IronScorpion

The cut off date is the 17th & that's it. Plenty of time to have arranged meetings rather than leave it to the last minute. It is on the BSPA site that a double header will be on the 14th(this Thursday) starting at 7.15. How much would this cost & how many heats will you run in the 2nd meeting if you have your normal interval(hope now not), re-lay/grade track before 2nd meeting & curfew.

Hope it's not Howarth again! I can not recall how many times he has ridden here for Sheffield or as a guest but his worst score was when he guested for us!!!!!!!!

He has put 2 points on his average riding with 8pt+ team leaders! What did you expect him to achieve? Ryan Douglas having a few guest appearances for the Tigers, possible signing in 2018 depending on visa application?

Hoping for an entertaining meeting as, like Rob says, Edinburgh have more to lose but they have just took the maximum 6 points from their 2 home meetings Friday, are at Berwick now before travelling south to us. With Sheffield having a double header & scunny2012 saying we will be poorly supported as fans of Sheffield will be there(don't know why as for last 2 years it has been "gate & go" but if that's what rocks your boat, or because they are at the top, we might have missed an opportunity. It would have been a risk but as the school holidays have finished, could they have reduced the admission prices to get new & old fans in to showcase what the racing is like, although a win would be the icing on the cake.

Sheffield are a different kettle of fish who used one of our riders as a guest & have only just had their colours lowered in over a dozen meetings.

You have that much faith that Wells, both the Riss brothers, Pickering or the reserves will not score a point using r/r! .....

Due to the injury to Auty, the only positive I can see is all our riders can take his rides. Kerr & Douglas have ridden up there recently but poor form from Toft, unsure what to expect from Allen after 2 wrist injuries in this last month & a cheap reserve for Aarnio(5 pts to play with & that's all we get). We could have got a point from this with injuries & poor form hitting Glasgow. Unfortunately, this will be an opportunity missed.

Due to a shoulder injury, Auty will miss the meetings at Peterborough tonight & Glasgow tomorrow. He may return Sunday, at home to Edinburgh

Obviously not as he has multi-posted this 4 or 5 times already. quote; A round costs more than twenty quid these days. The other day I saw a guy casually put a twenty quid note in a charity box. I do have a point.

Crowds have been down this season, probably due to the amount of losses & not through lack of entertainment. Rob is interested in bringing TJ back & riders that can ride our track. Mentioning if not enough support for the Friday KOC meeting, was just an indication of possible change of race night. Douglas started the season on GTR's & struggled(not helped either by getting injured during the winter in Australia. His improvement is down to back on a GM & more confidence. Meetings at 5.30 probably helped for away supporters but not track prep as track conditions change too much over the 90-120 minutes. Not good seeing away riders ride our track better than ours(the widest racing line) but having 2 riders(Kerr & Douglas) having numerous injuries this last two years. True. Hope so.

posted in "Fixed Race Nights For 2018 Posted 22 August 2017 - 05:18 PM There has been long running problems in British Speedway & Rome was not built in a day so what do we, the supporters, want to see & be achieved, over a period of time. Buster Chapman became Chairman at the AGM at the end of the 2015 season & said straight away it was too late to make changes until the AGM in Nov '16. As there was a steady drop of top riders over the years, they decided to bring in a 1 average system for the PL & CL, bring back the present race format & doing away with the EDR system at the same time, hoping to bring the racing & results closer. They brought in promotion/relegation although I don't think this was thought out enough because of the amount of riders doubling between the 2 leagues. What will fixed race nights achieve or what do we want them to achieve? Which nights to be used? .......These must be nights that do not interfere with the other leagues so Monday(used by Sky & now BT Sport) & Wednesday. Choosing 2 nights together like Wednesday & Thursday means teams from the CL would have to change nights which would cause a greater problem. Entice top riders back? .......What most are doing, because of the Polish ruling, is race on, almost, fixed race nights in 3 leagues in Poland, Sweden & Denmark. The few that are racing over here are doing so because they are based here(families, visa, etc) & to race more to be race sharp. Reduce the amount of doubling up/down of riders? ..........This is a point well raised on here because teams are getting to have no identity as riders(self employed) are riding for numerous teams in both leagues meaning the need of guests & r/r. The main points for me would be the 1st & 3rd options. There is a problem with fixture planning but teams have not helped each other by getting as many done as soon as possible & to ask other teams to help by rearrangement of their fixtures to assist others. Now there is a mad rush to get meeting in before a deadline date for play off positions. At this stage of the season, there should have been no reason for the KOC final not to have been raced. We know the weather has not been kind these last 2 years, so it has not helped, but let's help ourselves by trying a bit more to get meetings sorted. What are we trying to achieve by fixed race nights..........................................enticing top riders returning or trying to eliminate/minimize doubling up & guests. I think most people are after the latter so let us sort this issue first. As we are not sure about what will happen in Polish speedway where riders can only ride in 2 other leagues if they ride in the Polish Elite. They might extend this rule down to their 1st division, also. The Swedish league is struggling with talk of it going 1 league only. Trying to entice top riders back could be looked at for 2019 as we are only talking about half a dozen riders that might not be chasing the money but be after more racing on a variety of tracks or for family/visa issues.

