Speedway Freebies and Information

'MiniMax' FREE Speedway Racecards

for Speedway Grand Prix, World Cup, European Championship, Best Pairs Cup

UK Elite League, Poland Ekstraliga, Sweden Elitserien, Denmark Danske Liga and other major meetings and series

MiniMax Racecards - FREE, INNOVATIVE FEATURES, UNIQUE CLEAR FORMATTING

NON-PROFIT, NO ADVERTISING OR LOGOS USING UP VALUABLE SPACE

There are now thousands of racecards downloaded weekly but it would be nice if you could pass the word around to others or even link to the page. Many thanks to those who have done so as the numbers who download continue to rise and greatly exceed all expectations week on week and from June 2014 onwards have been quite astounding. Absolutely no need here at all to pay Google a single penny as good old-fashioned word of mouth personal recommendation is a very powerful tool indeed. It's very pleasing to see the internet being used for it's original purpose of free information, free knowledge and FREEBIES lol.

The DUAL GRID, BASIC and STANDARD MiniMax racecards all have the usual unique provision of pre-meeting and post-meeting SGP series standings included AND an accumulative Gate points and wins grid. Swedish and Danish league meetings plus various others include the unique and informative Gate points and wins grid.

TRULY INNOVATIVE is the MiniMax DUAL GRID racecard, and as with lots of the unique MiniMax formatting aspects ever more plagarised even by official speedway clubs and those providing official bodies. For those who prefer the grid style format alone i've added many unique, superior and useful formatting touches that fans expect and have become accustomed to with MiniMax designs. SAMPLE MINIMAX DUAL GRID RACECARD

No need to get eye strain and possess a computer like memory just to see who is leading during a meeting. You have your race-by-race grid - which is as always with MiniMax clearly delineated round by round to assist in countback - and additionally all on the same line the ability to fill in a riders accumulative score race after race. This allows for a valuable instant glance to see the meeting standings. This latter innovation is one that others seem to be unable to resist blatantly copying without the slightest acknowledgement, thanks or reference to MiniMax designs. I continue to turn down advertising offers because i want to leave it as a quick free download without any external surroundings.

Hey! as with many MiniMax features they'll probably be coming to a racecard near you soon once your current provider pushes their embarrassment aside and slavishly copies such features that never were seen before MiniMax came on the scene. It is amusing (and quite telling as to the quality of MiniMax produced racecards) to see other providers slowly sneak in little by little MiniMax formatting and ideas into their racecards. This is quite brazen-faced in view of the cliques they employ on internet forums who proclaim their cards the best whilst hurling crass insults. They seem oblivious when alerted to the shockingly poor design that is pointed out to them of their favourite card. Then their provider ends up trying to incorporate, usually very badly indeed, the MiniMax features! Some attempts at trying to keep pace with MiniMax have resulted in ever more atrocious compounding of errors and bad design. I can think of one where the biggest problem was lack of space to fill in any of the many changes one gets during a meeting such as substitutions and reserve rides etc. Their racecard had not changed for years and years but in an effort to keep pace with the arrival of MiniMax, especially once they saw the DUAL GRID version, they cobbled together some sort of 3 in 1 card that attempted to employ the features of the various MiniMax cards on one sheet!!! Not only could one not write in the name of a replacement rider you would unlikely to have been able to fit in a single LETTER. Certainly no chance of finding out a rider's full name on that one.

MiniMax STANDARD racecards for the SGP series and various other meetings have the following format and features. SAMPLE MINIMAX STANDARD RACECARD

The MiniMax BASIC version of the racecard still benefits from the MiniMax formatting style but without all of the bells and whistles. Perfect for just filling in the race and rider grid results and being able to check the upcoming heat line-up's, something that the tv coverage often fails to do. SAMPLE MINIMAX BASIC RACECARD

For the World Team Cup the cumulative team total columns are also colour coded making for a quicker filling out of the race result and update of the standings. SAMPLE MINIMAX STANDARD WORLD CUP RACECARD

I also produce a MiniMax GATE VIEW colour coded gate draw format for the World Team Cup. No messing about trying to see small characters and remembering them. Just an instant glance at the card matches up with how you see them line-up on the TV screen, or if a spectator at the track from behind the fence. SAMPLE MINIMAX GATE VIEW RACECARD

Due to their popularity and fans downloading thousands per meeting, as well as past meetings, i've placed all racecards exclusively to their own page and also created an archive page. Just click the links for direct download. From the 2011 SGP season onwards i produced them in this larger print version. One can print it on two sides of a single sheet of paper or as a track side speedway programme on two separate pages.

My racecards reflect differences that i think are beneficial when compared to others that have been around for some time. Hopefully you will also share my preferences in the layout. Have a look and see.

FUTURE PROJECT WHEN TIME ALLOWS

FREE Interactive Speedway Grand Prix SPREADSHEET

I will make available totally free my own interactive spreadsheet. Unfortunately, it's quite impossible for me to obtain the time to do it this season.

