kelvinht

Agree...then we can have Niels and Lewis back off the injury bench. In reality though we can't change last season's results, just need to look forward to 2015

Might be something in this, but rather than the 3 places in the GP using this criteria, expand it a bit to determine the riders for the GP challenge, that way you could expand to other countries (or perhaps for lesser speedway countries allow 1/2 riders from their national championship into a pre-challenge meeting with a couple of places up for grabs in the GP challenge itself)

The two minute time allowance should include all the gardening and messing about riders do at the tapes. If they aren't ready then they should be excluded. Much as I love NKI at Kings Lynn, the amount of time he takes to get ready at the tapes seems worse than most riders. ...and if there is a false start, riders should go straight back round. Although watching races from years gone by, as long as riders didn't cause a tapes infringement the ref used to let it go. Don't see why it shouldn't be the same now. If a rider anticipates the start, then he shouldn't be penalised. If he messes himself up or touches the tapes then its his own fault. Net result is less riders hitting first bend together and maybe less first bend incidents.

Team speedway always wins hands down...but has to be UK....and my team or the league my team is in. Happy watching meaningful world championship type events, but run of the mill filler individual meetings rarely do it for me although less stressful than worrying about how my team will perform

I proper shaped race track owned by speedway people has got a much better chance than most. Look what Buster has done at Kings Lynn...

Dun..

At least you knew where you stood with Frank Ebdon...and meetings were run quickly and efficiently - as they should be!

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.