engineman

Got to say well done to Doyle too. GP win, he's now well established in the top bracket.

Great day for the Bomber ! Well done!

Who-hoo! Bomber fantastic!

Go Bomber!

Overall a good GP and a good indoor track. Fewer dangerous incidents than most GPs but particularly marred by the final. It did look to be a fast track so any incident even at the first bend is likely to be high speed , and to win races you needed to have a lot of power. Even great track craft isn't enough to compensate for lack of power. Wise words from Crumpie all the way through, and a generally good commentary. Nice one!

Yes! Just like Andy. I always had a lot of respect for Andy....obviously a talented and hard-working rider but had mysterious lapses of form....as does Bomber. He deserves congratulations in making it through a tough qualifying series.

I'd have been happy to outgate them! My claim to fame is that I ran into Chris Morton when he locked up in front of me. I shut off, and he cleared off to win the race! That's what made them better than average....they come out on top.

When I was racing grasstrack in the 70s, it always struck me that PC, Chris Morton etc, whilst bad gaters in speedway,, were generally at the first bend ahead of us ! In those days 16 riders in a heat was not uncommon, made for congested first bends too!

[ It was indeed Anders Michanek. Thanks for confirmation. Nice to see Anders looking well, just surprised he still has long hair!

Was that Anders Michanek presenting the trophy?

Well Done, Bomber! The Challenge is an extremely difficult meeting and over the years has caught out many top-notch riders, including some of our most popular National heroes (I'm thinking of Mark Loram here). Bomber himself has had his share of falling at this hurdle, too. Kildemand and others are now finding it tough, despite their other successes. And I seem to recall that Darcy Ward had to be given a wild card for 2014 after not making it through the 2013 Challenge? Yes, a while ago Andy Smith was a master of it, perhaps proving that experience is a most important element. Congratulations too to Jason Doyle, a useful addition to the GPs for 2015.

Having followed speedway and grass track for about 50 years, done several years in grass track racing as a young man, and seen how people progress, I totally agree thatBritish speedway needs to either become self contained, or move on to a set up similar to the European countries. Bigger tracks, out of town, rather than the compromised greyhound stadiums, may mean different investment, perhaps fewer clubs, but can be made entertaining. In fact now is a time for bringing grasstrack and speedway closer together. Neither the Bspa nor the ACU are very credible organisations, but the ACU is at least more open. I really hope they will take a lead.

With so much focus on the manager, I think the team that GB put out did their best, and qualifying for the final was the key achievement. If that was down to the manager he deserves credit. Perhaps next time there will be other riders who have gained the right sort of experience to make selection more complex, but for KL it was a good team. And for the final, you'd surely want riders who at least have already shown they are ready for International GP standard racing.

Ok thanks. There seems to be a girl of the same name now involved in cycle racing...any idea if it is the same Nynke?

Can anyone tell me if Nynke de Jong is still racing? The website is no. longer working.

Thanks, Jim, you are a gentleman! It's good to know that Gote is still around, and one of the searches I did revealed this . It's hard to know that the driver is the same man of course, unless anyone can confirm?

One of my favourite riders in the 60s - does anyone know what became of Gote?

The answer is simple: make a rule that only a rider who is under 25 years of age can be World Champion. This would clearly be in the interests of speedway and stop the benefits going to those who merely work hard, train and invest in equipment.

But he hasn't beaten Pawlicki in the U 21 final round, & scored only 9pts in the previous round? Some would say he wasn't really trying, but it's hard to know the truth of that claim. Of course, Sayfutdinov moved on from U21 so Ward never beat him for the title. As for comparisons with PC, I've thought quite a lot about that. It's difficult to make the comparison, but one thing is for certain, at equivalent stages in their careers, PC had achieved more, and had equipment which was not as good as Olsen, Mauger, etc. Don't get me wrong, of course Ward is good and will go on to do well. The question was about being world champion. Given that Adams, Sullivan, Wiltshire etc never achieved it, let alone Carter, Morton, Ray Wilson etc, it isn't being negative to conclude that there may be doubts about it. Jonsson has been "promising" for 10 years before he got a medal, and he looked just as impressive at 19.

Well I saw Peter Collins, Michael Lee, Dave Jessup etc as they came through the ranks. What they could do was achieve consistency. For DW to be a one-off World Champion he'd have to score 14 or 15 from 5 rides on a strange track against the World's best including riders he'd never seen before, on a given night. Has he done that this year? Only in the under 21's (and he also had bad rounds there) ....so on the evidence he does have a way to go. It would also do the lad a favour if people were a little more realistic.

Not until he "signs " for Poole

Which means that Harris' 2011 GP average is about the same as THJ's League average!

It just shows you, doesn't it? Surprise nomination 2010 and finished equal 5th in the world.

Probably not.. too much too soon doesn't always make for the work ethic needed. This year he has had the best equipment available and been looked after by his mate. He is great to watch and gets some amazing results, but he has quite a way to go yet.

Gate positions very important tonight....good meeting for Harris....robbed of more points by Gollob and the referree.