YeOldPitGate

Whoops my bad just checked I would have thought he would have earned way more out of f1 , Flagrag is normally on the money he seems to think the new owner/s are well financed and have some big sponsorship lined up

I would imagine he's got a few mil the issue will be he knows how hard it is to make a profit out of a speedway track even with an established fan base and as he's at the tail end of his career I would be suprised if he's willing to risk his lifetimes earnings on Northampton. Someone did mention Mark Webber now that would be great , a fella worth hundreds of millions who would have massive sponsorship contacts he's the kind of person who if he got involved could prove the kind of game changer needed for the sport.

I think everyone on here wishes them the absolute best but it can't be denied there's some very big challenges to be overcome hopefully every assistance will be given to them by the other tracks so they have a fighting chance.

I'm not knocking him as a rider all i'm saying your not getting the Scott Nicholls who rode at the Cardiff gp at his peak.

To be fair when Pboro won it the top league was probably the worst its ever been for quality and they did it on seven riders who had all been at the top of their game 10-15 years ago, all of them were still a decade past their best but due to such a weak league they were still good enough to get over the line

Is Northampton still happening ? (Phil/Flagrag any news ?)

We all know one of those charecters.

Didn't they both have bad smashes in 2025 I think as you get older those kind of things catch up with you more than if your in your teens or twenties.

A sixth team could be supported but it really needs to happen in 2027 give them a year to get prepped build interest locally etc, if the rumours of deep pockets and big sponsors are on the money then maybe Northampton could start 2027 with Becker, Wright, Woofy (maybe), as a top three, so long as the team could win 80% of the time at home that would be a start.

Agreed the plus side is they have bought one of the two best supported clubs in the country agree re Reading money was p-ssed away on industrial scale.

As I've mentioned many times Sudden Sam got one of his best ever results that year he was basically employed as a motivator for the riders when they were in the pits and was on about 70-80k for the privaledge probably 130-140k now that's not a dig at Sam I bet he thought this is going to like getting paid for falling off a log , but goes to show from the new owners point of view how money was p-ssed up the wall.

out of interest what is the final ipswich 1-7 ?

We must be due to hear something soon Flagrag is normally in the know and mentioned deep pocketed owners with big sponsorship lined up lets hope there is some positive news soon.

Got to wish them all the best for 2026 hopefully they can move the club and more inportantly the top league forward I did just read this on the bbc website if only speedway could achieve 1% of the fruits that f1 have seen we would move on massively. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp8rz13gdx0o

Rambo Lambo maybe ?

80's were brilliant 90's pretty good also my night clubbing hey days early to mid twenties great times.

Think there was 48 thou there the year I went to the world final in 86 when Gundo won it.

Boy those lads have put a shift in this winter .

The general impression is the number one's at the time hoovered up most of it and once the trough was empty most decamped to new troughs in Poland.

As we all know there are no easy answers we are probably now at the stage of least worst choices, another big issue with doubling up is given the acute shortage of riders in the UK when someone like Lawson or Wright for example retire its not one but two teams that then have a problem of being a rider short for the next year.

The difference when I started going in the early/mid 80's was vast Joe Owen was the king of the national league but really struggled even at reserve in the old british league. Jen's Rasmussen was a 5 point Oxford reserve he dropped down and was virtually unbeatable in the old second division. When Havelock & Silver moved up two very gifted young riders at the time it still took them 2-3 seasons to bed in to the top league before they started to kick on. Now days other than a handful of riders the bulk plying their trade in the UK can be seen in both divisions for different teams.

Webber would certainly have the kind of bags needed, can't imagine Crumpie would be looking to put anything in if he was involved given he has seen over the years how much promoters have lost money wise, all be it he earned well from his time in the UK.

Well at least Flagrags comments about deep pockets and big sponsors lined up sounds promising, he did mention the other side of the world re the new owners,can you imagine if the Glazers were getting involved that would please Mike no doubt.

Remember Virgin Cola

Good to hear Flagrag although I fear they may need the deep pockets, hopefully they have a credible long term plan and won't be off if the first season flops.