Live speedway every Monday!!

Live speedway from the U.K. every Monday at 2.30 E.S.T. at

http://www.justin.tv/daave1

Today is Poole (Last years league winners) at home to Swindon (The team tipped to win the league this year). Ryan Fisher from U.S.A. is in the Swindon team but Kyle Legault is out with injury.

Next Monday @ 2.30 est is Belle vue vs Lakeside.

McConnell wins on the ice again!! 21st March 09

The big money winner at Dawson Creek, Shawn “Mad Dog” McConnell is still only 5th in the Series overall therefore missed out on a Heat 1 appearance which saw Venegas start from the favoured inside gate position and never looked back as he won from Kerrigan who held off a 4-lap challenge from both James “Demolition” Mann and Anthony “British Bulldog” Barlow.
Heat 2 was McConnell’s first appearance when the race was stopped as Eddie Martinez didn’t make it to the 1st turn and was placed on the handicap line for the re-run when McConnell took an awarded win after the race was stopped on the last lap when David “Victor” Meldrum spun out taking Eddie Martinez out as well; 2 starts for Martinez and two visits face down on the ice was not the kind of start he wanted but fortunately neither man nor machine was injured.
In the 2nd group of qualifying heats, incidentally an all US race or more accurately the battle of the Californians, turned out to be the best race of the night by far as once again Venegas had drawn the inside gate position. However McConnell starting on the outside gate 4 was not spooked and by the end of the 2nd lap had got into a position where he could challenge Venegas and on lap 3 executed a most breathtaking brilliant inside pass off the 2nd turn and down the back straight for a superb second qualifying heat win and leaving Venegas in 2nd place ahead of Krazy Kelly Kerrigan.
Barlow must have been watching that race as in the very next heat he also made a win from the outside gate and in the process secured a place on the front row in the Main Final to his 2nd win of the qualifiers and thus secure his place in the Main Final, while Mann held off the challenge of Warburton for 2nd place.
In the Last Chance Kerrigan on the middle of the Front Row popped out of the gate ad was never in real danger from either Mann or Martinez and it was those 3 who joined the Main Final on the Back Row as McConnell had gate 1 on the Front row inside Charlie Venegas and Anthony Barlow.
Venegas missed the gate and chased Barlow hard down the back straight and was somewhat hard as he t-boned Barlow on the middle of the 3rd / 4th turn and with the race being stopped was put on the very back handicap line for the re-run.
In the re-run it was McConnell who looked a Winner all the way as Barlow maintained 2nd place throughout with fellow Brit Mann picking up the 3rd rostrum place as the best Venegas could do was to come through to 4th place by the end of 6 laps (it was actually 7 as the Start Marshal Neil miscounted!) which meant that at the end of a great nights racing Barlow picked up 2 more Championship points than Venegas and is now just 9 points behind the Leader whilst McConnell moves up into 4th place, a tremendous achievement considering he has only competed in 5 of the 10 Rounds held so far and is now 14 points adrift of 3rd place James Mann.

Old injury keeps Legault out of team!!

Kyle Legault's debut for Poole at Eastbourne on Sunday ended early when the courageous Canadian was forced to withdraw from the meeting after he aggravated his broken leg he sustained a year ago.
In his first race he finished second behind Eagles' Simon Gustafsson and, despite not winning the race, he felt encouraged by his performance. However, his next two rides proved both painful and problematic and, reluctantly, he was forced to withdraw after scoring 2-points.
“I felt quite good in my first race, with a bit more experience of the track I think I could have won it,” said Legault. “But after that my leg was really painful and I just couldn't carry on.”
Legault broke his right femur in March last year while riding for Birmingham in the Premier League. During the winter he had been racing in Argentina to get race fit and to test his leg. Although there were some painful moments, he won the Argentine Championships and was left feeling confident that his leg would be able to stand up to the rigours of his first season in the Elite League.
“The Elite League is a higher level of racing than the standard in Argentina . I could conserve myself while riding out there, but in the EL you can't really do that if you want to be successful and score points,” he said.
Already weakened by the absence of their injured Australian Jason Doyle, Poole went down to the Eagles 49-41 in the first leg of the Elite Shield. The second leg is scheduled for Wednesday, but unfortunately Kyle has been forced to sit it out.
“The doctor advised me not to ride until I have seen a specialist on Friday, just in case it makes it worse,” said a disappointed Legault. “Basically my leg hasn't healed yet. I'm very, very disappointed. I aggravated it in Bjarne Pedersen's testimonial meeting, but I was hoping it was because I hadn't ridden for a while. Matt Ford has been really supportive, so now we've just got to wait to see what the specialist says on Friday.”

Poole loose to Eastbourne 49-41!!

Kyle Legault contributed 2 points during his first full event for his new team Poole Pirates but this didn't help much as the home team was too strong. The Poole heat leaders scored freely but had insufficent support from the reserves and second strings. Home team rider Davey Watt was the rider of the meeting with 13 points from 5 rides. Top grand prix rider in his day, Carl Stonehewer, may have some of the blame, for the the loss, placed at his feet as he failed to score.

Just 4 points from him would have turned the Eagles win into a draw and a point for Poole .

Next event
Wed 25-Mar Home Poole v Eastbourne

See Poole side of the story in "Comments" below.

McConnell wins in Dawson creek BC!!

13th March 2009. 1st Place: Shawn McConnell. 2nd Place: James Mann. 3rd Place: Anthony Barlow.

