Vince

You would if you had a job that required you to travel the mileages that Speedway riders do. The company I work for pay 40p for a car and that is considered a bit tight by some of our staff.

With regard to 80cc bikes in Denmark at least I think you will find that the tracks are specially built very small to suit the bikes. According to Kristian Lund you can also go and practice on most of the tracks 7 days a week at a cost of about £8 a day. With the current facilities in this country that would be an impossibility and I just don't think there is potential for investment to build relatively expensive Speedway tracks. This is why I think practice Grass tracks could be the way to go, small bikes on cheap tracks that can be set up within other motorcycle facilities quickly and easily. By the time the kids graduate to Speedway they already have enough experience to be in control of a more powerful bike. It might not be the ideal situation but I think it is fairly practical.

Maybe the answer is to invest in youth Grass track rather than Speedway. The infrastructure for an amatuer sport covered by insurance is already in place and tracks are cheaply and quickly built. If a link could be forged so that each club had weekly access to a practice track (maybe try and combine with MX practice tracks which are plentiful) then the kids would have opportunities to both practice and compete on a regular basis. They could then automatically qualify for a 500 Speedway licence at, for arguments sake 14 if they have held a grass track licence for 2 years. This would enable one year of practice before entering the CL. We found there were plenty of practice tracks open in the off-season but less so in the season. If I had known Sam might develop an interest in Speedway I would certainly have taken him via Grass track rather than Motocross. I'm not so sure that 80's or 125's are the answer on Speedway unless you have tracks built especially for them (i.e. very small) where on the Grass track the kids can ride smaller bikes to learn the basics no matter the track size.

It's certain that Sam won't be there now I believe Tim Webster will be taking his place with Shane Waldren at 1. Don't underestimate Shane, although he has been out for a long while he should still be able to give a good account of himself.

First I have heard of this meeting - I have agreed to work Friday night and probably won't be able to get Sam there. Will have to find out in the morning and talk to Peter but I have to say Sam is doubtful. Tim, you ought to enter that crash photo from Newport into the forum photo competition.

Depends when you bought them, just about nobody knew about the yellow covers until after the start of this season. The first couple of meetings we did we all thought it was a silly rumour, then we found out it was just silly! I know for sure that includes Max (Pegasus) as I told him after the season had started. Max will also sell you a single yellow cover.

Carp, you are right, it is clearly stated in the rule book. However I think that many of us feel that there are more important things to worry about. There was absolutely no benefit to riders or spectators in enforcing the rule. How the hell can you threaten to fine a rider who isn't being paid? As Morganbike says at Poole they were warned for using green (as per the rules). Sometimes it seems that the refs need to be issued with a rule book as well!

There is a very good reason for them being fussy about helmet colours. If you are in the pits pratting about with helmets you can't be watching the crap decisions they make about less important things like racing and safety

Can't email as i am at work but if you haven't sorted anything by Saturday give me a call on 07808 568717 and I will bring one along to borrow for the meeting.

Sean may well have offered advice to several of the lads but as far as I could see most of his time was spent with Josh.

I'm not so sure that it is as silly as it first sounds. With modern power outputs and tyre technology it must be possible to find a combination that would make broadsiding quicker than 2 wheeling round. The main problem that I can foresee is making a track that has more than one line but with careful attention to the camber I reckon that would also be possible. Maybe there is some sort of coating that could be applied that would offer more grip in certain areas of the track or different types of tarmac could be used to the same effect. The only trouble is that it could take years of experimentation to get it working.

You got any idea how hard it is to work on a bike without bending over Maybe Dan Greenwood is replacing Chris then. You'll be fine Jamie - bit like Reading TT.

Just realised that Lewis Bridger, George Piper and Monkeyboy are all in the same team at their home track (well, as near to a home track as they get). I think Sam is the only one that has any real experience of the track on the other team - and if he does the same as at Poole on Wednesday he won't be any help

Monkeyboy, I am going to have to give you a slap, I am just sat here typing the list out and then I see you have already done it Last I knew James Humby was still having trouble with his shoulder and I know Dan Greenwoods dad said on the other post that he is guesting but he doesn't know who for. Sam and Lewis are going to be busy as they are both riding in the CL match first.

