Fourentee

Ride of the night? Um, how about the guy who went from fourth to first in the same heat? Edit: So startled by the quoted post that I didn't read on. Have now noticed that Salty has made the point already (five hours ago!).

Thought the presentation was very good indeed. It was my first visit to the circuit and I found the whole set-up very impressive. As ever, there will be the odd glitch to complain about. I know the timescale was tight with 25 heats to get through and consequently results had to be rattled through. But there is no point in building up for a big cheer by saying "And first for Great Britain..." and then having the winner's time drowned out by klaxons. Some of us nerdy types like to record these things! The repeat time was usually competing against engines/two-minute warning from the next heat. It wouldn't have done any harm to run through the times five heats at a time during grading. And secondly I have no objection to parking in a field when the positions are indicated efficiently by marshals. I do have an objection to the complete free for all that was involved with getting out. But these are quibbles and shouldn't be allowed to detract from an extremely successful staging.

What's a satellite box?

Sarjeant also kept his hand in on Monday at Wolves with a couple of after-match races with Ashley Morris and Gino Manzares.

Dudley Heathens' Ashley Morris rides; best of luck to him and have a good one. A French rider called Ellis, Mark246? That must have some kind of a back story.

Sadly, yes. The results appear to have been declared with four heats left. Rain? Curfew? Power failure?

Duh! I put Madsen instead of Mads, didn't I?

Actually, good question in hindsight! Just what Klindt told me; perhaps Mads was doing other paperwork (or perhaps I misheard!).

First you have to get into the embassy. Klindt and Madsen spent an entire day in Copenhagen, paperwork in hand, and were told to come back the following week...when they were racing in Britain.

OK, I took the British reference as being to the team rather than to an individual.

Lindgren, as far as I know, has always ridden the SWC when selected and has got (I believe) four medals to show for his efforts. His view, in gist from tonight's Wolves Express & Star, is that the silencers don't help the bikes or the sport. He's riding the GP qualifiers (with the new silencers, despite blowing an engine in the last round) because being a GP rider is important exposure for his sponsors. Always proud to ride for Sweden, SWC is a fun week with good racing. But boycott decision has been taken by four riders as a team (Lindgren, AJ, Zetters and Jonas Davidsson) and they are sticking to it. Hopes Polish and Danish riders will also join the objections. Come to think of it, if it's five-man teams presumably someone has decided not to join the boycott. Anybody any ideas? Just on the GB U21 team, Mark246, was that not affected last year more by injury (eg Barker broken leg) than payment attitudes? Or have I missed something?

I think "a certain level" is the point. I can't believe there are many fans on these shores who would object to Aussie (or indeed Kiwi if there are any about) riders coming over to try their hand at EL or PL racing. The crux is that, with Great Britain probably ranking about sixth in the world and without the facilities available in Denmark or Sweden, to name but two, the infrastructure does not look capable of supporting the development of British riders. And in that case, particularly given its remit, is it unreasonable to impose restrictions on what is basically the training league? I appreciate that the situation is complicated by the varying demands of the tracks in the NL. Some are standalone and need a certain amount of commercial success, some are nursery circuits for their bigger PL brethren and so on. But we have to start somewhere. I was at Poole for the Wolves EL match earlier this year; Erik Gundersen had brought over four of the Danish under-15s (if I remember rightly) on smaller bikes. They were polished and talented; the big shock was when Gundersen mentioned casually in an interview over the public address system that there were a couple of hundred like them. Against that backdrop, and I'm trying hard not to go all little Englander over it, it's hardly surprising that there is unease over the influx of foreign riders at NL level.

Well said. Webber, at one of the post-race interviews after a podium finish, said it had been a good weekend for Australia after Crump had won a GP the previous evening. This is live on BBC 1; how much would that kind of advertising cost?

In what was I think his final interview of the night he said that in a few days he would be ready to enjoy Cardiff and go out with a positive attitude about it (he had also spoken last week about how much he wanted the wildcard). But he really desired that sixth title (see 21CH and Badge above) and all that was in his mind at the time (minutes after the final) was the night's disappointment. That doesn't come across to me as not caring. That comes across as caring a great deal.

Kennett is my outside choice; big night experience and plenty of Monmore knowledge. There was a time a couple of years ago when he seemed to be guesting for or against Wolves virtually every fortnight.

You can picture the scene in the pits, can you not? Sewing machine, sewing machine, sewing machine, STEAM ROLLER, sewing machine....Um, Leon? A word?

They probably did.

That's how I thought the numbers would work when tomazpozrl posted (and thanks to all for the info, by the way). So from the semis presumably it's five apiece to the final and, what, highest-scoring sixth-placed rider? Home nomination?

How many go through, top five?

Ahem!

Thank-you. As an NL newbie I'm glad that you enlarged on the "format same as at Stoke" line, which wouldn't have got me very far. There's a 4TT thread on a non-National League forum? And the forum is called "Testimonials"? How did I miss that?

What's the format, please, and how many heats? Two eight-heat semis and a 12-heat final, or 16-heat final? Is it four-man teams plus a reserve or five-man teams a la SWC? Or what?

Well, we've all seen marshals physically drag wheels to the tapes only for the rider to ease back immediately afterwards. You'd need a referee who was prepared to exclude a rider doing that. Possibly Dave Robinson!

Good effort, but no takers yet!

I must, in fairness, commend the honesty of these Poole supporters who all agree that Mroczka moved a second time before exclusion. Well done.