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I think we can almost guarantee it... In the Speedway Star, Matt Ford mentions how those previous generation of promoters basically left a very poor legacy, and when the going was good, they didn't invest money back into the sport, and today's promoters get all the blame and stick from fans for the current malaise... Ford is someone I do have a lot of respect for but the previous promoters haven't watched over the last ten to fifteen years or so worth of unchecked decline have they? They didn't make "DU'ing" so fundamentally important, nor run Guestfests after Guestfests, nor indeed just pick and choose what league to race in whenever the moment came along to suit themelves.. And. Instead of "going it alone" when the GP's and Poland took over, they instead pandered to others and let their own operating model become defined by these outside influences... The result? Team Speedway in the UK simply isn't an authentic product to sell, which then hugely impacts its relevance, and therefore fan engagement. . This winter's goings on is just a "new way" of making the sport look the way it does, no doubt there will be other ways to keep the same reputation in the future...

Supplementary Reg 31. (as of Feb 01/26).... Any Swedish rider, who hasnt ridden in either of fhe UK two top leagues for a "few" years, (let's keep it ambiguous), and whose surname has two lots of consecutive consonants in it, comes in at an average of 4.50...

Two Wheels Unite: OBM Motorcycles Power Plymouth Gladiators’ 2026 Campaign Plymouth Gladiators Speedway are delighted to confirm that OBM Motorcycles have been secured as the club’s main sponsor for the 2026 season, marking an exciting new chapter for the club. Earlier this year, OBM Motorcycles were impacted by a highly publicised incident in which valuable vintage speedway motorcycles were stolen while in transit to a prestigious classic motorcycle auction in Las Vegas. The incident attracted widespread attention across the global speedway and classic motorcycle community. In the aftermath, the British speedway fraternity rallied together in remarkable fashion, highlighting the strength and unity of the sport. Despite the setback, OBM Motorcycles reaffirmed their commitment to speedway by stepping forward to become principal sponsors of the Plymouth Gladiators, underlining both their resilience and their long-term belief in the sport’s future. An OBM Motorcycles spokesperson said: “OBM Motorcycles is delighted to confirm its partnership with the Gladiators as principal sponsor for the 2026 season. This agreement represents a strategic collaboration with a club that has demonstrated resilience, ambition, and a clear long-term vision. The Gladiators’ commitment to providing a family-orientated, welcoming, and child-friendly environment strongly aligns with OBM’s values and community focus. Their ‘Fuel the Future’ initiative also reflects our shared commitment to innovation and the long-term development of British speedway. We look forward to working closely with the club as it enters an exciting new era and to supporting its continued growth both on and off the track.” OBM’s backing aligns perfectly with the club’s forward-thinking vision and the Fuel the Future mission, which has become a defining theme in the ongoing evolution of the Plymouth Gladiators. The partnership brings together an internationally active motorcycle brand and a club with renewed momentum both on and off the track. With new additions to the team and a competitive side assembled for the 2026 campaign, the Gladiators are firmly focused on building a bright and successful future. Promoter and Director Mark Philips welcomed the announcement: “Securing OBM Motorcycles as our main sponsor for 2026 is a huge step forward for the club. OBM operate on an international stage, and their decision to partner with Plymouth speaks volumes about the belief they have in our direction, our people, and our ‘Fuel the Future’ mission. It immediately raises the profile of the club and gives us tremendous confidence going into the new season.” As part of the new partnership, the club will officially compete under a new name for the 2026 season: Plymouth OBM Gladiators Speedway Further announcements regarding the 2026 campaign will be made in due course. Old Boys Motorcycles UK

I've heard this too via a source I would trust but the source of my source could be throwing out bait to see who blabs!! It has been a very tight lipped ship this year I understand that the meetings raced after the cut off will not be included in the rolling averages for team building purposes This is in direct contradtion to the regulations as written So anything could happen depends on who it suits and if their face fits.....

Well done Plymouth. Always enjoy watching the racing there on BSN. Always close and no one has the chance to race off into the distance. All the best for the new season!

But that is the point.... he didn't miss a year, he rode in the NDL. As I've stated before this "non-professional" League is a load of nonsense - if he got paid he was a professional in a professional league.

