Leaderboard

Who is the ref? How on earth can you exclude Bowes for taking avoiding action, Kerr wasn’t even under power.

At the end of it all, I`m just delighted that Berwick are continuing their fine tradition of having a centre green presenter who think and believe that they are the star of the show and see the racing as an annoying interruption to their pearls of wisdom.

Will Cairns in the BSN booth after winning heat two: ”Aiming for a maximum tonight”. Next two races: 0,0.😂

Green light given, so first home meeting will be on Thursday. Hope it’s a massive success for all involved

NKI another rider that raced last night but won't be Thursday,, Paco Sunday but not Monday

Wrong call imo, Joe started the season well, Gilkes hasn’t really impressed much when he’s not watching from the sidelines and I’m sure it’ll be a matter of time before he’s back on them.

All I can say is that Lynn's win the other night very much meant something to me and many people standing around me, there was lots of jumping around and shouting especially during heats 2, 4, 14 and 15. Proper emotion and joy. I'm still hoarse.

I don't think it is a tricky position, Gilkes for Bowes seems the obvious choice

So it will be 396 metres for Dan Bewley then! 😜

That’s outstanding from Lawson.

Bowes what an inspired signing 😜

It says on the clubs official site that nils is awaiting medical clearance to fly as he has been sidelined by a punctured lung. think it’s unfair to question his commitment under these circumstances. Article also says if he gets the all clear, he hopes to be riding in both of Mondays matches personally, I am glad he is doing some meetings to get sharp snd , match fit

That's the worst of having a guest thats involved in the same competition not great it is what it is

Was he replaced by Stephen "Bomber" Curry?

Any local fans that attended between 1954 & 1967 will be au fait with guests as they were utilised long before Brafield opened the first time. Nobody seemed to bother back then though I did dig up an old correspondence to the old Speedway Star & News from Ted Valentine in Manchester…. “Having taken my young grandson to the speedway recently I just want to comment on the overuse of guest riders. It makes a mockery of the sport and takes away any sense of jeopardy and meaning for an old timer like me. Luckily young Mike Bernard Valentine loves it and I very much doubt that 50 years from now he’ll have such concerns with our sport that I can only see it going from strength to strength following the announcement of the forthcoming Shawcross report.” I wonder what Mike is up to now.

So roughly the same size as the old Foxhall track before the changes. Not quite the juggernaut everyone was describing 😂

Personally I'd keep Newman & drop Bowes if they want to bring Gilkes back.

Strange call running a guest for their opening night.... I suppose it does get "newbies" used to it "early doors"... I would have thought RR would have been the choice given four of their riders would get more track time, and money.... Let's hope Kyle doesn't become the match winner, as he would become the Northampton fans' first hero!!!....

Download the Amazon Silk browser, then search for it on that, it works fine.

That's the rarity factor kicking in

You mean mummy and daddy are covering the costs like they have his whole career.

24 years ago... You had Sky Sports coverage, usually a match per week, and around a million quid put into the league a season by them.. Meaning Sky Sports News showed highlights on top of the live action, which was often on SS1.... The largest Sports Channel on the planet even sponsored the league via their Skybet arm... You also had (apart from Mr T Gollob), the worlds best 20 or so riders riding over here... Riding on nights that clubs could engage their largest crowds. which meant Wednesday racing, Friday racing, and Saturday racing in the Elite League... A very different offering than what we have today...

Ticket 00001... I hope you get some kind of award or golden ticket?

Yes, he does, I visited him last week with three friends. When you get to the front door you have to lean across some stretched elastic to press the door bell. As the door opens, the elastic shoots up you walk under it and he welcomes you inside. Unfortunately we all tried to get through the door at the same time and fell over. He sent us back out again for another go.

Cooper on it tonight. This lad is class. Better than Cairns

A very good and brave post from Ben Barker. However, the history of this country in recent years has been the complete refusal to take responsibility by public bodies for their action. Hillsborough, the tainted blood scandal, the Post Office scandal and the grooming gangs show that those in positions of responsibility persistently refuse to acknowledge their errors. So I won't be holding my breath for Godfrey to step down or be sacked.

We're on, then! It's hard to predict anything with a brand new track but a home victory would (of course) be nice! Teams as per Ipswich social media:

Got to get rid of Bowes and bring Gilkes back. Have Gilkes at 4 with Lewi and when Cooper hits his proper average you can partner him with Lewi. 1 Lawson 2 Gilkes/Newman 3 Kerr 4 Rushen 5 Cook 6 Cairns 7 Newman/Gilkes Don't need Bowes.

He is and he’s the reason why Poole will clean up this year.

