Vince

I rode at Peterborough the weekend on a flat track bike that is a lot more forgiving than a Speedway bike and if there had been a concrete start pad I would have put the bike back in the van before even starting it. You barely get the bike upright around there and the idea of the grip level changing back and forward just after and just before a corner is, quite frankly, completely nuts. Where you get the idea that flat track combines dirt and concrete I have no idea. No matter how smooth the lip there will be A: a huge difference in grip levels not only when racing but at sometime immediately after gating. Not so much of an issue (although as has been said there were issues) with a 40hp or less long wheelbase bike of the past but with nearly double the power output to deal with hugely dangerous today. B: because you get ripples and ruts in dirt surfaces there will be a lip in at least some spots. I have an idea you could strap a couple of pieces of shaped plywood to your arms and fly. Would you care to jump off a cliff to try it for me because I happen to think it's a good idea?

Going onto concrete from shale every lap and back again would just be stupidly dangerous especially on smaller tracks or those where the bikes aren't upright hardly at all.

He's British that's a fact, whether he sees the country he spent the majority of his life in as home is completely immaterial. He's qualified to ride for GB for which we should be very grateful as he's head and shoulders above anybody else who qualifies at this time. Not only that he's highly motivated to win and has the knowledge and drive to help the rest of the team do better so makes the perfect captain. I'm British and like many other countries, there's even some I could quite happily live in but I'd still be British. To me he seems less arrogant and more likeable since his success than he was in his younger days and there aren't many World class sportsmen who aren't exceedingly confident and who can come across as arrogant.

How could his father possibly know more than some random bloke behind a computer. Had a spell of being told what my lad was earning and where he was riding and strangely enough it never came from anybody who had any idea!

It's never going to be free, tracks, insurance, permits and first aid all cost money. Give the lad credit for trying to bring some extra experience to youngsters starting out their career. Tai was obviously taught well by his dad and seems like he would be able to pass his knowledge on. He is doing something positive but some people will never give him any credit, he's British and on top of the World so obviously many of his countrymen will be wanting to knock him down. It's nothing to compare with bringing over bikes and mechanics for two meetings where if he doesn't win he'll be accused of not giving 100% by the same posters anyway.

Norris and Parker would be heavily fined and quite possibly thrown out of the meetings these days. Nothing to do with riders only being interested in the pay check and everything to do with the rules.

Why is it that people can't like the positive side and enjoy Speedway without being accused of burying their head in the sand and thinking everything is brilliant? I still think Speedway is a fantastic sport and in the 45+ years I've been going believe the racing now is as good as it's ever been and the overall skill level of the riders better. That doesn't mean I think that nothing can be improved or that everything is wonderful. It does mean that I think way too many people have rose tinted spectacles about how good the racing was during their favourite era, which usually coincides with their first years of watching Speedway. The current crowd levels really don't help the atmosphere but I don't believe that's because of lack of effort or knowledge from the majority of promoters. I might think I know ways to improve things but like the majority on here I don't stand to lose a small fortune experimenting. The sport has major problems but none of the solutions are easy to identify or fund.

Watch it again and especially the view from behind and think about just how long he had to slow down or lay it down. There is not a man alive or any past rider who could've done either, you could put brakes on the bike and he wouldn't have had time to touch them. There are times you can lay a bike down quickly but you have to know it needs doing, he had probably less than half a second between seeing Dudek and hitting him. You don't get to Kildemands level without having laid a bike down to avoid accidents dozens of times and while it might be a good idea to demonstrate willingness to do so when starting out once any rider has got to PL standard or above he's going to be a lot better than somebody who did it once when waiting for the hanky to be waved.

Quite obvious that being able to use titanium has made the sport safer.

No power to driving wheel = not under power in anybodys language

How the hell can anybody say that Kildemand should have seen him? He has another rider directly between him and Dudek and is strangely looking left past the rider in front not right as that's the direction you turn on a Speedway track. Personally having been run into by men on motorcycles many times over the years I wouldn't be keen to shut off and hope it happened again as a racing tactic. It could bloody hurt! Of course the cause of the stoppage is Dudek's engine failure, if it hadn't happened there would have been nothing there for Kildemand to run into.