Or as Matt's mum said - "well he cracked a vertabrae" Matt rode very well, especially since he has only had a couple of rides since his injury. To be fair though people only tend to post about the people that they know or support. And the fastest rider on the night was Lewis so it's only fair that he get's the lions share of the attention. Sam had a nightmare, 1 crash (which isn't unusual) and 2 breakdowns (which is this year), he was really looking forward to riding at Poole but it rapidly became a night to forget. A lot of bike problems spoiled the Academy match but it was still a good night and let people see that there is some British potential for the future.

Yes, Sam is guesting in place of Kyle Hughes. The Belle Vue list is out of date though as Sam isn't able to ride at that one.

There are 3 Academy meetings due next week. Belle Vue on Mon 1st Poole on Weds 3rd Weymouth on Friday 5th As for who is available to ride where I don't really know. The only ones I do know for sure is Jamie Sealey is at Belle Vue and Weymouth. Matt Bates is at Poole and Sam Hurst is at Poole and Weymouth. I think Lewis Bridger and George Piper are at both Poole and Weymouth. Kyle Hughes is unable to ride at Poole.

I believe the Academy meeting at Scunthorpe has been postponed / cancelled because of unavailability of riders. If you look here you will see why I think this. Generally speaking I think the Academy league will be a good thing for the youngsters, those not old enough to ride in the Conference will get an idea of where they will have to be in the future and it is a chance to ride at different tracks with the atmosphere of a meeting. For those in the Conference (apart from a couple who are doing really well) it will be a chance to boost their confidence by riding against people of their own age and experience. I also think a great many spectators will be shocked when they see the standard of some of the kids.

To be fair it seems that James is injured and Sam has a meeting for the Mavericks. Since the Academy league first came up we have said that Sam was unable to commit to the series but would ride if he was needed and available. Obviously his CL fixtures have to come first. Out of his scheduled rides he is only able to take part in the meetings at Weymouth and Somerset. Can't believe that George has a wrist injury with the amount of excercise it gets Hope it heals quickly George and we will catch up with you soon.

We once had a bloke turn up at the MX practice track in an RS Racehome (£100,000 +) and then unload 4 small KTM's with all the best bits on (best part of £9000 I would guess) before coming over to sign in his 6 year old son. He then asked where would be the best place to take the boy and teach him to ride as it was his first time. He didn't seem to get my point when I asked him what happened if the boy didn't like riding bikes!

To be fair to the parents a great many of them are learning the job as much as their kids are. In my experience last year many of the parents just ran the engines the same way pretty much everywhere and even gearing was done on the advice of experienced riders so would sometimes be totally wrong for that rider. Several times I have seen parents lowering gearing to try and make the bike more rideable but in fact it has already been too low and the kids are getting into trouble because they are running out of revs. Many of the kids are also very inexperienced and therefore can't tell you what is wrong so it is pretty difficult all round for such young riders. In most cases this isn't down to parents deliberately setting bikes up wrong but just to a lack of knowledge. What I will say is that many of the parents would happily share information about how the bikes were set up although the kids were in competition. I don't know about this year but last year was pretty low on the number of pushy parents - if you want to see just how pushy parents can be try going to a schoolboy motocross meeting!

Of course it is good for the youngsters to have a ride, it is an experience that every rider would enjoy and if there is pressure then it is a good opportunity to get used to it. Judging by the way the track improved during the evening they should have had a full scale junior meeting before the main event.

Has anybody got the results for the kids?

I still think races should be started at 2 minutes, if a rider hasn't got himself on the line ready to go at 1 min 55 then he is excluded. The start marshall could then line the riders up and an assistant puts a block of wood behind the bikes to stop them pulling back. A laser line that indicated who broke it would be ideal but a lump of wood is cheaper. Whatever happens I would hate to see the return of tape touching.

As far as I know Matt Bates and Shane Waldren are still injured and we haven't heard anything. I would guess Simon Lambert as the highest finisher from last year who is available. Or maybe somebody else from this year.