stephenagraham

You can call Team USA "third world", you can claim how much better Team GB is than the Yanks, you can call us cheaters and you can accuse us of gaming the rules, but it all comes off as very sour grapes. The arrogance and pretentiousness of some of the folks in this neighborhood is inelegant, at best, and embarrassing for a nation with a rich speedway history, at worst. Team USA definitely had luck on their side with a decimated Swedish squad and Team GB lacking Scott Nichols in the race-off, but that's racing. Billy Hamill didn't score any points Thursday nor did Neil Middleditch. It all came down to what happened on the track and if you think hanging the manager, a man with his own rich speedway history, is the solution, a number of you are completely deluded. You had a bad day and that sometimes happens but, to throw temper tantrums like a 5 year old, really doesn't cut it. Have more pride in your team no matter what the result, give them your full throated support and use this result as a learning experience to do better next year.

2011 FIM Speedway World Champion Greg Hancock and Billy Hamill both made the Main Event at this year's Gumball Rally. Rounding out the field were Billy Janniro, Kenny Ingalls and Gino Manzares. The Gumball Rally was held this weekend in San Bernardino, California. All proceeds from the Gumball Rally go to support American youth speedway. Billy and Christina Hamill work long and hard to put on this event, which is fast becoming the premier event of American speedway. Check the YouTube settings as this is available in 1080p HD.

It took them a few days to get it up but the webcast of the Perris 1st Division Championship is now available for viewing. A big thanks to all the people that help make the webcast possible. Here was the field: Billy Janirro Tommy Hedden Ricky Wells Ryan Fisher Mike Faria Tyson Burmeister Buck Blair Jason Ramirez Eddie Castro Steve Russell John Marquez Bryce Starks Michael Raines Austin Novratil Gino Manzares Aaron Fox R - Tyson Talkington R - Russell Green and here is the link: http://www.letsgoexpo.com/event/Display/Lectures/speedwayviewer.cfm

Sandie, the next meeting at Perris will be on January 8 and will be a day race over here. The tentative start is noon. That would be 20:00 GMT, which would work out nicely for you, and 06:00, Sunday, on the east coast of Australia. Whether it will be webcast or not hasn't been confirmed however tonight's response to the webcast was very strong and exceeded expectations, which certainly couldn't hurt the odds. As with everything speedway, it's a matter of money and sponsorship. I do have good news about tonight's meeting. It will be available, on demand, sometime tomorrow at www.speedwaywebcast.com. They have a lot of data to crunch so it may be later in the day. I firmly believe the future of speedway lies with webcasting and tonight was a very positive step forward from our corner of the world. Steve

Hi. We're going to try to webcast tonight's race from Perris Speedway in Perris, California. The track is appx. 260 yards and is the longest track we currently have in Southern California. We have a strong field that should produce some excellent racing. I know the time is bad for anyone in Europe, with the race starting at 3am, but if you're up, try to tune in. I'm not certain of the start time in Oz but I think it will be around 14:00 on the east coast. Here's the field: Billy Janirro Tommy Hedden Ricky Wells Ryan Fisher Mike Faria Tyson Burmeister Buck Blair Jason Ramirez Eddie Castro Steve Russell John Marquez Bryce Starks Michael Raines Austin Novratil Gino Manzares Aaron Fox R - Doug Nicol R - Tyson Talkington Here's the link: http://www.speedwaywebcast.com We are all hoping it works smoothly. Steve

This is a link to the speedwaybikes2 group from America. There are a couple of photo albums of the party and the meeting. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/speedwaybike...os/album/0/list

This was Billy's second to the last race. The following week he hit the wall at the exact same place and that was that for that.

I tuned in and watched the first broadcast of this series and I must admit that it certainly wasn't what was expected. I contacted the gentleman that shot the video and was informed that there was a problem converting American video standards to European video standards and that the problem was being promptly addressed. With respect to the actual racing, there are obvious differences between British racing and American racing. First, the quality over here in America is not close to the British leagues just as the British leagues are not close to the Grand Prix series, or Poland for that matter. Another difference is the track size with Costa Mesa coming in around 180 yards. Fortunately, a track of that size does provide much closer racing and many more position changes. One other thing that needs addressing is that not all of the riders at Costa Mesa were old guys with at least 2 or 3 of the participants being 16 years old. I guess all I'm trying to say is that before folks try to destroy this telecast before it ever gets off the ground, give it a couple of weeks and let the folks putting the show work out the technical bugs and see if the product improves. If you talk to anyone who has ever been to Costa Mesa and also saw the broadcast, I'm sure they will tell you that the true intimacy and essence of Costa Mesa wasn't even close to being captured. I am a speedway fan pure and simple and while I, like most people, would rather watch a good Grand Prix any day, I love speedway in any form and have seen racing ranging from an impromptu get together out in the California desert to the crowning of a couple of world champions and whatever quality it is, it sure beats the hell out of watching just about anything else on the tube.

We're still 5,000 miles away but we are definitely ready. We will be there just in time for the party on Thursday. Steve Evans may or may not be there. It all depends whether he can survive 11 hours in the air with 6 Californians. Should be interesting.

It's cool. And yes, it was definitely lost in translation :-) See ya at Brandon? We'll probably be over around Sandie the majority of the time...if she'll have us.

>>>QUOTE (Silver Bee @ Mar 2 2009, 02:08 PM) All your friends will get f***** when my friend turns up.<<< Do tell? I have always been under the impression that British speedway fans were amongst the finest and classiest in the world (that's why we've been over 3 times in 3 years) but I guess there's an exception to every rule. Personally, we intend to have a wonderful time regardless of the animosity of some towards us due solely to our nationality.

>>>bed of straw being prepared in the garden as we speak!! (May end up a bit damp though )<<< Sandie, it sounds like you are a wonderful hostess as a bed of straw sounds preferable to the rear seat of the old Volvo Merle keeps promising us :-) Cheers. Sounds like a pretty good bet to me.

No problem there...we're bringing our own weather from Southern California and are looking forward to a spectacular meeting.

We're coming over from America to see some speedway and planned on this meeting some months ago. Now that this lineup is shaping up, this is obviously going to be one of the best meetings that we attend. It will also be great to see Sam back on a speedway bike, albiet just for exhibition purposes. We planned on going to Poole last year but when we got there, the meeting was canceled for the Liverpool - AC Milan football match. Hopefully, there will be no repeat of that this year. We are really looking forward to see some serious speedway on one of the world's premier tracks.

Does anyone know where the qualifiers from Norden will be riding next? Thanks!