Humphrey Appleby

Everyone's passing the buck, aren't they? The PZM have said the track and starting gate were the responsibility of SpeedSport who were forced upon them by BSI, SpeedSport say the track was signed-off by the FIM Jury, and BSI also seem to be pointing the blame at the FIM Jury. Of course, the FIM Jury is probably the one element that can't or won't be sued because all parties need FIM blessing in future. All very convenient...

Silly comment - try reading people's posts properly. Who has suggested that BSI are not responsible or shouldn't be called to account, but far too many people today run around demanding apologies that are meaningless. I couldn't care less what BSI say, or what damage limitation they try to do - they clearly do not learn lessons from their mistakes or lack of supervision, or they're simply not up to the job required.

An apology from BSI would be meaningless and I don't honestly see how it would make any difference to the situation. It's hardly the first fiasco, nor is it even an irregular occurrence. It would be like me keeping taking money to deliver a product, and then only occasionally delivering it, delivering it to the wrong address, or only delivering part of the consignment... over-and-over again, and then apologising, saying that lessons have been learned and it'll never happen again... Not until the next time.

It's an interesting conspiracy theory, but it would be easier for OneSport or their backers to just pay the riders not to ride in the SGP. Regardless of whether the track was actually raceable or not, clearly there was a lot of unhappiness amongst the riders about something. I'm not convinced the sport would be any better off with OneSport running things BTW.

Sadly it does if you get sued, and it's taken as an admission of liability. So this is strategy now - blame the officials. Whilst they hardly covered themselves in glory, I doubt they can really be held to account for inadequate track preparation or one that deteriorated after just a few heats. And had they refused to sign-off the track before the meeting, what the consequences of that have been with a stadium about to fill with 50k fans?

Let's assume the track was rideable, if indeed not raceable. Why would the riders not want to ride, what are their reasons? One can only assume there are either poor relations with the organisers for some reason, or the organisers have employed a bolshie bunch to provide the entertainment. Either way, the buck stops with the organisers.

Let's not attempt to distract attention from the fiasco in Warsaw, not that I think there's much scope to hold a GP in the Philippines... I'm sure the average fan appreciates a big venue, but I'm sure they'd also like to see a complete meeting on a reasonable track. If the series organisers can't deliver on that, then the sport is not being well served by going to these places. There have now been too many failures to claim it's an aberration - it's becoming a regular occurrence. And Warsaw will have been far more damaging to the sport's reputation than previous failures. No doubt working out how they can wriggle out of any blame, and preferably put the blame on someone else.

They might be able to call the result after 12 heats, but the refund policy may be different.

I await with interest, the write-up in the Spar this week.

It would seem the track needs to be as crap as possible...

Not sure it's strange. BSI buy the material, and pay Ole Olsen to make the track. Presumably BSI then own the shale as an asset, and can use another track preparation company if necessary. I'm sure Olsen also doesn't want 4,000 tonnes of shale on his books either, as there's not many other customers that need temporary tracks building. I'm not sure about morally, they may be legally entitled to it back. The problem though, will be that the tickets will have been sold by the PZM who'd have to stump up the cash, and then try to make a counterclaim against BSI.

Who was responsible for providing the starting gate? In the meantime, has anyone read the pathetic news item on the BSI website 'Hampel thanks fans'? Only the briefest of mentions of a curtailed event in an indoor stadium...

Quite. I'd fully accept the difficulties of laying temporary tracks, but this is supposed to be the sport's premier competition, and yet it's akin to the World Cup Final being played on a bumpy old park pitch with molehills and doggy do. Would test match cricketers play on a rutted pitch regardless of whether they were 'drop in' ones or not? I strongly suspect not.

He'll be awaiting orders from BSI towers on how they can possibly put a positive spin on this debacle, or at least blame someone else...

At the end of the day, whilst I'm sure it'll be another embarrassment for BSI, they'll have their money and will move on to the next venue leaving the local organisers carrying the can. I doubt the FIM can or will take any action, because it'll jeopardise their income stream and frankly the sport is probably too low on the radar for the bigwigs there to really care. If BSI are responsible for the track though, then maybe the PZM could sue them.

Yes, but football pitches are usually permanently laid in stadia and there's not really any massive science to growing grass, rolling and mowing it. A closer analogy would be preparation of a cricket pitch, and international matches have been abandoned due to them bring unfit. I think the problem with temporary speedway tracks is the extreme shortage of time that the stadium is available for, leaving very little time to lay the track and resolve any issues with it. I don't disagree though, that Olsen should know how to lay a temporary track by now, and it being under a roof there's not even the excuse of inclement weather. I think Olsen's head should roll along with heads at BSI, although I suspect there's not really any other company with the same experience in doing the work. It's all very well firing him, but who's going to do the temporary tracks in Tampere, Cardiff, Stockholm, Horsens and Melbourne at short notice?

Why should the NHS be treating all these health tourists...?

It would be interesting to get to the bottom of where the shale actually came from, and where it's kept before it gets to the venue. No doubt the explanation will be that it got wet during the crossing on the ghost ship..

Although I'm a big critic of BSI, I can to some degree have some sympathy about the track problems. Trying to lay a track in a very limited time, is a big logistical challenge and even on permanent tracks, getting the preparation right is not an exact science. Failure of the starting gate though, with seemingly no backup, is to me utterly inexcusable. Tracks round the country manage to have working starting gates week-after-week. Riga was also down to BSI negligence as that was a semi-permanent track with plenty of time to iron out problems. And it also sounds like excuses are already being made about Tampere, despite all the 'lessons learned' spiel last year. People keep saying how BSI have raised the bar and what a good show they put on. Well last night was the evidence of what the reality is, and it'll be interesting to see how this one gets explained away in the Spar. What happened in Warsaw is far more damaging than Riga, Tampere, Gelsenkirchen and Ullevi. This was in the capital of the most important speedway nation, no doubt in front of cynical big city hacks who otherwise would never take any interest in a provincial working class sport. One wonders how many more lessons can be learned. The organisers of the series are not up to the job, and now that competition has emerged for the rights, the FIM needs to looking at re-tendering - if only to act as the wake-up call for the complacency at BSI.

The FIM Jury will be a President appointed by the FIM, a representative of the PZM, and the referee. The Jury formally has to make the decision to abandon a meeting, in consultation with the Clerk of the Course and Race Director.

That there have been worse tracks is hardly a recommendation. Maybe the riders have just got sick of the amateurish organisation.

Tomasz Gollob's Golden Legacy

You're forgetting that Phillipe already made it clear that the PZM are running this GP. BSI can't be expected to think about making the starting gate work...

I don't think Meridian Lifts can run to sponsoring the starting gate as well as the two minute clock.

Interestingly, the Celtic Warrior isn't listed as having called at King's Lynn or Gdansk in the last few weeks. It was in Cardiff yesterday, and was in the Baltic a couple of weeks ago, but went to Latvia and Denmark. The other interesting thing is that, according to its registered capacity, it can't carry anywhere near 4000 tonnes.