Ladies British Speedway Championship.

[Fortythirtyeight]

Despite the initial publicity by the powers that be of their idea to stage a Ladies Championship ( we all know who did it first ) there has been virtually no publicity since and the first two rounds are this weekend , at Edinburgh and Workington. When you see the entry list you can perhaps understand why.

Just FOUR ladies entered at Edinburgh. We haven’t been told if the same four are at Workington.

Katie Gordon, reigning champion who rides regularly in the Northern Junior League.

Morgan Leonard who has just started riding a 500 cc machine .

Wendy MacAllen, a lady who has attended speedway practices and has a motorcycle background.

Celina Liebmann, a German who ride’s professionally in the Polish league and has ridden in the Grand Prix 2 series.

So why so few when double that amount entered at the I.O.W. ?

Im guessing Liebmann was invited to ride by the S.C.B ? Why ? 
She is clearly a very talented rider and way and above more experienced then the other three competitors and it seems a little unbalanced a field for a GP rider to compete in.

Good luck to all the ladies but come on SCB , give the girls some publicity and make it an even playing field.

 

[iris123]

Think in 1929 a few UK women rode in Germany, and probably Denmark. Fay Taylour was the main woman rider. You could basically fill in the heat results beore they came out. taylour was almost a lap ahead......it seems in almost 100 years things haven't changed much. You could probably fill the programme in.....

[Sir Sidney]

I suspect BSPL are just running it because they think they should. IOW are running the Women's Championship because they believe in it and are committed to it. 

 

Edited June 1, 2023 by Sir Sidney

[Monarchs2468]

Celina was excellent today, I was very impressed.

[Bavarian]

  On 6/3/2023 at 10:40 PM, Monarchs2468 said:

Celina was excellent today, I was very impressed.

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Yes, and we even do have a few more, who are not that far behind Celina.

Best of the up-and-coming German speedway ladies after Celina is Hannah Grunwald, and another who is going quite good on a 500cc bike is our Nepalese-born Patricia Erhart.

There's about half a dozen of them girls in German speedway racing now, plus several more in the youth competitions.

 

  

[iris123]

  On 6/4/2023 at 9:24 AM, Bavarian said:

Yes, and we even do have a few more, who are not that far behind Celina.

Best of the up-and-coming German speedway ladies after Celina is Hannah Grunwald, and another who is going quite good on a 500cc bike is our Nepalese-born Patricia Erhart.

There's about half a dozen of them girls in German speedway racing now, plus several more in the youth competitions.

 

  

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Guess they are needed as the male riders aren't doing much these days...

[Bavarian]

  On 6/4/2023 at 11:13 AM, iris123 said:

Guess they are needed as the male riders aren't doing much these days...

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Against the boys Celina finished second in the German Under 21 championship last year, so You are most probably right 

[Neila]

Only 2 ladies at worky today, Celina and Katie, Celina very stylish but poor Katie took a heavy by fall when her bike flipped coming off the start gate, took a ride in the ambulance, but thankfully was on center green for the trophy presentation 

[Fortythirtyeight]

  On 6/4/2023 at 9:20 PM, Neila said:

Only 2 ladies at worky today, Celina and Katie, Celina very stylish but poor Katie took a heavy by fall when her bike flipped coming off the start gate, took a ride in the ambulance, but thankfully was on center green for the trophy presentation 

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I feel sorry for the two ladies who gave it their full commitment. Poor show from the SCB for not getting a larger field, yes there are more lady riders out there, and putting a GP experienced rider in this ‘field’ was a joke.

[topaz325]

Impressed with Celina around Workington. yesterday and well done to all riders who took part from the little ones to the older guys some of which had NDL team places .

All good experience and track time .

Thank you to Northside Arena for hosting the championship .

[Gambo]

  On 6/5/2023 at 9:47 AM, Fortythirtyeight said:

I feel sorry for the two ladies who gave it their full commitment. Poor show from the SCB for not getting a larger field, yes there are more lady riders out there, and putting a GP experienced rider in this ‘field’ was a joke.

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There were 4 ladies scheduled for both the Edinburgh (3rd June) and Workington (4th June) meetings. 

[Fortythirtyeight]

  On 6/6/2023 at 10:17 AM, Gambo said:

There were 4 ladies scheduled for both the Edinburgh (3rd June) and Workington (4th June) meetings. 

