stevethelion

First time i've ever noticed the gate position at BP having such an effect on the racing, last night 11 out of the 15 heats were won from gate 4, which would have been 12 out of 15 if Lewis Blackbird hadn't suffered bike problems when leading. Even Davey Mitchell won from gate 4, in his other 3 races he must have finished 40-50 yards behind the rest. Usually i think the heat winners are pretty much spread fairly evenly across the gates.

The Ipswich fixture was moved back a week, to sunday may 12th a couple of weeks ago & the youth championship moved forward a week to the 4th of may. I did'nt see a reason given why they had altered the fixture list but maybe the availabilty of Lasse was the reason it was changed.

What makes it worse is the fact that the one we let slip through our fingers, Lewis Kerr, has had a flying start to his Newcastle career, topped off with a paid maximum yesterday, how we could do with him at reserve now.

I can't see them making changes until Roynan's fit, which hopefully won't be too long now.I think the 2 riders who are riding below expectations are Nielsen & Nieminen. Kauko just doesn' t look fast this year & is not scoring the big double figure scores you expect from the no.1. It would be very harsh to drop him after all he has done over the last 2 seasons, but points wise it would give more room to play with. Roynan's average is 1.11 below Kauko's. Nielsen is 4.08 plus the 0.39 they are under the points limit , so would give them 5.58 to get someone else in, thus allowing Graversen to ride at reserve. Having said all that i can't see the promotion dropping Kauko, but providing Roynan returns on the form he showed when fully fit last year, i think this would make us stonger overall.

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According to Lions website Magnus is back & will ride at no. 5 on saturday

Not exactly sure how it works, but if they re-declare the team that would give them 7.73 to play with. Roynan's average is 7.07 plus the 0.66 they were inside the 42.50 limit. Don't how long Adam will be out for, but Coventry have re-declared there side with Joe Screen coming in & i'm pretty sure Lions will need to do the same if they want to stay in the cups as i think they will struggle with R/R especially away from home.Missing the bonus point last saturday was a blow & will certainly have to get a bonus point win against Scunthorpe or win at Sheffield, which, with R/R in place i can't really see happening.

Not good news coming from Coventry tonight sounds like Adam Roynan as had a bad crash, & was down for a long while before being taken to hospital.Let's hope he's ok.

Anyone going last friday would have been alone.The Q & A session is next friday from 5.00 after press & practice day.

If you look at post no.752 made on this forum on 14th feb. written by Glynn he says " at the apex of the turn it will be wider by about 2 metres".I presume this is what Glynn was going to do, but whether this actually happened i don't know.

Have to agree, on the couple of occasions i saw Kerr he looked a better prospect than Blackbird, although Blackbird always gives 100% he generally looks off the pace, were as Kerr looked a bit quicker & capable of beating better riders, like you i think Leicester missed a trick & signed the wrong Lewis.I would be most surprised if at the end of the season if Kerr doesn't average more than Blackbird.

Done, some good questions. Good luck with your project.

You're right Volty the meeting doesn't actually clash with the football & more to the point the football is actually at Derby not at Leicester, so i wouldn't have thought many of the probably about 3,000 fans who travel away to watch the CITY are actually Lions fans as well, i presume the football will be on in the lions tv in the bar, so if they are that bothered about it watch in the bar & then straight to the meeting.

I'm really looking forward to the meeting, even if as expected Lions get beaten it should be a good night, it will be great to see Nicholls, Kasprzak etc. Maybe an idea to even things up slightly would be to ask Coventry to use Lewis Kerr as the guest to replace Roynon thus giving him valuable track time in a competitive meeting, so he is more prepared when Lions need him to cover for Blackbird.With him at reserve Coventry could put one of the poles in the top 5 & it would give a more even look to the 2 sides.

Yes , you're right it was 23 meetings & no we didn't pay for test match or the MDL final which is why i put down 2 junior meetings. I agree about maybe giving a free programme out, would make the season ticket offer more attractive. I did include the Pride of the Midlands & the 4TT when i added up the total meetings which as Volty correctly says was 23 plus the MDL final & the British junior event, which if you would have had to pay on the gate were i think, only a fiver.Which ever way you look at it, it's not brilliant value for money you only have to miss a meeting or maybe 2 through holidays, illness etc. & you're losing money

Last yeat there was 22 meetings at £15.00 each, ( not including Karlsson testimonial, which obviously wasn't in the season ticket price) , 2 junior meetings which i think were charged at £5 on the night. So if you went to them all would have cost £340, only a £10 saving if you paid the full £330, but a saving of £43 if you bought at the early 10% discount price of £297. These prices are the same that are being charged for next season.But last season when the price was set we didn't know that Newport were going to pull out & were due to face them 3 times at home, having drawn them in the KO cup, so that would have been 25 meetings. I have bought my ticket for next season at the early offer price of £297 , but looking at what some clubs are charging it does seem quite expensive, more so if you can't afford it before christmas & have to pay £330 after the offer finishes.

I think he'll do a better job than Magnus did last season, looking at Magnus's scores he only managed 7 double figure scores at home all season, you'd expect better from a heat-leader & i'm sure Doolan will better that performance.I like the look of the side, alot depends on how Nielsen performs, if he shows the promise he did before he was injured i'm sure he could take his average up to nearer 5. I would expect Bjerre, Roynon & Blackbird all to improve their averages so should be a good season. Good luck to Jari Makinen for next season, i see he's signed for Ipswich.

My team would have been1 .Fisher 2.Bjerre 3.Masters 4.Thorsell 5.Graversen 6.Campton 7.Nielsen but after you saying Bjerre could miss 9 meetings that seems to rule him out, & presumably the same would apply to Masters. Now just read that Campton has signed for Workington, so looks like i'll have to think again. Would like to see Thorsell, looked good on his 2 appearances at BP last year & i think he could signed on a 5 point average which would be good value. But please no Taylor Poole never seen him ride well at BP yet.

From listening to what DH has said on radio interviews, i don't think we will get a decision on PL or EL until the BSPA AGM, which I believe starts on the 17th of November, when the other promoters get to vote on Lions application to join.

I can only see 4 of this years side being retained for next season, Bjerre, Nieminen,Graversen & Nielsen.Although depends on which league we're in, Graversen & Nielsen would probabaly struggle in the elite league even at reserve, especially away from home where Graversen's scores drop dramatically.Thorsell might be a good shout for next season, looked good in the 2 meetings he has ridden at BP.

Completely agree, should never have ridden if he isn't properly fit, could have used maybe Dyer or Kutz as guest, both under Jari's average.

Yes, looks like Lions are applying to join the elite league for next season.David Hemsley was interviewed on Radio Leicester last night & said he would be handing in the elite league application forms within the next 2 weeks.

On lions website it says Jari has declared himself fit for tonight & they are hopeful Magnus will be ok too.

Both Karlsson & Makinen were injured last night & didn't complete all there rides, anyone have any news on how badly they were hurt? & will they be riding tonight ?

Leicester have just released an e-mail to all e-mail subscribers apologising for the length last nights meeting took to complete. They say they realise things aren't perfect and are going to hand out feedback forms at the next meeting so fans can have there say & all the results will made public.This is good news but can't help thinking they should hand the forms out at the 1st play-off meeting when they will be a much bigger crowd & will get a bigger response, rather than hand them out at the development league meeting when with all due respect to the young lads competing i don't the crowd will be particularly big especially as its on a friday rather than the usual weekend meeting.