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Well tonight is the night! It's been an ambitious project, I hope we see some of you there.

Last call for questions to be submitted by e-mail if you are attending. All panel members have confirmed their attendance. This is the first time we have attempted anything as ambitious as this so we hope it will be well supported. All details you need are here; http://www.nuneatonspeedwaysupportersclub.co.uk/

How impressive is that. Bed fellows with Keith Harris' Orville.....say no more.

E I Addio. I agree with the points made in your post except that, as far as I know, since last year, it was no longer known as the SKY Sports Elite League. I've no idea how much extra SKY paid for the naming rights (if anything at all) but surely extra money coming in at the top end has to help. I would have thought at the very least that a sponsor should be pursued for the British finals at all levels, particularly the youngsters. However on the other side of the coin I am involved with the NSSC and in addition to our continued sponsorship of the Under 16's we supplied tyres to all 16 riders in this years Under 19 Championships (costing £640). We were title sponsors, the hosts at Sittingbourne and the programme was very good but our friends at the Speedway Star made no mention of the NSSC in their report. If I had been a company making the effort to sponsor an event I would expect more exposure than that.

If you plan on attending the "Speedway Question Time" and would like your question to be used as one of the main topics for discussion, can you please e-mail your question to; info@nuneatonspeedwaysupportersclub.co.uk Thank you.

I'm not sure if you are being sarcastic or just too clever for me but Ice Hockey does have a sponsor of their Elite League (Rapid Solicitors). British speedway does not.

Speedway must be the only professional sport in the country that doesn't have a sponsor for its leagues. Is the product really that bad or are the BSPA that bad at promoting the sport?

If you can spare the time and get yourself to Nuneaton a week on Tuesday, 25th November, you can ask a panel for their views on the AGM or any other speedway issue. The NSSC "Speedway Question Time" panel consists of; Tony Steele, Jim Lawrence, Buster Chapman, Rob Lyon, Rory Schlein, Adam Roynon and Simon Stead and will be hosted by the very knowledgeable David Rowe. So we have representitives from all aspects of speedway; the FIM, referees, promoters, team managers, riders and of course the fans. Entry is free to all but there will be a bumper raffle and donations accepted to support young British riders. So if you'd like to support young British riders and have a good speedway night out with like minded people please see our website for all the details; http://www.nuneatonspeedwaysupportersclub.co.uk/ Thank you.

I am pleased to announce that we have another name to add to our panel. Buster Chapman will be joining Tony Steele, Rob Lyon, Adam Roynon, Rory Schlein, Jim Lawrence and Simon Stead. It should be a very interesting evening of forthright views, hosted by David Rowe. Everybody welcome, come and help us support young British riders.

Try this; http://www.speedwayresearcher.org.uk/ I had a quick look yesterday. Literally a mine of information. I had a quick look at Coventry and could look at all full results including second halves. You could spend hours and hours digging in to this.

The NSSC are proud to present a, "Speedway Question Time". In the David Dimbleby role will be David Rowe. Joining him on the panel are Tony Steele, Jim Lawrence, Rob Lyon, Adam Roynon, Rory Schlein and Simon Stead. (There may be another name to add yet!) As this will be taking place after the BSPA AGM there will be a lot of hot topics up for discussion. We hope this will generate a lot of interest and look forward to your support. Entrance will be FREE ! Everybody welcome. There will be a bumper raffle and donations will be accepted to raise funds for young British riders. We sponsor the British Under 16 & Under 19 Championships. The young riders are supplied directly with vouchers, consumables or tyres. If you will be attending the event and wish to suggest a question/topic, please e-mail us at; info@nuneatonspeedwaysupportersclub.co.uk This event will be held at the Chilvers Coton Liberal Club in Nuneaton at 8pm on Tuesday 25th November. For more details please vist our website; http://www.nuneatonspeedwaysupportersclub.co.uk/

So if they are having to improve drainage and relay the track in Riga it wasn't just the weather that caused the cancelled GP as BSI wanted us to believe. Thank you for confirming that!

Fundraising all very well but how much do they need? What happens if the amount donated falls short of the desired level and they don't run the Storm next year. Do we get our money back? (Didn't think so!)

Went to Avesta last night for the Masarna v Lejonen 2nd leg of the final. Lejonens 16 point lead from the first leg was far too much for Masarna to cope with but it was a decent meeting on a nice wide track. As you would expect Lindbäck, Sundström, Berntzon and the two Poles lead the way but we were impressed by the Masarna reserve Ted Hagansbo. I don't know anything about him but thought he had a nice smooth style and not afraid to make strong moves or defend his position. We really enjoyed our visit and have another Swedish speedway T-shirt to add to the collection!

Are the Allsvenskan finals the following Thursday and Friday? 18th & 19th September. We will only be an hour away from Avesta (Masarna) during that week so selfishly hope that they get to the final, if that's the case.

I look forward to reading the Star tomorrow then. The basic questions still remain and are; 1) was the track prepared properly with sufficient drainage and suitable material? 2) if the answer is yes and assuming the weather was too bad on Saturday, why not run it in Riga on Sunday. The weather was fine on Sunday, we were paddling in the Baltic! 3) if the answer is no, then who is to blame for the poor track preparation? We were there from Thursday. Yes there were some showers, some quite heavy, but nothing that should have completely ruined a suitable track. If that GP had been on a "normal-permanent" track it would have been fine for Sunday if Saturday proved to be too much.

