Vince

Tim got the message about Shaun. Without going on and on and on maybe Lewis isn't available! At this time of year most riders need a bit of notice in order to get equipment ready.

Three changes to last weeks line up. Lubos Tomicek is unable to get back over and is being replaced by Glenn Cunningham. Eddie Kennet is on holiday and Shaun Tacey is his replacement. Finally Sam Simota is a last minute cancellation. Although his ticket was booked he was unlucky enough to get some metal fragments in his eye while in the workshop. The metal has been removed and there is no long term problem with his eye but he doesn't want to risk it quite so soon. He has accepted a place in the Welsh Open so that should be something to look forward to. Replacing Sam is Ricky Ashworth who should do very well.

I have to say that the weather forecast was indeed the same last night as this morning, however they were all wrong. The BBC (and apparently Sky which we never looked at) gave persistant heavy rain. Metcheck gave persistant light rain, very light until the meeting would have been over. Reuters gave light showers until evening. Heavy rain that stopped at 11.30 for any amount of time I didn't see anywhere. During the week we have been speaking about the weather at length every night and Metcheck and Reuters had been the two that had been most accurate in that time. If he had pulled the meeting last night and the forecast he used had been accurate he would have been criticised for that, bit of a damned if you do, damned if you don't job really. Probably right that somebody should have stayed on at the track but everybody had had enough and the guys that had been working all morning were soaked through so I guess it was a courtesy that got missed. I think it was about 12.30 by the time everybody left but I can understand it would have been frustrating and I will mention it to Tim.

I believe he is - although eating in Newports McDonalds may have been enough to change his mind

Just got home and of course once the decision had been made to postpone the meeting the rain died down. However when we left at about 1.30 it was raining again. I know that Tim is gutted to have to postpone the meeting but felt it was better to do so even at that late stage rather than risking taking everybodys money and issuing rain off tickets. He apologises to everybody who had travelled but hopes they understand that he had the best of intentions when he decided the meeting would be going ahead last night and earlier this morning. Hopefully things will be better next week for the restaging and if anybody is unhappy with the distance they travelled to no purpose spare a thought for Nicki Glanz who made a trip of 1000 miles just to have a 10 minute chat with everybody at the track. The track guys had done a superb job and even when it was raining heavily the track would have been rideable but unfortunately it wouldn't have been so good for the spectators.

Metcheck now give light rain all day, but most of it is very light. However Reuters which is the one we generally use only give scattered showers, see here

Just spoken to Tim and he says the meeting is going ahead. The majority of forecasts are giving light rain or showers and he says that the track will be able to cope and that the riders he has spoken to are raring to go. With the line up they have I reckon they will be giving it their all as well so should be a good meeting.

And if the riders complain about not being able to pass Dixie will do his best to widen the back straight for them

I thought it was quite an enjoyable meeting. There seems to be a larger range of ages and abilities than in previous years but while the gap between the top and bottom is bigger it seems that they break down into groups so that everybody has some competition (not sure that makes sense but I know what I mean!). Plenty of evidence that those starting in Grass track seem to have a better understanding and a head start on the others and that nothing brings the lads on like plenty of time on the bike. Christophers Dad left the 'kennel end' of the stand as if a Ginsters truck had arrived the other side of the pits when he was pointed out to the locals Enjoyed helping young Chris, seems he will listen to anybody except his dad which shows an amazing amount of common sense for one so young

Look on the bright side Pat, he's only 12 now and things will get far, far worse over the next few years before they start to get better

Put me down for the minority vote - I think that Nichols was going a lot faster than Zagar and reasonably expected him to take the wider normal line. Undoubtedly Zagar was hit hard enough to cause him to fall but it is difficult to see how Nichols could have avoided it. The Pederson / Iverson incident was one of those 50/50 jobs that could have gone either way and may be an argument for Refs not being forced to exclude a rider in all cases after the first corner. The race to the line was impossible to call from what I saw on the TV although my first reaction was that Bjarne had got there first I did have my doubts when I saw the replay.

Just spoken to Pat and Chris Bint has knackered his achiles tendon and is in plaster. Sounds a horrible injury but he's young and will heal quickly. Best of luck to Chris, Brendan and Jack and hope you are all racing again soon.

