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Maybe Freddie only agreed to ride if he was promised five rides? either way reads like another rather dull meeting with next to passing but we shall have to wait for others who went to give a more true reflection on that score. There was enormous amounts of criticism last week though on the Lakeside forum re: the state of the track for the Wolves meeting.

Was sure i read somewhere earlier this year that Marc Owen is actually now an Eastbourne asset.

Don't blame the riders, blame the promoters, they are the ones which came up with this silly format and agreed to have to pay the heat leaders a fixed wage as result of their earning potential being compromised.

Here's a microphone Rob, say something stupid! How do you Aces fans feel about this man trying to con you out of £20 plus petrol just because his team is riding like crap?

Lynn trying to get it called off, if only they had got on with it! Sky will never f'n learn

Sure we will get the same old same old "we will get on with it" only to have breaks for rider interviews, commercials and goodness knows what else. And then we will have arguments about should they try and run to heat ten, the winning side say yes, the losing team want to go home!

The problem for riders like Adam is that in the FTR positions many will go out and spend a lot on getting fast bikes and ultimately push themselves on the track to speeds which are often not in tune to their current ability which can result in falls and subsequent injuries to them and possibly others. Both last season and this, Adam has spent a fair amount of time parting company with this bike at Lakeside, he will be a very polished rider one day but you have to learn to walk before you can run.

They want to get the season done and dusted asap so they can plan their move to Kent?

Changing my prediction now to 8th place for this club, I have a feel a feeling that with the promotion possibly moving to Kent next season which seems ever more likely in view of recent planning approval conditions on use of the Kent track, this operation will be run into the ground with next to nothing spent on shale. Bech certainly won't last the season, maybe another month and then he will quit or be asked to fall on his sword and some old hand will be brought in on the cheap. Nothing will be said though until the end of the season for fear of alienating what fans they have left. Lastly well done to Wolves, knew PK would do well and well done for sticking it to the people responsible for wrongly sacking him, as they always say, form is temporary, class in permanent!

By default being FTR riders means you cannot use R/R so therefore the only option is a guest or another squad rider except we don't use squads, although the standard of guest could be called into question, in this scenario as SCB points out there is a discrepancy with the use Boxall so assuming James Wright is on a standby list for grade A riders then a grade B rider would probably be more in line with any ruling. Just my opinion but i think it was mistake in the first place to reserve Adam Ellis and forfeit the chance of getting a Lewis Blackbird as the clubs top FTR, i also would not have changed for Boxall as that just means when Rye are racing we have to find two guests at once. I feel their home form will save them the ultimate embarrassment but still see them as a 6th or 7th place team this season, i would also be amazed if this current sept lasts the season without more chopping and changing due to rider availability or poor scores in the EL.

You can bet just about every single heat leader is on that, its why PK was dropped by Lakeside last season because the points he was scoring on track was not matching up with the money he was guaranteed, the whole thing is penny wise and pound foolish, any money being saved by using the draft riders is being more than offset by chucking money at the heat leaders.

I am a subscriber to speedway star but this one is always the highlight of the season, Mimmo makes a great point about pricing and really shows just how over inflated speedway program prices are, my local non league footy team which often gets gates lower than that of most speedway clubs but offers a program which is twice the content of a speedway example and still costs less!

I have said time and time again that Speedway needs to make each event mean something and put everything into making that event a "can't miss" We have twice home and away which means its no big deal if you miss the odd meeting plus the play offs have rendered the league matches less valuable. All too often in this country the race night is just "another meeting" and thus has that just "another meeting" feel about it. And as for the age thing, blimey! that is the most frightening thing for the future of our sport, can only really comment on Lakeside and i would think at around 60% are of pensionable age and another problem we have is its all very well getting the kids involved but if your a Friday or Saturday track once they get well into their teens the lure of a night on the town clubbing is far more appealing and you wont get them back if at all until maybe they have settled down and have kids of their own. Youngsters always like to be seen in places where its cool to hang out and they don't feel out of place, a speedway track is not such a place.

I remember seeing the changing rooms a few years ago when doing a ride and slide day, was quite shocked at the state of them, no idea what some of the riders thought of them especially the likes of Andreas Jonsson who must be used to having something decent, personally I would not use them for fear of being more dirty than when I started, I think you will find cleaner facilities at a tier nine footy ground than that.

