Vince

F1 isn't very similar at all to Speedway, the aims and way you get to them aren't in any way comparable. The drivers however will have all been at the top in at least one tightly restricted class on their way to their current seat. Speedway engines are rarely built or set up to make maximum power, it is far more about the rider finding something that works for him. The top riders all have that, the very best are able to make small adjustments that suit the conditions better on the night. I do no believe that Tai won the World Championship because his engines were superior on 16 different track but because he was the rider able to get the best out of his bikes throughout the series, he rarely made the wrong choice of where to go in a race either. As one who didn't think he should have been in the series at the beginning of last year I had to eat my words because he was brilliant at every aspect of his job in the GP's and totally deserved his championship.

Doesn't matter how much money I had, if I buy Tai's engines I would be worse off than on a standard motor because I don't have the skills to make use of them. Everybody in the GP's has the opportunity to build the engines they want and Tai looking like he had a really quick engine at times will be much more down to getting the set up right than the basic engine.

If your son is grown up enough to be riding league Speedway he is old enough to fight his own battles. That said the only battles he should ever have to fight should be against other riders. My opinion always has been that riders will have spats and maybe throw a few punches and the refs shouldn't come down too hard on that but anybody except another rider who hits a rider should be banned from the pits or trackside for ever.

How do you? For sure everybody does make a mistake now and again or does something daft, ride over your head all the time and you won't be around long enough to worry other riders. To my way of thinking if your main concern is whether somebody else might hurt you then you have reached the time to give away racing any sort of motorcycle. The first day I go to a meeting and worry about getting hurt will be my last race meeting.

I'm worrying that Speedway as it stands isn't sustainable on those crowd levels. Either the costs need to be lowered or the crowds increased. If you are going to use comparisons then they need to be genuinely relevant and that means events that happen weekly or more often otherwise expectations of revised marketing strategies are unrealistic.

I think if you pull out of a meeting because you are worried about the way others are riding you need to find a different sport.

To be honest, sat here doing the figures off the top of my head I think my maths might be a bit awry but as I am only guessing numbers anyway and have deliberately stayed on the conservative side I suspect it's not a million miles out and the total figures including NL would be getting toward the half million. No idea whatever on the make up of the crowd and as I was only making a comparison to overall figures for darts and cricket it's irrelevant anyway. No surprise that Speedway is comparable to non league Football for me, suspect most of the riders wish the net pay was as well.

Sounds impressive. lets assume an average of 800 for EL matches and 600 for PL and completely forget NL. Speedway pulls in 466,000 spectators to league matches compared to one of the fastest growing sports 120,000. Speedway sells over 40,000 tickets for just the one day British round of it's World Championship compared to the same sort of figure for 15 days for one of the fastest growing sports. 20/20 cricket pulls in roughly 50% more spectators despite the huge advantage of a mainstream press that thinks there are only 3 sports and a population bought up playing Football and Cricket from an early age. Those of us old enough to remember the late 70's and early 80's will remember when Darts was far bigger than it is now with the likes of Bristow and Lowe being as famous as Briggo and Mauger were in Speedways boom times. I'm not doubting the success that has been made of promoting either Darts or 20/20 Cricket but equally Speedway tracks that run every week cannot ever expect the same success from a marketing strategy. Sidney, we'll just have to disagree on that one, I watched most of my Speedway in the late 60's and all through the 70's and every time I see the lads ride today I am impressed with the speed and commitment. I saw some great Speedway in the good old days but I also saw some terrible meetings, much like now really!

I couldn't disagree more if you look at Speedway without the rosy tint of nostalgia I firmly believe the racing is at least as good and probably better. The atmosphere at 20/20 and darts might well be good, run the same events in the same place every week and see how long that lasts. Again the comparison is with relatively rare events and just how many people pay to watch darts in a season? I've no idea but would suspect Speedway does well in comparison. Rugby and 20/20 are a fairer comparison but with the cricket at least it's done little for gates at ordinary league matches as far as I am aware. Rugby has done a terrific job of re-marketing itself but I think has already passed it's peak since then and it's another sport like Speedway that has peaks and troughs of popularity.

Done and posted on Facebook and other forums, the more the merrier for this one.

If you can prove that a complainant has lied which appears to be the case here you can have all their comments and complaints removed from future planning consultations.

The thing is that said Promoter has enough business sense to be able to lose £100,000 per year to his sport/ hobby. I find it difficult to believe that most Speedway promoters do a good job of running many different kinds of business and yet are incapable of making the best of Speedway. The running of the sport is actually already in the hands of people with excellent business heads, granted it might not seem like that at times but it's a fact. Without 'hobby' promoters the sport, like a great many others, would have disappeared by now. Very easy to sit back and say what needs to be done when the vast majority on here have absolutely no idea at all of the figures involved. The majority of our suggestions are based on complete guesswork and while I agree that those running the sport would be foolish to completely ignore them we would be equally foolish to assume we know the answers when we don't even know half the questions.

