enotian

it's a no brainer isn't it. The top two get an extra ride (nominated heat 15, plus a potential TR) and they're in all bar 6 of the 15 heats so you need two top riders otherwise you concede 8 points across heat 13 and 15 and can't get a heat advantage in 7 of the other heats. arguably you could go for strength in depth to secure an 8 point advantage across heats 2 and 8 but as soon as you have a 'rising star' restriction or whatever it's been over the years, you nullify the strength in depth option. I've said for years, if you restrict the reserves you got to restrict the top two, i.e. only one rider averaging over 8 or 9 whatever top men average these days. It makes complete financial sense as well, as demand outweighs supply but clubs that can afford two of them will never vote for it as it's a huge advantage. The heat format is so regulated these days there's basically no point in turning up if you've not got two top riders. Especially when you can have guest riders for missing top riders so there's no jeopardy in putting all your eggs in the top two basket. Although Ipswich would argue that point as they'd have walked the title this season if they'd been able to replace Doyle and Sayfutdinov satisfactorily.

There's obviously a desire for Discovery Sports to have a wider range of nationalities represented to appeal to a wider audience. The top 16 riders in the world arguably come from only 6 countries. That doesn't feel like a World Championship. Trouble is how do you spread the allocation without watering down the standard? One obvious solution would be to increase the number of competitors. I enjoyed the covid double header Friday and Saturday night rounds. Why not have at each round 20 permanent riders plus 4 wildcards (or variations on that). Top 8 in the previous GP qualify for the next Saturday night GP, bottom 8 and the 4 other permanent riders plus the 4 wildcards enter the Friday night GP qualifier. The top 8 qualify for the Saturday night GP. Arguably the top 20 riders still come from the same 6 countries but as long as you have the top 16 riders in place you can offer the other four permanent places to a Latvian, a Czech, a German and maybe an American?

I just watched Vojens GP this morning and was of the same opinion as you, don't know why. Just checked the original thread about it on here and it was only ever the two events. I was thinking there was a possibility of Zmarzlik being crowned Champion as a result of the 'sprint' qualifying in front of a mostly empty stadium. Which is maybe why there isn't one. For some reason I was sure there was. Quite bizarre so really glad at least someone else thought the same.

It was. Fired his bike right into the side of Kenni Larsen, outside the pit gate. Banned and never rode again I think. Maybe there was a similar incident elsewhere.

I passed Cleveland Park on Sunday via the flyover. It's now a school/academy and five aside football pitches by the looks of it.

Mark Thorpe for me. Was dropped at one point during his first two season's with the Diamonds despite showing glimpses of potential he was ordinary in some not very good Diamonds teams. As I understand it he wasn't in the promoters thoughts for a third season but the numbers worked and he found himself starting the season at reserve with newly signed Scott Lamb. Probably the best 2nd tier reserve pairing ever, Thorpie was like a different rider going straight from reserve to heat leader and staying there. Even become Commonwealth Champion (I think) at one point. Statistically speaking it has to be Berwick's Wayne Brown.

excellent point hopefully discovery will read it and abandon the idea. my take on 'sprint races' in F1, Moto GP and WSB is that they're required because the full length races are dull and they need to fill 3 days content. Only in speedway could the sprint race be the same distance as the normal race.

I recall a stunt rider at Brough Park, probably during the 90's. Evel Kinevel style he jumped over some vans or something. Just about 20 years behind the zeitgeist

Wasn't he on First Dates as well??? I look forward to Alan's business partners examining his proposed investment into BSPL So you don't own any stadiums, haven't got enough riders and the average age of your customers is 88..... .....you don't need £250k mate you need a miracle. Nice pies though.

without a home team to follow? or at least one that would get smashed after being seeded to the final?

I'd imagine that your problem is, as ever, an economic one. League match pay rates are across a range of rider standards as defined by the points limit. I imagine the expectation of a Test Match is always the best seven riders from each country. Now that probably isn't seven number 1 heat leaders nowadays but you'd still expect the pay rates to be higher than a league contest. The crux is would a test match attract more through the gate to cover the increased costs? Or would points limited (or graded) international teams be a more economically viable option?

Something to rattle the purists but with Poland likely to dominate any world cup in the future and the unsavoury jingoism of international competition would the speedway world cup be better made up of twelve teams representing each of the star signs (or calendar months if you don't subscribe to that type of gubbins). Might bring the sport some notoriety and even up the competition (unless all the best speedway riders were born at the same time of year?) After all everyone in the entire world has a star sign so you could naturally migrate to support your own team even if none of its riders were from the same country as you. Afterall if you believe in star signs then you probably have more in common with someone of the same sign that you do with someone from the same country With nationality becoming increasingly more fluid anyway would you support a twelve team star sign world cup? Who'd you support and who'd be in the team?

Similar, apart from the Coventry bit. So long ago I can't quite remember the game play. I'm thinking for each rider you had to decide on their line and riding style (easy or hard) for the four laps.

you're quite right but what else would that incentivise? i'm sure the Torun GP promoters and the broadcasters would all prefer a last round decider for the title. that's how entertainment works now, nobody is bothered about a dead rubber. all feels a bit WWF to me but i'll look forward to the final round

Hi Ben, You're probably best off checking out the official referee scorecard on the BSPA site. Maybe for a match you attended ipswich_21.09.23_res.pdf (britishspeedway.co.uk) hopefully that link works? If not just go to britishspeedway.co.uk, click on results and fixtures then click on the fixture and the official referee scorecard will be at the bottom. You can then see how it's officially done. It's not too tricky and it always added to my enjoyment of a meeting. Hope that helps