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Almost every Saturday night the Bandits – or the National Development League Bullets – race their home matches at Shielfield Park Stadium from March until October.
Start time is always scheduled for 7pm.
11 clubs compete for the right to call themselves League Champions, battling each other in home and away fixtures up and down the country from Glasgow down to Plymouth throughout the season.
Additionally Berwick, Leicester, Plymouth, Oxford and Edinburgh have all entered teams in the NDL alongside Kent, Mildenhall and the world famous Belle Vue Colts.
The SGB Championship also annually hosts a KO cup competition, a revamped 4 team tournament festival, the ever popular Championship Pairs and the individual League Riders Championship, where our highest achieving rider of the season is selected to participate against 15 other Superstars of the League in a one off event at the popular Owlerton Stadium in Sheffield.
Our research suggests that, combining all of our competitions we perform throughout the season in front of around 40,000 paying spectators in all events.
Racing
A Race Meeting takes place on an Oval Shale Circuit, usually measuring between 220 & 400 metres, approximately 10-13 metres wide on the straights and between 12 & 18 metres wide on the bends and surrounded in its entirety by a fence.
On bends there must be either a polyfoam fence (as at Berwick) or inflatable air fence.
Our Riders take part in each race (referred to as a Heat) for 4 laps from a Starting Gate released remotely by the Meeting Referee when all 4 Riders are ready to race and remain stationary.
Motorcycles
500cc single cylinder motorcycles with NO brakes.
To stop quickly a rider lays his bike down on the track.
Only Methanol (wood alcohol) fuel is used.
The bikes have one set gear (altered by changing sprockets on the rear wheel or engine sprocket)
Push starts from the Pits area
Clutch starts at the Starting Gate