iris123

I was at Highbury the day Liam Brady made his debut for Arsenal.Like Christer he never turned out for the Dons though

Sankt Johann have announced they will host a meeting on the 16th Feb.Open meeting,hopefully with a good international line-up and hopefully the weather is good.I can make this date i think !!!

Can't say i didn't warm you......but the ironic thing is,is the temps in south and east Germany are set to drop from wednesday onwards and snow is also predicted. It is i think totally wrong to give such an important meeting to a natural ice track.The thing is Inzell wanted to host a quali meeting and Bauer for one was slagging the FIM off for not giving them one.I still can't work out why if Inzell had the chance to host a meeting why they never kept plans to do so and they could have then stepped in to host this.It wouldn't have been a big deal for all the fans who have booked flights and hotels to go to Inzell instead So the official news is out.They say they need 5 or 6 nights with temps of -15.Mild weather and rain has ruined all the work they have put in so far http://www.speedway.org/pressemitteilungen/2013/st-johann.pdf

Well might have to take back my words now.Just been having a look at the Buxtehude Rallycross site as IMG have just signed a 10 year marketing deal with the FIA.And what do i see on the site?Promise of bringing the European Rallycross Championship to a possible audience of over 300 million people on tv.There will not only be a sponsor for the Euro series,but also sponsors for each meeting!!!!IMG apparently made a big name for themselves with their promotional activity at the Olympic Games in London.But the last bit states that not only the track and the sport will gain from this deal,but also the town and region will....... http://www.estering.de/news.php?cat=13&t=1&nid=610

Smolinski + Helfer stay with Landshut http://www.speedweek.de/art_31262.html

Sadly that tell us all we need to know about the current state of British speedway really.A rider who has done 10 years on a 500cc in Europe and hardly anyone has heard of will come over into the junior/development league on a 3 or 5 point average(if he passes the first glance test)with no real future ahead of him,and will not be putting any rider who is just starting, out of a place.Indicative of the real problem British speedway has at all levels from top to bottom.I have nothing against Pascal personally and don't really want to carry this on as it will look like i have.I have stated in the past and will again now for those who don't know my opinion,that i would have nothing against foreign riders(limited to 1 per team)of any sort in the NL as long as it will help the league/team.Say a decent young Dane or German who is just starting out and looks to have a good future and will bring people through the turnstiles.What i don't like is riders who are going nowhere and are cynically using the chance of a British passport to gain a place in the lower league.I would hope we have enough riders with little experience to fill up the places.

Think Phil is talking about the town.The track i guess we will be told will be much improved next season.Even BSI/IMG can't do much about the surrounding area lol

If anyone thinks the problem with british speedway lies soley at PL level then we have no hope.The first and basic problem lies in attracting enough youngsters in the first place and then we have a problem at almost every step on from there.Just look at how many kids start riding in Denmark and tell me we match their standard

The guy is 23 going on 24,he isn't some junior starting out and having to live with his parents!!!!That is a difference.Another difference is that all the riders mentioned are starting out in their career and could prove useful to the national team in the future.No way is someone who has ridden speedway since 1996 and not got very far,going to make the national team.Another differenceThere are clearly big differences that people either can't or won't see.Holta might have changed nationality,but it was a two way thing.Both Poland and Holta gained.In this situation i can't see how Britain will gain,only Pascal.But like it has been mentioned it will only happen if someone thinks he is good enough for their team.It does show just how far we have fallen though that we don't even have enough juniors to fill the team places that we have to give a place in our junior league to a mediocre experienced rider from the Netherlands.At least previous "foreign" riders like Nielsen,Glanz and some from Australia looked like they would improve

Sure we all hope St.Johann goes ahead.Not just for you,but now you say that then a special crossing of the fingers for you I sometimes get the chance to watch a programme on the Swiss Channel 3sat early in the morning called Alpenpanorama.All it is,is webcams from the Alp/Tirol region i.e Switzerland,Austria,Germany and Italy,with weather and snow depth plus info on the ski lifts.All accompanied by oompah music.One of my favourite programmes and probably dirt cheap to make.But when i looked in over Xmas most areas were relatively mild with North Italy looking coldest,but the temps can vary quite a bit in a small area,so i do hope St.Johann is lying nicely in a cold spot

Well it seems from Jesper that Steingaden has been cancelled

But as he was Dutch Champion back in about 2006 and has been riding since 2003 when he was 13th in the Dutch Championship surely he has ridden in a Dutch national meeting more than a few times?