Fill in the race result 3,2,1,0 (and whatever letters you use to denote exclusions, falls and engine failures etc.) and the spreadsheet automatically updates the meeting and series standings. In addition to the set rider order, as per printed programme, the rider score grid is also displayed after each race in points order. Riders who are level on points are further sorted by race wins, second and third places as well as non finishers which counts below a fourth place in a tiebreaker.

A rider's accumulative meeting and series points is shown next to them for every race. All the distinct features, stats, formatting and colour coding of the MiniMax racecards are included.

'MiniMax' Standings~~~~~Making Sense of Unbalanced and Panoramic League Tables

MiniMax

'MiniMax' indicates that you can see the crucial information within your eyeline at an instant glance. Additionally, more detailed information/stats follow the first couple of columns of which you can peruse at leisure.

The league tables as i publish them in their default mode will be ordered by the traditional points gained columns. However, once i've found time to set them up, one will be able to click on any parameter to view the table at will.

Column order is, Projected Points (Usually included towards the middle of the season onwards. This might be introduced much earlier this season due the imbalance of matches ridden early on), Current league position, Team, Matches, Points, Home Matches, Percentage of home points gained, Away matches, Percentage of away points gained, Average race points for at home, Average race points against at home, Average race points for away, Average race points against away, Home record broken down into W3, W2, D1, L0, Away record broken down into W4, W3, D2, L1, L0. Just for my own use i also have total and +/- race point columns not displayed but used to sort the table when league points are level.

PERCENTAGE COLUMN

Pct, which equals percentage of available points gained, is a telling stat in view of the way speedway awards league points nowadays. For example if a team wins all of it's home matches by 7 points or more it will have a 100% record. If a team wins all the matches by only 1-6 points it would actually have a true average of 67%.

Therefore, displaying the percentage figure gives a far more accurate output than both teams being listed at 18 wins, 0 draws and 0 losses which is what a lot of tables show. When comparing teams records it also saves one from having to engage in mental arithmetic adding up the varying points for margins of victory. A simple glance at the percentage shows which team is performing better.

I don't include an 'overall' percentage of points gained category as this would be subject to the same damaging season long wide variance of matches ridden factor that affects traditional tables. However, as a home and away category it is a very informative stat. Incidentally, looking at the tables as they stand at the time of writing, in the Elite League Swindon have gained an impressive 54% of away points available. In stark contrast Ipswich a shocking mere 2%! An example of a home team is Newcastle in the Premier with 95% at home and only 9% gained away.

RACE POINTS AVERAGE COLUMN

Rather than display the total race points earned i show the average per meeting AND rounded up to whole figures, such as Swindon's record today, at home 55-38 and away 46-45. That's far easier to grasp than the usually published four figure numbers and made worse by a wide variance of matches ridden by teams. All of which makes the traditonal table layout not much use until the final table of the season. Even then, it is clearly preferable and comprehendable to have it in the form of a match average that one can make more sense of. I strongly proposed this in various speedway forums and suggested it to websites and publications years ago.

COLUMN ORDER

As with most sports tables nowadays - in view of the numerous categories needing to be included - it's more instantly informative to have matches ridden and points gained as the first two columns. After all, they are the two key fields that matter with the others just being additional information. If you picture the Premier table as the season progresses you'd need to switch your eyeballs to a widescreen mode to make for easy and instant comprehension. This alteration i make to the traditional sports table means that the vital information is available at a glance.

It's not just speedway that suffers from the current information overload layout. One can check out the football league tables in the broadsheets, a wealth of information but far from easy on the eye when looking at matches played and points earned. It's the same with all comprehensive tables published be it on the web or printed ones in the press.

Once i get the time i can design one that allows you to click on any category heading and instantly sort the table according to your selected parameter. Apart from the current standard points you might like to view tables by home/away percentage of points earned or race points scored. If i was a promoter looking for entertainment i would dread certain teams visiting with the resultant drop in attendances. It isn't always the teams at the bottom of the table either. Certain sides have a veritable fortress at home which seems to please enough fans to make it pay, however, on their travels they are no attraction at all.

PROJECTED POINTS FEATURE

One of the problems with speedway is that there is often a wide imbalance in the number of matches ridden. Additionally, this is exacerbated by another large variance of home and away matches being far from even. I designed a 'projected points' feature amongst various automatic calculations within my spreadsheet tables . It tends to be very accurate as to the real state of play. It simply takes the home and away results over the course of the season so far and calculates the total of points over the full quota of matches in a season. Examples using the table as it stands at the time of writing this; in comparison to Edinburgh, Rye House (accurately) drop a fair bit in the table due to not only have ridden three more home matches, but the fact that their away form all season is poor. Edinburgh have achieved 17% of away points available so far whilst Rye House a mere 7%. Only Stoke and Scunthorpe have a worse away record. Using the 'projected points' total, Edinburgh who are currently way down in 11th spot are really at the standard of a play-off place and Rye House are flattering to deceive, it will obviously also reflect if a team's form suddenly changes.

