alan_boon

It's not a perfect scenario, at least for me. Maybe I'd feel differently if I were a Vetlanda fan but that doesn't say "team" to me so much as "bunch of riders". Again, possibly because I'm British-based, but most EL teams have more of a "club" feel to them.

So pick a date or time it doesn't clash!

One of the biggest stumbling blocks to the SGP getting bigger is the Saturday night slot - Sunday afternoons are pretty much a must for large sporting events to reach a decent televised audience.

Given that they're happy to have the same 4 people at the front every race I don't think they're bothered.

My biggest issue with the GP is that it is too many rounds featuring the same people. I'd cut it down to 5 or 6 GPs, and have a series of televised qualifiers. New contenders would emerge far more frequently than presently, and the whole thing stays fresh.

I'd like a yearly Pairs competition, and a four-yearly (or even bi-annual) World Cup, run with 7-man teams, across two or three weeks.

Because it's what they've always done? The Swedish league has run on Tuesdays for years, mainly because it was the only day you could get the top riders that rode in the British League. Poland rode Sundays because that's the traditional day-off in a Communist economy. British racenights have always been about availability - I doubt there's a single track that wouldn't run Friday or Saturday night, given the option.

There are certain places where a weekday racenight don't work. I think just about every track would run Friday or Saturday, given the choice - it maximizes children & away attendance. If I think back 20 years ago, the British League had 5 Saturday tracks (Cradley, Coventry, Bradford, Swindon & King's Lynn) and 2 Friday tracks (Oxford & Belle Vue). Only Wolves & Reading ran a weeknight, both on Monday. Crowds seemed bigger then..

I think this could possibly be a chance for BSI to tweak the formula: have a top 8 assured, and the other 7 to come from 16 riders chosen to appear in two qualifiers. The qualifying rounds further on in the season will decide 9 riders to take part in 2013's qualifiers, alongside the bottom 7.

Back on topic, Vaculik & Kasprzak are the next two in line - surely it would go to one of those?

Darcy Ward now has a license to print money. There's not an EL track that wouldn't like him as their number one, and with the GP rule in Poland he could tout his services to I Liga tracks who will need top line riders as the non-GP riders get snapped up by Ekstraliga clubs... Yeah, bit very, very boring.

I was half-expecting him to become British over the weekend.

I've always thought it would make good sense - financial and otherwise - for EL (and some PL) clubs to "adopt" an NL track. Obviously, King's Lynn, Newport, Sheffield/Scunthorpe & Belle Vue already have such links, but the standalone clubs could, if necessary, use the support. For instance, it wouldn't be rocket science for Wolves to use Dudley as a farm team (that that Dudley appear to need it), or Ipswich to use Mildenhall. Poole could help out Isle of Wight (they used to have a closer relationship in IOW's PL days, I'm told), and perhaps Birmingham or Coventry could back Buxton. This could be in the form of financial help, with track equipment, or giving opportunities to riders. For instance, if Buxton were to link with Coventry, the Buxton track could be used for small track practice for any new signings Coventry may make, Coventry could get first "dibs" on riders like Nick Morris & Robert Branford, Buxton would get easier access to using Coventry assets for team & individual meetings, and so on. It's too obvious not to have been tried, but is it worth approaching the BSPA with regards to a more formal arrangement?

So the EL has 7 GP riders now. Try and tempt 3 more over and you could have a 1 per team rule...

What a cheating so and so! Gollob did the speedway equivalent of a dive there! Cheat cheat cheat! EDIT: that okay, mods?