Brave, foolish or filthy, stinking rich 😁

I was down there today. Add a foam fence and some pop up pits it is pretty much ready to go. This works for the GP’s looks like they have done lots of new tarmac there and is a very tidy main grandstand. best of luck to the incoming promotion.

That was the era I really started watching, great times, I have a memory of a fantastic race between Kelly and Kenny Carter one lovely Sunday afternoon.

I was an Area Manager covering Bradford for one of the UK's biggest businesses... And one of my stores had, (using loyalty card info), a 95% Asian customer base.. Hence, the range of products I put in was very much tailored for sub continent customers... The store in question had 30,000 visits per week... Definelty not a city with enough of a demographic to follow Speedway I would suggest... ..

As recent history has shown the local area has no desire for motorsport in the area or rugby ! If you have driven around the area you will release that the inhabitants are mainly Asian and they just don’t get motorsports so any fan base would have to travel and combine that with the costs of upgrading and developing a dilapidated stadium means it’s never going to happen no matter how many times people insist on bringing it up on this forum.

I make that team fit totalling 36.90 1) Brennan 7.05 2) Nicholls 5.39 (CHAMP 8.08 /1.50) 3) King 6.50 4) Musielak 6.63 5) Lawson 6.83 6) Thorsell 4.50 7) Edwards R/S

Come the end of May, we will all be pining, and reminiscing, for "the good old days" of November 25 to March 26...

Who needs the actual season? 😃

Taken from Facebook, provisional home fixtures for 2026. The Mildenhall Speedway Supporters Community Trust (MSSCT) has held its first AGM where it was reported that the Trust now has 75 paid up members. Many thanks go to DLL members for their support and to those who attended the AGM. The list of dates and fixtures ratified by the Trust at their AGM is as follows: 25th. April Spring Triangle [3TT] Mildenhall vs. Rye House vs. Peterborough 2nd. May Mildenhall Grand Prix (individual/open) 16th. May vs. Anglian Select 30th. May vs. Cradley Heath 13th. June England vs. Scotland (NORA Home Nations Championship) [provisional] 4th. July vs. Rye House 11th. July vs. Thurrock 25th. July vs. Isle of Wight (NORA League Cup) 1st. August vs. Peterborough (Simon Barton Memorial) 15th. August England vs. Australia (NORA International) [provisional] 22nd. August Tourists [provisional] 12th. September Reserved 19th. September Reserved 10th. October Reserved NB All fixtures subject to change

Yes its like they have an F1 mentality to something that in real terms is more like Banger racing. It feeds down from the GP level, which has become ridiculous as its competitors seek out ever more technological and mechanical enhancements to gain a fractional improvement. Needs a radical change but cant see it happening, sadly

Think it’s something to do with a Grandstand Building being to close to track at the bend to do install track.

Brennan , Nicholls, King , Lawson Musielek , Thorsell and Edwards Team Manager Paul Hurry

Same again next year? 😉🤞

I think it's really been the best worst close season ever, even better than the Coventry/Peterborough fiasco, this close season started pretty early and has been the gift that has just kept on giving, it's kept me fully engaged with the forum throughout as I normally dip out during the close season, part of me will be sad to see it all finally resolved 😁

I don't think it's rocket science, it shouldn't be at least, get your meetings planned as far in advance as possible and have them when they're least likely to be rained off. If the reserved weeks aren't filled by cup meetings/rearranged cancellations then stick on a challenge meeting. Your riders should be available to race for you on your race night every week. As a fan I never had an issue with a rider missing for a national/international meeting. It wasn't ideal but it's when they're riding for another club somewhere that it really takes the biscuit.

Leicester Hounds/Leicester Stadium (1931 & 1937): Folded mid-season in 1931, with further issues in 1937. Liverpool Merseysiders/Chads (1937 & 1953): Withdrew mid-season in 1937; record expunged. Also closed in 1953. Ashfield Giants (1952): Closed during the 1952 season. Cradley Heath Heathens (1953): Disbanded mid-season in 1953 following the withdrawal of the promoter. Hackney Hawks (1983): Folded mid-season in 1983. Long Eaton Invaders (1997): Closed during the 1997 season. Trelawny Pitbulls (2003): Folded mid-season in 2003. Oxford Cheetahs (2007): Folded mid-season in 2007. Mildenhall Fen Tigers (2010): Experienced a mid-season closure in 2010. From Wikipedia, any takers in the Den?

