SPEEDWAY OPINION: "The new system will only fail"

After an underwhelming year for British Speedway last season, which came under much scrutiny from press and riders alike, including two-time World Champion Tai Woffinden who has refused to ride for Team GB in 2017, the British Speedway Promoter’s association has undergone its biggest revamp of the sport in recent times. But how effective will the changes be?

 

The biggest change of all is the re-introduction of a promotion/relegation system between the two leagues, now called the Premier League and Championship, in order to try and create a more competitive interactivity between the two leagues. But while there are many positives including the fact that seasons will be more hotly contested come the closing stages of the year, the eventual result will show that the system will only fail.

 

When tried in previous seasons, the main problem was that teams in the lower league could rarely afford to come up a division and, quite frankly, most of them did not want to either.

 

The other obvious problem is that, given riders are allowed to double up and feature in both leagues, when the lowest positioned Premier League side rides against the top positioned Championship team in the relegation/promotion battle, the time may come when a rider has to choose whether he rides for his Premier side or Championship side, which would create an embarrassing situation for the BSPA. Confusing I know, but I do not think the rule will be around long enough to bother too many people.

 

On the positive side, the introduction of Rye House and Somerset to the Premier League is a welcome addition given the quality of both tracks and the racing pedigree behind each club.

 

However the loss of the Lakeside Hammers is a damaging blow that once again shows the financial fragilities of British Speedway, not to mention the financial trouble that the Belle Vue Aces, one of Britain’s best-recognised clubs, finds themselves in.

 

Another positive is the rule that states Premier League clubs must include at least two British riders within their squads, something that can only help to encourage young British riders to get better and therefore helping Team GB on the international stage. That’s the idea anyway.

 

But the bonus is that the abolishment of the fast track system allows for teams to have better British riders within their squads instead of keeping them at reserve.

 

However, for positives that’s about it. The biggest problem with the new rulings is that surrounding rider averages.

 

Rider averages have always been extremely hard to get ones head around given that they change so often and no one truly understands who creates them in the first place, or why. But this year the BSPA have gone one better and created a ruling that seems to punish teams for having top riders.

 

The new rule on Premier League rider averages states that those riders who only rode in last years Elite League instead of both the Elite and Premier Leagues will have 1.4 added to each of their current averages, so, for example, our very own Swindon captain Jason Doyle will start next season with an average of 13.41.

 

The big problem with this is that given Premier League teams only have a 50 points average total in which to make their squads around, if you have a GP rider such as Doyle, a massive chunk of your total is going to be taken up by one rider. Therefore having better riders is essentially punishing teams, and one of the main reasons Speedway attendances have plummeted is because of the lack of top riders.

 

Changes are what were needed to try and bring this pastime classic sport out of the ashes but unfortunately there have not been enough changes in the right areas.

 

While the addition of two new teams to the Premier League is great, this years AGM has not resulted in much more than a name change, and it will certainly take a lot more to re-energise the racing World of British Speedway.