BRITISH SPEEDWAY - OFFICIAL STATEMENT

BRITISH Speedway bosses have moved to clarify the decisions over two well documented issues.
Firstly, at a meeting of the British Speedway Promoters’ Association General Council, a review took place of the decision to prevent Premiership riders with an average of six or above also riding in the Championship.
This rule was introduced for those riders who didn’t double-up last season and was seen as the first step towards reducing doubling-up in the sport.

Unfortunately, and regrettably, Scott Nicholls and Edward Kennett – two fine servants of British Speedway – were caught up in this.
General Council members have now voted to keep the regulation in place in order to gain more control of the doubling-up situation and begin steps to reduce the prospect of Premiership and Championship clubs looking too similar.
Secondly, the application by Edinburgh to use American rider Luke Becker has been rejected.
This is based on criteria set down by UKVI and not the British Speedway Promoters’ Association and, as such, the management committee had little choice but to follow the correct procedure.
This also applies to Australian Ryan Douglas who is keen to race in the UK and clubs have registered their interest in signing him – but, like Becker, he doesn’t qualify for a visa.
These procedures were clarified and implemented forcibly in recent years when British Speedway ran a serious risk of losing the use of all visa riders.
We hope this statement goes some way to explaining the reasoning behind decisions taken by the Association as we continue to strive for transparency with our public, riders and sponsors.

(SPEEDWAY 1)

POOLE have signed James Shanes for a second season to complete their line-up for the SGB Premiership campaign.
The locally-based 20-year-old was one of the bright spots of a tough 2017 campaign for the Pirates, and promoter Matt Ford says he has answered extensive social media calls for his return.
Ford said: “It's rare for our supporters to demand the return of a rider with such intensity, but our social media pages have been going wild such is the popularity of James. I hope we have answered the calls of the fans in the best way possible by bringing him back for another season.
“James was terrific in his debut campaign last year and I've no doubt he will go on to impress again in our 70th anniversary season. He is a rider of great promise and I'm delighted to make him our seventh and final signing for 2018.
“Now our team-building is complete, I can say with great confidence myself and the rest of the Pirates management feel we have a line-up more than capable of challenging for the Premiership title.”

(SPEEDWAY 2)

KENT have handed their final team place for 2018 to Essex-based racer Alex Spooner.
The 17-year-old was a regular in the National League last season as he made a succession of guest appearances throughout the division – and now steps up to a full team berth at Central Park.
Kings promoter Len Silver said: “With no practice sessions to attend because of the weather, our decision came down to what we already know from looking at the form last season of riders vying for this final spot and reports from members of the Kings team.
“So, weighing all this up we have gone with the junior who we signed last season and who went on to gain such valuable experience on all sorts of tracks during the 2017 campaign.
“Both Alex and his father Chris are over the moon about the appointment. Other clubs have approached them over the past three weeks or so, but they held back in the hope that a place at Central Park would be available.”