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I don’t understand all these calls for more younger new faces. The GP series is suppose to be the best 15 riders in the world, some of these older riders are still up there. In reality it’s the top 10 who retain their place each year and if a rider finishes in top 10 they deserve it IMO. The only reason they have the number lower is to create some drama. Liking the look of next years series, the only disappointment is Kasprzak but he qualified in dodgy circumstances. I’d personally prefer it if only 2 qualified from GP challenge (not that it would have helped this year).

Was nt it janowski in an earlier race

Charlie Webster was another one who didn't have a clue.

I don't mind Natalie Quirke. She and Scott make a decent team, although they should get a third person to offer a different perspective. You're right about Kiri Bloor, she's bloody awful.

Exactly, which is why Timo Lahti has appeared in the Swedish Championship riding on a Swedish licence, as well as riding for Finland in the SoN in the same year.

Tai would have finished 2nd under the previous scoring system as well, so what would you propose?

A consequence of this year's condensed World Championship held over a span of just over five weeks was the doubling up of Grand Prix rounds - with one on a Friday and one on a Saturday. I think it's been a winner - it adds an extra element having two rounds over two days. It's an increased challenge for the riders, it doubles the entertainment provided, and it's fascinating to see how different two meetings on the same track with the same 16 riders can be! Also, it's a major selling point to travelling supporters, both from abroad and further afield in the same country. Now, I realise there are certain venues where it might be impractical. For example, the installed tracks such as Cardiff start to rut up badly towards the end of just 23 races - is 46 races worth the risk? But at stadiums with a permanent speedway track, I can only see positives. Two rounds at the likes of Torun and Wroclaw again? Yes please.

All in all, the substitute list is Loktaev for his performance in the GP Challenge, followed by the finishing order in the World U21 Final. The latter was seeded as one rider per nation, hence there are riders now on the GP substitute list, who may not have even made it to a World U21 Final in a normal year. I have no problem with promoting young riders, so long as they are competitive. Sadly with the exception of Lidsey and possibly Kubera those nominated are no where near GP standard. In all probability, another one of Castagna's rubbish ideas...

As has previously been posted if you finish 7th or 8th in an 8 round GP series you are a top rider and deserving of your place. For all the call for fresh faces there are simply not many riders out there who are significantly better than those in the whole field and definitely not better than the top 8. I take it your a fan of the new scoring system, fine but I think you are in a minority. The crux of the series is to find a deserving World Champion, not to fudge it so that it always comes down to the last race of the season. Maybe we should award double points in the last round to give all the top six a crack at being champion on the last round . Sorry forget I ever said that. I fully understand how the system works but prefer the World Championship table to evolve throughout the meeting , not have to wait until heat 20 before it takes shape. Each to their own I suppose.

The two-at-a-time GPs were a necessary novelty, no more.

No disrespect to them,but Bewley,Fienhage and Mihailov are nowhere near GP level.Pretty poor choices.

Boring choices for wildcards, same old faces next year. Fricke and Thomsen fair enough - I'd have given Lidsey a place, as U21 champion. Feel sorry for Smolinski who was going to be in it this year but got injured. Glad Locktaev is a sub, deserved to get through the challenge. The rule of top six is clearly pointless.

Happiness is...

Viktor Trofimov Jr. - the first Rivne rider to win the Grand Prix. Torun. Motoarena Mariane Rose. October 02-03. 2020: https://gorka-speedway.blogspot.com/2020/10/02-03102020.html

Crash on youtube.

When Chug took out Polish Citizenship, he pledged to ride as a Pole and not a Russian.

oh reet . thanks for putting me right . cheers . one of the selling points to me was the call centres were all answered by proper english speaking operators based in the uk .. ..

I doubt it's all paid up front. Assuming that the FIM still remains responsible for paying the prize money though, even if they quadrupled it, I still don't think it would match what GP riders can command in Poland.

She was good at TV presenting, that's why she's gone on to create a career for herself outside of sport, she had little to no speedway experience and was asking the same questions at the end of her speedway career that she was at the beginning. Suzi was and is a MotoGP presenter I'm not sure she had any experience of speedway before she started presenting

If Zager keeps qualifying you really can’t knock him though ,think like I said there are only 1/2doz who could World Champ With this format ,the rest are making up the numbers till the young talent of the next generation come through.Even changing the scoring format this season didn’t really alter the Top Men.

IT would appear that there are some very good young riders coming through the ranks, including Britain, and it is especially pleasing that a decent number are not Polish. The hope if not the expectation is that amongst this crop are the next generation of Grand Prix riders but we are not there yet.

Double headers might work at some tracks, but could equally be both a racing and financial disaster so not sure you'd want to do it every race weekend. And of course, surely it would start eating into the Polish League programme? If they're going to have a 2-day event, would prefer the field was expanded to 24 or even 32 riders and they run some sort of qualifying event on the Saturday. Or run a GP Challenge on the Saturday (like F2 or F3) for different prospective GP riders, with a couple of places in the main event for the most successful of those. However, I suspect for the same reason that the field was cut from 24 to 16 riders, there isn't the money to bring more riders to each event.

