Andrew666

It's just a thought which I'm sure dozens of you will shoot down, but I wonder if we might take a leaf out of the show jumping world and the riders use only local bikes and engineers for the contest - thus avoiding the need to transport tons of equipment and people half-way round the world.

Great meeting after the first round which was a bit processional. Superb track = racing lines all over the place. Gollob was reckless but also daring at the same time. Although he was on balance correctly excluded, he must have anticipated that Emil would have gone for the outside line - but Emil's mindset is similar to Gollob's in that he's prepared to risk the eye of the needle. Quick rap for Jason Crump, who's narrowed the gap on Hampel - it's still a three-horse race.

A terrific preview there from ladyluck. When point she makes is how the points system tends to mean the championship is usually (though thankfully not this year) all over by about half-way. Perhaps the solution to this might be to divide the championship into three parts. There could be two parallel groups of sixteen in the first half of the season, opening up more tracks to the GP experience - then the top eight from each group would qualify for the second half of the season, starting from zero points once again. The winners of the two qualifying groups could be labelled World pennant holders or something so they have something to be remembered for.

You can watch the Polish service for free on myp2p.eu The presenter is gorgeous :>>

Has anyone considered the growth potential for speedway in China and India. Motor sports have taken off in a big way in both countries recently.....

Anyone know the venues and dates for next year's grand prix series? It would be nice if there was an Aussie stand-alone grand prix with riders not involved in the main series - it could be a showcase for Anzac, American and Argentinian riders. If only there was the money..... It would also be nice if the main series could stretch a little further next year - Qatar would be good, perhaps sponsored by cash-rich and sports-mad Qatar Petroleum. They already have MotoGP and they can be contacted here: www.qmmf.com I've worked on a project with QP and building a speedway track would pose no problem for them. They have a massive construction infrastructure based on the principle of sub-contracting projects to European companies employing south asian labour.

I suppose if the military are sponsoring speedway then at least a very small part of the £4500 of my taxes every year that goes towards funding the military is not being spent on weapons of mass destruction or paying young northern lads to act as mercenaries for American oil policy.

Fascinating - and good to see the different spellings in Ukrainian and Russian - a big issue in Ucrania. So, have there ever been any famous Ukrainian riders - are there any at the level of the Ekstraliga or Elite league for example? Any possibility of an SGP grand prix in Ukraine soon?

I've just gotten back into speedway thanks to the sky coverage. I used to go and see the Devils in about 67/68 I think. Some of the riders names still linger in my mind - Dave Whitaker, Coles..someone called Vince. Does anyone know if a history of this period is lying around anywhere? There was stock car racing too - but I think that was on a different night. Names like Sparks spring to mind for that...and the numbers 707 and 747 for some reason.

I was wondering if there were any speedway tracks in the Ukraine as I worked there briefly last year - in Kiev and Donetsk - but didn't have much time to follow up sport? Donetsk is a sports-mad city and with the Ukraine lying between Poland and Russia, I would be surprised if speedway had passed it by completely. Donetsk, in particular, is a mining region - the city itself was founded by a Welsh mining engineer called John Hughes. It wouldn't surprise me if they also played rugby league there - most of the men look like lock forwards.