BSPA AGM Update

NEWS Monday 20th November 2017, 12:00pm

by Press Office

  Edinburgh Monarchs

The annual British Speedway Promoters Association AGM took place this weekend with many small but important changes being made to how the sport will operate in 2018.

The teams taking part in the SGB Premiership and Championship will all remain as they were for 2018, with the addition of Lakeside who make the move up from the National League to the Championship.

All teams in the SGB Championship will work to a 42.50 points limit for team building with no other restrictions in assembling their line ups.

Each team in the SGB Championship will face each other once at home and once away before the top four teams progress to play offs to decide the Champions. Promotion and relegation will no longer take place.

The early season League Cup competition will make a return with the following groups:

Group 1: Ipswich, Lakeside, Peterborough
Group 2: Scunthorpe, Sheffield, Newcastle, Redcar
Group 3: Berwick, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Workington

The first round of the Knock Out Cup has been set on a regional basis, with Scunthorpe, Ipswich, Berwick, Newcastle and Workington receiving byes to the second round. The first round will see the following ties:

Sheffield v Redcar - with the winners facing Scunthorpe.
Lakeside v Peterborough - with the winners facing Ipswich.
Edinburgh v Glasgow - with the winners facing Berwick.

The polarising Tactical Ride rule has been abolished, with the Tactical Substitute rule being reintroduced in its place. It may only be used once per match between heats 5 to 7 and 9 to 14 when a team is 6 or more points behind, with the substitute's points not being doubled.

The SGB Premiership will move to fixed racedays, with those teams riding on Mondays, Wednesdays and selected Thursdays. SGB Championship teams will race generally on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.

Glasgow's request to change their racenight to a Friday received the majority approval from the other SGB clubs when voted upon, however Edinburgh will continue to have seniority when the Tigers are due to race at Armadale.

The full SpeedwayGB statement can be read here.

More details to follow.