Big crash in Poland yesterday & taken to hospital with hand/arm/wrist injuries

All if's and but's Steve all hypothetical really it happened in different era's what if Peter had not been killed? what if Bjorn had not retired ?.Hans had served his apprenticeship at Wolves/ Birmingham he grasped the nettle and what a terrific embassaddor he was for speedway.

I think we have some older riders that are not real competitive anymore but they keep returning to the field. Nigel and Kelvin made the point in one of the early telecasts about Zagar not having much incentive to compete for the top 6 as he was already in for next year. I would say Zagar and NKI are past it. I also recall the frustration we all had when Andy Smith kept getting in through the challenge way back in the 90's. I feel if we have talented younger riders on the way up it would be more preferable than the return of the old stagers who in a lot of cases are just basically clogging up the field.

Michelsen in fairness to him was a last minute replacement for Smolinski. He didn't have a winter to prepare mentally, financially or mechanically for being a GP rider. He will never be a World Champion but I'm not convinced Thomsen is better.

Think they have got it right with Wildcards,perhaps have to review the Gp Challenge,although this years pandemic screwed up things,all riders should have an opportunity to Qualify for Challenge IMO.There are a lot of young talent not getting a chance to even compete.

The channels are all HD and never really go down. Not like fishing for a stream elsewhere. You can pay via PayPal as well. I just paid 35 quid for a year. Like I said every sports channel plus many foreign. https://www.facebook.com/groups/310807899443643

Probably could if I knew how I'm ok with watching on tablet while wife watches other rubbish on telly

Great post i personaly think Erik was more consistent than many think and he would of always been there in amongst it.The Hans/Erik years was a strange period really because Penhall, Lee,Carter, Sanders,Sigalos all disappeared off the scene because of differing reasons leaving a huge void and opportunity.Going to Oxford was the best move Hans ever made and yes he should of won at least six titles great rider certainly.

That's because he is so full of himself and his own importance! Always has been. Ridiculous that someone who has won as few actual races as he has this year, finishes second in the championship! Just another example of how ridiculous the new scoring system is. Well done Bartosz, truly deserved winner of the GP series, head and shoulders above anyone else at the moment.

If they had been “rubbish”:they wouldn’t be 7th and 8th

Well done to Bartosz deserved World Champion ,gives it 100%,I’m a Janowski fan think he is the class act for style and speed ,but can only be one Champ.Bartosz was hard on him in final but that is what makes a Champ.Felt a lot of rider layed it down tonight looking for re-runs.

Germany or a German promoter/club are hsrdly going to finance a meeting they aren’t in. Probably no promoter in any country would

Well done Zmarzlik - thoroughly deserved and clearly the world's best rider at the moment. Well done BSI. In a year where the international sporting calendar has been ravaged, they pulled together an excellent series in difficult circumstances. Finally, happy 25th anniversary. To those STILL banging on about a return to one-off World Finals. Here's to 25 more!

Difficult to tell given the level of opposition last night but i thought Wullie looked really quick. Hope he can be a trump card at reserve next season.

From what I hear the streaming was good last night. Graeme Campbell had got the problems sorted from the last meeting. Got to say if it wasn't for Graeme and Gordon Campbell's, along with dad John's, enthusiasm for the sport I doubt if last night's meeting would have gone ahead. Look forward to next season's meetings being streamed for away supporters, subject to BSPL approval.

Where is Brando this year? Without question arguably the best at interviewing riders during meetings.

Very impressed with the effort put in by everyone, the youngsters were right in the thick of the action.Praise for Chris Louis, really impressive with his race comments and thoughts on conditions and explaining himself. Very refreshing from the usual screaming we’re used too.Eurosport need to get him on board.!!

There are ways round that though, for example the Edinburgh stream that was due to launch this year had a geographical block on it so it was only available if you were a certain distance away from the stadium so as not to discourage the normally attending fans. I don’t think streaming is going to revolutionize the sport but where it can help is in the shortcomings of fans through the gate. Away fans apart from the odd local derby are all but non existent now and that is a market that can be tapped. Using say Somerset as an example, realistically for a normal league match they would probably have 10 fans or so in attendance at Armadale. Now if the match is available for them to stream at say £10 you may lose the 10 fans that would attend but if that is made up by 50/60 somerset fans buying the stream plus another 10/20 neutrals that might just fancy it then you have increased income probably by about £500 multiply that by 20-25 home matches and it could be another £10k+ plus in the club coffers

You'd hope they've learnt their lesson from the TV contracts, the value of the Sky contracts balanced off playing in front of empty stadiums and by the time a lot of clubs cottoned on that the value of the TV contracts were going down along with the paying punter it was too late, Sky were gone and so were the paying punters. You could sit at home on a cold wet night and watch your team... and then watch any other world class sport for a month or lump out £15-£18 to watch a load of rubbish

It was dirt in the jet.

KT on commentary suggested that his back wheel had not been tightened properly and that caused the chain to come off ..