IainB

He's averaging under 7 in the Championship, it's embarrassing tbh

If Sky are involved you can be absolutely 100% sure it's a gimmick You only have to look at F1 to see the impact that sound has on Sport, the high revving V12,V10 & V8 engines were their trademark, so much so that they used the same sounds in their promotional videos long after the hybrid engines were introduced... If it doesn't sound fast it doesn't look fast to me. Although during the lockdown the TV companies overdubbed crowd noise at the Football matches to generate some atmosphere, perhaps that's what's needed in Speedway not just engine noise... but crowd noise as well

If the lack of noise is an excuse for track presenters to prattle on about nothing for even longer it's a resounding no from me!

I do think that we have to remember Covid has played a massive part in team make ups this season, there are a lot of foreign riders (non GP) that just aren't riding in our leagues this season because of travel difficulties, especially at the time when teams were assembled. Also the Poland 2 leagues only rule has had an effect, whether this was brought in due to Covid or self interest I'm not sure, now it's in place though will it change? Some riders, the more professional ones, have been able to work around these restrictions and carry on as usual. Doubling down has enabled many clubs to run this year... but may also have closed at least one of them.

Thought the racing at this match was pretty good again, there's actually been some pretty good racing at Leicester recently, not words I'd ever thought I'd see myself typing. Whether it's to do with improved track conditions or riders getting back into the swing of things after 18 months off, I don't know, maybe a bit of both.

Will it mean half hour breaks between each race as we wait for the bikes to re-charge? And bikes running out of charge after 3-laps, rider range anxiety

It's no doubt been discussed elsewhere but does anybody know why GB had no entrants into the WU21 Championship this year?

Hasn't Max Fricke improved steadily over the last couple of years, I've been quite impressed with him this year, just goes about his business without any hype or fuss (except all those mentions about the GP challenge) quietly gaining the points, got a nice tidy style. Currently the top Aussie in the standings ahead of Doyley and has probably justified being selected ahead of Jack Holder by Lemo a couple of years back.

You would have thought that the 100's or 1,000's of motocross riders would have fancied their chances of taking the British Speedway world by storm with such a small pool of around 100 riders to compete with.

But we now find ourselves in the position of NO GP riders riding in our Leagues yet we still elect to run on off-nights and on many prime summer weekends there was no Speedway this year!

Well... if you're quick you can still see Ben Barker listed on the Leicester website now!

Leicester bang up to date with their press as usual... have previewed the match this morning with Ben Barker announced in the team

Concussion

You only have to please 1 person when Poole are in town... shouldn't be a problem next season though... unless they sign Batch!

Just listened to the Olly Allen Five-1 Speedway Show podcast from around a year ago, and while very interesting as usual, I was shocked to hear the joint Team GB manager effing and jeffing his way through the interview. Perhaps he should go on a media relations seminar, similar to the ones Poultec run where I would hope one of the first things it would say is don't go effing and jeffing your way through a (social) media interview when you are the Team GB manager!

Just what I was thinking as I was typing it out

Is Speedway about the Team or the Riders? or both? Would you be happy if you didn't know the identity of a rider in the race... Why limit a rider from riding for another team to matches? How about a rider can switch teams mid meeting just as long as they're wearing your teams race jacket?

Woffy mentioned something in and mid-meeting interview at the GP the other week, he basically said he was going to buy engines until he found a "special one". He said that they should all be the same but occasionally you'll get one that is "special". I'm no engine expert, far from it, but I do think there is something in this, how often do you see a rider winning all before him until his engine goes pop... and then he's never quite the same again. 2006 Hans Andersen had such an engine and arguably could/should have been world champion that year, he was nigh on unbeatable that season but didn't actually qualify for the GP's and came in as a reserve mid way through the season to cover for injury. He won 2 GP's, came 2nd and 3rd once... his engine went pop and he was never quite the same again. I don't know how Speedway engines are built and what the production tolerances are, but are they really all the same? Bartek and Artem certainly seem to have "special" engines this year, it'll be interesting to see how they go when their engines go bang.

Bank Holiday Monday, Wolverhampton

That's what I was thinking...

it was a p1ss poor crowd for a BHM match against the Champions elect

Do you get your Mrs to throw mud in your face for the full experience?

We almost nearly kind of do have the riders though, it's just that they aren't given the chance. Look at Jason Edwards, binned from Eastbourne and binned from Plymouth in favour of a rider from the upper league. BV elect to go for NBJ instead of a home grown rider... and they operate a NDL "feeder" team!!!! Just 2 examples, there'll be loads of others from the last few years

Haven't IOW been riding against Oxford Cheetahs on the Island?

No, they also referred to the upcoming Championship meeting! And they've not ridden at home in the NDL since