Leaderboard

With all the doom and gloom on here over the Winter, am I the only one that can’t wait for the season to start? I genuinely don’t think I’ve ever been so excited for the season to come round for many a season with the line ups in all leagues looking close and competitive. As some as the biggest fans of the sport, and therefore most likely to attract new supporters, can’t we all look at the positives rather than the negatives? Positives - Same number of tracks as last season. Yes ok so some some tracks have chosen not to run in as many leagues as last season (particularly national league) but in terms of actual tracks running, we are at exactly the same number as last year. We’ve lost Birmingham and Kent but gained the yet to be announced new prem team and Buxton - We still have a premiership Great news for Sheffield and Ipswich fans (sale almost completed) that are back at the tapes and with a high chance of a brand new team joining we are just 1 team down from last season and some top stars already back, Holder, Bewley, Douglas, Kurtz etc. - Bright young British stars I honestly think we have some of our most promising young riders coming through for years and if we don’t put too much pressure on them and they keep progressing as they have been then Cairns, Rushen and Scott could be the future Lambert, Bewley and Brennan - The fight goes on Despite all the negativity about the sport dying there are still passionate fans and businessmen out there fighting to bring back former tracks, Coventry, Peterborough, Rye House, Lakeside, Kent, Eastbourne, Swindon, Wolverhampton and no doubt more we don’t know about with rumours of 1 or 2 new locations too. I’m not wearing rose tinted glasses and pretending everything with the sport is perfect by any means but please put things into perspective and give some credit where it’s due, be grateful to the promoters and sponsors that put their hands into their pockets to keep the sport we love going and do everything we can to support it. If we give up then we’ll lose it forever. Enjoy the 2026 season everyone

I’m sure your pint will be half full 😉

Lynn finish bottom most years

Their approach should be to get back down into the CL and back to running on a Saturday night.

Rumours.....talk to me! I can confirm that the rumours suggesting that Terry Tibbs has acquired the promotion rights at Ipswich Speedway to be just that rumours! Yes, Brother Louis Louis Louis and his assistant Richie Hawkeye did attend the offices of T Tibbs Motors (Chingford) Limited earlier this month to discuss a potential deal! I offered young Christopher a substantial sum of ready's, plus my 2017 Mazz-a-rati which was recently serviced and passed it's MOT with only one observation, the free use of Krystof Stojanowski's caravan which I purchased from The Isle of Wight in 2009 and free oil massage whenever he and Hawkeye wanted from my beautiful Swedish wife Greta! Brother Louis was obviously tempted as he asked to see my full business plan for the day to day running of the club, I advised him that Main Man Rogers would be installed as Head of Operations, where he would be assisted by the vastly experienced Jimmy Lynch as Director of Speedway and his protégé Big Blayne Scroggins would be Team Manager, I even offered Richie Hawkeye the opportunity to be Main Man Rogers' assistant so that he could learn all about how to run a club successfully! After much pondering and signs he was up for the deal, Brother Louis Louis Louis asked for a few days to think about things, during which time Stojanowski's caravan was moved from Busty C's holiday village in Norfolk to become the VIP lounge at Buxton! I think this news may have upset Brother Louis, as he sent Richie Hawkeye down to Chingford with a note declining my most generous proposal! I tickled Richie Hawkeye's chin, gave him a little wiggly woo, even offered him a free place on the next Main Man Rogers how to promote speedway seminar but he said Brother Louis mind was made up, it was no! So that's it from me, thank you goodnight, much love Terence!

It difficult to comprehend that the majority of speedway run at a loss most seasons.Whoever bankrolls these Clubs eventually bail out one way or another. This insistence to keep a Premier League will eventually fail .IMO.

Things like this just confirm the desperate state that the top level speedway in this country has become. One league is only a matter of time away. Call it championship, premiership, whatever. But then how the hell can you make a profit when all you’ve got is four other competitors to compete with.

