piston197

Would the Rutherford who scored 8 points, same as Sissis the Ex Newport( Mr chequered flag/cobra) Shelby Rutherford, ?

Wihilst I think Alex has made a very sensible and adult post , why are the UKV&I applications being processed in Manilla ?? out sourcing a la insurance call centres ?? or maybe it is just in a Manilla envelope somewhere else in the world ?

Saw one years ago at Newport, think from memory it was Nicky Simmonds bike ?? 3 bikes left the line and one stayed still, the frame contained the cylinder and top half of the crankcases, the track staff were picking up bits of hot metal with a shovel and putting them still smoking into a bucket

A trick I was taught by Steve Saunders when trying to find grip on trials bikes up slippery surfaces was to hold open the throttle , but press firmly on the rear brake to prevent the wheel spinning and braking traction, i.e. killing the horsepower with the back brake. and finding grip , power can be fed in or out in this way Maybe "having no brakes" on a speedway bike is a disadvantage as they can be used to find grip if you know what you are doing, can't argue the case for a front brake though Happy new year

Maybe similar to A drag racing B any tarmac racing where exit speed is needed out of the corner with max traction formula one etc ( god forbid someone tries to bring traction control into speedway with limited slip clutches and the like) If you have the horse power you can tame it, knock back timing, gearing etc to find the optimum setting If you do not have the BHP in the first place you are at a disadvantage, it is easier to make a fast engine slower than a slow engine faster ?? I believe ??

Such is the nature of the beast, you are never going to win ! The junior Britain Kart class is governed in such a way that only stock engines can be used , no tuning parts etc, but I know a man who has been earning a good living by buying 20 engines at a time, stripping them and reassembling to blue printed tolerances by selecting parts from different engines, even fitting used pistons with carbon on the top will produce a small horsepower rise, The engines are then dyno tested and supplied to customers at a price significantly above the "stock " engine, when engines have just 1 BHP more it makes a significant difference in this low powered sport.. All engines are untuned , just assembled to get the best out of them with correctly toleranced parts to get the maximum out of them !

There is an advert and picture in "the speedway star" Nov19th 1965 for the "new speedway engine from Matchless" based on the G85CS trophy winning engine, an all alloy unit as used in the Rickman Mettise, These engines are still being manufactured in Holland for classic scrambles

I think Paulco was referring to Will Beveridge dragging Emil Lidqvist off his bike at the pit gate , kicking him when he was down and breaking his collarbone,? Still the best speedway meeting I have ever seen, the needle up to that point was epic,and a last heat decider to clinch it, The scuffle was just an addition to the atmosphere, shame Emil got hurt, but what a meeting

I blame the Victorians for starting it all off, the Florin ( 2 shilling piece if you are under 50) came in to replace the Half crown in or around 1850 as an attempt to implement metric/decimal reasoning i.e 10 to the pound,It failed spectacularly with the Half Crown hanging around till 1967, however I suppose the 10P piece is the new Florin as it is still there at 10 to the pound ? so it only took just over 100 years to wear us down.

A few years back a solicitor bought the old rectory in our village, opposite was a lorry operator, operating just 2 lorries, when his operators licence came up for renewal, the solicitor put in a complaint and tried to get it shut down, it had operated since 1962 and he nearly succeeded, but as the lorry operator had been a resident for his entire life and was well liked , local people made there feelings clear,The court action failed , the solicitor made no friends and was gone in under 3 years, Its the people who complain who make all the noise, who are tolerant say nothing, but are in the majority, it is time the pro lobby was heard, sheer weight of numbers will succeed !

Just looked at the list of riders and averages in the fantasy league and Brady Kurtz is at 3.00 ?? is in fact a 5.00 ,should be a 7.00, won't be many fantasy league teams without him at 3.00 methinks?

Harry Potter and the Suffolk sorceress ??

Nicky Mallet, ( as a rider of sorts and a promoter of sorts) never amounted to much as either

Mark lemon always leaves a sour taste for me, And any rider who does a "stonehewer" and drops it on the first bend and lies there hoping to get a re-start must admit that the sport needs riders like Niki Pedersen, because like them or hate them, they are giving 100% and providing opinions and interest, although I don't necessarily agree with the way it is done

Maybe, they just see speedway riders coming to this country are likely to need the benefits of our NHS system, maybe they will be insisting on seeing their private health insurance paperwork before putting them in the ambulance, it gets more like America every day

Could have , should have ,bought Newport speedway then, no wonder he was in a position to do so !

Phil Morris was on tv in a couple of quiz shows, definitely Eggheads and possibly 15 to 1 and he won a few pounds from his quiz exploits, They also had "dancing on ice" at Telford where some of the riders danced comically with a professional ice skater ,Nick Simmons was a sensation ( for all the wrong reasons) think Jack Hargreaves won it ?

Carl stonehewer ???? SGP 2000/2003 and Workington Comets, can't remember a lot of laughter then, and that was in SGP and Premier league same seasons, not after the end of his SGP career ! And Stoney didn't have an easy ride in the PL, he was one of the top riders in the PL those years ,but still got beaten , I think Dryml will be one of the top riders in the PL, but will still get beaten often enough especially away.

Congratulations to Sheffield in the signing of Leigh Lanham, good solid performer, genuine guy, has been there and done it, raced in all conditions without whinging , including winter meets, imparts good team spirit, and delivers when it matters, Leigh won't let you down, well done

Best of luck with Mark Lemon at Glasgow, as a rider at Newport he was the most disappointing signing since Steve Masters and if he passes anything onto the youngsters , let's hope it is not his attitude, has been a good rider in the past,but should have called it a day at he end of 2012, when you have riders with the positive attitude of Leigh Lanham without a ride and the likes of Lemon being handed another chance it makes you wonder

Surely this is a lesson that could have been learned when elder brother Todd claimed the Brit partiality and the reduction in averages for a british passport holder, only to have it turn round and bite Newports team building fairly and squarely on the ass, when it became apparent riding in Aussie champs removed the Brit trump card. Brady riding in Denmark seems to have scuppered Somersets plans likewise. Maybe a bit of a mistake in the case of Todd,( although I believe he was warned), maybe a bit stupid the second time with the younger Kurtz ?

He finished that season at QM on a 6.85 average, a guy I know who sponsored him with 2 Finn Jensen tuned engines was given them back in a holdall at the end of the season, blown to bits. still remember him best for his celebratory wheelie when he bailed off to miss the tractor and his bike ended up parked upright on the back of the tractor's rake as the tractor continued on it's way

It became clear to me the word "personality" meant nothing when Nigel Mansell won it ! His achievements immense, his personality ZERO

If you look at the betting odds on the sports personality of the year Andy Murray is a nailed on certainty, Corals have Woffy at 4th favourite albeit at 100 to1 !!!

There was a film ,i think it was called "the man who went up a hill and came down a mountain",starred Hugh Grant and was about a welsh village whose mountain was re-classified as a hill,so locals carried earth up it overnight to increase it's height to re-instate as a mountain.So looks like it's been done before