Those were the days eh . Proper racers. They were pals too apparently.

Supplemtary Reg 32... After the first set of offical averages are published, any Polish rider who hasnt rode in either of the top two leagues "for a few years", (keep that ambiguity), and has two Z's in his surname name, can come in on a 4.50 average...

... for team building purposes only.

Agreed would have been one of the few who could have made things difficult for Bartoz

When is the sliding roof going to be in place? Maybe Speedway will relaunch there then?

I wasn't going in the early 80's but did see him when he returned to link up with Shawn at Sheffield in the Maurice Ducker years. From videos I have watched I would agree you probably had the best version of him when he was very young and the bad living didn't have so much of an effect due to his youth, when he came back he was still brilliant but probably 10-15% down on what he could have been due to a poor lifestyle. I was fortunate to see lots of brilliant riders but for me my top five natural talents in no particular order have to be Cowboy Cook, Kelly Moran, Mark Loram, Henka Gustaffson and Darcy Ward.

Riders complain about the costs but when ways of cutting the costs have been suggested the riders have been the ones who have rejected everything in their hunt for that bit more speed.

The other Yank who rode in that 81/82 team from memory, who I thought on his day was as good as Penhall was Ronnie Preston. I was told years ago that he wasn't in the Costa Mesa Californian group which almost all of the others were, so was always a bit off the radar. Not sure how true that was but he always went underrated in my opinion.

Thorssell is only 32! 😲 Genuinely thought he was in his early 40’s! Seems to have been around forever.

Well the BSPA clearly do not class the National League as a professional league (which is more than fair and correct in my opinion). Lots of people get paid small fees across a range of motorsports it certainly doesn’t make them professional! No standalone National league rider can make speedway their day job! You only have to look back to the Covid times when the national league / national league level matches were allowed to race because it was classed as amateur!

One from the memory bank MD, Shawn was one hell of a rider also but think Kelly shaved it over his brother for natural talent.

Don’t need more NDL teams just better management as it’s now a place for championship second strings and so no longer a development league for new , young British novices.

When Kelly lived with Bob Dugard, he stopped him drinking for a bit and Kelly went 7 or 8 meetings unbeaten, didn't last long though.

Currently (Inc Rumours) we've got No.3's -> Z. Cook, Harris, N. Morris, Riss and C. Holder No.4's -> Kildemand, B. Cook, D. Thompson, Wright and Rowe Thorssell (4.50) is better than most of them imo.

The young lad who signed for Lynn last season is a perfect example Ashton Boughton , he had pics of five bikes before the season started and he was a reserve rider , I don't know how much a bike costs to put together but I'm guessing even if riding in the UK with five bikes and a van thats probably 25-50k and this is a lad who's at the lower region of the ladder.

Fully agree we feel Owen gets sidelined, despite his league winning season. Such a shame. Another reason whey we need more NDL teams and track time for youth riders. Hope he does well in 2026 and will be giving him a cheer as always.

Is the anomaly due to not competing in enough meetings for average to take effect.

Speedway fans have always preferred regular weekly home meetings, whilst I appreciate theres too many Friday clubs ( should never have allowed Scunthorpe or Glasgow to change ) theres just too many blank weeks in the key summer months. Its all right the management saying the dates are reserved for this and that but what happens if you dont qualify for this and that ? Can see crowds dwindling this season.

Belle Vue had a woeful league campaign last season with a paltry 4 away wins. They need to aspire to powerhouse away teams like Sheffield & Ipswich who won an impressive 5 each.

Not me, he's is a Great Britain Speedway living legend. He's done nothing to deserve the hate at all. I'd argue with anyone, that without him, we may never have seen the likes of Lambert & Bewley competing near the top on the World stage. He singlehandedly demanded & lifted the standards of our international setup. We were an international laughing stock before this guy came along. He's a little hyper, swears a bit, has a little arrogance, grew up in Australia. Who gives a feck. Wearing that Union Jack, he's given everything, almost killing himself a few times doing so. Like you, I do not get the hate at all.

