Roger Jacobs

Indeed - I even went on GoogleMaps and did a rough measure of the inside line, which was about 300m, so 310m must be it. No idea why Brafield is given as 396m ... the tarmac track at Foxhall is listed as 385m, which must be the inside line.

Despite all the hype about the size, e.g. Spedeworth says their track is 396 metres, it turns out the track is actually 310 metres! I did a rough measure on GoogleMaps, and it does indeed look much closer to 300ish than any high 300 number. Not sure there's much by way of banking, so the wide line will need some grip ...

The SEC is an FIM event, so Flint would be nominated/approved by the SCB, and the Regulations allow a facility. Castagna clearly needs/wants to ride in the Italian Championship rounds (sponsorship, Nations pride, etc.), and he clearly wasn't injured enough to prevent him scoring 14 points and finish second overall.

It is a masculine Italian name, in the same way that Mikhail is an Eastern European version, or Miguel is South American. Castagna's name is Michele Paco Castagna - and he prefers to be known as Paco. PS: Believe it or not, a lot of our (English) name spellings are derived from original Latin or Hebrew.

Where did Castagna ride?

Don’t forget to tell the company - the more feedback they get from viewers, the better.

Live Updates team is still looking for someone to text - anyone going to Foxhall who's prepared to do it, please?

Absolutely - I've been saying the same for years. Noise, colour, fun, interviews, even spot prizes - so many things that could keep fans involved and engaged throughout.

But ... the point is that most, if not all, tracks can say the same. Better attendances for big rivalries or Bank Holidays, yet the extra people aren't tempted back for "normal" meetings, even at the NSS where very good racing is expected. Why not? It's not a new "cost of living" thing, it's been happening for a while, and needs to be addressed by the sport as a whole ...

That makes no sense. There are far more people at the GPS because they come from across British speedway, and Poland, etc. It's the same story at most tracks - Ipswich had very high attendances for the Cup final and play-off meetings, but a big number of those people aren't attracted as regulars for league racing (although the Witches seem to have a stronger core of regular fans, compared to others). The question for Belle Vue is: the track produces very good racing, yet those who come for the Finals aren't bothered about that same level of on-track entertainment for the humdrum of infrequent league racing ...

https://ipswichwitches.co/witches-partner-with-anlas/

Decent performance - even so, I'm sure they would have preferred a couple more points. Sometimes it seems to take the Aces a while to get dialled-in to their own track, but once they do it's a different story.

Just because a few people say one thing doesn't mean everyone else agrees - there's always a bell curve of views and opinions on most results. If you choose to be annoyed at some of those, so be it. I think your style of reply is no better than people you claim are "keyboard warriors" - which is a remarkably tired old phrase. In the early days of the internet, those of us who dared to question the BSPA were tarred with all sorts of epithets. What a shame they didn't make use of all the ideas and energy on offer. I don't expect the Witches to win on Monday, so anything over 40 will be good score as far as I'm concerned. Anything from 45 upwards would be a pleasant bonus. It won't change my life any more than watching my life-long team win cups and leagues has done over the last 50+ seasons.

It’s only been KOC-Up matches as far - maybe he’ll appear at BV on Monday …

Hilarious result for Sheffield!

Has Douglas been excluded for touching the tapes or for not being powered? If the race was restarted with Rowe being given a warning, surely it hadn't officially begun, i.e. it wasn't a rerun. I guess the Referee will say that the green light was on ...

Expect Sheffield to win, fairly comfortably. I’ll check Live Updates, but that’s the extent of my interest.

Blimey, this one has really inspired the imagination of the BSF 🤪

Most are not "forced" to build their team - they make choices. KL chose to go with a genuine #1 and overall a stronger looking top 4, which restricted their options for riders 5 & 6. Signing Fricke might also have restricted the budget. Ipswich knew they were without Doyle and Sayfutdinov, which did admittedly force the likelihood of a strength-in-depth line-up, but they still had to make some choices ... Hellström-Bängs being the best from my perspective, i.e. instead of Jordan Jenkins.

https://britishspeedway.co.uk/rowe-motor-oil-premiership/rushen-steps-up-with-stars/ https://britishspeedway.co.uk/rowe-motor-oil-premiership/scotts-dream-move/

He's quoted on the main site: https://britishspeedway.co.uk/rowe-motor-oil-premiership/witches-winning-start/

I would suggest: Hellstrurm-Bengs The effect of the umlauts is similar to the effect in German, so the overall sounds are short. Hope that makes sense?!

Kevin Long was there last night, working for Rerun Videos - I'm guessing he was doing interviews for the live stream? The "new" presenter is Stephen Foster, who has done it before when Long was unavailable. There was a big collective sigh when he was announced for 2026 - a great bloke, hugely experienced local radio presenter, but most definitely not a sports event announcer. At least Mike Western's fluent Swedish gave us the correct pronunciation of Hellstrom-Bangs - it really is an amazing language 🙂

Hardly pumped. Despite having Fricke, they've got a similar problem to Ipswich in that they need others to be consistent. Castagna was frustratingly poor - and then popped out on the very dry surface to take a win, when Nicholls and Hellstrom-Bangs must have fancied their chances. As with any match: same riders, different night = different result.

Shirley that would be attempted appropriation from Exeter ...