My First Skid Speedway School

Ever fancied yourself as the next Greg Hancock, Tomasz Gollob or Jason Crump, but you're unsure how to get the opportunity to ride a speedway bike? My First Skid Speedway School is providing everyone with the opportunity to ride 90cc, 125cc,140cc, 250cc, 350cc and 500cc speedway bikes at tracks across the country including Scunthorpe and Leicester. Ok, so unless your starting at a very young age your very unlikely to ever be the next Greg Hancock, Tomasz Gollob or Jason Crump! But as an avid speedway fan in my mid 20's I fancied having a go myself. 

British Speedway - 2012 Season Preview

With March rapidly approaching and thankfully a relatively quiet winter behind us Its time to start looking forward to the 2012 Speedway season.

As usual a few changes have been made to the SCB rulebook at the AGM. The main changes were; the one rider over 8pts rule has been removed, points limit upped to 41, EL best pairs shelved, Eastbourne and Kings Lynn will not compete in the KO Cup and Jon Cook promoted to BSPA Vice Chairman. The full British Speedway AGM Statement is available here

Perhaps more surprisingly there has also been some major changes to the SWC format. The hosts Sweden have been handed an automatic place into the final at Malilla. Meaning that only one team from the race off will go into the final. The automatic qualification to the final of the host nation allows the competition to expand to nine countries. Teams will now only include four riders instead of five and meetings will be cut from twenty five to twenty  heats. Full details regarding the changes and new format are available via the official FIM Speedway World Championships website 

Ticking Timebomb or Key to the Title?

Mario Balotelli, Love him or hate him he's an immense footballing talent who's never far from both the front and back pages of the papers. At the tender age of 21 he is undoubtedly one of the most talented up and coming footballers on the planet, however his extrovert character and off-field antics often lead to problems. 

Super Mario has Pace, Power & Technical ability in abundance. These abilities were shown against Manchester United as he grabbed himself the opening 2 goals in Manchester Citys 6-1 demolition of Manchester United. The now famous celebration following the opening goal (pictured above) was in reference to Mad Mario and his friends setting fire to his bathroom in his £3 Million luxury home. The fire brigade were called at 1am on Saturday morning and the substantial blaze was reported to be caused by Mad Mario and his friends lighting fireworks and firing them from his bathroom window. Following the incident Mario became an ambassador for firework safety, giving his full backing to the Treacle campaign for firework safety. You just can't make this stuff up!

British Speedway - What does the future hold?

With the British Speedway Annual General Meeting (AGM) rapidly approaching I thought I would discuss the topic of British Speedway and what rules and regulations can be implemented to improve what is one of the best and yet most underrated sports in Great Britain.

So, let's start by having a look at the current Elite League Structure. The 2011 Elite League consisted of 10 teams:

• Belle Vue, Birmingham, Coventry, Eastbourne, Kings Lynn, Lakeside, Peterborough, Poole, Swindon and Wolverhampton

Each of the ten Elite League Teams had to declare a team with a minimum of seven riders that did not exceed 40.00 points with only one rider over a calculated match average (CMA) of 8.00 allowed within each team. Teams could also include two pairs of doubling up riders who to qualify had to be in a Premier League declared 1 - 7. A number eight rider may also of been included within a team's lineup however his average must not of exceeded that of the lowest declared rider's CMA and must of had a final previous seasons Premier League CMA of 9.00 or less.  The number 8 rider may only be re-declared once each season, except if replacement is due to long term injury or retirement and the rider has been removed from the Premier League Team’s declaration. Further details on Team Formats and Team Meeting Regulations are available via the Speedway Control Bureaus Website

RIP Marco Simoncelli - 1987 - 2011

Sunday the 23rd of October 2011 is a day I will never forget. One of the greatest upcoming talents within Moto GP Marco Simoncelli was involved within a fatal incident at the Sepang International Circuit. The incident occurred due to Simoncelli's bike losing traction on lap two in turn eleven and began to slide towards the gravel trap. However being the out and out racer Marco was he tried to correct himself and stay on the bike, unfortunately the tyres regained traction and resulted in Marco and his bike veering towards the middle of the track into the path of Colin Edwards and Valentino Rossi who could do nothing to avoid the horrific accident that resulted in the passing of Marco Simoncelli.

Marco's larger than life character both on and off the track led to a huge following. I don't think anyone would argue that next season on the factory RC213V Honda he would of been challenging the likes of Stoner, Lorenzo and Pedrosa for the title and would of been a future world champion. His natural charisma added something extra to the pitlane and is something we have not seen since the emergence of Valentino Rossi.