I just don’t know where they expect the fans to come from, a few from Peterborough and maybe a few from Coventry and there will be some novelty fans at the first meeting so unless they are bankrolling it somehow this has Skegness written all over it and the sport was a lot healthier then

Northampton to withdraw from the league in June, saying just not enough fans supporting the venture

Redcar vs Diamonds Select - Tyne/Tees Trophy - Fri 20 March 2026 - 7.30pm

Speedway was a massive sport in my school even in the early 80s, we had a huge 15ft speedway painting on the wall above the science block that was painted by a pupil years before, 2 of my teachers were speedway fans, we had quite a few cycle speedway riders as pupils who raced for the Wednesfield aces and pretty much all of my mates rode it, although we had a couple of lads who dabbled in either speedway or Grasstrack I think I was the only one who went on to actually race it, we also had a few motox riders too,we also had a school classmate who went on to play basketball in America, his name was Spencer dunkley he went on to have quite the career over there ( Wikipedia’s has his career )though but on the whole I would say speedway was massive in my school and although I played football for the school I didn’t really notice that football was really big but maybe I was slightly blinkered by bikes and I have told this bit before but on my last school report it actually said Dean could do a lot better if he learnt that there is more to life than 2 wheels, oh how wrong they were 😂

Speedway was on prime time TV... England won lots of world titles... And, in Peter Collins they had a "Golden Boy' who was as recognised as much as Div One footballers.. Domestic Speedway lived off the back of what the World of Sport served up many Saturdays during the summer months... Domestic Speedway wasn't as quite as "Mickey Mouse" then, as it is now, (196 Guests last year in fhe top two leagues), but still had plenty of "nonsense" going on.. The huge difference being that you only found out when you were at the track that Larry Ross was guesting for PC who had a Long Track meeting in Germany the next day, whereas today you know the meeting in two days will be a "Guestfest" and the main crowd puller will be absent.. Add in the much greater percentage impact to disposable income that attending Speedway has nowadays due to "modern living" and there is no doubt what back then worked, doesn't now.. How is it fixed?.. Not a clue, but, one million percent, doing the same thing ad infinitum, like they do, definitely won't improve their lot...

I do get frustrated by the rhetoric continually posted on here. There’s a fallacy that things were different in speedways heyday and the problems blighting our sport are of the modern era. The other week I posted about the excessive use of guests on one Saturday night in ‘74 and the fact that most teams did NOT ride at the weekend, yet people will still point the finger as these being the failings of modern speedway Taking the now famous ‘73 KO Cup final as an example. Belle Vue used a guest and Reading ran R/R. The 2nd leg wasn’t run until the last week of the season, some 3 weeks after the 1st leg as due to the late running it was hit by the bad weather. Sounds familiar? Jim Mcmillian had been knocked out in an earlier round but enjoyed his “winners” medal as a guest for the Aces. We had been running a guest since June. The rules stated in the event of a draw it had to be re run but this was jettisoned in favour of a run off. All this was carried out on a cold Wednesday late October night. All those people who attended that night and in ‘74, ‘75, ‘76, 77 etc did not suddenly experience amnesia, they DECIDE not to attend. During its heyday we had ALL the ills currently affecting the sport, the big difference is that of the customers - they have changed massively and we need to find the holy grail to attract them back. The league is as meaningful as ever. The guests & R/R as prevalent as ever. The UK FIM golds are pretty much as regular as in our heyday. Our “gaters paradise” tracks are still here as they were back then, etc, etc. If we keep kidding ourselves that the sports ills are new then we will waste an awful lot of time and energy trying to fix the bits that are not the reason for our downfall. Speedway is primarily populated by old blokes who think the old days were better, but the reality is that’s not the case and it is to our peril that we get bogged down by this dogma instead of looking to the future and how we engage with modern customers in the modern era.

There are now more threads about the fixtures than there are confirmed fixtures

I've noticed for some considerable time now when posting a reply it takes an age to post, I am on desktop browser not sure if it's the same for phone users.