Dave_minall

He looks like the Michelin man!

I must admit as much as I like Pearson/Tatum, Wade and Jonno make a good pairing. It would be nice to alternate between the 2 between GPs to keep it feeling fresh. Just a suggestion? I did really enjoy some of the one liners. My favourite was when Wade said 'That Australian flag got a right thrashing there' - I'm not explaining why that was valid but I was in tears

Tai's highlight of the night for me was when he outright beat AJ and Darcy, who were at the time completely unbeaten. He left them scrapping between themselves and he just flew off for the win. No pressure on him at all from either rider, despite how well they were doing before that heat

Either way, bitching aside, I'm happy to see the GPs on TV and I'd be happy with just 1 cameraman on the centregreen with no commentators, as long as I get to see them. The fact that we have it for the next 3 years is just awesome. Many thanks and congratulations to everyone involved in getting this new contract set up

I like single points because it will keep the scores closer, however I was also a fan of the final points being 6, 4, 2, 1. maybe they could consider making the points 4, 3, 2, 1 so there's still a bigger reward for winning (albeit only 1 point) but it will also reward a rider for getting to the final.

I also noticed that a lot of riders have a lot less sponsors than usual. AJ's bikes in particular looked very bare.

You're missing my point. Everybody keeps raving about how great a job eurosport did, the only thing they did that was different to Sky's production was that there were different commentators than what we're used to, and there were no studio scenes. Regardless of who Eurosport provide for commentary, this was different to what Sky provided. It really wasn't that different to what Sky produced and yet, people have provided nothing but praise for something that in reality, is very much the same as what Sky provided. It'll be even less of a difference when we get to Bydgoszcz.

I don't get how everyone keeps congratulating everybody for the 'coverage'... it's the same cameras, the same shots, the same people as last year. Apart from at Cardiff, sky only piggybacked on the live feed provided by somewhere else. The only difference between that and Eurosport's is that ES didn't provide a fancy studio and had different commentators. That's it. Apart from that it was exactly how Sky would have shown it.

Not in the slightest that's just my opinion!

That's the one, couldn't remember which GP they started work on. I'm sure that'll give some mixed opinions... Personally I'm happy they're back. I love their commentary.

I can't understand why for the past 2 years Gollob has had blue and red guards with different colour covers. It just looks awful

Not sure if anyone has mentioned (surprisingly) but Nigel and Kelvin are back doing the commentary soon - I can't remember the GP in which they start but it won't be New Zealand.

We saw this a few years ago with another british rider who is now ironically riding for Lakeside this year...

I think we all agree that there should be no returning to the pits after a false restart. I think a lot of riders tend to get paranoid that they'll need more fuel etc. I know they're running super lightweight tanks now that don't hold much but lets be honest, how many times have we seen a rider pull up because they've ran out of fuel because they didn't fill up after a false start?

There is such a thing as a news embargo - Phil is giving us as much info as he can but obviously cannot reveal everything for legal reasons. Have some patience and give the man some breathing room. By the sounds of things good news is on the way.

I wasn't referring to myself, I was referring to those who would rather take to a message board to moan.

fingers crossed that this slight scare will make people appreciate what they've got. There's been a fair bit of bashing on Sky's presentation over the past few years. Hopefully this will make people realise that having speedway on TV that they don't necessarily enjoy is better than no speedway at all.

For once I'm putting my positive hat on - we don't need any more negative posts about what's wrong with our sport. Lets just enjoy our speedway again when it resumes in a couple of weeks.

Can't say that any of us are surprised by this - all the best to Havvy for the future. in the mean time, here is one of Havvy's finest world cup moments:

Dave, you're a legend. I'll enjoy reading that later. Thanks dude

Then they're clearly moving with technology! Meetings need to be more interactive with crowds nowadays, to bring in younger audiences. I'm 25 now and I can see that the gap between whats going on and the crowd themselves is so far people may struggle to get involved. I don't mean this literally either, before anyone says anything

Not even that, just have a texting or twitter service where people from the crowd can text or tweet the DJ with song requests/messages to the crowd.

OK I'll rephrase - the basic premise of speedway is easy. Getting a bike to slide doesn't take a massive amount of speed and you certainly don't have to be barging elbows with 3 other riders as soon as you get on one - riding the bike is fairly easy, racing the bike is a different kettle of fish altogether. Some of the moves that you see riders doing nowadays are breathtaking, that requires some serious skill.

Does anyone have links to these articles?

That I'm not sure of. I became friends with a chap at interspan (I think) back in 2003 when I was about to sign for Newport. I think the chaps name was Tony, not entirely sure. We had several conversations about magic boxes and which high profile riders use his products - he didn't at any point mention the great TR, thought he would have been the first person to mention? Also funnily enough at no point did he ever try to sell me a magic box, or even let me try one! Coil packs all the way. Cheap and easy. I agree with Dean - compared to other motorcycle sports, speedway is definitely one of the easiest. I know we ramble on about throttle control and body positioning, but it really isn't that hard.