that's the first time I've ever seen an official figure for any Cardiff GP (or any GP, I think). I did, during the day on Saturday believe that numbers were significantly down. At the fan zone, in the favourite pubs etc. But we came to the conclusion on the night that maybe a lot of folks didn't do their two nights in a hotel stay and opted to travel in for the Saturday meeting and go home. If the "norm" in the stadium on previous years was between 30 and 40 thousand, I estimate there was between 20 and 25 thousand there this year. It's always hard to be precise, even when you're there (I only found recently that there were 130 thousand at Katowice in 1973 when I was there!). Seriously, without reliable gate figures how can we really judge the level of support. This event was in the middle of a perfect storm. Massive concern about inflation, some lingering concern about COVID (sorry BP) and a heat wave that should have kept any sensible unfit person over 50 at home (I never was sensible). The racing was rubbish, we all know that. We also all know that the racing at Cardiff GPs is never great. The track was kind of okay (only kind of) but when you try to run another World Class meeting on it, less than 24 hours later, you should not be surprised when it doesn't hold up. Hindsight maybe. But don't do it again. I was happy to get the prospect of 46 races for my money (only 43 in reality) but Sunday has to be one of the worst meetings I've ever attended in more than 50 years.

Please understand. Putting people off was last thing on my mind. This is a chance for the Coventry faithful, of which I'm one, to meet and celebrate the Bees rich heritage. I was just saying that for the second time this year, the weather looked like it might intervene. If the forecast is now more optimistic I'm delighted and will get all my yellow black gear out of the cupboard and look forward to spending some time with old friends, on and off the track.

I hate to say it, but the weather forecast does not look good.

Ah but, you're forgetting something. You'd need two wildcards then. Look at the trouble we had getting one there this year. Mind you. If they only have to do half a lap each, you could pick anyone.

Gate 3 Seats are unreserved. Only the middle tier is open

I have said before that I "believe" that the Welsh tourist board do put a significant chunk of money into the Cardiff GP on the understanding it remains the only GP in Britain. If people know the facts of this matter, one way or the other, can they tell us please?

Centre green announcer said on Saturday that Max James would be in the team next year. That doesn't mean he won't be this year, of course, but the annoucement did imply that. Or maybe the announcer doesn't know. I don't know why I started this post. I think it adds nothing to the sum total of human knowledge.

IMO it is the other way round. The British Final lost a lot of its importance and interest from the average fan when it stopped being on the route to the World Final. Ok, you still became British Champion (the best of British???) but so what?. We did see riders dropping out for little or no reason. The added incentive of going to Cardiff restored some of the interest for the average fan but increased the incentive for riders massively. The chance to ride in your home GP in the caldron that is The Principality Stadium when you're riding well is surely one, most riders find exciting. To split these two endeavours into two meetings would leave the British Final even less meaningful than it was before.