krompa

Hello after watching Manzares 'engine failure' last night decided to do some quick maths. We all agree joker and tactical subs should be there only to keep meetings alive not to decide medals or titles. What would be perfect rules for you guys? I love decision that heats 17-20 are nominated, with leading team picking last. That was correct change IMO. But as proved yesterday any double pts joker used by replacing one rider with the other can make big points swing. Manzares dropped one point but Hancock gained 6. Wells from gate one was of course able to pick up some point but against solid Tai, Podzuks and Doyle I would rather say he would have scored 0. It means -1+6 from US perspective and -1 from perspective of all 3 other teams. Final score was 36-31-29-28 instead of 37-26-30-29. It is simple then. If it was the final, USA silver with joker, 4th place without it. Which rules would you like: 1) no joker, no tactical subs at all, best 4 man team on track wins 2) only tactial subs allowed when 6 behind 3) joker allowed BUT only rider who is already in heat lineup (in this case Wells in heat 16) 4) joker allowed when 10 behind and tactical subs when 6 behind 5) EVERY team can play joker once a meeting, any time they want in heats 1-16 with no tactical subs allowed So many possibilities, no perfect solution for sure but almost all more FAIR than current situation. What do you guys think?

Woodward it is then. Aussies favs for sure.

WHole SWC 2013 is slowly becoming farce. Riders missing and now lazy BSI stuff. How long does it take to update site or throw lineups through Twitter? 3-5 minutes?

Does anyone have full lineups with riding order?

Harris is a joke in Prague. 2-3 weeks ago he rode slick track in Daugavpils (for Grudziadz), scored 1 pt in 2 rides and said in interview that he has no equipment for slick tracks at all. Do you guys expect any grip in Prague?

Yeah, totally forgot about Marcin Rempala. One of my fav speedway races:

And Spain in the final?

I believe there must be some long term plan of SWC Final hosts. Is it going to be new Manchester stadium next year? Or somewhere else?

That's exactly my point. Poland year by year produce a lot of new talents. Mainly thanks to league rule that every team has to have 2 Polish U21 riders in match lineup (by the way can't believe Sweden dropped that rule and UK never even thought about it). But how many of them is close to GP standard when they grow up? Janowski U21 world champion decided to race full time in UK and I see bright future for him. Pawlicki brothers only had short careers in UK and with potential they have, few full seasons on British tracks could pull them to the higher standards. Not to mention wasted ones like Miskowiak, Hlib, Kujawa (U21 champ!). IMO the problem is that all Polish tracks are pretty much the same shape. You can't be world champion if you are not able to race on small technical tracks like Arena or Belle Vue. Look at Gollob. Fantastic motorcyclist. I believe if he spent more years in UK, he would have been multiple world champion. First years in GP he was all about going wide and wide on every track. The same problem you can point to some British riders. Kennett, Bridger are always good value on small, technical tracks but fail big time on wider tracks (Kennett yesterday and Bridger on Thursday will be perfect example).

Patryk is doing some steady progress. Good gater and I'm surprised how well he scores in Elitserien. But there is one thing he needs to be world class rider. He needs 2-3 seasons in Elite League to learn different tracks and setups. Without that experience I'm afraid he can be another wasted Polish talent. Will he be lazy and just happy racing Poland and Sweden like most young Poles?

Who said Kennett was bad? Looked much better than Watt in Czestochowa. To lose with Kulakov was serious task. Who else but Watty could do it?!

http://www.sportowefakty.pl/zuzel/370841/mark-lemon-po-polfinale-dps-z-chrisem-bylibysmy-rozczarowani-brakiem-zwyciestwa- Lemon says Watt will be dropped (too big problems with engines). Any idea who might step in?

Any news on Barker? Fit or R/R?

THJ, Shamek, Leon. All 3 ready to ride? 4th Swedish rider? Why? They already have JD, Engman and Rosen in declared team. I believe they can simply use Piotr Pawlicki or Magic in place of Linus. Can't they?

Linus out after crash in Czestochowa. Who is in?

Coverage will start after Roland doubles final.

It is a big show which hopefully will be big success for Eurosport (worldwide coverage to 71 countries). All we all should want is great racing as sport needs to be promoted that way. Zagar makes field stronger and personally I'm happy with that. There will always be some people like you.

Confirmed lineups for Saturday (source One Sport Marketing). Sweden 1. Andreas Jonsson 2. Antonio Lindback 15. Peter Ljung Manager: Bosse Wirebrand AUSTRALIA 3. Chris Holder 4. Davey Watt 16. Manager: Travis McGowan USA 5. Greg Hancock 6. Ryan Fisher 17. Manager: Billy Hamill ROSJA 7. Emil Sayfutdinov 8. Grigorij Laguta 18. Artem Laguta Manager: Tomasz Suskiewicz CZECHY 9. Ales Dryml 10. Tomas Suchanek 19. MATEJ ZAGAR (guest) Manager: Milan Spinka POLSKA 11. Tomasz Gollob 12. Jarosław Hampel 20. Adrian Miedziński Manager: Marek Cieslak DANIA 13. Nicki Pedersen 14. Michael Jepsen Jensen 21. Hans Andersen Manager: Anders Secher Hopefully Nicki will be fit enough to ride as Motoarena track is normally pretty slick. Good stuff to use Zagar as a guest (Lukas, Franc, Milik not available) as Czechs looked poor without him. Poland and Russia strongest on paper with Denmark not far behind. Sweden and Australia able to be in the mix of course. USA with Greg and Fish I think will be joy to watch as well. All in all great meeting in prospect and personally can't wait!

Seems that someone from Sky is actually reading our posts. They have shown heat 15 lineups in Berwick - Newcastle meeting on the tv graphics before they started interviews with managers. Great job. The most important info first then some talking.

What I hate on Sky is the way they announce riders for heat 15. Especially when it is last heat decider. Why can't they show names on graphics as soon as lineups are available? Instead they do talk with managers and when they finish, riders are usually already at the tapes. I think it is crucial who is in and from which gate and that kind of info should be available ASAP not as the last part of interview. There should always be time for some quick summary after heat 15 is finished, some time for interview with riders/managers. But the way thay do it, before heat 15 is pretty annoying for me.

SEC qualifiers and final rounds were announced on November 2012, far earlier than BEL fixtures. FIM and FIM-Europe meetings dates are the most important in the international calendar and no-one is supposed to overtype this dates with own meetings. If so, organisers take the risk of some riders unavalaible due to international duties… You can put the meeting on the FIM/FIM-Europe date (like i.e. Eastbourne sometimes do), but it's obvious that the riders' first choice is international meeting. Hans Andersen ‏@Hansi_Andersen 52 min @sheilaeveret made Swindon aware of not being available 4/5 times due to other commitments BEFORE the season started #NotMyFault

Thanks Phil

What time does the practice start this year? Is it open and free?

British Eurosport will aslo cover that great event! More details in a link below: http://www.speedwaypairs.com/eng/?subaction=showfull&id=1366125509&archive=&start_from=&ucat=&

Are they allowed to move riders within the team? Hancock was declared at 1 and Holder at 5 and you got it the other way round.