Can’t see a long line of people wanting to have his job! Putting his money on the line year in year out. Yes the teams might not always be the best but at least he’s there giving it a good go. Let’s be honest speedway still exists in Scunthorpe because of him

As I’ve said before my hats always in the ring when it comes to speedway but speedway is full of cliques and if you ain’t in one

And right there is why I should not only be Buxton’s team manager but be the person in charge of the whole national league, as I said in an earlier post we never learn from our historical mistakes and so we are set to fail again

It is a delicate and ongoing legal situation, so no 'paying off' has taken place. The stock car promoters have stated that there will be no racing there in 2026, and have taken their fixtures to other venues for the coming season, but at present have not ruled out a return in 2027. Stock car fans are not happy as the same thing happened in 1997 when the Sky money first poured into the Super League and they forced us out to build their fully enclosed 'Superdome'. Since then they have bounced from one financial disaster to another, and when Startrax reopened Odsal in 2021 the Bulls had been absent for 2 seasons as they couldn't afford to play there. Without stock cars they would still be playing home matches at Dewsbury (although rumour was they were getting kicked out of there due to a dispute at the time). To then screw the ones that got them back into Odsal 5 years later shows them in a very bad light.

RIP Terry, thanks for all the good times at Swindon as regards Studley Grange. It was never going to happen anyway, so there will be no effect. Speaks volumes that Motorsports couldn’t even acknowledge one of their directors passing.

How about a combined venture involving Northampton & Ipswich which could run as Northwich. The only problem is sat-nav would send fans to Cheshire and we would probably be looking for a track at Oulton Park!!! 🤔

So the 6th team, looks like a "joint venture" led by all/some of the existing promoters?.. Makes sense from a shared loss point of view... But seriously, why bother? It wont give any more credibility to any of the trophies to be won across all leagues, as the operating model used will still stay exactly the same as always..

It looked like a bag that you buy perfume in for your missus. With a British Speedway sticker over the brand.

Speedway club ignores correspondence from speedway fan offering help... surely not 😂

The BSPL are clinging on to two tiers due to the excessive number of riders reliant on doubling up for their earnings. The riders are calling the shots. I don’t see how this sport can move on until the doubling up monster is tackled.

Exactly, why is there this obsession with the ‘top’ flight? The sport in this country has no credibility. The shrinking numbers that still follow the sport aren’t that bothered about which league their team compete in. Less than a handful of GP level riders is the only difference between the Premiership and Championship. The top tier is so attractive that it has got to the point where they literally are begging clubs to take part! This is not something you would include in your sales pitch when trying to attract new spectators/sponsors to the sport.

yet there are idiots on here who think the championship cannot survive with out the premiership. Its the premiership which will go 1st.

So it's now very much Brian Can't then

I think I need a pint of what you're drinking!

You try holding a Tigers sign between your teeth, it's nigh on impossible poor thing must have been shattered posing all day for that. The Bates's should be reported to the RSPCA (or is the RSPCL now?) This is more appropriate, a passive tiger with a Fox!

@Biffa Your eyes are actually bang on. The jaw sits to the right if you draw a line from the top teeth down 😂

That's what I think will happen tbh. Ipswich will be running 100% and the telling factor is Tom Brennan who hasn't signed elsewhere. Tom would've certainly been snapped up elsewhere if Ipswich didn't give him assurances of the club 100% coming to tapes this year.

Brian Cant? Keith Deller?

Peterborough won the league when chapman was involved there, if i remember Lynn finished bottom that year

Plymouth will surprise lots of teams

Those two posts sound similar and point to the same issue, but that throws up a red flag for me. Waiting on signing one rider for one season before pushing the button on buying a whole Speedway club, shouldn’t be a deal breaker should it? Hardly screams long term commitment does it??