Said it when he signed and I’ll say it again now, Bowes was an awful signing by Poole and very unlike Poole signing. As he’s not very good. May have the odd good meeting but not what riding for Poole is about.

Indeed - I even went on GoogleMaps and did a rough measure of the inside line, which was about 300m, so 310m must be it. No idea why Brafield is given as 396m ... the tarmac track at Foxhall is listed as 385m, which must be the inside line.

Just top up money when they feel like it .Nothing new nowadays nobody really cares.

I'd have stuck with Joe, see if Dan impresses at Poole first.

It's almost like some riders don't take UK Speedway seriously.... Still... Just as long as they can "bob over" now and again, as and when they can, and honour us with their presence, we will welcome them back with open arms, and it all will be OK.... Have the Northampton Promoters done a "Welcome to UK Speedway" pack for the first time visitors?..

Given thel lack of fixtures you would think they could do better in arranging UK fixtures.

Dan was one of the riders that visited the local schools pre-season, along with Zach, Cooper and Will, so for that alone he deserves his chance.

Disappointing as it was the low amount of available riders (we weren’t into the idea of a seasoned campaigner like Jake in a development team) and the fact Buxton opened up only 20 miles away meaning we really didn’t want to draw any kind of development league attendance from them. Bigger picture thinking that’s sadly lost on most within the sport, both on and off the track. I wish ALL tracks had shown the same level of involvement as Belle Vue with regards junior speedway, just think where we could have been then. It won’t see the end of our wonderful involvement in rider development and hopefully we’ll see yet more FIM medals coming our way.

Think you’re missing the point, he wouldn’t be anywhere near where he is, including this pick he’s got if it wasn’t for the family cash/sponsorship of team GB.

Given his age what do you suggest he should have previously done, clean chimneys?

Said the same earlier on 😉

Does the digits mean they are expecting to sell 10000?

That shouldn’t be the case, but you may be right!

Leicester only has 1 match in the next couple of weeks

Well. You're screwed.

Joe earns enough to buy his own decent engine

Maybe the cairns family are sponsoring team GB 🤔 so son gets a team place !! Happens for a certain team manager 😜

Wasn’t sure if an under 21 rider was compulsory or not. Now I know for certain it’s not Cairns is a truly awful pick. Never mind a starting spot shouldn’t even be in the squad. GB management politically picking as usual rather than based on Skill. Would love to hear from them as to why he’s been included ahead of riders with double his current ability.

The GB management may be great at boot camps and PR but they are notoriously rubbish at tactical thinking.

An interesting take on circuits from Dan in this week’s Star. It’s good to hear an informed opinion from one of the most skilful & adaptable riders currently in action. Here’s what the world number 3 had to say. "We will see what happens with the new promoter," Bewley said. "But I would love to see more temporary tracks and have that bit of guesswork again, where no-one has an advantage." Someone who hasn't ridden a bike might also notice the lack of small tracks on the calendar and suggest this is also to the detriment of a championship largely raced on high-speed Eastern European ovals. Bewley has a very different take and insists the circuits are more varied than meets the eye. He said: "When it comes to tracks like Lodz and Gorzow before it, or even Torun, the closest track to those in Britain is probably Leicester. You actually really have to turn the bike a lot on those tracks. "People have this conception that all the Polish tracks are big and easy and you just ride around in a circle. It's really not very accurate. We go to Landshut and we're doing 80mph at the end of the straight but then we are under the bars to try and turn it. "All the tracks we ride have slightly different material. You could argue Belle Vue and Wroclaw are the same track but they are actually completely different with the material. There is a big difference between them. I actually think there is quite a variety between all the tracks now." In the 2000s, it was often widely assumed that Polish riders struggled to adapt to Britain's tight and technical tracks. But a new age of purpose-built speedway stadiums such as Torun, Gorzow and Lodz seems to have given those competing in Poland a more technical grounding. "Gorzow is more technical than Wolverhampton used to be, for example," Bewley said. "Wolves wasn't very difficult. People thought that I couldn't ride it. The difference was I wasn't very good off the start back then. I could easily ride it. The track was really not that difficult."If anything, Gorzow is probably a lot harder than most British tracks to ride. I know we're not going there for SGP this year but it's a real track. "The track in Lodz is a little bit like Eastbourne was - just a bigger version of it. It's similar in a way. The kerbs are a bit funky.If you put a third on to the size of Eastbourne, it probably wouldn't be far off this. A lot of tracks in Europe are more technical than people think." Bewley seems pretty adaptable wherever he goes, as a SP bronze medal in 2025 suggests. A famous win at Manchester's first event, coupled with second spot in Landshut, third places in Gorzow, Malilla and Wroclaw, and fourth at the finale in Vojens, earned him a first-ever podium.