The very people in the most part who put in the money and the work to keep it going. You might not think they are doing it right but without them the sport wouldn't exist.

SWC my guess is his GP bikes. So now his equipment has to be driven from Sweden to a British qualifier, how much do you think that will cost? Far from a rubbish excuse for a professional rider it's the most sensible reason possible. Add in the possibility of injury riding in a qualifier immediately before a GP and I think he would be mad to do anything other than what he is doing. If it's so important for British Speedway to have the World Champion at the British final then perhaps it should be A: scheduled more sensibly in relation to the GP's and B: Have GP riders seeded direct to the final.

Bit different, he and his kit are already there!

Don't see the issue, he's World Champion and wants to stay that way and with the British Final requiring him to qualify and fly in and out especially for those meetings why should he risk it? Wasn't a fan of his in the early years and I'm sure he feels more Australian than British but in recent times he has done this country proud in the main. He certainly puts in the effort when riding for team GB and apart from the swearing episode last year has shown every sign of maturing and becoming a good spokesman for the sport. He also has become one of the best Speedway riders I've seen in 45 years of watching and has the potential to be the best, not to mention the money he has raised for charity. Seems a shame that so many will look past the achievements to do the very British thing of knocking any Brit who reaches the top.

Thousands of people like it and believe every word. Publicity like that where Speedway was seen as extremely dangerous would be the best coverage it's had on terrestrial TV in many years. Surely even if it makes Speedway fans laugh but appealed to people outside the sport it could only be a good thing. Doesn't get much more death defying than the TT at the speeds Guy Martin does!

Guy has ridden a flat track meeting at King's Lynn each of the past two years. First year he won the restricted class, last year just missed the pro final following a heat race fall if I remember rightly. Won the chopper class at the unique dirt quake event held the following day both years. Has got a sponsorship deal from the owners of Rye this year so guessing we will see him more often. As far as I have read he has elected to take part in a 24hour mountain bike race rather than the tt this year but will continue to ride motorcycles

Ken Fox has a long standing wall of death in the UK and uses Indian scouts. It's something I'd live to have a go at, especially on an Indian

4 bends, 2 corners I was always taught!

Does anybody really believe that an engine that has had the tolerances optimised and been assembled properly by a tuner is more fragile than one straight out of the Jawa factory? If so they'd be very wrong. I can see the benefits of trying to level the playing field and reduce costs but telling riders their current equipment is obsolete and putting them on factory built engines is unlikely to do either. For starters anybody who ever built a race motor of any sort will know that trying to get two engines to perform exactly the same is near impossible. Then you'll have what happens in other sports where engines are sealed, those with the money buy lots of engines and select the best after dyno testing them. I knew a British Kart champion who threw obscene amounts of money doing that to win a 'standardised' championship. I only see two logical ways of achieving these aims. One is to introduce a rev limiter, minimum flywheel weight and standardised ancillaries like clutch and carb. That should, for a while at least increase reliability and reduce costs, especially if the rev limit were reduced year on year to a specified level. Second possibility is a claiming rule where any rider can buy another riders engine for £X at the end of a meeting. Nobody is then going to spend too near that figure on engines, again that would have to be introduced in increments.

I can see many not being able to afford to stay!

This program came out today about the Supercross season. I found it interesting throughout but the relevant part about the way they train and practice is from about 9 minutes in to 25 minutes.

What a load of rubbish!! Brendan was at the practice last Sunday and looked to be going pretty well. The track cut up later and he had a spill on the second bend, no big deal just a normal, run of the mill practice spill. The whole unable to slide bit is a figment of yours or somebody else's imagination and had no place in a sensible conversation.

I think Speedway is a bit like Golf in so far as it is a very simple sport and tiny adjustments in technique can make quite a difference in performance. In my opinion many riders could benefit from somebody who analysed the sport in depth and then coached a technique based on that. At the moment in the USA there is an ex pro cyclist, Aldon Baker, training top class Motocross/ Supercross riders and his results have been amazing. Much of that is about his fitness regime but he also teaches riding technique and how to practice but as far as I know has never ridden a MX meeting.