DaveWayne

I was more talking about people on here rather than the 'powers that be'. Some are talking as if it is just as simple as "it's a shale track so we can race on it". It's also going to need a lot of work on track prep during the season or we will see a hell of a lot of rain offs. Having been to a few wet meetings there in the last few years, I have seen it resemble anything from a ploughed field to an ice rink. It's a very different surface to some other shale tracks.

Have any of the people assuming that Northampton is an option actually been to the track in recent years ? I don't know the rulings on 'infields' for speedway, but the inside of both corners does not have an inner kerb any more, so the race track literally goes up to a plate fence several feet high. This could be counteracted to some degree by white line marking an 'inner kerb' further out and narrowing the corners, but there is still the issue of a rider potentially losing control on the straight and ploughing into the end of the raised banking. These raised areas can't just be removed as they create the 'safe zone' for the stock car marshals.

Playoffs/shootouts/etc. have their place in sports where there are a large number of competitors. In football, it has had the impact of keeping more teams in with a shout of promotion towards the end of the season. This means there are a lot less 'dead rubbers' so it keeps the crowd numbers up and benefits the clubs financially. In F1 stock car racing, we had the issue of the 'national points championship' often being decided with 2 months of the season still to go, meaning numbers on both sides of the fence tended to drop off after the World Championship in September. By bringing in an end of season shootout, the battle for the silver roof goes to the final meeting of the season, and the crowd numbers for the 12 shootout rounds are far higher than they would have been in previous years. The difference is though, that in football the top 25% in each division are in with a chance of promotion, in stockcars you are looking at 16 out of over 100 drivers can win the silver roof. To have a season long tournament where 60-80% of the competitors can still win at the end of the season, irrespective of how far behind they might be does seem very farcical.

Absolutely no chance of shale going down again at Skegness. The shale track was massively off putting for the midweek holiday crowd for stock car meetings. What they have there now is one of the best tarmac stock car tracks in the country in terms of a mix of speed and action, with minimal track preparation required, and far cleaner for the 'once a year' holiday makers to have a family night out.

Not sure that would go down well with the Witches fans. After the abuse he has been given on here over recent years, it would be interesting to see if they are fickle and suddenly love him when he wears their colours, or if they stay away in protest. 🤔

Sorry, I was at a family party so I went for the quick option on wiki. Holder still had a higher GSA than Fricke in both 2023 and 2024.

2025 Fricke 10.19 Holder 9.52 2024 Holder 9.48 Fricke 9.18 2023 Holder 9.65 Fricke 8.82 2022 Fricke 8.62 Holder 8.56

One season. Holder had better average for the previous 2 years. Honestly don't think there is much between them, but Fricke was more dominant than Holder at home last year.

SGP results for last 5 years suggest otherwise. 😉

Why is it smoke and mirrors ? The rule quoted was from the British rule book and was in relation to racing in the British league. Yes he was declared for 2025, but never rode in the British league before he was injured again. Nowhere does the rule say that the period missed has to be related to the same injury. Therefore, by the wording of the rule, he has missed more than one full season due to speedway injury.

Depends on the interpretation. More than one could be taken as anything from 366 days to 2 years. As Tai didn't ride in the British leagues due to injury from the end of June 2024, so that is "more than 1 full season" as a season can't be longer than 12 months and by the time 2026 starts it will be about 21 months since he last rode in the UK.

2nd time he has done this. Started 2023 at Kings Lynn and ended it with a winners medal at Sheffield.

Both riders made a mistake at the same time - Douglas locked up and Emil found some grip and lifted his front wheel. Unfortunately for Emil, it was him that made the contact so he had to go.

So a Leicester team containing Masters, Douglas and Becker bottle the final for a 2nd year running. Who could have predicted that after they were all part of the Wolves team that didn't turn up for the semis against Sheffield in the previous 2 seasons ? 🤔

The post that I quoted from you said that Tigers were not the team who lost the least. That is an incorrect statement. I have no dispute with Leicester having the beating of us this year. That was definitely the semi final we didn't want.

Seeing as you keep posting this, I think you need to double check your facts and figures. Yes, Leicester won the most matches, but Leicester and Sheffield lost the same number. 😉

Why do people say Sheffield fans are thugs based on a minority ?

Nobody is going to suggest that. The cut off was stated, the matches weren't completed in time, and we have to accept that. But let's not pretend that we only finished top because your riders weren't trying tonight. We finished top because of the result at your place at the start of the month. We were unfortunate that the way the playoffs fell pitted us against the only team to beat us over 30 heats this season (super heats not included). Had the playoffs fallen any other way we would probably have made the final, but to win them you have to beat everybody and we didn't do that. Hopefully the final will be as exciting and close as our semi final was - you seem to be quite evenly matched so it should be a good spectacle for TV and whoever takes the trophy will be worthy winners.

Never done it on 2 wheels, but having raced many shale tracks in a car I can honestly say it was the most enjoyable. Yes it is fast, yes it is narrow, yes it was messy if you got it wrong. But also, yes it was exhilarating, and it gave immense satisfaction when you got it right. I think the problem when it comes to opinions on tracks on here, and this is not meant disrespectfully, but people who have never raced anything will never understand the mindset of a racer. The risk element is part of why you do it and there is a lot of pleasure in conquering that danger.

The only reason the 'other sport' (stock car racing) was kicked out was because they needed a large piece of land for pit space, and with only 3 or 4 meetings a year, a prime piece of land was sitting dormant most of the time. That land is now being used for something to do with solar energy storage, creating an income source 365 days a year. The greyhound side of things is very lucrative, so no the stadium is not under any threat of redevelopment. Therefore, there is no reason to suspect that speedway can't continue there. Just a case of people on here making 2 + 2 = 5.

Totally agree that the deadline was the problem, and that playoffs should have been delayed till all league fixtures were complete, but I think TV had some influence on the dates ? I'm just getting fed up with the constant snidey digs from people that the fault for it raining in August somehow lies with Sheffield !!

So what are you suggesting ? All league fixtures should be programmed for April to July, leaving August free to cover any rearrangements ? Then we potentially have a whole month of nothing prior to the playoffs. That will really build up the excitement.

Nobody knew that we were going to have a record breaking dry summer when they were planning the fixtures. From the start of the season to the date of the original fixture, there were only 3 Thursdays where neither Sheffield or Ipswich had a match, and one of those was the day before the British GP. I doubt anybody looking at the fixtures at the start of the season was concerned that a meeting in August Bank Holiday week was likely to be rained off.

The original fixture was 28th August. It was rained off. The rearranged match the following week was rained off. When do you suggest they should have held it ? Should they have looked at a long range forecast in June and pulled it forward ? Blaming Sheffield for the weather is laughable.

Yes he was poor last night, and yes he is a heat leader, but he is on an age related decline. This has been one of our problems this season. With Holder senior slipping, and the loss of Tai, a rider who started the season as 4th best in our team is now having to ride at number 5 and deliver against higher level riders in heats 13 and 15. Picko has stepped up admirably, but it has massively increased the pressure on him to deliver.