coma

Can't see anything but a Kings Lynn win. Unless Schlein & Bjerre have complete mares, Poole are gonna be needing tacticals just to stay in touch :-(

Proving you could lay the bike down used to be part of the process to get your licence (it may well still be?) It wasn't just a Costa Mesa thing. They wouldn't make inexperienced riders do it if it was that dangerous. I understand your point about you hurting your knee the one time you fell off but doing it on a road bike on tarmac is NOTHING like sliding off on dirt. Somebody slides off in the first turn in virtually every meeting, it really isn't a big deal in most cases. So doing it deliberately to get a tactical advantage isn't really a risk! I'm not suggesting every time is deliberate, just that it wouldn't be dangerous to attempt it. I've seen several meetings where a team have needed atleast a 3-3 in the last heat and if both riders have missed the gate and find themselves 5-1 down after the first turn, one of them has laid it down on the next turn with no one around them. They know they will get excluded but it gives their team mate another chance in the rerun. It also gives one set of fans someone to boo!

What more than the world cup final? or the Superbowl? Its not even close. and total viewers worldwide of ALL football matches far exceeds F1 so in what way does F1 have more viewers?

Been walking around in it this afternoon. Didn't really get that wet. Should give the track a nice even watering and ensure we don't get the clouds of sahara dust like last year. That was beyond a joke!

It didn't rain in Gothenburg on Friday, or so far today. Fingers crossed!

Ha! You clearly don't know me! I am always willing to listen to other opinions but when someone suggests bringing in youngsters is a bad thing for an old and struggling team, when its exactly what the other teams have been doing for the last few years then they are clearly seeing something different to me! What part of that is wrong?

You contradict yourself here! No the other teams won't slow down but equally we won't get any quicker if we don't get the young riders in early to get some experience. The reason Denmark and Sweden have good teams is that they DID blood their youngsters early instead of sticking with the old guys till they are well past it. How many times over the last 6 or 7 years have we seen Floppy, Barker, Havelock, Screen, Smith, Hurry step in to replace injured riders at the last minute when we should have been giving the young guys a go. We have failed to win anything with the older guys and our team will get older and weaker if we don't "blood some youngsters" now! Denmark shocked everyone about 7 years ago with a team that included Hans Andersen, Bjarne Pedersen and Charlie Gjedde who weren't even riding at heatleader level at that time, but they came through and surprised everyone and have continued to do so since then. They currently used Klindt when they could have gone for a couple of other more experienced riders and Sweden left out Karlsson / Max and used yonger guys too. Australia "blooded" Holder last year and Leigh Adams is likely to retire in the next year or two along with Sullivan so Aus will have no choice but to bring in a couple more then. Its pretty certain that someone like Ward or Gathercole will be riding for them next year. Crump probably won't be around for more than another 3 or 4 years either and by that point Shields & Watt will be well into their 30's! Everyone has been "blooding youngsters" except us which is why they all have good teams and we struggle! What part of all that isn't blatantly obvious?

The mistake they have made is to tinker around with stupid pointless things that will only serve to annoy fans, just like speedway does! They changed the points system about 6 years ago to try and stop Schumi running away with it each year. They increased the points scored for 2nd place which they hoped would reward consistancy over outright race wins. It didn't work and Schumi still kept winning titles but now ironically they seem to want to go back the other way and reward race wins over consistancy. Like I said, pointless tinkering. They'll be introducing a play off system soon like they have in NASCAR. Anything to try and artificially make it closer rather than work on the real issues of why the racing is boring! De Ja Vu anyone?

Well luckily they decided to repeat the missing SWC heats at the end of Mondays Elite snoozefest however they didn't apologise or openly admit they had cocked up previously. Just made out they were replaying them out of the goodness of their heart! Still atleast I've seen them now!

You'd have thought someone at SKY would have realised by now. Just goes to show that the people there don't even watch their own channel!

You were saying! It was heats 22-25 they missed and they've done it again this morning. That a bleeding waste SKY is!

Thought it was just me! I even recorded the programme after last night in case it ran on. They moved that programme back an hour till 10pm but SKY+ didn't record the extended SWC from 9 till 10pm. Then I did like you & stayed up for the rerun only to still miss the last few heats plus see team Denmark celebrating their win so I now know the result. Isn't it always better to watch the finale of an event when you know the outcome? Waiting to see if this mornings coverage has been re-edited to include the final heats! Any truth in the rumour that a certain polish ref now has a job at SKY editing their programmes!

Not sure about the lusting behind closed doors but they don't drink at all during the season. Back in the 70's & 80's yes, but once the young Schumacher came along and set the bar for absolute fitness & performance, they all followed his lead. He used to allow himself a few drinks at the end of the season (thats drinks not piss ups!) but once Xmas passed, he wouldn't touch the stuff until the end of the season. That is common through the grid now. I know that Tony Rickardsson was usually the same during the season too and I have only ever seen Bjarne Pedersen drinking non alcoholic drinks in the bar at Poole so some speedway riders to have some dedication!

Exactly the same for me. Was expecting the Holiday Inn to sell out instantly so went to book last Sunday when they became available and was shocked by the increase. No way I'm paying that. I can get 1 weeks accomodation in Orlando for less than that and its better quality too. Plus Disney is far less Mickey Mouse than speedway too! Can it really get any worse? I didn't think so! So after giving the Holiday Inn the bird, I called a B&B further out of town. They have room rates of £30 per person in June according to their website which still isn't exactly cheap for a B&B but was acceptable. They said they would have to call me back to confirm price / availability because it was so far ahead. Low and behold the phone rings 20 minutes later and we are told there is availability and its £60 per person per night. Thats more than I paid at the Holiday Inn this year. For a frickin B&B on the edge of town! Luckily we live less than an hour drive from Cardiff, so for us the hotel isn't a necessity. Just a luxury to allow a good social drinking session! But I really feel sorry for others that need to stay but still end up 30 odd miles away to get a reasonable price. Even the trains are a bleeding rip off. Single to Cardiff on the Sat morning is £8, coming home in the evening after 9pm on a heaving busy train is over £20! Now thinking of hiring a Limo to pick us up after the GP and drive us home. For 6 of us will be the same price as the train or a hotel and can choose departure time and drink on the way home in luxury!

So who won this then? Can't see any mention on the BSPA site, does that mean no one entered!