kelvinht

He does have a dark side...once rode for Ipswich....

Woffy made the start in the first running of the final, so his eventual win was ok with me - although in the 4th attempt it was his worst start. Cooky was playing around with his gate too. IMO the ref should have stopped it, a bit of gardening just before tapes up is fine, but it was a bit ott...but it was amusing....he could have done with a rotorvator as well....

I was only the boss today (fathers day)....

Watched a part of coverage on quest, but then wifey wanted TV back mid-evening. Eurosport did still have gp last night online, but racing only, no commentary.

perhaps more meetings should be run in the wet, and instead of cancelling for rain, we cancel meeting for bright sunlight At Kings Lynn it does seem to have been a more recent thing (5 to 10 years), but my memory is too dodgy to remember when it became the norm. Tinted visors probably help, but once the riders turn to ride the opposite direction then they can probably see even less, especailly into shaded parts of the track. Need react-to-light visors... Necessary safety thing really, unless promoters can put up boards in the relevant places behind the stands to block out the glare, but they'll be as cost effective and never work like track covers and the rain.... the only thing I would complain about is long drawn out intervals. Maybe two 10 minute breaks for getting food and drinks and a good bit of grading, one after heat 5 and the other after heat 10, then unless its really necessary due to poor track conditons, no other grading should take place and two minute warning should go on as soon as riders are back in the pits from a previous race

Agreed, but Buster can still sort a decent track the day after he's had the stock cars on it

The corny banners on the front cover are truly awful, not even corny half the time just bloomin awful...a few small snippets on the front cover to give a taste of what is inside is all that's needed

did anyone seriously expect anything else from Auntie Beeb and her favourite sports. Its a closed shop

You can usually print to file rather than a printer...

The basic speedway product is fine. We all like lots of exciting racing, over-taking, close scores....etc Even watching old footage from years gone by when the product was supposedly far superior,there were boring races / meetings then. Time does funny things to the memory... There are only two basic things wrong with speedway 1) bikes are less controllable so get it wrong and the riders have no chance of correcting 2) tooooooooooooo may complex rules governing a simple sport

Thanks for that clip....I'd assumed Short Track was more like speedway, just on different types of bikes so less power slides. Looks more akin to Motorcross, but around a speedway track. And yes it does look boring to watch

There would also need to be some FIM ruling that what ever country a rider clams to belong to he has to remain as that through out his career, otherwise you get riders chopping and changing to suit themselves like Rune Holta did...

Breakfast tv video clip (from twitter link) http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01jgh9t

Another BBC program that might be worth a shot is The One Show - think he would be able to get a longer slot in the program with a few more action shots and a chance to give a bit more info on/sell the sport than he on the beeb this morning

according to twitter he'll be on at about 7.35am.....

I don't like the 2 semi's in one night. You lose the thread keeping jumping around and don't get to see replays of all the better bits as they have zip off to the other track. Its all very disjointed, then you get a couple of falls as we did last night and it all goes to pot towards the end. Was at the Norfolk Arena a couple of years back when the Stars made the PO's - it was the worst nights entertainment I'd seen all season - not due to the racing, but continual stop / start nature of the racing and killed the atmosphere and it was a right drag. The play offs should be a great finale to the season, but in the current form they don't really work for either the spectator or arm chair viewer

Kozza Smith also has his fair share of falls. Certainly seemed to be riding above himself when he first came over here and was good for at least a couple of falls a meeting. But he's settled down into a much better rider now, but still seems to attract his fair share of falls, not always his fault either. The other name to spring to mind is Ryan Fisher

Elite League teams must ride on only one or maybe two set nights per week avoiding main Polish/Swedish league nights. PL tracks not allowed to ride on those two nights either. Lessens the need for guests and r/r due to riders having primacy elsewhere and enable double uppers to always be available. Guest and r/r could then be just for injured riders, nothing else. May even enable some kind of squad system so guest or r/r is even more limited.

Gotta be the chap at King's Lynn - zero speedway knowledge = lots of mindless shouting = zero riders interviews = zero interesting chat / comments about speedway in general = zero fan involvement/atmosphere. We used to cringe/laugh at Mike Bennett, but he knew his stuff and got everyone involved...very sadly missed :-(

thought they where white with coloured stars on ?

Every track should have a Paul Johnson, would add a bit of razmataz...

Thought it was another good GP, improved as it went on. Congrats to Niels...cheered me up after we (Stars) were docked two points on Friday. After Woffy, he is my next choice for a winner - got to back Woffy as his is the only 'Brit' this year and would be good for the sport in this country to have a world champ.

Looks like Speedway has allies in high places. Can't believe the Duke and Duchess have chosed to honour one of own when naming the new littl'un Perhaps he'll be getting a knight-hood for services to speedway now...

For those that missed it (like me) - its on ITV Player http://www.itv.com/itvplayer/the-motorbike-show

Part of the problem of getting Brits to ride abroad in places like Poland is we seem unable to compete in the wide open spaces of the european tracks, whether that is down to rider skill (or ability to go fast), lack of the right equipment or both I don't know. There are too many 'trick' tracks in this country which will only ever mean riders who stay on these shores will never develop further. It appears to be easier for Johnny Foreigner to learn his trade on continental tracks and then fine tune when they come to the UK than the other way round.