WEEKEND PREVIEW: European Club Championships
For the first time an International Cycle Speedway Federation event will be staged in Wales this Bank Holiday weekend as both Newport and East Newport stage the 2024 European Club Championships. The action gets underway tomorrow at Newport where the 1st 3 Round 1 matches take place. The Day 1 schedule is as follows with all matches using the 4 team 16 heats format:
12:00 – Round 1 Match A Torun v Ipswich v Kesgrave v East Newport
14:00 – Round 1 Match B Gniezno v Birmingham v Ostrow v Horspath
16:00 – Round 1 Match C Southampton v Hull v Sheffield v Newport
Teams finishing on equal points in matches A, B and C will have a coin toss to decide their match position, unless they finished joint 3rd and 4th.
These positions do not count for the preliminary ranking table points, for example 2 teams finishing on equal race points (equal 1st & 2nd place in Matches A, B and C) will both receive 3.5 points toward the preliminary ranking table, but their coin toss will decide which match they race in on day 2 only (matches D, E and F).
The action moves to East Newport on Sunday where the 1st Round matches will be completed. Race team positions will be decided by an open draw. The schedule is listed below. All matches will use the 4 team 16 heats format unless stated otherwise:
10:00 – Round 1 Match D 1st (match A), 2nd (B), 3rd (C), 4th (C)
12:00 – Round 1 Match E 1st (match B), 2nd (C), 3rd (A), 4th (A)
14:00 -Round 1 Match F 1st (match C), 2nd (A), 3rd (B), 4th (B)
Matches A to F will form a league table (preliminary ranking table). Match winners will receive 4 points, second place will receive 3 points etc. Should teams be equal in the points total, then equal teams will be split by total race points over the 2 matches. Any teams still equal will be split by a coin toss, except if teams are equal for 6th & 7th position in the preliminary ranking table. Teams equal for 6th & 7th position, on both points and race points, will have their position decided by a 1 rider run off.
Teams 1st to 6th in the preliminary ranking table progress to the semi finals, teams from 7th to 12th race in the Repechage match.
Teams 1st to 6th in the preliminary table, will select which semi final they race in and which team position they want to race, in the order 1st to 6th.
16:10 – Run off for positions 6th & 7th in the preliminary ranking table (if required).
16:15 – Semi final draw for teams 1 to 6 in the preliminary ranking table, all team managers to be present.
16:30 -Repechage Match G 6 team x 24 heats format -Race team positions to be decided by an open draw
7th (preliminary table), 8th, 9th, 10th 11th,12th .
The first two teams in Match G progress to the semi finals. The winning team will have 7th pick for the semi finals, the runner-up will have 8th pick.
The action moves back to Newport for the 2 semi-finals and the Final on Bank Holiday Monday. The 2 Semi-Finals will take place at 11am and 12.30pm with the Final scheduled to start at 3pm. All matches on Monday will use a 4 team 20 heat format.