I know it'll be shouted down but I don't think there is actually much wrong with Speedway as far as getting people watching it! I know it could be improved in countless ways and things like stadium improvements may help people who go once to return or sporadic visitors become more regular. Tinkering with the rules, tacticals etc may infuriate the fans but don't really keep hardly anybody away. Same with having the top stars riding, only really matters to those already involved in the sport. Crowd levels could be slightly improved by these sorts of measures but there is plenty of evidence from new promotions that it doesn't bring the crowds flooding back. My reasoning is simply that times have changed and Speedway as it is now is probably how it will trundle along much as it is for years to come with small bursts of popularity and longer spells of struggling. Pretty much like it has since it's inception really. These days there are literally thousands of forms of entertainment available, most of it without walking outside of your door. To get people out of that door takes either a really major event or needs to be on the doorstep. Major motorsport events like F1, Cardiff SGP, MotoGP and World Superbikes take place once a year in the UK and draw excellent crowds, you can never replicate that atmosphere of generate that excitement on a weekly basis (except in Football to some extent). Other stuff like British Touring Cars or British Suoerbikes also pull good crowds but still only run a relatively few events. The vast majority of Motor racing, most sport in fact takes place in front of one man and his dog. Compare Speedway to club Road Racing or Karting and it does very well, especially considering many of the meetings take place midweek when it is difficult for anybody to get good numbers through the door. There are many sports that can point back to crowd levels that were massively larger than they are today but like Speedway they would be foolish to expect a return to those levels. Speedway tends to be a weekly event while even Football is generally bi-weekly and has the massive advantage of being instilled into youngsters pretty much from birth. It is impractical to have all meetings on a single night in any division as most clubs don't own their stadium. Personally I think there is merit in clubs running a small number of EL meetings and filling the fixtures with NL meetings that are very much cheaper to run. Finally though I have long been in favour of advertising Speedway as an extreme sport and emphasising the mad, bad and dangerous angle I don't think it would do very much more than generate on of those relatively brief spells of popularity and then only if done really well. Making the sport fit into realistic expectations and trying to keep the fans you have and make small improvements in crowd levels over time is the way forward in my opinion.

Personally I would modify that so that once over the line they would have 30 seconds to prep their gate and once they are positioned by the start marshall any backward movement would result in an exclusion.

I'd have thought the best financial pay out in Speedway would be the year you are World Champion with increased exposure comes better sponsorship and a little more money in every race from every club you ride for.

A good friend of mine is selling his short stroke GM in a Nutrak chassis that will also come with a Blixt carb and DEP silencer. This is a really good, clean bike and the engine has only done 4 (gentle!) rides since servicing. Complete with sprockets and bits and pieces. PM me if you're interested.

Seems like the racing made for great spectating yesterday with the British Championship being decided by a collision between the contenders on the penultimate lap, the little I saw of the racing was excellent and there was no risk that spectators wouldn't have enjoyed themselves.

Have a look at F2 Speedway

A good practice session today, the Neave brothers were at it like a World Championship depended on every session so I think there will be some fireworks between them and the rest of the top half dozen in the country tomorrow. Quite a few French lads over as well showing excellent dress sense allied to complete madness whenever they get near a bike :-) Should be a good day of racing and if you only come to the afternoon event should move at a good pace with only 3 groups racing. Had quite a long chat with Len today and those who think he's losing his marbles should be looking in the mirror first, the old boy might not do things the way some want him to but he certainly has all his faculties.

Definitely still growing in this country with record entries this year. The top two in the British Championship also get to race in the Super Prestigio event in Spain against Marquez and some other Moto GP riders as well as some good Americans, last year the AMA Champion Brad Baker was the event winner. There is a training camp being run in Spain later this year by Kenny Noyes, this year with help from top American Sammy Halbert who is also attending the DTRA awards evening. Aidan Collins recently won the latest round of the European Championships and is generally accepted to be the best rider in Europe although he is now being challenged hard by some of the younger British riders. The standard seems to be rising rapidly in this country and it is becoming one of the favourite training techniques for the Worlds best Road Racers. How long or whether it will catch on as a spectator sport in this country I don't really know but at its best it can be great to watch.

The final round of the British Short Track Championship will take place at Rye House on Sunday 21st September with the titles still to be decided in most classes including the Pro class. The meeting is split into two parts with the Youth, Minibike, Vintage and Rookie classes being run from 10.30 and the Restricted, Thunderbike and Pro classes following on at about 2pm. Rye House really suits our bikes and with so much to play for and 12 riders per race there should be plenty of thrills and spills and it's free to spectate!

If Dean is in no position to judge who should or shouldn't be in the pits because he hasn't been World Champion then you are in no position to judge Dean as I'm assuming you never got to his level as a rider!!

For what it's worth I thought the ref was in an impossible position having to exclude either Pedersen or Batchelor. I don't think either of them actually did anything wrong at all, Batchelor went to the fence and started to turn back in before Pedersen got there and Pedersen went for a legitimate gap. Just one of those racing incidents that should really be all 4 back imo.

I can't see Poole could really sack him when he was available to ride and had yet to actually be found guilty of anything. Doesn't appear to be any reason why the FIM didn't issue an automatic suspension until his hearing immediately he failed the test. That seems to be what other sports do, then again they probably have a lot more confidence in their testing procedures. Poole knew he was unlikely to be available so they are mad if they haven't spent their time preparing a replacement.

Strange how we all see different things in a rider. For me while Ward has fantastic balance and immense talent on a bike it's his racing brain that has yet to develop, at the highest level he makes more mistakes and bad choices than some of the other top riders. If he sorts his life and attitude out then he has a chance of learning those skills and being an all time great, personally I'm not convinced he will. The revelation of the past couple of seasons has been Woffinden who has developed the knack of putting himself in the right place at the right time more than just about any other rider I have ever seen. A few years back I could see a very good rider but never expected him to reach the level he has now. In contrast to Ward he has got himself on track to be one of the best ever in my opinion. As for punishment I think a fairly short ban and having to go through the qualifiers would be fair.