Ghostwalker

You can read an exempt from the article I mentioned here: http://www.speedway-forum.co.uk/forums/index.php?showtopic=74441&page=29&do=findComment&comment=2430273 As for Mr G, as I have written before he have declined the wild card for Bydgoszcz.

Regarding the interview I mentioned a couple of days ago here is a direct quote from it (the part that is about the SGP/SEC); I know it is in Swedish but I thought it was important to post it exactly as it says in the article. I can give you a translation later if anyone is interested. However I checked it with google translate and it gives a pretty descent translation of it. To summarize this very briefly. BSI and FIM have a deal for the SGP-series. BSI have been putting pressure on FIM to prevent riders from riding in the SEC since BSI considers the FIM to not fulfil their part of the deal if FIM accepts another championship that is held in more then one country and that is not a qualification for the SGP. However FIM have realized that such presentation would most likely violate the European Union labour rights laws. For 2015 FIM (and BSI) does not want more then one championship that spans over an entire continent.

This is not correct, don't blame the FIM, blame BSI who have been putting pressure on the FIM (which we all knew anyway) according to Mr. Armando Castagna himself. There is a long interview with him in the the latest issue (#1;2014) of Speedwayracing,

First post updated with info on Individual Swedish championship.

So no Timo Lahti? Personally I would have picked him as reserve before both Hautmäki and Nieminen.

From what I've read, Gollob have declined a wild card to any of the Polish GPs.

Yeah that is correct, Grand Prix starts at 05.00 UTC which makes 06.00 BST, 07.00 CEST and 08.00 EEST.

An interview with Freddie Lindgren about why he decided to skip riding for Sweden in the SWC and Best Pairs: http://na.se/sporten/speedway/1.2442025-lindgren-talar-ut-om-landslagsbojkotten

Ok, I did not now that he had changed his mind.

released from where? Poole? I thought Holder had decided to skip Poole/England this season and he is not listed as a Poole rider at Poole website.

Yep I agree with you Marky. I like the Grand Prix format as such although it as well as the qualification process needs some tweaking: Fewer automatically qualified riders. Fewer permanent wild cards (2 permanent wild cards per season to use for injured riders like the situation with Chris Holder). Two wild cards for each grand prix, one local rider and one non-local rider. 6 GPs are way to few for a proper series. Imo it should be minimum 10 Grand Prixs per season.

No, there isn't any speedway activity in the Stockholm that day, There is an 80cc meeting at Smederna's track in Eskilstuna the following day and also on the same day there is an open 500cc meeting, for beginners, at Indianerna's track in Kumla,

But which one of them will loose the most from that? Ward or Poole and if Poole would go ahead with the ban, what are the likeliness that Ward follows the example of Chris Holder and skips England/Poole completely?

Stefan Klemetz, one of Cmores commentators have announced the first couple of televised fixtures: May 6th: Dackarna-Indianerna May 13th: Västervik-Piraterna May 20th: Indianerna-Vetlanda May 27th Maj Vetlanda-Piraterna June 3rd:Rospiggarna-Smederna I will also add these to the fixture list on the first page. http://www.speedwaynyheter.se/speedway/hej-alla-speedwayvanner/

The point system is the same as for other pair events, the idea behind it is is that it should benefit team riding and team work = pair speedway. The Aussies won because they rode as a team (pair) and not as individualists as Denmark and Russia did. If you look at Nicki ,he raced against his pair mate rather then with him just because Nicki wanted to win and thus the team lost because of it. It was the same with Russia Emil did nothing to help his team mate and just rode for himself and thus Russia lost because it. Also when it comes to speedway In GB there is very few days that does not have a fixture then add the SGP fixtures and SGP qualifications to that and there is hardly that many available dates remaining. And even if OneSport would have announced their fixtures earlier, would the BSPA have taken them into consideration when they planned their fixtures? I would think that they wouldn't have done that.

Midland, a pairs meeting is solely about the team riding not about one rider doing "solo raids".

It's really amusing how some Brits do their best to denounce the Best pairs and the SEC. SWC is the same thing, an invitational between a few limited teams. The difference between this and the SWC is that there were no silly rules as joker and double points here. Since BSI does not like that. But I agree with you. BSPA had a good chance to promote themselves and British speedway by having the current British World Champion on large and wide international TV-coverage but apparently it's more important to enforce boycotts and such. All in all a quite enjoyable meeting with some really good heats. Definitely more enjoyable them many GPs on tracks such as Ullevi, Prague and Terenzano, The only problem is that too many of the riders doesn't seem to be team riders but rather riding for themselves. Screm, the points is very easy to understand. 1st 4p 2nd 3p 3rd 2p. 4th 0p. Thus team riding for 2nd and 3rd is beneficial then pulling away to secure the heat win.

Eurosport should give our friend Dave Goddard a call.

Some pretty good racing but it's quit clear that many of the riders does not really understand the team concept and just ride for themselves rather proper team riding. Latvia, Miedzinski and Jonsson were disppointments but Smolinski rode very well and Lindbäck seems to have found his 2012 form again.

Well done Australia.

Why? He has all the right to skip the GPs if he wants to.

Latvia and Germany are ok though. Smolinski have been good. Imo Latvia have some interesting riders in Poudzuks and Lebedevs.

cheeeses that was close.

Jonsson

Yeah. Antonio looks good, Jonsson more normally decent. Anyway do you have your tickets book yet?