Vince

Can confirm the following for the Dragons with more to be added: Bank Holiday Monday May 26th at Newport Bank Holiday Monday August 25th at Newport Sunday September 21st at Newport. Thanks for taking the calender over, it must be very useful to the riders - I only wish somebody had thought of it a few years back :-)

Have to say that Sam was very lucky with the timing when he started Speedway. Firstly he first rode in September so then had a few months of regular training schools to go to (although it still meant driving a lot of miles). Then in 2004 there were enough riders about to give a good quality, year long U15 Championship that helped all the lads no end. However I should point out that we had to push pretty hard to get him into the Championship as he had done no competitive racing for anybody to know who he was. I accepted all along that it was up to us to chase for rides though as clearly it isn't going to be the other way round when they are new to the sport. Also he was 15 in the April and so able to go into the CL, which was a fair bit easier than it is now. Yet again we looked about at the different teams and which one would be most likely to give him a decent go. We then went and asked the Promoter for a place for Sam. It seems that so many people sit back waiting for the Speedway authorities or teams to contact them. The fact is that breaking into Speedway is difficult, invariably the costs and time needed for travelling make life hard and in my experience it gets harder as they go up the leagues. You will always need to chase after rides (or at least if or until you are in demand by teams). Second halfs are a pain with cancellations and one quick ride, they pretty much always have been. Personally and with the benefit of hindsight if I had a kid of 13 or under wanting to ride Speedway I would take him Grass Tracking instead. I would keep doing that until the winter when he was 14 when a cheap bike and Speedway training schools were a bit more available. Of course if money is no problem they can do both all along. I would also do everything I could to get some interaction between every Grass track club and the closest Speedway club. If the BSPA could use Grass Track as a breeding ground for the future perhaps they could be convinced to help the clubs with meetings, training etc. This in turn would hopefully see an increase in entries at Grass Tracks and an increase of riders progressing to Speedway. It's not a short term answer but at least it could be something practical to work towards. As for why the kids aren't coming through, the alternatives are so much easier. I can buy a MX bike for a similar amount to a decent Speedway bike. Then without ever travelling for more than an hour I can practice or race every weekend and some weekdays. I can get several hours of on-bike time for about £20 and ride if and when i want to. Or I could buy a Trials bike, practice all day for nothing and spend £100 a year on maintenance. Really it is more amazing that anybody commits to Speedway

Surely there are nowhere near enough riders to make splitting them into four groups possible. There aren't even enough for two sensible sized groups this year it would seem.

I don't think it is quite as simple as some of you seem to believe. For sure Motocross tracks are run in a farmers field but they are temporary so don't need planning permission if the site is only used a few times a year. I don't know what the current rate is but about 5 years ago it was around £500 for the day. As soon as you bring shale in you will need to get planning permission - you can expect that to take over a year and cost a few quid as well. Then in order to comply with the insurance conditions you will need a safety fence that complies with the regulations - another fair chunk of cash. Don't forget you will then need first aid cover at every training day and there will be lots more conditions laid down by the insurers. Insurance can be a major issue with new ventures expected to lay out the full years premium in advance. Motocross practice tracks find it worthwhile doing all this because a decent track will get 50 people on a bad day and maybe 300 on a good one. I know of a Speedway training day recently that had less than a half dozen riders and 50 would be a fantastic day. I think the only practical way would be to try and get one track each in North, South, East and West if possible that has suitable planning permission in place and find a way to finance a practice track within each place that could be open two or three days a week. Failing that another option might be to push Grasstrack as training for Speedway as you could then run the temporary tracks in farmers fields with a lot less outlay. You would still be looking at several thousands of pounds investment though.

I have ridden a 500 many times - none of them fast - and even a 250 Grass bike on the Speedway. In my opinion an excess of power is very rarely a problem, in fact it generally makes the bikes safer as when they are spinning too much they stay away from the fence. Again it is only my opinion but things start to go wrong with 500's when dad starts trying to get the bike to drive harder than junior can cope with. Already we are seeing very inexperienced riders with the new style back ends and the wheel shunted right forwards, then the timing is knocked back and low tyre pressures used. Additionally they may well be using an engine set up for a professional rider on slick tracks and you have the perfect recipe for a rider picking up and heading toward the fence at every small mistake. Possibly the 250's will give them a head start when it comes to using professional type set ups but I think they may well be a problem on bigger tracks for the same reason a 'soft' 500 can be. Personally I am glad that Sam was able to start on a 500 that was always left set up long and sharp (and still is in the main) so that he has to use throttle control to find drive. When he gets into trouble there is a good chance that a big handful of throttle will get him off the lowside.

Trouble is that if there isn't a CL match the Mavericks riders usually want a ride and by the time they have had a go all the track staff and first aid are ready to go home.

Ah but it's not so easy to find a proper bike these days, seems like every one you look at the engine is hanging out the front!

You need to talk to Peter Oakes. If you phone the SCB I am sure they will sort you out with contact details.