There was a post on this forum (thank you whoever it was) at the time saying that you had to return to where you collected or purchased the tickets and complete & submit the form. Of course there has been no help at all from the SGP website other than, "you need to contact the ticket agency for a refund". Why couldn't they help fans by having a link to, or pdf of, the form on their site? As usual with the SGP's we are diverted to an obscure (to us) ticket agency. So obscure that Marks & Spencer's blocked the credit card transaction initially until they spoke to me! And as usual taking our money from a credit card is very quick and easy but they refused to refund against the card and we had to leave all our bank details and passport number on this form. We were told it would be in our bank within 10 working days, now on day 13. Anyway I have e-mailed Paul Bellamy about the delay and to be fair he replied very quickly and I have now been copied in, in an e-mail from Vladimir Ribnikov, "SGP Latvia Organiser" confirming that there had been a delay but 90% of tickets had been credited and, "be sure all tickets will be refunded". Another e-mail will be on the way to Paul Bellamy soon about the miss-management of this whole affair. From track prep right through to PR and customer support, but I want to get my refund first!

Has anybody received their refund yet? Like IanT we completed the form (with all our bank details and passport info!) and handed it in to the Bilesu offices on the Monday after the GP and were told it would be 10 working days. Assuming they don't have August bank holidays in Latvia the 10 days are up. Here we go.......

Got to agree with Abbo. It is becoming increasingly hard work being a speedway fan, no wonder there are fewer of us there every week. We knew we were going to witness two one sided affairs with gulfs between the skills of the riders but like 300? others we went anyway to support the young lads. On handing over our £30 the guy at the turnstile did not even break conversation with one of the "guards" and the women selling programmes couldn't have been more miserable. It was such an underwhelming experience we both commented on it. How difficult is it to say "thank you, enjoy the meeting"...... basics! I thought the meetings were going along at a reasonable pace. It was a bit annoying that they couldn't do the track grading when there was an extra 2 mins for r/r but why would you expect common sense at a speedway meeting! Bearing in mind the previous "curfew" was 10:45 with 5 heats to go, no problem. The strange thing was it seemed to catch everybody by surprise. If there is a curfew tell the fans before hand then we all know what's going on. More to the point what would have happened if there had been more delays in the meeting and at 10:15 we were only at heat 7.....what time would the "curfew" had been then? As I said I went knowing we were not going to see many great races but feel robbed of not seeing Josh Bates against the Storm guys in heats 13 and presumably 15 for no real reason. Pissed off with it all and we are keen, the floating fans will not stand for it, and there is the problem. Speedway cannot survive on the enthusiasts alone. Those that go to speedway for a night out would not tolerate the crap that we put up with!

Where's this curfew come from? Never known it before at Coventry until these last two Storm double headers. And why is it so variable? I reckon last time it was 10:40 and tonight 10:15. Tonight's first meeting could not have run much smoother with only one re-start (I think). The second meeting had a bit of a hold up for repair to the air fence and possibly 3 re-starts but nothing catastrophic. So if there is a curfew at 10:15 they should start even earlier or not attempt it. They should not charge for two meetings if there's no chance of making it. Apart from feeling short changed I also feel sorry for the riders. I'm sure Josh Bates was dead chuffed to only get 3 rides, potentially missing out on another 6 points the way he was going. I hope nobody travelled from Plymouth to watch their team. It will be interesting to see how they handle the Eastbourne double header especially with the extra faffing about the Elite boys like to do. I'd also like to see them try to stop a stock car meeting at 10:15.

Translating a Danish tweet they think it will be a 30 or 40 day ban. If it is and he then falls beneath the GP cut off of 8th place will he just walk back in next year on a wildcard?

This win at all costs attitude is killing speedway. I know people who have stopped going purely for this reason. Why don't we just give Poole the League championship and make Darcy Ward the World Champion every year then we needn't bother about all the grief and controversy that gets us to that point.

Completely agree with IanT particularly about the quality of the track and the lack of responsibilty for its complete failure, very convenient for BSI to hide behind the weather. We are in the same boat regarding the refund and will give them until Monday before chasing. Like IanT I am incensed by BSI's total lack of sympathy or help for fans that support their product. Topaz325 says that fans get fobbed off but always return.......well we are not returning to the GP's. We have attended many over the years, there have been some dodgy ones like Berlin and Tampere and cancellations in Gothenburg, Gelsenkirchen and Riga. We have experienced them all and finally have had enough. When we go to a GP we make a 4/5 day holiday of it so at least we have enjoyed the host cities but for those that just fly in for the meeting it must be awful. BSI have proved many times now that they are incapable of overseeing or putting on a speedway event in a non speedway stadium except for Parken & Cardiff, however even these came perilously close to disaster in the last couple of years. Even Phil Rising said on this forum that Vojens is close to the new Horsens venue if there are any issues........and so it goes on. For me the whole BSI/SGP/Monster thing has just become too unpalatable. According to the official SGP site there is no news at all about Darcy Ward, not even a reason for missing the last GP! How can you take it seriously? And don't get me started on Monster Joe!! Anyway I don't think I'm brave enough for court action but letters and e-mails will be sent. Does anybody have a particularly good name or e-mail address, thanks.

So I pressume Darcy Ward will ride in Gorzow if we hear nothing from the FIM. Isn't that rather strange? Also why doesn't anybody seem to know when the FIM hearing will be?

Is that to become the norm now then?!