I think the big difference and surely you can see that,is that both Stefan and more so Jason have what looks like a decent career ahead of them.Hand on heart if you have seen him,you can't say the same about Pascal.It isn't the same situation.But at least he will be over to show promoters what he can do.Better than signing someone up without seeing him like Berwick did with Hertrich last season in the PL!!!!! Pascal will be 24 before the season starts and will be doing his 10th season on 500cc in 2013.Come on..........

Huxley and even Lamoreaux have a decent claim,but surely the claim of tauser and Kempster is somewhat tenuous?They couldn't have contributed much to the club.Just as Ivan Mauger didn't ,even though he is a speedway great

Yeah ok,but he is 23,been riding speedway for a number of years and isn't very good.Surely there must be a british youngster out there that can take a team place and maybe just maybe move up.Can't see Swart ever being a PL standard rider,so what is the point?He is hardly going to put bums on seats either....

Maybe it isn't Danish/Swedish league,but the new European league?

Think the German/Austrian meetings must be in doubt at the moment.Been warm for over a week now and it was the warmest Christmas on record in Munich with a temp over +20C.Picture in todays paper of a few people in shorts bathing in Chiemsee!!!!

Sure Mads said he was sorted for CZ,so look on his website. Brokstedt are celebrating their 30th anniversary next season and when they celebrated 25 years they gave Matten a medal.He did tell me it was a bit of a cheat as he had only been there 24 years.So i guess he will get a medal for 30 years service.Even if he has only been there 29 years running that is still a great record

And i know from Kacper Worynas father that he was the first rider to sign for Rybnik.

Best bet is sportowefakty most probably.They just copy things from other sites etc,but at least it is all in one place.I see Mads announced he was sorted everywhere,so i guess that is him at Brokstedt.You can also put Matten Kröger and Stephan Katt down for 2013 and 2014.....lol

If i have this right there will be a programme on the Argentina trip on DK4,thursday at 22:55 uk time Will also be a season review on 1st Xmas day at 17:00 your time

Ha ha... And have to say from my little experience Longtrack is boring.A follow the leader race over 300m is bad enough,just think how strung out the riders get when there is 1,000 m per lap.And then how long it takes to prepare the track when the tractors have to go round a 1,000m track instead of 300m.Maybe i have been unlucky,but the 3 meetings i went to and they had some top riders in were all what you would technically call crap

Sure and from what i gather it is also pressure from the riders.f-s-p could probably confirm,but i think world champ Joonas Kylmäkorpi would also like to be earning more from longtrack meetings.He was in the press a few months back moaning about the amount of money in the sport and he only rides in the GPs,it isn't worth him doing other meetings

Been invited to Rybnik for a meeting,so am hoping there will be something at the beginning of May.Was told that they have an individual meeting that might be around that time.Hoping to see young Kacper Woryna

Franky announces his retirement!!!!! Well,sort of.He talks about St.Johann being his last meeting if he doesn't manage to get through under his own steam.Unless of course he has technical problems.He had long talks with the FIM who had put him down as one of the fixed riders in the GPs.But it is vital for the well being of Austrian ice speedway that he rides.No Franky,no crowd.So the Polish rider Knapp took Franky's place in the GPs http://www.speedweek.de/news/30844/Weshalb-Franz-Zorn-seinen-GP-Platz-ablehnte.html