I thought it was quite an enjoyable meeting. There seems to be a larger range of ages and abilities than in previous years but while the gap between the top and bottom is bigger it seems that they break down into groups so that everybody has some competition (not sure that makes sense but I know what I mean!). Plenty of evidence that those starting in Grass track seem to have a better understanding and a head start on the others and that nothing brings the lads on like plenty of time on the bike. Christophers Dad left the 'kennel end' of the stand as if a Ginsters truck had arrived the other side of the pits when he was pointed out to the locals Enjoyed helping young Chris, seems he will listen to anybody except his dad which shows an amazing amount of common sense for one so young

Look on the bright side Pat, he's only 12 now and things will get far, far worse over the next few years before they start to get better

Put me down for the minority vote - I think that Nichols was going a lot faster than Zagar and reasonably expected him to take the wider normal line. Undoubtedly Zagar was hit hard enough to cause him to fall but it is difficult to see how Nichols could have avoided it. The Pederson / Iverson incident was one of those 50/50 jobs that could have gone either way and may be an argument for Refs not being forced to exclude a rider in all cases after the first corner. The race to the line was impossible to call from what I saw on the TV although my first reaction was that Bjarne had got there first I did have my doubts when I saw the replay.

Just spoken to Pat and Chris Bint has knackered his achiles tendon and is in plaster. Sounds a horrible injury but he's young and will heal quickly. Best of luck to Chris, Brendan and Jack and hope you are all racing again soon.

Be interesting to see how they enforce that, a lighter rod is going to require a strip down to check. Or how about honing and polishing standard items? Always very difficult to enforce such rules although the idea is good.

Scroll down this page and you can see that at least one tuner has already started working on them. Pretty good power for a 250 four stroke that has some torque as well.

The SCB handbook states the following (good news for Scatygirl I think) New Youth applications must be supported by an endorsement from an SCB Training Instructor while applications to upgrade must be made by a Parent/Guardian endorsed by an SCB Training Instructor and the GB U-21 Manager. No Youth will be registered to ride a 500cc until they are 14 years of age and successfully undertaken a formal competency test.

I have ridden most of the Motocross 250 four strokes and can't imagine any of them having enough flywheel weight for Speedway. I can imagine they are fine for Grass Track but they are pretty peaky and the fact that they race against 125cc 2 strokes gives some idea of the type of power they produce. I would assume that the use of a homologated engine in competition is to try and create a level playing field for all riders and can see how that would be a good thing. Seems like a good idea but all put into action in too much of a rush.

80cc bikes are only any good on suitable tracks - which we don't have over here. Apparently the parts needed to convert a 500 to 250 are too expensive to make it worthwhile. However a 350 can be converted reasonably easily and there should be a few cheap 350 engines about from the grass track. It means relocating the crankpin - which has also to be stepped and re-sleeving the barrel. Not a 5 minute do it yourself job but I would have thought a whole lot cheaper than a new 250.

I have everything except the result of the final round at Mildenhall. May 3rd Weymouth: J Auty, S Waldron, S Campos May 8th Armadale: S Waldron, S Lambert, K Hughes. June 6th Sittingbourne: S Lambert, J Auty, G Cottham. July 4th Buxton: J Auty, 2nd = S Waldron & S Lambert. Sept 6th Sheffield: J Auty, 2nd = G Cottham & M Bates. Sept 19th Carmarthen: S Waldron,J Auty, 3rd = S Lambert & G Cottham. Oct 3rd Mildenhall: Final top 3 J Auty, S Waldron, S Lambert.

Tim would have started the meeting early if need be but as I say that would take it into the new season which wouldn't be very satisfactory. Brighton might not be the ideal as it is a bit of a novelty track but it does put the lads in front of a good size audience and get the meetings completed. At the end of the day it is a good compromise solution. Couldn't run at a training day as they wanted it run alongside a SCB / BSPA authorised meeting, that's why it didn't run at Newport with the STRA. No problems with charging admission to a training day but you aren't allowed to charge for the U15 meetings.

I think it has to be run in conjunction with a BSPA regulated meeting. Next chance at Newport would have been the Classic but I guess that would then be 2006.

Seems he won't need another operation. He now has six weeks in plaster and another two in a more flexible support. The Doc reckons 4 to 5 months to be OK but Sam said that actually means two and a half to three months. I won't let him do anything too silly though. Once he is out of the cast I will take him up to Brian Simpson and follow his recomendations. Pictures of his war wounds and x-ray here Thanks Mark and Sam, seems minor compared to your injury from last year. I'm sure I can find enough tape even for a gob that size Stressed! Jamie - you should kick him when you next see him, he's been no help to you whatever in this Academy League

Sam's finally had the op and is now home. They put two screws in the tibia which are fine but they think the screw they put in the fibula might need re-doing but we won't know until Monday. Sam is in good spirits though and still says he will be riding by Christmas.

Operation was postponed last night and is now due later today.

Sam said thanks to everybody for the concern and to Brendan for the offer of the frame but he thinks Nu-Trak will sort him out. He was eventually transferred to Southampton, arriving about midnight last night and is waiting to go down for the operation now. Apparently both tibia and fibula are broken and it is all pretty unstable so will be held together with a mixture of plates, wires and screws. Sam is in good spirits and says he will be riding again before Christmas.

Just popped in home to drop the sponsors off. Sam is in hospital at Stockport and they are planning on operating in the morning to put some screws in a fractured tibia. We tried to bring him home and will try again tomorrow to get him back to a local hospital for the operation. Shouldn't be too bad anyway and Sam is already itching to ride again. The ambulancemen reckon he has an exceptionally high pain threshold, and seeing what he was like at the track today I can believe it.