Fortythirtyeight

I always thought the idea was to score as many points as possible in every race.

Scored in reserves race, a gift for his other race, don't get carried away but glad for the lad that he will actually get paid enough to cover his travel costs for a change.

Yes, good promoting, but Glasgow are sill losing money every week. They openly admit to needing 2,500 each week to break even and are currently getting around 1200 paying customers with ' promotions ' ( free or massively discounted tickets ) bringing in around 2-300. They won't put up with this forever.

Good meeting with no fickle fans attending despite the fact that not one drop of rain fell anywhere near the track. Forecast rain in Newcastle tomorrow so you not going? Support your son, support your team! Brummies strengthened by two ex Bears were decent opposition and kept it interesting . whilst the racing was good that mascot Bear dancing with the kids from Chernobyl was amazing, worth the entrance fee alone. Cant wait for my next visit to Redcar, always produces good racing despite the forecasts.

There's no rain forecast for the evening, only the afternoon, which will not put this match in doubt. The weekend forecast is good which is why I WILL be travelling to the meeting and spending the weekend in the area ( Whitby ). It rained at Birmingham on Wednesday , which was not forecast, didn't affect the meeting. why are fans so fickle ?

Not the worst track in the league by a stretch but when an Edinburgh rider says he needs a Grasstrack bike to get round it you know it's not smooth. Bates, like a lot of younger riders, simply lacks Trackcraft.

There's a difference from ' being out of control' and struggling to keep the bike where you want it. Perhaps before making such comments you might want to try riding a Speedway bike around Armadale's current bumpy surface.

Terry has left the post at Birmingham due to needing to reduce his workload as he's busy at Wolverhampton and Redcar so found it too much trying to fit Birmingham in as well. He isn't in the greatest of health but is still one of the best Trackman in the country which is why the SCB keep calling on his services to sort out ' troublesome ' track surfaces.

Unlike Newcastle both riders left on good terms ( not sacked via text ) and are still on friendly terms with the management. Wouldn't be surprised if either of them became a Bear again for the evening.

Crowds of 1200??? 90% of current clubs cant get anywhere near that now so how are they to double or even treble there crowds with a diluted product? Two clubs are currently up for sale and rumours of another two/ three by the end of the season so 16 clubs looks a struggle. whilst I welcome any ideas to save the sport simple facts need to be faced. Current crowds are around half of that figure in the championship and short of 1,000 at most Premiership clubs. Costs have to be cut by reducing wages, increasing major sponsorship for the whole of the sport as there is no title sponsor at present and by standardising the bikes being used that are now too powerful and too expensive to maintain.

Unfortunately the dogs feelings don't come into it but money does. Dog racing on Asian TV is massive and brings the G.R.A. massive amounts, lack of a crowd at the stadiums is not an issue. Stock cars don't get a look in but I know it makes the few who host these meetings more money than any speedway meeting will.

"How about 3 Regional Divisions of 7 teams each (I'm assuming no more closures and 3 or 4NL clubs stepping up!)" Massive assumption. There will be less teams next season ( already two up for sale ) and which NL clubs do you think will want to step up? Your pay rates are pie in the sky, only two clubs in the country pay that sort of rate to riders in the championship. One Division it will be, regional league just doesn't work due to the logistics of where riders live. Most are midland based so they will a reluctance to ride in a northern bias division when they can base themselves nearer home when receiving less points money.

Quite right. An example of when his phone might ring... How about when a rider fails a drugs test, an ' excuse ' is made by the host club to cover him leaving ( say a family issue) and a phone call is made to get the R/R facility to cover his absence which is not allowed by the rule book and the ref points this out but the nod was given by the on call member ( I use that term provocatively ) and another rule is broken as it was ' for the benefit of the sport ' and perhaps the on call member has direct links to the rider? On call members usually get called by promoters not ' in their gang' ( non management ) over interpretation of a rule ( being broken ) and of course then get a completely unbiased opinion in response ( really?) I recall a number of such instances at a certain 'Midlands' track over the last few seasons but that promoter was hounded out so it won't happen again obviously.

