ImpartialOne

Chris Harris leads a comfortable lifestyle, and he is well sponsored and invests heavily so it's not the money. Never kid yourself that these top riders are short of backing or money to compete. They are minted.

Event 1: Gollob, Fisher, Wells, Janowski. Event 2: Holder, Woffinden, Smolinski, Franc.

Well, yes the crowds dropped a lot from the 1970s but they did everywhere. I'm talking as a spectacle the event belongs at Coventry and on a sunny (hopefully) Sunday afternoon as opposed to a Monday night at Wolverhampton or Oxford has to be a good move?

Thanks. Sounds good. I always thought 25 heats was stringing it out a bit far.

What's the format? Can't get on that link.

No, the start of the decline was when it moved to other tracks. It's never been the same since.

But when it went to Sunday afternoons it was a proper event; the one that everyone looked forward to. That's what the British Final needs to return to to become a major event again.

I agree, it does make the British Final "a bit" more worthwhile again. In fact it's the only thing that makes a British Final at Wolverhampton worthwhile. A lot of people have said how the British Final has lost its prestige in recent years. I wonder why? Holding it at Oxford and Wolverhampton might be a clue. In the 80s and 90s, as you say, the British Final was a big event packed out on a sunny afternoon at Coventry. It was prestigious and everything about it was right. So it's no wonder moving it to Wolvethampton on a Monday night has killed the event. Some things are better left alone and this was one of them. Why on earth can't it be taken back to its rightful place on its rightful day?

Well yes they better had because that's the system. But it needn't be the system. Nicholls is a big fish in a small pond that's all. But his qualification is wasted on him. He's had his day now in GPs, let's give the kids a chance like we used to. Who do the Poles nominate? Protesiewicz or Zmarzlik? Would the Danes nominate Bjarne Pedersen or Mikkel B. Jensen? We want to see new blood not dried up old clots.

Like Steve says, no other country uses this system of wild carding. It's down to IMG at the end of the day, they've obviously okayed it but the last two years I would rather have seen Barker or Tai get the wild card than Nicholls as he was always going to struggle and has had plenty of chances in the GP. Personally I don't want to see Nicholls in it yet again scratching for points but no doubt he will be. Let's give the young lads something to aim for.

Backing isn't the problem. Harris isn't short of good backing and as we know he throws a lot of money at it. Riders like Kennett and Richardson have had good backing from Hagon who I'm led to believe supply all their bikes. Nicholls had good backing from Allan Ham in the GPs but it didn't do him much good. The problem, as Loram has often said, is that riders aren't coming through from the Grasstrack scene like they used to. Loram, Screen, Doncaster, Wigg, Tatum, Cross and even lesser internationals like Schofield, Hurry, etc progressed from the grass. Harris too but times have changed and the National League isn't enough to bring in the talent required. If only someone could persuade Hagon to back a similar scheme to Hamill's, grab the kids off the street and supply the gear, we may start to build a future for this country. Broc Nicol looks to have the talent to make it already and we need to find those sort of prospects and help them along the way.

Does Vaculik ride for Czech Republic? He's Slovakian. Actually it was only 23 years ago. And let's be fair, only 8 years ago we were unlucky to lose out by a point thanks to Eurovision style tactics from the Danes and Swedes. It's only really in the last few years since we lost Loram and Floppy as solid GB riders, and more recently Richardson when he quit that GB has struggled to assemble a decent team. Admittedly though the talent has been thin on the ground for ten years or more. What we'd give to have a squad like the late 90s of Loram, Screen, Havelock, Louis, Smith, Cox, Dugard, Richardson, Norris, etc to choose from now.

He never has in my view. Even when he was up at the top he sent me to sleep. Him and Bjarne have to be the most boring riders I can recall, yet I've no idea why they bore me so much. They just do. Credit where it's due for Lindgren. He's been lucky to be in for a number of years thanks to picks but this year he looks genuine world class.

Yes of course, I was forgetting he could yet still qualify and fair play to him if he does, he'll deserve his place. He's never qualified yet through that route and when you consider he gets two chances per year to qualify, he's qualified once in ten opportunities (I think he opted out of the qualifiers once or twice but the opportunity was there) As for Woffinden, I can't quite understand why he wouldn't take it on next year. He's ambitious and has been around at the top level long enough to give it a crack now.

Exactly. Nobody has that much "bad luck". Dave Jessup was the same, although he was a genuine contender on occasions where as Harris never has been and never will be. To be fair, he's never looked like cutting it, bar a few months in 2010 and there are so many better riders than Harris not getting the preferential treatment that he is from IMG. They are destroying him by picking him year on year. I hope for his own sake they don't pick him next year and if they do, his most sensible option would be to turn it down. If we must have a British rider representing us next year, I'd rather Tai Woffinden have another season. He should have been picked this year ahead of Harris. He can't be any worse and in fact on this year's form I think he would have done a decent job. Harris has now been gifted a place for the world title five out of six years and I'm afraid that is unacceptable.