Surely Peterboro must have known Harris would get a true average 7 days after he completed his 4th away meeting

Well spotted leander. The track was heavily watered to get moisture into the track to keep the dust down throughout 2 meetings. Excess water then found its way to the lowest parts of the track, inside of turns 1 & 3. I think this caught out our riders with normal start set-ups being out & getting caught out coming out of bend 2. After the removal of some shale & grading after heat 8 the racing improved. I was surprised in the race times of the Workington meeting being some 2 seconds slower than the 1st meeting.

I went looking for Derek (assistant start marshal) in between the 2 meetings & he wasn't in the pits but was told he could be lying down somewhere. When I returned to my spot in the 4th bend stand, Derek, was talking to the main start marshal at the start line, but not in start marshal top. Obviously, no after effects but might be sore today.

Having a strong no1 means having a guest when he is missing so can normally pick a track specialist. Using today as an example for guests not easy to come by is a poor one as it is a Bank Holiday where there are more meetings than a normal day. Having a strong reserve(no6) who, when scores well & has more rides, because the 1-5 are not performing. He then moves in to the 1-5 & the poor scoring, normally 2nd string, then moves to reserve. He is then expected to score well against almost the same riders as if he was a 2nd string. It's a mental game for the riders, & Gappmaier, for Berwick, is proving that this is the case. He scored well as a reserve early season, moved to the main body & is now back at reserve. He scored well on Saturday & looking at the updates in the heats he was in shows how he scored them, but it, also, shows your point that a no6, hopefully, will score the points against opposition no6 & no7's. Possibly team ridden home by a better rider(1-5) & the retirement by Ty, also, makes his score look good. Good team mates & team management.

Rose tinted glasses again. We can all see that as a team, we can get close to within 6-8 points after heat 12 but then opposition top riders out perform us in the final 3 heats. Check the results. Even at home we are about 50% win ratio in last 3 heats.

warm day, Bank Holiday, bigger crowd? So money to be made. Welcome back David(even for one night only) A no1 with at least an 8 point average(Steve Worrall for me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! )

Just getting the Press Release ready (we'll never leave it until 15 minutes before the start to let you know who's riding!). It was not a dig at you Rob as you do an awesome job, it was aimed at the poster who has a go at our press releases. Obviously, with the amount of meetings going on this weekend, there were bound to be some last minute changes as well.

a track curator can only prepare a track how the promotion or riders require it. Track shape & camber are inbuilt. We have Graham Trollope who does Sheffield's track, again 2 completely different tracks and shapes & requirements.

There are too many meetings on Monday with even 11am starts plus the amount of riders doubling up/down & who has precedence of rider. Probably will not find out until 15 minutes before tapes up. Jake Allen did not ride for Somerset last night so failed his fitness test, so we should be using r/r at 2.

I was standing on the 1st bend & it looked like the incident was started with Bjerre & Kerr running in to the 1st bend side by side. Aarnio, trapped on the inside was, therefore, late turning left & Wood had just started hence the coming together. All 4 back in my eyes but was the referee, as advertised, Jim McGregor. Enough said. I, too, thought I might be late due to accidents at the wrong time of the night. Two incidents on the M1, one further north(think it was junction 40-41 mentioned) but yours, Rob, was Mansfield/Chesterfield area where Gas canisters were on the road. I was held up due to an incident of the junction M18/A1 where traffic had backed up on the M18 past the A6182 & A638. A 55 min journey took nearly 1hr 20mins.

That is the problem with our PR & advertising. A little bit on twitter, advertising board on a trailer deck on the circle at the stadium & reports in telegraph. We have Lincolnshire bike nights, scooter run outs, motorcycle shops with NO advertising. There is nothing in the town centre, Ashby, public houses, clubs advertising our sport. Speculate to Accumulate is a saying but getting out and about, hardly anybody knows of Speedway existing in our town bar the hard core supporters & whether the low attendance last weekend was down to 2 riders not attending, which if you follow speedway, you would know the reasons, or down to a side having another poor season(this is the third on the trot), it shows entertainment is not the main factor for attendance, winning is. As proven last night at Sheffield's "ftg" track these last few years, the success this year has brought more support.

Same for Auty, if Kyle puts in a long distance win in heat 4 it might put him in a 'retiring' mood. Josh went the long distance last night in the debacle at Kings Lynn. 12 heats ridden so Josh & his machines could be knackered. At least Josh will have an excuse! What will Kyle's be? Yes, Kyle was there, also, but how was the head to head races? 3-2 in Howarth's favour. How about 2 races on the trot, clutch cooling, tyres changed or turned over. Towards the end of the 2nd meeting, Josh had 3 races(his 10th, 11th & 12th) on the trot in heats 7, 8 & 9. On the basis of Ryan there last week, Josh last night, & the slight dip in form of Toft, Kerr & Aarnio I would hope the team to have had a good night if we can keep it close till heats 10 or 11 & score 38+ points.

I got shot down in flames for saying this as posters came on with the accusation of one persons agenda making supplementary rules!

quote If the one league and no gp riders was to happen would prices attendance wise come down? Because we seen on BT on Monday that priced at £5 people will go and see I'm not suggesting it should be that low but maybe £10 or something. Also would the pay structure come down because the "so called" big riders wont be here or will that just create a problem where second strings demand more money because they could potentially be in demand. Travel costs would go up as more riders, mechanics would have further to travel. Time out as well as the fixture planning which has not been great this year. Riders are based all over the country so being in the right team closest to your base might help.