You may think that one can look at a table and say that a team which has ridden far less matches let's you know that they could be of a higher standard than their position implies. However, using the projected points calculation on the home and away performance gives a more accurate representation. If a team has seven matches in hand their likely end of season total will be enormously different depending on the number of home and away fixtures to take place but also, additionally and crucially, their performance levels home and away and in particular their ability in the latter.

An example comparing the 'Projected Points' system to the traditional table and also to the sometimes used plus/minus system. For illustrative purposes i've made the records identical and simplistic save for the imbalance of matches - away ones in this case which is where the projected points comes into it's own.

Just noticed that i've lost the screenshots of the original examples and there was only a placeholder picture with dummy figures on display that didn't actually show the formula in action. I'll have to dig the original out or more likely drum up a new example, but can't do that right now. However the points reflected that;

The projected points system extrapolates the actual results so far and applies them to an even yardstick of eventual matches to be ridden. Because the 'plus/minus' system does not extrapolate the home and away matches into a season total of an 'even' number of matches, it will quite often be misleading.

This isn't a predictive system based on personal judgements. It is how they actually stand as and when you view it. It extrapolates all the results so far and presents them on to an even number of matches ridden. It's an 'as now' view and not predicting the end of season points. However, as mentioned earlier it is remarkably accurate in displaying the true standings of the teams and their eventual likely finishing positions.

THE TRUTH WILL OUT COMING SOON Ok make that when we return from our travels, worth waiting for mind

TO COME: THREE IMPORTANT STATEMENTS ON THREE IMPORTANT MATTERS. I will ensure i get time to make a preliminary address, followed by a dossier of detailed facts and data on the issues and events below. I will set it up on a separate page to avoid using up space on the racecard page.

1. My personal opinion - backed up with actual facts - on my atrocious experience of, observations of content, and examples of the unchecked Machiavellian behaviour of some members and sadly some moderators of the British Speedway Forum.

2. A line-by-line response to an extremely scurrilous communication sent to my webhosting service. This will be dissected and shown to be proven for the pathetic baseless and childish attempt of the malicious attack it is. Does this person really still not grasp the evidence that the BSF put into the public domain - therefore reproducible - and was instantly recorded???. I've yet to decide whether to first take it further, as aside from civil redress there is a strong possibility of the contents being a criminal transgression too.

3. EPIC FAIL AFTER EPIC FAIL of attempts to stifle the ever increasing sweeping popularity of the MiniMax racecards. Oh Yeah to 'you know who' you are WRONG, WRONG, WRONG as to the BSF being the major source for MiniMax racecard 'hits'. The racecards continue to prosper without any presence on the BSF and absolutely zero need to pay search engines that others have resorted to. I only posted the notifications on that forum for the benefit of making any newcomers aware of their existence and judging by the continuing and ever increasing vast number of downloads i guess most fans must have bookmarked the MiniMax racecard page.

OCCASIONAL THOUGHT/OBSERVATION/MESSAGE FOR THE DAY: To all those who are puzzled as to the extreme 'incommunicado' situation in a certain place and not receiving a response of any kind by any channel, this is due to a time-honoured tradition being employed by the guilty of attempting to silence the truth. They are frantically striving to prevent damning revelations being made. A blanket attempt at preventing any truth whatsoever being told is in effect in that place, even to the extent of disabling private messages between members!!! Myself and fellow charity workers have partaken in many forums on a plethora of topics dealing with serious and highly volatile polarised matters concerning matters of humanity and politics and have never ever come across a moderator preventing members communicating with each other in private WOW! WOW! WOW! what do they have to hide?

THE TRUTH WILL OUT COMING SOON Ok make that when we return from our travels, worth waiting for mind

2015 SEASON MINIMAX RACECARDS - ONE SEASON ABSENCE

Sorry to the thousands who weekly download the large array of MiniMax racecards that cover the various World, European and National championships as well as the UK, Polish, Swedish and Danish league competitions as there will be a one season hiatus.

This is whilst i treat my beautiful lady (and myself) to some ten months of travelling in order to circumnavigate the globe! It really is not possible to provide racecards as three separate lengthy ocean cruises and two extended stays in America and Australia make it impossible to do so.

The racecards will return next season with all of their unique features - although i guess others will copy ever more of those again this year. I'm still astounded at how many fans make use of them especially as there is no resorting to paying to advertise with Google etc. - not yet even bothered to venture to Facebook or Twitter - it's just sheer 'original spirit of the internet' letting others know of a good (and free) thing by word of mouth.


Please note i am NOT a member of any social networking sites such as Facebook etc.