Essex is far to built up now so finding a place suitable for speedway will be almost impossible, bar the traffic congestion on a Friday night and somewhat sparse facilities Arena Essex was the ideal venue. If they moved to CP then i could see them being a sole Elite League club and maybe do a bit of training their too? I see on twitter that there is no academy training this Saturday because the stadium is in use but quite how that would effect the academy i have no idea? I just hope this is not going down the route of a falling out between the two parties, the Speedway and "Arena Essex" have been together for 31 years this season and i have been following for 27 of those, quite literally man and boy! In fact considering the milestone i am a little surprised those 30 years have not been marked in some fashion, even if it was just a parade of a selection of riders from the past who have donned the legendary Hammers race jacket, there's an awful lot of history there!

Just speculation at this point, but doubts about running were part and parcel of this club for many years so it's nothing new, just make the most of it whilst it's there, nothing lasts forever.

Fortunatey working on the railway gives acces to a lot of people with a lot of contacts and a workmate who is a proper petrol head and close to the family who own arena essex summised that the speedway going could only be down to plans to renovate the stock car track making it bigger, their four wheeled events are doing well in particular the car drifting which is hugely popular and apparently making a killing, so this may not be Terry Russell circa 1995 all over again but a case of the speedway being booted on financial grounds, I guess though there is no reason why the academy can't stay there although it would under the circumstances be more sensible to move it to Iwade.

I actually don't blame the track for last night, i think merely Stars had their bikes nailed and Hammers riders did not and struggled most of the night to get them going although a couple did look more on the pace towards the end but could still not drive off the start line quick enough. Granted it was a massive come down after the best pairs on Saturday, sky's coverage does feel very dated now, the Elite League has actually turned from being a fan more interested in team racing to a fan more interested in individuals such as the Grand Prix's and the SEC as it provides better racing with every rider giving 100 percent , no guests, no R/R and no one going through the motions.

I guess this has been on the cards for some time, First they change the name to Lakeside, then change the team colors and now they seemingly want to remove the last vestige of what was historically the Arena "Essex" Hammers but if someone had said to me back in the early 90's when i was still a spotty teenager that speedway would still be taking place here in the year 2015 i would have been amazed, i truly would. If true and that's a big if at this point, i cannot imagine many from the Essex side of the Thames going across the river on a Friday night, that's of course if you can get across the bridge in the first place! As much as we like to moan about the place being spartan, a long way from the action, often cold and windy,it has become something of a second home to many many people over the years and lots of memories some good some bad, it will be a sad day when that is gone, like Wimbledon, Crayford and Hackney it will be another set of fans lost to the sport.

Did not see the Leicester meeting but was planning to go Friday but after tonight and in light of the news that Hammers are effectively going to close after this season?????? not sure I can be bothered anymore, sacrilage to move Arena Essex Hammers to Kent imo, be like Arsenal moving to White Hart Lane.

I thought with these new silencers we were not going to have any more rocket launching from the bikes, or are the lay down engines the real culprit and not the exhausts?

Lakeside notoriously poor travellers and fear this season will be no different.

You are spot on and unfortunately despite the paying punter having to fork out full price on such a night they are shown nothing for their loyalty, in return they are treated to a long drawn out meeting whilst those who stayed at home get all the riders interviews etc, there really does need to be more incentive for people to leave the house and part with their money.

The racing in the main has not been great over the last couple of seasons but can still have its moments and the core reason for this in my opinion is economics, I don't think the EL on its own can make the club viable hence why the track is subcontracted out fairly often on race days for practice/training which in turn will effect the track for the evening meeting, in an ideal world the track condition for the evening meeting should get priority over all else but its a compromise we just have to live with, besides we badly need to give youth riders more track time in this country and no once can say Lakeside through their senior track training or academy is not doing that. Last week the track was always going to be in worn out condition such was the abuse put upon it in a short space of time, hopefully they will be able to gradually add more grip to it over future weeks especially as on paper the new silences should cut down the unstable nature of the modern day engine.

Who would have thought it this after this morning? The sun is out and indeed has his hat on, beautiful spring day.