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But only 3 turned up at Edinburgh and 2 at Workington so still a farce.

[Gambo]

  On 6/6/2023 at 12:55 PM, Fortythirtyeight said:

But only 3 turned up at Edinburgh and 2 at Workington so still a farce.

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So how is that the SCB's fault?

[Fortythirtyeight]

  On 6/6/2023 at 3:47 PM, Gambo said:

So how is that the SCB's fault?

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Because they organised it ,  invited just the ones that lived near the hosting tracks and brought in a GP rider to compete against a second halfer , a fun rider and a novice. Not that the SCB knew the standard of two of them as they ( he ) had never seen them ride but just checked they had a race licence.

The ladies, all of them, deserved better.

Wonder how many will be at Redcar for the final round ?…..enough to fill a race ?

[Fortythirtyeight]

  On 6/6/2023 at 7:47 PM, Fortythirtyeight said:

Because they organised it ,  invited just the ones that lived near the hosting tracks and brought in a GP rider to compete against a second halfer , a fun rider and a novice. Not that the SCB knew the standard of two of them as they ( he ) had never seen them ride but just checked they had a race licence.

The ladies, all of them, deserved better.

Wonder how many will be at Redcar for the final round ?…..enough to fill a race ?

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Just the two .

What an embarrassment. Whilst Liebmann is probably UK Championship standard , she was very quick, why did the SCB feel it needed to fly her over to ride against a junior and call it a championship with only 2 riders in two out of the three rounds? 
Waste of time and money .

[Sings4Speedway]

  On 6/20/2023 at 3:46 PM, Fortythirtyeight said:

Just the two .

What an embarrassment. Whilst Liebmann is probably UK Championship standard , she was very quick, why did the SCB feel it needed to fly her over to ride against a junior and call it a championship with only 2 riders in two out of the three rounds? 
Waste of time and money .

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Haven't seen Liebmann ride in the flesh but if she is CL standard i do wonder if a team would give her a shot just for the great PR? Although I guess she would come in on an assessed 4?

As for the few remaining female riders the majority that are active are southern based so picking the northern venues to host was always questionable. Theres also a financially element, an SCB license isn't cheap.... a Nora one is. 

[Sir Sidney]

I can't see anything on the Speedway GBsite about the outcome. I can only find that on the riders own pages.

An opportunity missed

Still, the IOWs established version will be happening soon. You can guarantee that will have publicity and profile

Edited June 21, 2023 by Sir Sidney

[Fortythirtyeight]

  On 6/21/2023 at 7:33 AM, Sings4Speedway said:

Haven't seen Liebmann ride in the flesh but if she is CL standard i do wonder if a team would give her a shot just for the great PR? Although I guess she would come in on an assessed 4?

As for the few remaining female riders the majority that are active are southern based so picking the northern venues to host was always questionable. Theres also a financially element, an SCB license isn't cheap.... a Nora one is. 

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If your telling me that only one UK female racer has a SCB licence then it makes it a complete mockery that they held a ‘ Championship ‘ anyway !

Liebmann would come in on a 5 , I asked Mr. Vatcher as I was that impressed with her posting sub 57 second race times on borrowed equipment.

The lady looked good enough to score points in the championship given an opportunity.

[Sings4Speedway]

  On 6/21/2023 at 6:25 PM, Fortythirtyeight said:

If your telling me that only one UK female racer has a SCB licence then it makes it a complete mockery that they held a ‘ Championship ‘ anyway !

Liebmann would come in on a 5 , I asked Mr. Vatcher as I was that impressed with her posting sub 57 second race times on borrowed equipment.

The lady looked good enough to score points in the championship given an opportunity.

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Quick check of SCB registered riders says there are 7 female licence holders (ignoring youth). 3 have taken part in the rounds thus far (although Wendy McAllen is missing rom the list so don't know if she appeared on a day licence or the list is out of date?) Of the riders who competed in last years IOW ladies champs i can only see Katie Gordon with and SCB licence. 

[paulr2]

Watched Celina riding Katie’s 2nd bike at Redcar and she was very impressive, announced tonight that she is riding in Redcar meeting next Friday using her own engine and one of Riss’s bikes.