Wee Eck

Fair enough. Do you know who doesn’t allow this? One Sport, BSI or FIM?

It doesn’t look like GP riders couldn’t take part as Pawlicki and Sayfutdinov were racing. But, I wonder, other than making money for the promoters and, I assume the riders, what’s the point of the SEC? There seems to be no kudos attached to the title and, comparing how certain riders perform in it compared to their Polish league appearances, they don’t even appear to be using their best equipment. Add to that the generally poor crowds - where were the alleged 30,000 spectators hiding? - and the no more than average racing, with last night being the worst of them all. But the great news (!) is that the promoters, One Sport, are trying to get the license for the GPs, by out bidding BSI. So we have more of the same to look forward to

Best option as a guest has to be Zach Wajtknecht

Tbh, I think you’re kidding yourself about the “professionalism of this promotion”. They were handed a ready made stadium, a ready made track and a ready made team manager and done what exactly? Where are the new sponsors and the new supporters? Look at what Glasgow have done if you want to see professionalism. Turned an absolute dump into a smart welcoming little stadium with good food and bars, clean toilets and promotional activities that are almost unmatched. Plus entertainment all through the meeting and new sponsors. The result is that crowds have more than doubled and supporters are properly engaged. That surely is professionalism.

I’ve seen the posts by Scottish fans that Glasgow will make the play offs but Edinburgh won’t, but I’m not convinced - though I might be missing something. If Edinburgh beat Berwick tonight, then they’ll have 38 points. Lakeside have three meetings planned for today and tomorrow and have to win all three to be ahead of Edinburgh. Although these are “Home” meetings, two are at Rye House which has to be thought of as neutral ground, and one of these is against the league leaders, Peterborough. All could change depending on Workington who will secure a play off spot if they win tonight. And who do they meet? Peterborough!! A Workington win tonight with Lakeside losing one of their home meetings would give Workington 39 points and Edinburgh and Lakeside each on 38. It would then come down to points difference which seems currently to be Edinburgh +125 and Lakeside +89. Mr Blobby shouldn’t put his Jimmy hat away just yet

This is WORSE than official BSPA policy. If a meeting is abandoned before heat 10, you should get in to the restaging or another meeting for £1 per race staged. So, if only one heat, then admission is £1, if 9, then £9, so, as abandoned after 6 heats then admission should be £6. There is no logic to offering £6 discount as that would mean, the more heats run the greater the amount of money off.

Arithmetic is off - you multiply by 4 not 5 for an average so your answer should have been 8.62. BUT, CMAs ignore bonus points so correct calculation is 26/13 x 4 = 8.00. Now recalculate BK on the same basis for a true comparison.

I thought Swindon swapped Magic for Doyle before Magic rode for Poole?

Arithmetic There aren’t 7 (or se7en) shared events nowadays. Even then, there were only six (but si6x looks wrong) so they added the under 21 for marketing purposes.

This confuses me. Firstly, who are the “good business people with proven sales and marketing skills” because I can’t think of any that have been driven out in the last decade? Secondly, if there are any, how can the “win at all cost mentalists” not be in it for the long term if they have been driving people out in the last decade? I can’t think of more than one person, Rick Frost, who might just fulfil your criteria. You’re not suggesting Chris Morton and David Gordon, Steve Jenson, David Hemsley or, heaven forfend Trump and Sandhu can be defined that way, surely?

Who do you think ordered the material? Track men tell track owners when they need more material and what they want. I doubt many promoters know how to prepare a track or what material to put on it. Who has Ford brought in now?

There was a letter in the Star a couple of weeks ago praising the Belle Vue and Eastbourne training schools of the 1960s and saying “a lot of world class riders came from them” but who were those riders? Collins and Morton from Belle Vue but who else? And who from Eastbourne? Not just heat leaders, mind, but world class riders? Nowadays, there are far more riders coming through from countries other than UK (or Australia and US) so the opposition is tougher. But I reckon we have a great group of riders coming through, like Bewley, Kemp, Jenkins, Bickley, Flint, Brennan, plus, of course Lambert and Ellis, so someone has to be doing something right whether that’s Neil Vatcher, Poultec or one of the other new initiatives that are cropping up

Define “common sense”. Reward a team who can’t get all their riders to a meeting by allowing a guest of equivalent ability? So what’s to stop any team from saying a rider who struggles at a specific track had flight problems, so they’re bringing in a replacement who just happens to go well there? To me, common sense is penalising the team that can’t manage to get their 1-7 to arrive on time

I have wondered about this. If they are too short to prepare their gate, how do they prepare for the start when all riders have both feet flat on the track? If their feet can reach ground then, why can’t they before the race starts?

The sadness for me is that none of this - having something to sell to Poland and having such an amazing racetrack - would have been possible had David Gordon and Chris Morton hadn’t put their lives on hold for 10 years to ensure that the NSS became a reality. One day, perhaps, their hard graft will be properly recognised and true Belle Vue people will take it over again.

Is it possible that Peter Oakes was one of those initially taken in by Frankitti and is using his access to the Star to get his revenge?

If you read the article, no he's not. Dario Franchitti (spelt differently) says he's never heard of Toni Frankitti

Just catching up on this. Shocking! Josh should be transported back to Aussie. A fine pair of trainers would be much more protection from any engine being dropped on his toes.....yeh right. Come to think of it, looking at page 9 of this week's Star, Natalie Quirk should have been pulled up for wearing girlie shoes in the pits. Proper steel toe capped boots should have been the minimum. How dare she? 😜

Your comment was they make "decent" money which is different to "a bit of money" The prize money is really poor and goes nowhere near covering costs, even for the top riders. There is simply no profit to come from GP prize money alone. But, being in the GP series allows them to get places in the European leagues and command higher pay rates than non-GP riders plus the media exposure helps with gaining sponsorship

The pay rates are not a secret - they are on the fim-live.com website. The winner gets US$12,000, 2nd US$8,800 all the way to 16th who gets US$3,400 and the riders have to pay all costs - hotels, travel etc other than for Melbourne. I doubt any make any profit from prize money alone

I'm probably missing something here, but what is there to exploit? Rules say only 2 d/u riders so it stands to reason that any team that already has two, would have to drop a rider if the EDR became a d/u. That would just be silly, so EDRs must stay as EDRs. Anyway, as Poole don't have any d/us, it would make no difference.

Too many zeros - 200,000PLN = £36k. Still a lot but not as bad as you thought

Just for the sake of accuracy, Kings Lynn doesn't have a stadium. They don't even try to call it a stadium. They have an arena.

How about a ground share with Glasgow? You can have the Sundays lol

Has this died the death? I've not seen any details of riders and promoters attending, nor any suggestion of "get your tickets while they last"