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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!

That depends how many people in the family work. If its only one then thats a lot of money! Do you fancy paying £500 for you and 4 others to go? Besides, it would befar more than that for the hotel unless you stay about 40 miles away!

As pointed out already, there is more scope for fiddling matches with 2 riders from each team in a heat! Any format needing a race off would of ended up with 2 riders so no difference and the race was processional after the 2nd lap because the track was poor by then and Leigh was far quicker than Jarek, once in front. This format works well on the whole, although the first rounds always have a couple of teams that don't score much. If you had a 2 team format, how exciting would the Poland v Hungary races be? Have to agree with the whole personal comments thing though. If you don't enjoy the SWC then thats your opinion and I won't say you're wrong however I don't see another format making the racing any better than what we have now! Probably because Gizatullin wasn't gonna more than a point in either race where as Sajfutdinov had a good chance of scoring more points in the weaker race!

But you won't earn 10% interest in less than a year!

Should have saved your petrol!! They were selling them in the Stadium shop for £8

Spot on Lupus although I prefer the old forum classic "I don't need to work in Burger King to know when my Whopper tastes crap"! Nicki has been a bad boy in the past but over the last two years he has, on the whole been pretty good. Last night was all down to the ref who yet again was shocking. Oh and for the record, if you go on the football forums you will always here fans moaning about the players rolling around like a bunch of pussies. Its the worst thing in the game and players are always booed for it at matches!

Errr Why would Belinda Carlisle know our national anthem????? She's American! You know that big chunk of land across the Atlantic! Or did you fail your CSE Geography! Overall the music was great this year! Anyone who thinks last year was better should think back to that horrible "We love Speedway" chant to the tune of "I love rock n roll" by Joan Jett. They kept playing it over and over and was truly cringe worthy.

Don't you dare, Stella's and Vodka's for you!!! See you in the POW around 12 ish (mines a double vodka red bull)

I must admit I would prefer weekly fixtures given the choice but feel that the league should really head to 2 mights per week for all teams. Wednesday & Thursday would be the obvious choices as they avoid clashes with the GP, Sweden & Poland and are consecutive nights, meaning the riders only have to fly in and out once per week. If SKY wanted to stick with one Monday match per week then that would work well and teams could still ride at home every week or near enough. In theory, changing meetings to every other week will tempt more riders over but it will also increase costs considerably. I would guess the very least would be a 50% increase on the gate price. Now if you only go half as often then you could argue thats a 25% reduction but the truth is that most people would moan like hell about it. While it could be an opportunity for the promoters to shove a load of extra money back into their clubs and raise the whole profile in a similar way to when the football premier league was rebranded a dozen years ago, it just won't happen because the current promoters can't agree on anything. In fact they take great pleasure in bitching and whining about each other at every opportunity and seem to enjoy it. Personally I would pay £20 per meeting if the quality, presentation, stadium, food, drink, organisation, rules and riders were improved as thats still far cheaper than the footie tickets I buy but I'm guessing I'm in the minority as its still treated by most fans as an amateur smalltime sport and thats its major problem when it comes to moving forward.

I tried booking the lodge on Monday, before BSI officially announced the GP dates and was told the price would be £75 per night but had to call back the following day and speak to reservations to give them my card details. Called back the following morning AFTER the GP had been announced and prices had miraculously doubled overnight! They have now joined in with the rest to rip us off.

The chances of Schlein or Watt having enough sway to convince Wiltshire or Adams of ANYTHING is pretty much nil. Todd and Leigh would do what they pleased given their standing in the sport, so either they weren't too fussed about riding either but kept quiet so as not to rock the boat or the ref must have told them not to go out to test the track!

Not trying to play devils advocate or anything but lets reverse the situation for a minute. Lets say the few that wanted to ride had convinced the "pansies" to ride on a track they weren't comfortable with. Then there was a crash and we get another Ashley Jones incident. Who would take responsibility for pushing the riders into taking part when they clearly weren't interested? Who would be the first to moan when insurance for the next meeting was either double what it was or they were unable to get any insurance ?(rising insurance has been an ongoing issue in Oz during recent seasons, or so the promoters there keep telling us) Who would be the one to tell somebodys wife / parents / kids one of their family had been pressured into riding and were now dead? I know its a dangerous sport and if you ain't got the balls you should pack up and go home etc etc...........! But on the other hand its already dangerous enough without taking any extra risks. If these riders were such pansies, why did they fly halfway round the world to take part in a series which was hardly likely to pay for their airfares/ bikes/ expenses? I'm not supporting what the riders did, just looking at it from a different point of view. I guess I expected a little more consideration to safety since Ashleys death, but some people don't seem too bothered! or maybe the track was fine and they are just a bunch of pansies.