Ben91

Greg Hancock, World Champion in his forties. It happens.

JPB's scores in his NL meetings last year were better than Smith's generally. They'll both do well, would have JPB down as the one who will do better out of the two though.

Half a half-assed job each? What could go wrong?

Still has?

Ridiculous, he's not British and he's been around for longer than electricity.

If it was that bad he should have just pulled out...

Mear? God no. I'd rather have Kurt Shields back.

Nothing like a good excuse for a poor meeting.

Roy's nan is a lovely woman.

Why is it a bridge too far for him and not for BWD then? The counter side of your argument is that Zach will be racing a whole lot more regularly than BWD, the confidence he will gain from scoring well in the NL will show in his PL performances, plus the fact that he will be getting lots more track time. As for being disappointed, I don't really care who does better to be honest, I won't lose any sleep if the kid doesn't score a point all season. It's just my opinion. The only pressure that goes with being a number one is mental I think, less likely to bother a youngster who has the talent and gets his head down and races. He's had plenty of big races in 2015, it shouldn't phase him too much IMO. There may not be any improvement in his NL figure but it's a pretty high one to begin with, shows the quality he possesses.

Zach's also a fair bit younger, their averages were almost the same in the NL last year. He may not be a Woffinden or a Lambert but he'll be a good rider in future. If he ends the season at Somerset as their highest averaged rider I'd be incredibly shocked, unless they have a terrible season. But he'll probably end up on a figure similar to whatever BWD puts in, if not better.

Zach will end up a much better rider than BWD. Need to take those rose tinted specs off.

Hence why the improvement comes from lower down the order, riders on averages that are below their ability. While I can't see JPB or Smith replicating Zach's 2015 efforts they should both average 4.5-5 across the year. Add Bacon's likely improvement of a point or two and that's a very good bottom end for the Brummies.

Be plenty of amendments to the individual meeting line up too I bet.

It's not as if they've had all winter to find a way to make it work is it...? Oh wait. It is something different granted but to say the fans have been listened to is a little patronising when the fans who wanted changes to the format were calling for regional qualifiers. If the fans are the justification for the changes being made then give them what they want.

Be awkward if you have a rain off or two and Holub doesn't get a new average before Klindt leaves.

The governing body needs to be independent from the people running the teams, it's quite simple. Otherwise there are vested interests, promotors need telling "These are the rules, play by them." Not to be suggesting rule changes that will benefit themselves each winter and then hoping they get voted in.

Never thought there was any planning permission, hence the temp stand being just that, a temporary structure made from scaffold poles. Quotes are better coming from someone, not from 'Team BMR' too. I still can't get my head around the NBJ decision. Within our own asset base we have Anders on an average similar to Lanham and Heeps, neither of those offer anything more than Anders on track. The apparent Lambert situation has derailed plans, as soon as there were any doubts about him signing we should have looked elsewhere. A basis of Kennett, NBJ, Kasper, Mellgren and Morley would have left scope for a heat leader plus Branford or a strength in depth approach with Eddie and NBJ both capable of scoring big at the sharp end plus the luxury of a strong reserve all year. All we can hope is that the new promotion have learnt lessons from this winter's team building at both levels.

If the rider didn't want to ride for us then it's best not to keep him against his will, although I was looking forward to watching his development, along with Bowtell and Hunter. Woods surprised me last year by attaining an average over three, if he does the same in 2016 he'll have done well, the tail looks a lot longer now.

Big improvement usually comes from the bottom end of a team anyway. If you have three riders towards the bottom end putting 4-5 points on between them and the top end maintain their averages then you're set for a good season without a doubt.

Speedway is a dangerous sport, regardless of whether you're a rank amateur, NL rider or GP star there is always the chance of injury so I can't agree that 15/16 year olds with little experience of racing in the league increases the danger. These youngsters are being given NL spots over the riders who have been pottering around in the second half leagues for a few seasons because they are either better already or have greater potential. The standard of kids being churned out in Poland is what we should aspire to as a nation, that won't happen unfortunately if we wrap our prospects up in cotton wool.

IOW's undoing could be the reserves, any difference between their track and away circuits having an impact is simply not true, their top 5 are good enough/have been around long enough to have seen all the away circuits and/or be able to compete on them. I like the looks of Kings Lynn, top three have potential to improve, solid engine room and they will always have a good reserve. I don't rate Cuppitt much but if he's getting advice from Tai then he'll start to come good if he does have something about him. Brum look good again too, best reserve pairing easily. Gonna be a hard year to call it, especially with the play-offs back in the picture.

I wouldn't discount it, he's really not very good.

I don't think there is an issue with Ruml signing individually, a young rider with potential to improve long term, great. But now would not be the right time because it ruins any sense of balance in the team. Ruml, or any other five point assessed newcomer, pushes Kasper into the main team, therefore forfeiting our reserve trump card all season. The fact we have one true heat leader means we need that strong reserve more than ever. It also increases pressure on Morley to come good. Say we go to an away meeting, Eddie gets injured and the reserves aren't performing, we'll get annihilated. There's less chance of that happening if we have one of Kasper, Heeps or Lanham in the number six position. It simply does not make good sense for the sake of the team, if we are going to go for a long tail then we need to make two changes, Branford or Adam Ellis in at reserve and someone with more firepower instead of one of the five pointers. An assessed five pointer at reserve leaves us with a long tail and a flimsy looking top five. Alternatively we have to use as much of the 6.04 we have left to make a final signing, then we will have a strong reserve all season.

He'll be fine, regardless of where he started last season he still had his fair share of races against other top line riders and finished on an impressive average. He's going on to the track to race, just as he did last season, there's too much stigma attached to the number on a rider's back IMO. In the PL he will be fine, there are a fair few number seven riders who are not as good as him and he's got the ability to mix it with the other reserves too I'd say, if not better.