Noelinho

On the gearing front, it’s correct that gearing affects the speed vs acceleration, but it’s still all relative to the performance of the engine itself. Starke did much better last night (and nothing broke!), but he’ll be found wanting against some other opposition unless he finds more speed. But it was an improvement, which is a good start. Claus really showed us what we’re missing - unfortunately, his average will be too high next time Leon is unavailable. Borke has a lot of potential, but I will say, he has a lot of average races, and whilst he looks great at Ashfield (and did well on his visit to Berwick last year), he needs to show improvement at other tracks. It’ll be interesting to see his progression this year, but if he does, he’ll be a great asset for the Bandits. I do think his performances haven’t quite justified the hype just yet though.

We never have got a workable team in with both Basso and Bomber, and much though I do love Ben, Bomber came first, for me. Their combined average would have crippled the team building.

It wasn't one of the highest - it was *the* highest.

Odds are suspended on that one, I think.

I’m not sure, but the programme for tonight’s Glasgow match might give us a clue, as the track record was broken last week (as the track length has changed). I believe the Speedway Star listed it as a new track record this week…

Why would he bother to show up and leave points money for someone else?

You can use it for any match this season.

I think most speedway riders make the money they can, when they can. They're always someone else's accident from being out for the season, so why worry about it too much?

I assume the result must stand for the guest appearance to count.

Yes, that's what he's doing at the moment.

Yeah, and Claus was booked weeks ago. Also, Tom is at the Under 23s this weekend with Leon, so he wasn't an option anyway.

I prefer Claus over Leon full stop - definitely makes us stronger. Looking forward to this one.

I reckon Craig will be fine this season. He looked decent to me, probably just needs a few more meetings to really settle in. But I don’t think many people will be questioning his signing come the end of the season.

Ah yes, I remember that!

Might be best to avoid 19 May as that’s the final day of some league football in Scotland.

Let's hope he doesn't steal a march at the tapes.

Yes, they both do. Only Bomber frantically grabs every corner of his Kevlar just before lining up at the tapes after going for his spin though. The guy can’t keep still!

Ace doesn't upset other riders as far as I see. Ashton hasn't endeared himself to everyone (although they do seem to have some kind of extra personal beef with each other), so I wouldn't read too much into that, and I'm genuinely not sure why Connor took exception last night. There wasn't a lot in it. Ace isn't the Glasgow rider I'd be worried about upsetting others

I wonder if Edinburgh might try to rearrange their Plymouth fixture for their home match against us, leaving us to race on an off-night for our fixture. It would mess up the BSN semi date if we get there, but I suspect that will happen anyway.

Max squeezez Ace, who in turn squeezed Connor. It was a simple case of not enough room for three. Connor was slightly behind the other two and closest to the fence. He didn’t do much wrong but ran out of room, and by then, the ref couldn’t really put all four back in. Connor wasn’t happy, but Ace was never going to turn the throttle off and let a guy pass him on the outside.

Jim McGregor.

I think we'll hear that from a few people.

Not successfully, no.

I have just checked now. The substances were revealed in the SCB press release after the hearing. Previous press releases didn't specify.

One thought I had is, we could run the rematch as a double header. Glasgow home meeting on the outside track, Edinburgh can use the inside track for their "home" meeting