Mou Some good points here Montie but.... "1 Godfrey doesnt have the power to do as you say,the MC does,so jointly make a decision" Not the case. Godfrey may be the ' on call ' member of the management team and can make decisions there and then and often has, with repercussion's later. He has even ignored SCB ruling decisions in the past ' for the good of the sport ' as he says. Also only needs to be 3 ( sometimes it's been 2) members of the top table present during a BSPA management meeting so he does have the power and uses his influence when it suits , as most people would do. This is why the sport is in such a mess and needs a totally independent ruling body.

I am me, and I have qualifications in Law and chemistry. I also know Charles Wright and Kyle Howarth personally. I take it you have suitable qualifications to back up your ridiculous tittle tattle?

So you don't know the man, have nothing to base this comment on and weren't a witness to tonight's incident? who's the twit?

Godfrey declined to move the fixture. Why is that difficult to believe? He knows Redcar are short and he knows he has a great chance of winning so he's stuck to this date even though he was offered other dates that are not Friday's so wouldn't deny him a home date. He is hardly Mr. Squeaky clean and has previous for using ever trick in the book to benefit himself/ his club and many will say that's how it should be. Redcars promoter is new and has yet to learn the ' dark side ' .

Wow! Some of your fans slated Redcar for sacking Østergaard after a few matches and then you dump a rider after even less matches! The wages you appear to have saved on staff have gone on " too expensive" Østergaard, so yet another ex Bear becomes a diamond. He will do you a good job tho as he's still got plenty of points left in him. Got to feel sorry for Bukhave getting the boot when there is a worse rider in the team.

Ostergaard too expensive? Then you must be in trouble as he has never demanded big money at any of his last three clubs and would be on a lot less than you would have paid Bjerre.

I doubt that is even feasible. What would be the point of a 5 team division especially when the majority of riders in northern based teams are based in the midlands or further south?

Fair assessment. As for who will run where , if crowds are a determining factor, I believe Sheffield are really struggling and are up for sale, crowds at Berwick, Edinburgh and Newcastle are not as large as I've seen at Redcar this season having visited all of these tracks a number of times this season. However three of these clubs have previously rejected the idea of joining one big division . Mr.Godfrey put a stop to the idea previously so think he showed his hand there. I think 14 teams might be the maximum attracted to the one division concept.

You actually think there's a major difference between the Premiership and Championship now? Other than about a dozen riders it's virtually the same. If you check out the averages for both divisions most Championship riders averages are the same in both divisions and sometimes higher in the premiership. That tells its own story on standards. if they go one division then it will surely have to be set between championship and national league standard to reduce the costs ?

All riders need skill to turn the bike and who mentioned full throttle tracks? I was merely pointing out that at tracks with no 'home advantage ' then the more skilful riders will come to the fore. We all have our own opinions of which track produces the best racing , and by racing I mean a track that produces overtaking both inside and outside on a regular race by race basis. I will stick by my opinion that the likes of Belle Vue, Sheffield, Scunthorpe , Peterbrough and Redcar produce the best racing on a weekly basis. Other clubs do produce good racing on occasions depending on track preparation ( doctoring is to the fore at the moment ) and who the visitors are. I have seen poor meetings all around this country and in Poland too, the so called Mecca of speedway, but you pays your money and takes your choice.

Clubs have no money but you want them to subsidise a coach for the 20 or so away fans that they may be lucky to have follow them who would follow them anyway? How do you police the 'away' fans? Do they have to produce I.D.??? I travel 80 miles each week to my nearest track, am I an ' away ' fan ? Fans don't travel because it's too expensive to attend two meetings a week , with travel, entrance and food, it's only the hardcore that still follow their team. An example was my club last season when they gave an award to ONE fan who had attended every fixture , home and away.....ONE fan! says a lot really.

When was the last time you saw more than 50 away fans at a meeting other than a very close local derby or a play off final? My last local derby saw a mini bus and several cars , total around 40 and they only had to travel less than 75 miles.