With the series moving across the border to Canada for the very first time, it was unfortunate that with the British League based Riders, Paul Cooper & Ben Hopwood having returned to the UK for the start of their conventional speedway season, the field was further depleted by the non-appearance of 3 Californian based riders including the championship leader Charlie Venegas along with Kelly Kerrigan and Eddie Martinez.However the expectant crowd, approaching 2000 spectators witnessed some superb racing including a couple of highly competitive Challenge races interspersed with the main qualifying heats.Heat 1 saw Shawn McConnell show why he is such a master at speedway racing by showing Anthony Barlow the way home collecting a valuable 3 points in the process while at the back, Nathan Siegel experienced the difficulty of changing from 4 wheels to 2 by falling heavily on the ice, although the race proceeded to the end.Heat 2 saw a good scrap between the now domiciled Brits of James Mann & David Meldrum in which Mann came out on top.The 2nd round of qualifiers saw Barlow getting the better of Meldrum and McConnell beating Mann which meant that McConnell, Mann & Barlow went through to the Main Final, leaving Meldrum to do battle in the Last Chance for his place on the back row in the Main Final. Somewhat surprisingly Ben Warburton gaining in confidence as the series progresses out fought Meldrum to take only his 2nd heat win during the Championship.The 6 lap Final was won from pole position by the evergreen Shawn “Mad Dog” McConnell with James Mann having a good race to hold off the strong challenge of Barlow, while Meldrum took a 4th place.As a consequence Barlow edged a little closer to the Series Leader Venegas, but will surely be disappointed not to have taken maximum points
Several of the riders in this series have riden at Welland including Greg Starcevic.

Kyle rides tonight!!

PIRATES reserve Kyle Legault will be given his first Wimborne Road run-out a week earlier than expected.
The Canadian, who impressed in official practice on Monday, lines up in Bjarne Pedersen’s testimonial tonight (7.30pm) in place of injured Poole rider Jason Doyle.
Legault had been due to make his first appearance in front of the top-flight champion’s home crowd on Wednesday, March 25 against Eastbourne in the Elite Shield.
But he will now wear the number seven race jacket for home side County Crest Pallets against a Newcastle Phasion Diamonds outfit skippered by Pedersen.
The Dane, awarded the benefit for 10 years’ service to British speedway at Newcastle and Poole, has also drafted in his countryman Kenni Larsen.
He replaces Russian two-times world under-21 champion Emil Sajfutdinov, who has visa problems and must sit out his second British meeting in four days after missing Swindon’s 60th Anniversary event on Sunday.
Pedersen’s namesake and reigning senior world champion Nicki Pedersen will line up, alongside other former or current GP stars Hans Andersen, Krzysztof Kasprzak and Antonio Lindback.
Bjarne said: “I know Emil’s not coming, but we still have a world class list of riders and I’m grateful they’ve all taken the time to ride in my meeting.
“I realise Kenni is not on the same level as Emil, but I’m sure he will be a star of the future if he can keep on performing like he has done for Newcastle and my Danish club Holstebro over the past couple of years.
“It’s a big blow to us that Doyley is injured and has to miss out, but it’s great Kyle can step in and get some laps in on the Poole track.
“All the preparations have been done and I’m absolutely looking forward to the meeting.
“I’ve got some surprise events taking place between races and I’m hoping everyone will enjoy the whole night.”
County Crest Pallets: 1 Chris Holder, 2 Antonio Lindback, 3 Davey Watt, 4 Krzysztof Kasprzak, 5 Hans Andersen, 6 Daniel Davidsson, 7 Kyle Legault.
Newcastle Phasion Diamonds: 1 Bjarne Pedersen, 2 Joe Screen, 3 Kenneth Bjerre, 4 Kenni Larsen, 5 Nicki Pedersen, 6 Adam Skornicki, 7 Carl Stonehewer.

Press and practice vid here...http://users.boardnation.com/~poolepiratepostbag/index.php?board=3;action=display;threadid=1870

See race results in "Comments" below.

Riders with Welland experience hit the ice!!

Round 8 Auburn Hills. Mi. 6 March 09.

1st Place: Anthony Barlow, 2nd Place: Charlie Venegas 3rd Place: Sean McConnell

Heat 1: Barlow 3, Mann 2, Kerrigan DNF, Venegas 0 (exc)

Heat 2: Cooper 3, McConnell 2, Meldrum 1, Mittl 0 (res)

Heat 3: Mittl 3, Warburton 2 , Starcevi 1, Turner 0

Heat 4: McConnell 3, Venegas 2, Cooper 1, Starcevi 0 (res)

Heat 5: Barlow 3, Meldrum 2, Starcevic 1, Turner 0

Heat 6: Kerrrigan 3, Mittl 2, Mann 1, Warburton 0

Last Chance Qualifier: (No points–Top 3 finishers to main event)

1st: Cooper, 2nd: Venegas, 3rd: Mann, 4th: Meldrum, 5th: Warburton, 6th: Kerrigan

Main Event/points earned:1st: Barlow 10, 2nd: Venegas 7, 3rd: McConnell 5, 4th: Cooper 3, 5th: Mittl 2, 6th: Mann 1

Points for Night:Barlow 16, McConnel 10, Venegas 9, Cooper 7, Mittl 7, Mann 4, Meldrum 3, Kerrigan 3, Warburton 2, Starcevic 2, Turner 0

Series overall standings: 1st C Venegas 101. 2nd A Barlow 80. 3rd James Mann 58. 4th Kelly Kerrigan 56. 5th Paul Cooper 48. 6th Ben Hopwood 47. 7th David Meldrum 33. 8th Sean McConnell 32. 9th Eddie Martinez 11. 10th Ben Warburton 10. 11th Casey Donholt 9. 12th Adam Mittl 7. (Riders in bold have ridden Welland)