Speedway bosses who met in Spain at the weekend have come up with new plans and a points scoring system for the 2009 season. The British Speedway Promoters' Association, which as a group controls and runs league Speedway racing in the UK, has announced the following points scoring system. Last year, in an attempt to encourage teams to be built with more strength away from home and create more exciting matches, the aggregate bonus point was dropped in favour of rewarding teams with three league points instead of two for winning an away match. This worked well to an extent but was not perfect - some matches were still dead and buried by heat seven or eight, and teams simply gave up because there was no aggregate point to worry about or race for. This has been addressed with a league scoring system now in place that will reward a team for even getting within six points of the home team. In theory, this now means that even a team that is losing a meeting by 18 points with only three races left can still turn the meeting around and salvage a league point. They could do this, for example, by using a tactical ride in Heat 13 and gaining a maximum seven-point heat advantage followed by two four-point heat advantages in Heats 14 and 15. To counteract this, the home team's fans will also be watching on tenterhooks as their team will gain an extra league point if they can win the meeting by more than six points. A draw will simply give the home team a single point - but the away team will get two. NEW LEAGUE SCORING SYSTEM Home loss by any amount of points 0 Home draw 1 Home win by between 1 and 6 points 2 Home win by 7 points or more 3 Away loss by 7 points or more 0 Away loss by 6 points or less 1 Away draw 2 Away win by between 1 and 6 points 3 Away win by 7 points or more 4 2009 ELITE LEAGUE TEAMS Belle Vue, Coventry, Eastbourne, Ipswich, Lakeside, Peterborough, Poole, Swindon, Wolverhampton 2009 PREMIER LEAGUE TEAMS Berwick, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, King's Lynn, Newcastle, Newport, Redcar, Rye House, Scunthorpe, Sheffield, Somerset, Stoke, Workington + 1 more Summary of major changes in British Speedway for 2009 * Groundbreaking new league points scoring system. * Formation of new 3rd tier of speedway which will be known as the National League. * 39.90 points limit for Elite League and 42.50 for Premier League. * Tactical Gate rule for Knock Out competitions in all leagues. * Disposal of 15 metre Tactical Replacement rule. One Tactical Ride remains for a team losing by ten points or more and a second has now been added which can be used if a team losing by twelve points or more. * Elite League teams may utilise one team place to be shared by any two riders contracted to a Premier League team with an average of 8 points or less. * A team's highest-averaged rider must always ride at No.1 in the team, while riders averaged from second to fifth can be placed in any order in the remaining positions of the team. The two lowest averaged riders will remain at numbers 6 and 7. * A home team must declare their team formation to the visiting team first. * The Premier Trophy will be split into a North and South group with seven teams in each. * Promotion and Relegation race-off will remain. * Premier League's play-off system will remain the same while the Elite League have adopted a new play-off system (more details to follow soon). * New National Senior and Junior team managers to be announced in January. * Super7even to continue for a third year, events and venues to be confirmed in January. |