IainB

Not so sure about Laguta, bit of a start tart... Having said that there's no "trick" tracks this year so I think going on current Polish form could be a wise move

Can you remember where you saw those odds? I quite fancy an e/w punt at that price

see you next Tuesday

See you next Tuesday

You're wasting your time chris4gillian

What an interesting listen the Martin Dugard podcast was (as they all are). You listen to most interviews and the interviewee normally finishes off with the cliche of "If I had to do it all over again I wouldn't change a thing"... Not on this one, sadly it sounds as if Martin has many regrets and would almost certainly do everything different. If I could offer one bit of constructive criticism it would be to maybe ask your audience of possible topics to cover. Obviously I don't know how much preparation time you have before an interview but if the listeners had some forewarning we could maybe suggest some topics. There were two memorable stand out moments in Martin's career for me and that was his British GP win and the Stefan Anderson "incident" and the latter wasn't covered... maybe he didn't want to talk about it, I don't know. Anyway, an excellent listen and keep up the good work.

How times change... we can't say "Tobacco" today apparently. So now the T word is to be erased from history

looks like the Confederate Flag (non) issue has already been discussed ad nauseam on this thread to be fair the Battle of Sedgemoor does get a few mentions but only as peoples assumptions on why the nickname Rebels was used for Somerset and it's connection with the confederate flag.

I suppose Somerset didn't have the history that Reading did at the time of the change. Do you know when the statement you quoted was issued? You could say that they were quite forward thinking and ahead of their time

Yes it does clear it up for me thanks for posting (and I genuinely mean that). I had done some searching and was unable to turn anything up... I stand corrected on the "Rebels" nickname but I'm still not sure why the confederate flag was used originally, maybe because it was familiar to Speedway fans after White City and Oxford? Even Debbie Hancock says people were asking what the confederate flag has to do with Somerset... and she doesn't give an answer either in the statement you quote.

You silly old Najjer, I can accept that maybe just maybe the name "Rebels" was used for the reason Grachan states but then why use the confederate flag as the club emblem? I fail to see the correlation between the Confederate flag as used in the American Civil war, some 3,000 miles away as the club emblem and the club name of the Rebels to commemorate the Battle of Sedgemoor in Somerset. Perhaps you can enlighten me so I can stop making myself look so silly As far as I can tell, this is what should have been on the clubs race jacket

OK not perspex then... perspex like (I'm no chemist), the year is 2020 and there's many different materials that could be used, just something to absorb the shock, think of a large cushion tray on its side. Don't get bogged down thinking about the fact I said perspex and think of a different material

If you look at the air fences there is still a major design flaw with them and has been from day one and that is they tend to lift up and the rider and bike goes underneath them if they go in low. I have always thought that they should have some kind of perspex screen in front of them to help absorb some of the initial impact and maybe stop riders from going under. I also think this would help with air bags down the straights as handlebars and foot rests wouldn't dig in, although it would change the racing lines at many tracks. In short the air bags should be used as a shock absorber and not catch fencing as it is at the moment. As a matter of interest... do you (or anybody) know who does the commentary and analysis on the Polish TV? I know Cegelski does some... just wondered who the other "experts" were... and if they're any good?

I wonder if many British riders have offered their services?

No the flag on top of the car is to commemorate the battle of Sedgemoor in Somerset, when the rebels defeated General Lee, coincidentally the name of a general also fighting in the american civil war... everybody knows that

I maybe the exception but I always used to love travelling around the country to see some of the big "Prestige" individual events... The Pride of the East, Barum Trophy, Golden Hammer, Brandonapolis, Coalite Classic, Olympique, Golden Gauntlets, Blue Riband and probably others... never made it to Ippo for a 16 Lapper or Star of Anglia, it's just too bloody far away Some of these were still being held until the late 90's/early 00's. I think the problem started around that time when riders would pull out, often at short notice, the BLRC is a prime example, where for whatever reason riders took the p1ss.

Hmm... Torun and Poole both relegated

Maybe instead of linking riders pay to the points they score it's time link riders pay to the number of punters that turn up to watch them, that way they'd be more involved in trying to get bums on seats

...at the moment

Looking at my planner yesterday evening and both matches were on PS1

You could say the same about CL & PL compared to the SGP series... Imagine watching it on BT Sport, thinking I like the look of that and then turning up at any of the tracks in Britain (BV exempt)

Yeah, I'm pretty sure it was nationwide

I seem to remember such a questionaire paper being issued in the late 90's early 00's. From memory it had a load of contrived questions on it not really addressing the real issues... also not everyone buys a program so maybe just a customer suggestions box located somewhere around the stadium... maybe directly above the skips

F1 has been classified as "Elite" though... Speedway (Domestic at least) has not. It makes me smile when people say Do whatever it is next year... unfortunately there's no guarantee that we'll be in any different situation by this time next year.

I wonder if it has anything to do with a certain sponsorship that Dudek has but Laguta doesn't?