marko

Hope it works out for Paul, I can still recall him making his debut as a 16 year old for Arena Essex. Shrewd move by Len who may attract some ex Hammers fans to attend?

It wasn't this instance but i recall Andre putting Brent Collyer in the fence and ending his meeting after just one attempted ride. Another rider always loathed at Arena was Sean Wilson, practically ended young Gary Corbett's career. What's the difference between a hard rider and a dirty one? the hard one will close the door, the dirty one will just put you in the fence to make sure.

Please let’s not this descend into political talk, we likely would have been in the same position no matter which party was in power, so it’s not a matter of who is in charge but just s**t happens. Its about how best to rise above it and make the best out of a crap situation.

8 rounds, no matter the scoring system, he deserves to be World Champion

They are not holding back, my heart has been in my mouth several times, more guts in their throttle hand than i have in my whole body.

Race of the entire 2020 season anywhere?

IMO the likes of Max Fricke and Jack Holder should be given wildcard places ahead of riders like Lindback and NKI who have been around for years and are realistically past their best now.

Well done to Max Fricke, always good to see another rider come to the dance

This is much better racing tonight

As I have said before, it’s similar to the league play offs and the majority of fans are in favour of that system even though a team can finish mid table and still be crowned champions. I would prefer 20 straight heats and what you score is just that, but it does lack drama, these gimmicks have been introduced over the years to make it more interesting and make up for the fact that racing at times can be very dull and predictable after the start, so the focus is on manipulating the contest to keep it interesting. In the grand prixs though, most meetings are held on big tracks where speed is king, need more variety, imagine having a GP on a track shaped like Monmore Green, Eastbourne, or Ipswich? Less reliance on pure speed, and more on actual track craft.

Indeed, the track is indicative of the gate exclusion issue

good match race that

I cant get why NKI has never become a more dominant rider at Grand Prix level, he has a ton of skill but must lack bike performance.

But the thing is Daniel your not one of those people, as you say you still watch speedway on TV, doesn't matter if its not the UK, its still speedway.

Find it a bit weird how many people who frequent these forums and post more than average, still claim to no longer have any interest in speedway, why are they here? there must be an element they care about otherwise why waste your precious free time? unless they have an agenda of "i don't have speedway anymore so i hope it dies, so no one has it" I amongst many others became lost to live speedway when they closed Arena Essex down (its not been bulldozed yet, so i still live in hope) and i have not been to a meeting since, but of course i watch on tv, and i still love the sport, its been part of my life for over 30 years since i was 15, its in the blood now, i am not blind to all the problems that exist and want to make us pull our hair out when the promoters make in our own eyes the wrong decisions but i still enjoy the racing for what it is, four riders, four laps, throwing a bike around that is basically a rocket on two wheels and making it look stupidly easy, in short, everything that appealed to me when i first started going, when i didn't know the riders, or the complicated rules or any of the other red tape that surrounds the sport.

I am not sure about the scoring system, but it’s not ruining it for me! and speedway is often run on a gimmick stipulation, league racing has for years now been run using play offs which is a gimmick that can allow a team to come from nowhere to steal the top prize, same now in GP, have an average meeting, scrape into the semi finals, go on to win it and boom 20 points. The difference is though, league play offs are decided effectively over 2 meetings, Grand Prix’s are decided over 8 but often more.

Doyle isn’t exactly an angel himself, if you live by the sword........

So the riders who had already chosen Anlas, what are their options now?

If it wasn’t for this COVID stuff hanging around, I would have liked to have visited the IOW this year for a holiday (not been there for over 30 years) I seem to recall it’s nice place with so much character and it has probably one of the best run speedway clubs too.

Hash to punish the riders as they believed they were using a legal product, had they been tampered with by a rider that would have been different. But I can’t understand how they passed a test for their use, and then failed a test unless it was a dodgy batch or the originals were prototypes and not the true finished article.

I still can remember the farce at Coventry with the solid block tyres they tried to bring in, and I wasn’t even there.

Only go out to either work or get some food shopping, the odd visit to family every few weeks, Not planning on that changing anytime soon, I watch non league football but until you can go properly and watch without a mask etc, not interested, it’s not that I am against masks, but it won’t be the same, as for speedway, when I read in the star that Ipswich have been selected to run a meeting, I thought cool, but then it dawned on me the place will be rammed, then it dawned on me after that, no, it won’t be rammed because the gate will be heavily restricted for social distancing, so that means only the lucky few will get in and even then you will need a mask which means you won’t be able to smell the methanol like you normally can, sport is going to be so sanitised, better than nothing, but like I say, not for me.

No idea but most clubs lose money to some degree, Stuart Douglas effectively went bankrupt, but that was mainly because the club were forced to finish the 2018 season at Rye House and it was a bigger disaster than when the London Lions attempted to run in 1996.

Annoys the hell out of me that Arena has stood still all this time, we could have continued for another season or two whilst fighting for a new venue, kept the name alive etc Although 2020 would have been a write off with the pandemic. I don’t blame the Woodrolf family for selling though, they were likely asset rich but cash poor, all their money was tied up in the land and the only way to release that was to sell it.

12 rider individuals is pathetic and I have cursed every promoter whoever has done this, always flatly refusing to support such a meeting like many others and then they the promoters wonder why the fans won’t come to anything but league meetings.