tanya

There's not point arguing Poole are getting the meeting they are calling it the NYC and are having it as a memorial to another teams owner/promoter. Just hope it never happens to them.

For myself as a Newport Supporter the fact that the Winter meeting has gone to Poole is now irrelevant, it's there and there is nothing we can do about it. I just believe that if anyone is having a memorial meeting for Tim Stone it should be the team that has the most association with him and the team that he run as best he could for the best part of 10 years. It's obvious to me that the Memorial meeting should be at Newport and yes at the beginning of March, that is when we are expecting to do it now. But for Poole to hijack the name and our opportunity of being the team to run his memorial meeting seems farsicle and a little insensitive.

Any meeting held in the memory of Tim Stone should be held at Newport. What most people don't realise is that the people that supported Newport over the years have not had the opportunity to pay a minutes silence to him like other tracks have. The New Year Classic was an individual meeting run by Tim Stone at Newport.

Tom Brown is not the Welsh Open Champion is Andrew Tully the Scottish Open Champion?

We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves with our little touring party from Newport. We set up on the first bend and proceeded to have a great time, the music was very good! The racing was pretty good too, we were ardently cheering on Mads Korneliussen and Chris Neath. Mads looked like he was the only one that could of contended with Ostergaard so it was a bit disappointing that he was excluded in the semi's. The only thing that spoilt it a little for us was that we had to leave before the auction began, we just didn't realise how long the actual racing was going to be. Such a shame the old place had to close, the grounds were very tired looking but the track and the racing is excellent.

Disappointed that there is no Schrammy at tomorrows meeting but it won't spoil the day for us Newport supporters who are making the trip up. Everyone is looking forward to this meeting immensly and has been for weeks. We are not concerned about how strong the field is for the meeting it is about saying goodbye to Reading Speedway a place where we have had many fantastic times and holds so many memories for us Wasps. Just a couple that springs to mind as I write is when Frank Smart came out on the parade truck, it was his first meeting as Captain of the Wasps. Somebody had given him a cap with Captain Frankie on and it just made the moment, we were all so proud of Frank and our team on that day. The days when the Newport supporters used to turn the 3rd bend yellow. Another time was when Ben Howe was taking part in a testimonial meeting and decided he was going to have a go at being passenger, or was it driver! Anyway all I can remember is that the sidecar left the track and nearly ploughed into all the prizes centre field and sent people running for cover. Nice people and a great track to go and watch at, Reading will be greatly missed.

How patronising can one mans comments be, and to do it in Welsh too the man has a real talent. I for one will miss the meeting and it'll be great to see how many of these Champions are willing to turn up and ride in Winter conditions. Looks like it will be March now before we at Newport can pay our respects to Tim Stone with a minutes silence, something we have been unable to do as yet at Newport.

They have held the WTC? They have held the ELRC? That's what it's based on and that wasn't what all my message was about. Slanging matches are not appropriate at this time. Good luck to Poole with the NYC, I hope they enjoy it. Obviously Newport can do nothing about it now.

I hope Poole are proud of themselves and enjoy all the extra money to top up their accounts. Not only do they host most of the big meetings held by the BSPA and WTC they want everyone elses chance of holding a meeting too - in my school that is called greedy and is frowned upon. Tim Stone did a tremendous job holding a meeting that nobody else wanted, he put up a decent field of riders, riders that wanted to come and ride at Newport in all conditions. Matt Ford go get your GP riders see how they want to ride when its chucking it down with rain and the winding is cutting through them. And if Matt Ford had that much respect for Tim Stone then why didn't he attend his funeral...oh yes sory he was filling in that application

Who says Newport won't run this season? For a promoter to jump in and take an event that was traditional to a track is dispicable. Tim Stone put a lot of time and effort into ensuring he put together a competitive field - not a field of stars - but a field that would run in all weathers and not complain, it only seems fare that this meeting should be left as a memorial to him. Tim Stone put that meeting on for the good of all fans around the country, the location was good and people from the Midlands and even as far north as Belle Vue used to make the journey down to see the meeting. It was never a meeting just for the supporters of Newport Speedway it was a meeting for everyone. If the meeting moves from it's traditional home further down South all I can see is that the promotion is intending to run it for their own benefit and not for every fan in the country. The track preparation for this meeting is immense. It's not a job that can be done in the normal amount of time and access to the track and stadium is needed everyday for a couple of weeks to prepare the track, has this been considered? Sometimes this Speedway lark makes me sick to the teeth. Newport is an excellent place to run speedway but it seems that if there is an obsticle to overcome then officialdom is trying to make it very difficult to sort out. Newport had a license this season, we are not a track that has not entered the league this season. We are almost certainly running in the league next season too, so why all of a sudden are pushed out?

We really enjoyed our trip up to Neathys testimonial but must admit got a bit lost on the scoring system! The racing was some of the best I've seen at Rye House, good to see not just Rockets doing well for a change! Freddie Lindgren was the class act and proved it. Good evening out and glad that Chris had a very successful meeting.

Why no write up in the Speedway Star about Neathys testimonial? All he got was a small article, doesn't seem right

Because he rode well tonight with an obvious injury. And he did say that he would be having sugery in the winter and would carry on riding unless he had another big crash. Puk had been riding well in the GPs up until he got his injury even making a final and looked a different rider this time around.

Gutted for Puk, he tried so hard carrying his injury and deserved to be in the top 3. I thought the feed was fantastic on the internet and throughly enjoyed it plus the commentary was 10 times better than Skys!

Looking forward to this meeting now, there's a small bunch of Newport supporters coming up on a mini bus. Neathy started out at Newport in his league career, we saw him as a wobbling reserve. He'll always be one of our most popular riders and it's great that we can come up and support him on his big day.

Just flicked on Sky 2 and it says it starts at 6pm

But did you see Mads spray Niels with some dirt on the second bend first, then Mads got a slap on the head off Puk - all good banter and would expect nothing less off them. They've been great friends since their Newport days together and saw them hanging out together after the meeting too.

Thanks, makes it much more interesting when there's a programme to fill in

Some of the Newport supporters had a bus organised to come home Saturday night, jumped on it around 11.15 straight back to Newport no problems. There's a few more hotels being built in Newport at the moment so accomodation should be easier and hopefully the Welsh Open will be back up and running too.

I don't think the venue has ever been knocked it's the track preparation and it would be the same at Wembley a man made track...

Newport are planning on running a bus up to his meeting. Neil was always a very popular Wasp.

Message from the track Everything is good the track is fine and the meeting is definately going ahead Nick and his testimonial committee

Good on you Colin, it's still raining a little here in Newport but I'm really confident that the meeting will be on. The rain is due to stop around 9ish this morning, so fingers crossed the wind which has picked up will dry the track sufficently. Come on weather, don't spoil it for us......

Don't worry about any previous rain before the meeting, Newport dries out really quickly especially if there is a wind blowing. You can guarantee that the track will need watering after about the 5th heat!! Just as an example, last weekend the Amateur Speedway held a meeting at the track and afterwards the co ordinator of the meeting was saying that it was almost a rain off due to the heavy rain they'd had in previous days, but the water bowser made an appearance during the meeting. So, don't worry about rain on the track. I've seen so many meetings held when the heavens have opened and it's produced fantastic racing.

So is that a winner takes all on points or a big Final at the end?