tyler42

With his fantastic start the the GP series. How many riders who are struggling i.e Hancock, Pedersen and the like turn up at the next GP with a GTR under their legs?

Just read the synopsis by John Black " With a vast array of titles to his name, including youngest ever World Champion, achieved at the age of twenty-three," Maybe I'm wrong, but did Michael Lee not win it at the age of 21 and Peter Collins at 22? Or does he mean under the Grand Prix format. Still not correct though is it, unless speedway is called something different theses days.

Do love The Dectorists

I don't think the debate is about should Hancock be World Champion or not. Of course he should be. He scored the most points over the season. It's the underhand way he went about letting Holder through and then when got caught out by the powers to be. He had the audacity to pull out of the meeting stating he was not in the right frame of mind !! Did he not stop to think he was robbing the paying public of seeing the new World Champion in action? Of course not. He threw his toys out the pram. Easy solution. In the future don't cheat and please don't make silly statements ' my clutch was falling apart etc etc' The FIM may not take any further action, but his antics will tarnish his clean boy image for a long time to come.

As others have said. Surely if... your having bike problems and you think you are going to be a danger to the other three riders, then in a safe manner, your hand goes up to let the other riders know you are having problems. What Hancock did was slow down, rode wide in to the turn. Let Holder pass and then speed up to make sure the other two did not get by. Sorry but if you can't see that, then you are defending the indefensible. The major problem hear is..... Team Monster imo. If Holder were not a Monster sponsored rider, then I don't think Hancock would have let him past. I don't know what can be done, but it does seem as if Monster Joe has a lot more influence than meets the eye!

Couldn't agree more. Yes riders in years gone by would show respect to each other, but how the young GP riders of today praise Hancock off track and then they give him far too much respect on track is quite farcical. Hancock's game plan imo is to gain all the young guys friendship. So that they all think he is some kind of living legend and hey presto, when it comes to the racing side of things, they all give him an easy ride. Regarding PB and the SS. It's so piss poor journalism, how do they let him get away with it?. Surely someone should make sure it is a balanced article. Not a 'all hail Greg who shall do no wrong' It would have been nice to read a article telling it how it is from the other point of view. Lastly regarding Monster. Yes its good that a product which is well known is sponsoring the GP series, But it really doesn't help matters when their marketing director is hugging the sponsored riders and giving silly faces to the camera, but then again the t.v cameras should stop filming him or it's in his contract!! lol.

I think you always need a bit of luck as well as skill to be a champion. Call it what you like fate or luck. Last week Hancock had what looked at the time like a nasty crash in the polish play offs, but luck was on his side and he walked away unscathed. Last night he crashed in the semi final, but the red lights came on just before he crashed. So he was lucky again, but they do say you make your own luck. As for people saying Jason Doyle has plenty of time to win it. How do we know that. This could be the nearest he ever gets to winning the title.

What Pearson being so far up Hancock's A*** or Hancock being handed the world title with Doyles Injury?

Unfortunately how many Elite League riders are there that ride in both leagues? Off the top of my head I would say 5 or 6. As we know the Polish League pays more and has a bit more kudos Than the Elite League. You are quite correct though in that it is quite arrogant of them.

What facility have they been using for Hampel all season?

Big mistake using Hampel in a play off semi final?. What options did they have RR?

How does this Lawrence get on the FIM refs list?

Fantastic effort to get 2nd, when I was one of many doubters who thought we would be in the final just to make up the numbers. The proof in the pudding will be next year, when we will have to qualify and progress to the semi final and then on to the final. If we can achieve that, then maybe our fortunes as a international speedway nation will be turning a corner.

If Lambert could get a place in next seasons Polish top league, I think this would bring him on no end. Racing with the top boys every week in week out would in my opinion be really good for him.

Iversen was on one wheel before contact was made, so there is a case where you could say he was already out of control.

I would say both competitions are completely different. The one off World Final meant you could not really afford a bad ride. The pressure must have been very intense to say the least. You had to put together five good rides, no second chances. Where as In the GP's it's all about accumulating points throughout the series. Tai said in an interview, that he was quite happy just to get into the final. To him winning was not the most important thing, but to keep raking up the points. Imo both are just as good as the other.

I think results don't lie and unfortunately for Bomber 7pts behind 14th place and 15pts behind 8th place after just three GP's. Two 2nds and three ducks from 5 rides does not in my opinion constitute 'right on it'

In the EL he may come against one of these riders per race. In the GPs he is up against three per race. At the end of the day Bomber is a good EL rider and always gives 100%. He always rides very well in the WTC but, his lack of meetings in the Polish and Sweden Leagues tell there own story.

I'll think you'll find the GP's are a tad more harder then the EL.

Danish Ref for a Danish GP?

I don't think that was the debate. I think most would agree the track caused him to fall, it was more the fact that he did not clear the track.

No mention from Nige or Kelv about Pedersen not clearing the track!!

But if he does finish 15th. It certainly does not make him the 15th best rider in the world! No disrespect to bomber, but he can't even get a ride in Poland's 2nd League. I think you yourself do stats on all the riders. Where does bomber come there. not top 15 I would guess.

My own personal opinion as to when it stopped being as good as it use to be. Was when most of the teams would be made up of guests, R/R. Yes I know back in the day There were guests and R/R, but when the likes of Belle Vue came to Wimbledon, You would know unless injured that P.C Chris Morton Les Collins etc would be riding and The Dons would have the same team as they had the week before and the week before that. Now you have so many riders from the premier league doubling up and that in my opinion is purely down to not having enough top class riders in the Elite league. You could argue and say back then the top riders were not riding Poland Sundays, Sweden Tuesdays and so on. Maybe that is why there is a lack of top riders riding here now. If you take the standard of our league racing today and put it up against 70s and 80s. I think no one who has seen both eras could say today's standard is better. The racing on the other hand is no better or worse than it was then. You still get fantastic racing today as you did then. Just without the crowds! Ironically the sport in my opinion has gone full circle in that, Poland was the poor relation to us, but now sadly it is us. you only have to look at our rider input on the world stage bar Tai Wooffinden. we are no where. Things are starting to look up, with a lot of promising youngsters, but if you let them just stagnate in the lower leagues, then when they come up against the young Polish, Danish and Swedish riders, they will be found wanting.