Surely that’s a complete conflict of interest? You can’t have two owners/promotors run their own clubs, and also own/run a second club between them in the same league. That’s just nuts. Glad Louis turned that particular proposal down! Wouldn’t think the Ipswich supporters would have been too thrilled either to be frank. The two promoters would naturally put their clubs first, and Ipswich would end up with the scraps just to get them running so their own clubs had a viable league to compete in. Assuming one was Chapman, he’s hardly going to help build a better team than his beloved Kings Lynn is he? Terrible idea, and pure desperation.

That would be the same Bradford in west Yorkshire that has kicked stock cars out of odsal, despite still having a year left on the lease

Best thing to happen in weeks in speedway, the return of Terry ‘talk to me’ Tibbs! 😂😂 maybe he could bring in a 6th club??

Just a note... I'm not available for logo design, please use @Dave_minall and definitely do not use ai 😂

I don't know why people keep insisting there's not enough riders for one league when there clearly are and it would be competitive with some innovative outside the box thinking. Whether there would be in a year or two with the way the NDL has gone is another matter.

Get rid of the two tier system and the whole house of cards collapses The Championship (as it is now) is over the moment the Premiership ceases If you can't see that you are either very naive or very stupid

Would tend too agree.Were still on track though which is a bonus the days.

Broadly Guy is better known but I don’t think anyone who has even a passing interest in motorbike racing will not have heard of John McGinness and he is a big fan of speedway so maybe would be open to doing a little promo for the sport.

Personally I would not take the risk, get Bailey in for 4 weeks before his Danish and Polish fixtures start in May and Fraser returns from May.

While also not driving your existing customers away.

Round 6 of the FIM Flat Track World Championship Series on Saturday, August 29, 2026, at King's Lynn

That new logo will make a perfect design for beer mats.

That is pretty much what I was looking for minus the logos, thanks for the help

Wouldn't worry about Scunny's side because it's going to get ripped up when Picko gets a proper GSA.

Agree.

So an unsigned "number 1" could hold the whole club to ransom? Not a great position to be in 🤔

They sell loads of admission tickets at Wimborne Road every meeting.🤑

It is a good looking and competitive Championship, the usual suspects Poole, Oxford and Glasgow will no doubt be up there, all 3 look strong. Edinburgh have a strong looking reserve pair (believe Loftus will be one of the best signings on his average) Plymouth strong top 2, plus Klima at reserve should clean up (if he turns up every week) Redcar don’t look as strong as last year, can’t see that side being a play off team. But they do have a very strong reserve pair. Likewise with Berwick they’ll be competitive especially at home, but will probably fall short of the play offs. Scunthorpe do look weak, but I’d imagine once they make changes once Pickering’s average drops they might become more competitive away. Workington have the best looking side since we’ve relaunched. Should be miles more competitive away from home in 2026, and I’m confident we can take that 4th spot again. 1st Glasgow 2nd Oxford 3rd Poole Plymouth/Edinburgh/Workington fighting for 4th. 7th Berwick 8th Redcar 9th Scunthorpe

I am that's the funniest thing 😂😂😂

I genuinely had no idea who she was before reading this thread so can't comment on that side except that it would be interesting to know how they came to the decision to choose her for it. It just looks so amateur though. Cameo is to wish people happy birthday or see who's dumb enough to say hello to Mike Hunt, not for what should be a serious competition in a professional sport. You even have the final two sides picked out at the same time! Getting 'a name' to do the draw is a solid idea but surely there were better ways of going about it. As an example TNT commentator Darren Fletcher has some history with the sport, could he have been asked and maybe got someone like Ally McCoist to help out, if I remember correctly he's mentioned Glasgow on his radio show in the last year or so.

‘ Dropping the minimum level to 2.00 is a big worry with the heat leader calibre being drafted in as i can see riders getting lapped not through falls just lackof speed and thats a worry. ‘ The league is becoming as big a mess as the premiership , bringing in championship 2nd strings , some of which have been around for years, and expecting new 16 year olds in their first season to mix it with them with just 5 home matches to get dialled in to any sort of home advantage is just ridiculous. Its not what this division should be doing.

Hopefully a 'best pairs' meeting can be arranged.