OGT

Grand Prix. Poor Ruthless. Poor Track. Poor Coverage. Poor Simon Stead's shirt. Very Poor.

Maybe, just maybe, the IOW will be the norm and everything else will be the circus.......

Brilliant. RIP Archie ❤️

Quick question, was there a minute's silence for Archie Wilkinson tonight?

RIP Archie. To me, anyone who rode in the 1971 Brummies side is a legend.

It's an idea. Been to a couple of BSB rounds at Oulton Park. Great days out.

Decent meeting last night, congrats to Adam for his fantastic win. Also great to see Bomber and Scotty giving it a go and turning the clock back a few years. For me though, the big, sorry huge talking point, which could have repercussions across the whole speedway world was Nigel Pearson telling Kelvin Tatum that he used to cheer the name of Simon Cross but boo when Kelv's was announced at Cradley meetings. Wow. You could tell by the latter's muted response that he was taken aback and their awkward interactions over the rest of the meeting showed that all was not well. Could this be the end of an era? The end of their wonderful 30 year partnership (seems longer)? Time will tell, I suppose, but it's sure going to be difficult for both of them, especially Kelvin, to carry on as normal after an admission as earth shattering as that. Keep your eyes on the tabloids, this is gonna be big!

Someone should tell him he doesn't have keep his average down in the GPs.

Awful news. RIP.

Well done Artem Laguta, what a fantastic win that was. I think we know what MFR is short for. Samuel L Jackson knows for sure.

Another victory for the former Brummie

A lot of the ideas being suggested on here are really akin to re-arranging the deckchairs on the Titanic. For speedway to continue/survive on any level, it has to attract new fans, young fans at that. I honestly cannot see how this can be achieved in this country. Old duffers like me waffling on that football/cricket/rugby, bike racing etc is crap and speedway is the greatest sport on earth really need to emigrate to Poland for this opinion to be anywhere near correct. I honestly hope that by some miracle a master plan can be evolved for speedway to rebuild and bounce back better, but without youngsters coming through the turnstiles, it ain't gonna happen.

Me neither, roll on normality in the world.

Fantastic ride from BZ in the final. All in all a pretty decent night. One thing though, I don't really like Leon Madsen for some reason that I can't put my finger on. Can anyone help?

Methanol is a bio fuel so any thoughts of using petrol instead should be binned straight away.

I was there too. A horrible crash, poor Joey.

It is a rubbishhole though. Went there for a stox meeting in 2018, it was far worse than the last time speedway was raced there in 1986. Also the track is tarmac, the centre green is a total mess and the fence is Armco. The speedway track was only ever any good in 1985 and even then it deteriorated before the end of that season. The stockcars carried on ruining it through 86, then the promotion gave up. It's in the wrong part of Brum too, not exactly dripping with transport links. A definite no-no IMO.

It's a sh!thole.

I wonder how the speedway's future will be affected when residents move into the "athletes" village over the road. We've seen over the years, many councils upholding new resident's complaints about noise from established motor sport venues and either close them down or impose operating restrictions, some of them frankly ridiculous. Really hope the same doesn't happen to the Brummies.

It's nothing new though is it? One of the last straws for me was in 2010 when Brum wanted to re-declare due to a long term injury for Chris Kerr. 2 other teams, Berwick and Stoke were in the same position. They were allowed to, Birmingham were denied. The BSPA chairman was Alex Harkess and Brummies were dicing with Edinburgh for the league that year. Draw your own conclusions. Speedway is like a form of water torture for many fans who eventually succumb and walk away. Fair play to the people who can put up with the nonsense, there'd be no speedway without them.

The interview with Alan Grahame is now up on Lee's YouTube channel. It's very good, I have to say, definitely worth a watch.

A Sky Sports day pass on Now TV is £9.99. That does for 24 hours, obv.

It would be nice to see Cal tearing around the Cathedral this weekend. He was decent around Assen.

This is a good article on the subject of slowing down in FP and Q sessions https://the-race.com/motogp/we-cant-continue-like-this-motogps-latest-policing-drama/

I don't think bringing in "superpole" as was used in WSB, will work TBH. As much as slowing down and hanging around is becoming more of a problem, it's up to race direction to increase the severity of the sanctions they use, cos it's plain as day that long laps, ride throughs and pitlane starts aren't enough to deter repeat offenders. I always thought there was a penalty point system in place for misdemeanours, if there still is then they need to apply it. 3 strikes and you miss a round, simple as that. I'm sure the teams would ensure that "their boy" would keep his hooter clean if that were the case.