IanBrannan

From this past season, Speedway food of note for me would be: Plymouth Polish BBQ sausage, slightly bizarre that you get a massive sausage and a slice of bread but it felt authentic..! Oxford’s Brioche Cheeseburger, probably on balance the best burger in the championship but not the cheapest. Glasgow’s Kebab Pie though was a glorious thing. Absolutely true story that I found myself in the company of the CEO of Gregg’s and I used this innovation as small talk. She was very taken by it and last I heard it was being discussed at a Gregg’s board meeting. So if they ever come up with similar you know where it started. The fish & chips in Berwick though in the town are phenomenal, the pies in the ground also superb. There you have it..!

An amazing coincidence, but I’ve just released a podcast chatting to Adam Roynon all about his speedway life..! https://pod.fo/e/15e4d2

I’m guessing (and that’s all it is) their championship average will be converted somehow but I don’t know the formula for that.

Yes this is new for the 2023 season

Here’s some clarification, the rules are as follows. Max of 1 commonwealth rider permitted per team. New riders with British family / ancestry come in on 4.50, those without British connections and coming over for a first season will be on 9.00. George has British grandparents and therefore qualifies for 4.50, he is classed as a new rider this year as all records of Newcastle Diamonds were expunged meaning his rides for Newcastle in 2022 don’t count towards anything. (As is the case for every other Newcastle rider last year)

I don’t believe you’ll have long to wait..

Haha aye right.. Hey I guess we’ll see but usually there’s some kind of agreement, especially as they already know he’s going to be busy on Weds, but, Speedwaylife.

Nick Morris rode in Denmark last season and seemed to turn up most Wednesdays where required. Same for Ben Basso and Jonas Knudsen etc. They have a bit of a squad system and usually they move things around in Denmark to cover.

Brady Kurtz came off and Ben Cook couldn't avoid hitting him so they both went down but Kurtz was very much on the worst end of it. Kurtz got up after quite a while and rode back on a buggy, Ben Cook got up pretty quick and walked off by the look of it. There was no re run, the race was awarded so hard to say how he did afterwards so far but they didn't look to be too concerned about him.

The last time Poole failed to qualify for the playoffs in any league was I think 2009, but then went on a bit of a run after that to say the least.. Even in 2019 the year before dropping down, they finished top of the Premiership so I think we can say they’ve been pretty consistently competitive… It was move race night or move leagues when the FIM insisted Mon and Thurs for British top league racing.

For dark horses don't rule out Plymouth, they've gained 2 top 10 riders in Richie Worrall and Kyle Howarth, and with Ben Barker that's 3 strong heat leaders and they will be pretty much unbeatable at home. And away, with those riders plus Dan Gilkes etc they're going to run a few teams close. Glasgow, Redcar and Poole will be the teams to beat I fancy.

Wasn’t exactly whenever he could, he guested twice for Plymouth, once in the Jubilee league when the Ben Barker thing happened, and the other time he was supposed to be commentating on BSN but Hans Andersen called in sick and so he borrowed some Kevlars lol. He also rode in the pairs at late notice. He’s had offers from half of the league I think, I’m 99.9% sure it won’t be Plymouth.

You will be able to watch on pretty much every smart TV via the built in web browser, or the browser on Amazon fire stick. You’ll be able to log in via QR code from your phone to make it more straightforward. We’ll be visiting every track twice so there will be some Monday meetings when Eurosport are not running, but it’s a fair assumption that many will be Thursdays. Of course if you can’t watch live you will be able to watch on demand after the meeting has ended.

The NBA generated 6.4 BILLION dollars last year, so not exactly like for like..

Any pirate based references are purely coincidental, because of copyright laws I can’t even play the Captain Pugwash theme for you

I’ve just read the Polish article and it is total BS.. Here is the actual statement from Discovery, make your own minds up.. https://fimspeedway.com/news/fim-speedway-dse-join-race-for-sustainable-future

This was actually a press release by Discovery, just to de bunk this, at no point did they say they would want to get rid of methanol or that the end was nigh. They said they wanted the whole SGP circus to be more sustainable, transport, logistics and the meetings themselves. They are aiming for net zero by 2040, not zero emissions. Which means they would have to contribute on some way to offset their carbon levels. They also said that methanol is one of the least polluting fossil fuels, but they can improve things further. To me, having seen the statement from source in English, it’s more to do with carbon levels associated with meetings. Flying, trucking gear around from one end of Europe to another. And can they make it work so they’re doing less miles by say making rounds happen in a logical order geographically.

It’s far from a surprise when you look at the bigger picture, Berwick are an incredibly well run club and the Courtney’s and Gary Flint are highly respected operators. We don’t know Rory’s other plans but clearly a Saturday track is something that works for him. There is also a big youth system at Berwick and their training track at Duns, and Rory clearly has history working with the British youth system.

This is something I was going to check today, as I did find it hard to believe that any British rider has managed to avoid riding there in some capacity..!

And you can be 100% sure Poole would be doing the same were it the other way around. Poole have held a number of practice sessions over the season, as have many of the clubs but considering the importance it’s absolutely normal..! Dan & Joe Thompson for Leicester have apparently never ridden KL either so there’s inexperience on both sides. Here’s to a great contest either way, it’ll be a long winter!

The sun is out, their track was absolutely flooded after 3 days and a months worth of rain. The base of the track is struggling and will provide too much grip, meaning riders can’t turn the bike . Ultimately Stewart as track curator & promoter as well as team manager has his name above the door. If a rider goes through the fence he is liable, and he doesn’t feel it’s safe. Look at the video you can see it, so yes it’s sunny, but that ain’t gonna dry out until tomorrow basically.

For the conspiracy theorists, here’s a look at the track. It’s a swamp, everyone was ready to go but it’s simply not safe as Stewart explains in the video.. https://fb.watch/gjFLaGwnQ0/

It will be the second NDL fixture, as we are at Oxford v Leicester tomorrow

Not that strange, I was watching 4 screens at once and focussing on the front of the race Adam was watching the back #Teamwork

As has been mentioned Damien Bates on the podcast has suggested they were, but logistics were a problem. I know that since Brexit riders basically need a set of gear for Europe, and another set purely for the UK, otherwise the admin and import taxes for bringing non road legal bikes and machinery in and back out can be ridiculous, especially for 1 meeting. Which leaves riding borrowed machinery as the other option, which is never ideal as whilst the bikes might look the same things like seats, handlebars, clutches and footpegs can all be set up different. Dan obviously has gear over here good enough to win it..!