Richspeedway

well what were you doing at the 100th gp??? watching the end of a rugby match this a cock up that the BSPA could not even do

Yeah well done Suparman lets hope it was a good meeting and a good crowd, maybe if it all goes well then maybe a couple neighbouring nations will start the sport up in the country.

Well I live just outside Nuneaton and we are having a thunderstorm and rain here at the moment hope it passes over

five qualifiers this year ? Well least it will give more riders a chance to get into the grand final good luck to the Brits anyway

Real close meeting great stuff Finland getting through just hope they can stay injury free now for the round in Denmark

Kaj Laukkanen won the final heat with Smolinski only getting second. Finland in the World Cup

Not yet if it is just one heat to go, they just need to finish ahead of the German rider in this one.

Come on the Fins!! Kauko bring them home

I see in the Speedway Star that Plymouth boss Mike Bowden is looking to set something up in Tenerife so that will be interesting if it happens

I was thinking the other day why don't BSI try to market the sport to the middle east/asia? Other sports have gone to these places and have done well when took to the far east. I know we are a "minority" sport but I think there would be interest. I saw on Transworld Sport that the Chinese are starting to take up snooker as in the sport there are a few up and coming guys. In the middle east they like there motorsports which has been shown with Bahrain, Dubai and Qatar opening race circuits that Moto GP and Formula 1 have been too. Also the Chinese/Japanese are mad when it comes to Moto GP and flock to the tracks to see Rossi and co. Maybe if they took a couple of bikes and riders over and tried to highlight the sport then there would be interest as BSI said they would love to have a GP outside of Europe but I have not seen them do anything to try and it started. I know speedway is a expensive sport buying equipment, bikes etc and not like football or tennis where you just buy a ball or a racket and start off, but it would be great to see GP's and more countries starting up the sport.

well with the academy league setting up as well as having the conference league it may bring some more young lads/girls up and then the PL teams will then take them on board, it will take maybe a few years to see the benefit but like most things it takes time to see results but I think there will be more british riders coming through if they continuew what they are doing. May see another Bridger but realisitcally not all riders will come up like that and most will have to be patient and go through the Premier route instead of going straight into the Elite.

I think it would just take a few years for riders to come up IF there were conference teams to spring up as it would take a few seasons before they could go into the PL. So the league would maybe suffer but then as the riders got more experience to go up then they would have enough as some teams would probably still go for riders abroad but not as many.

I think it was a good point put earlier about smaller places like Workington have good crowds compared to some cities that run speedway. One reason could be is that in big cities there are many other things that people can do to go out and have good night so it is down to the marketing people to really sell it to the people. I think speedway in London is needed for sure, but it is hard to find places to run it and also like the case with Wimbledon some places put high rent costs. On a seperate note though I see Doncaster Rovers are moving ground wonder what they will be doing with the old site? I guess be houses like everywhere else.

Well I know there is a bit of debate with that as Berwick Rangers play in Scottish league and the boundaries have changed. But I guess could open this up to England as there are some counties that do not have one team. I think they could sell the sport better then maybe more councils would let tracks go ahead and maybe get more people going through the turnstiles.

it would be great to see maybe a team in mid/north Wales though. cardiff would be great but it is maybe to near to Newport and Tim Stone would not have that.

I was wondering what people thought about speedway in the two areas. In Scotland we have Glasgow and Edinburgh in the Premier and sadly that is it. Armadale were in the conference but had to sadly call it a end. It would be great to see maybe another team in Scotland maybe in the conference just to get the kids through as the nearest team would be Cleveland (I might be wrong) for the conference. Maybe Aberdeen/Inverness area? Also Wales is in the same situation, with just Newport in the Premier and Conference which is brilliant to see as they get the chance to go up the ladder but where else in Wales could they put a track? There was Carmarthen which sadly went and also there was talk of Swansea and having a track at the greyhound stadium around this time last year but that has gone quiet. I know speedway is not a massive popular sport in the uk compared to Football, Rugby, Cricket etc but we do have alot of fans and alot in Wales/Scotland and I think that if marketed well then both places could have a couple more teams maybe in the conference first so that young lads/girls could get the chance to get into the sport.

Well in recent days we have seen Birmingham comeback after years in the dark and that is a good boost for the sport. But really Speedway should be getting back to the big cities like Liverpool, Bristol and Norwich that used to have teams. If you look in the UK you will see some counties do not even have one team. Part of the problem is councils as most reject the idea of having a speedway track as some like the public have the wrong idea of the sport. Maybe what they could do is when they apply they could take some to a meeting so they see that fans are not Hells Angels like some think and see the atmosphere is good and also the that Speedway can be a exciting sport with traffic in and out of the stadium not as bad as other sports. Another idea is that promoters get together at the end of season conference and produce a booklet and disc for councils and local residents so when people look at applying to create a team they can show them what it is all about and erase all them bad ideas that they have.

I was up there last week on hols and went past the stadium on the way to caister castle. The stadium is having work done to it at the moment but I think it would be great to come back maybe conference first.

Yeah Andy it would be great to see a couple of london teams back (nothing against Arena and Rye House) but Wimbledon might be back but another couple would be great. Seems strange when I get the history magazines and London had so many in the 40's-50's compared to now.

I heard that the resevoir that is near Nuneaton down Quarry Lane has been filled in and as there are not any houses around maybe that could be a good site for a conference track?

Yeah just finished reading it thought it was really good read about what he thought about Hans Andersen and also his own career. Will have to watch out for his son in the golfing world.

Yeah sorry I meant the thieves that pinched all the tools and ran off

I cannot believe someone has nicked there gear some real scum out there

I was reading in the Speedway History mag about Bristol and thought it was great that Laurel and Hardy went to the meetings and were fans of the team.

I thought I might aswell write on this topic instead of opening a new one as it is the same kind of question. Regarding the Premier League with Reading possibly going up and no Hull and Wimbledon due to no track and maybe no Birmingham coming in and also the money problems current Premier sides have, what do people think of maybe a northern and southern premier league? That way it could help sides with the financial side a little as they do not make long trips up to Glasgow or down to Isle of Wight. Of course it depends on how many teams will be operating but if there were enough I think it maybe a good idea. Also if new teams (cities/towns) wanted to maybe join like Plymouth or Middlesbrough maybe they should start from the Conference as it is the cheapest of the three divisions. But the main thing about that is I think the BSPA or maybe the Promoters of the Conference teams should get together and make some sort of booklet for councillors and mayors etc so if a new team do want to start up a team they can show them in black and white what the implications are of having a team and what strides teams go to to combat noise etc. It would also show it as a professional structure with the booklet and other items like that. Then after a couple of seasons if the team has grown and done well in the Conference then they could apply for the Premier League if they so wished too.