Be interesting to see how they enforce that, a lighter rod is going to require a strip down to check. Or how about honing and polishing standard items? Always very difficult to enforce such rules although the idea is good.

Scroll down this page and you can see that at least one tuner has already started working on them. Pretty good power for a 250 four stroke that has some torque as well.

The SCB handbook states the following (good news for Scatygirl I think) New Youth applications must be supported by an endorsement from an SCB Training Instructor while applications to upgrade must be made by a Parent/Guardian endorsed by an SCB Training Instructor and the GB U-21 Manager. No Youth will be registered to ride a 500cc until they are 14 years of age and successfully undertaken a formal competency test.

I have ridden most of the Motocross 250 four strokes and can't imagine any of them having enough flywheel weight for Speedway. I can imagine they are fine for Grass Track but they are pretty peaky and the fact that they race against 125cc 2 strokes gives some idea of the type of power they produce. I would assume that the use of a homologated engine in competition is to try and create a level playing field for all riders and can see how that would be a good thing. Seems like a good idea but all put into action in too much of a rush.

80cc bikes are only any good on suitable tracks - which we don't have over here. Apparently the parts needed to convert a 500 to 250 are too expensive to make it worthwhile. However a 350 can be converted reasonably easily and there should be a few cheap 350 engines about from the grass track. It means relocating the crankpin - which has also to be stepped and re-sleeving the barrel. Not a 5 minute do it yourself job but I would have thought a whole lot cheaper than a new 250.

I have everything except the result of the final round at Mildenhall. May 3rd Weymouth: J Auty, S Waldron, S Campos May 8th Armadale: S Waldron, S Lambert, K Hughes. June 6th Sittingbourne: S Lambert, J Auty, G Cottham. July 4th Buxton: J Auty, 2nd = S Waldron & S Lambert. Sept 6th Sheffield: J Auty, 2nd = G Cottham & M Bates. Sept 19th Carmarthen: S Waldron,J Auty, 3rd = S Lambert & G Cottham. Oct 3rd Mildenhall: Final top 3 J Auty, S Waldron, S Lambert.

Tim would have started the meeting early if need be but as I say that would take it into the new season which wouldn't be very satisfactory. Brighton might not be the ideal as it is a bit of a novelty track but it does put the lads in front of a good size audience and get the meetings completed. At the end of the day it is a good compromise solution. Couldn't run at a training day as they wanted it run alongside a SCB / BSPA authorised meeting, that's why it didn't run at Newport with the STRA. No problems with charging admission to a training day but you aren't allowed to charge for the U15 meetings.

I think it has to be run in conjunction with a BSPA regulated meeting. Next chance at Newport would have been the Classic but I guess that would then be 2006.

Seems he won't need another operation. He now has six weeks in plaster and another two in a more flexible support. The Doc reckons 4 to 5 months to be OK but Sam said that actually means two and a half to three months. I won't let him do anything too silly though. Once he is out of the cast I will take him up to Brian Simpson and follow his recomendations. Pictures of his war wounds and x-ray here Thanks Mark and Sam, seems minor compared to your injury from last year. I'm sure I can find enough tape even for a gob that size Stressed! Jamie - you should kick him when you next see him, he's been no help to you whatever in this Academy League

Sam's finally had the op and is now home. They put two screws in the tibia which are fine but they think the screw they put in the fibula might need re-doing but we won't know until Monday. Sam is in good spirits though and still says he will be riding by Christmas.

Operation was postponed last night and is now due later today.

Sam said thanks to everybody for the concern and to Brendan for the offer of the frame but he thinks Nu-Trak will sort him out. He was eventually transferred to Southampton, arriving about midnight last night and is waiting to go down for the operation now. Apparently both tibia and fibula are broken and it is all pretty unstable so will be held together with a mixture of plates, wires and screws. Sam is in good spirits and says he will be riding again before Christmas.

Just popped in home to drop the sponsors off. Sam is in hospital at Stockport and they are planning on operating in the morning to put some screws in a fractured tibia. We tried to bring him home and will try again tomorrow to get him back to a local hospital for the operation. Shouldn't be too bad anyway and Sam is already itching to ride again. The ambulancemen reckon he has an exceptionally high pain threshold, and seeing what he was like at the track today I can believe it.