waiheke1

Hancock Holder Tai Joonas Bonus: harris

I have every sympathy for those with a real reason to catch the flu/get cancer, but if a speedway rider is "sick" its in his hands to get better. See how ludicrous that sounds. Depression is an illness, it doesnt discriminate between rich and poor, sportspeople or tradesmen, young or old. Some people can get through it on their own, other s do with support from others, some never escape it. All deserve our sympathy and support. I would imagine that certain drugs would preclude the rider from racing if consumed within a certain time period prior to the meeting. Otherwise I dont see any argument that someone depressed is more likely to try and harm other ridersthan any other - tgere is no ban on riders who has just broken up with his girlfriend, have a fiery temper etc.

Id imagine the equipment outlay of a darts player to be somewhat less than a soeedway rider, with a much longer career possible and far less risk of severe injury

That was my first thought, but one of the replays did show him riding past miedzinski

So, in a country like NZ where the highlights package has been "taken", the live stream is blocked (it mentions highlights will be available on skytv which is a comment wto years out of date). What we do get is a month or two after a GP, probably not every GP, a highlights package on TV3. Phil - in your view is this a good deal for a NZ based speedway fan? Does the possbility of a highlights package being shown a couple fo months after the event justify blocking the live stream? (i acknowledge the NZ GP is an exception ,shown the folloing day). Is this really an achievement BSI should trumpet? I've sent the same query to BSI, not sure if I will get a response, but would be interested in your thoughts.

Anyone getting decent streams off any of these? The couple thst play for me keep freezing. Wondering vif its thexstream or my connection

same issue in nz. but if We wait a few weeks we may get somw highlights. great being one of the 100 countries...

Ward 40 more Woffinden 40 less Miedzinski 40 more Harris 40 more Zagar 40 more

Pedersen Tai Zagear Harris Bonus: aussie

I assume matt fords next programme notes will be saying that milik should have been red carded for injuring another rider... Edit. Typo fixed

Ok fair enough I thought that was what he had said the the star but either I mis read it or misrememebered.

But if the reason for pulling out is that he has a pre existing booking, made before the u21 date was known, its understand able to honour the existing commitment - especiallyif its in germany where he has done a significant proportion of his riding. The fact that he has asked to be considered next year would indicate not intended as a snub to the event?

gustix - you cant really compare the car speedway with the speedway gp. he gets a dozen car meetings a season, so while there is some track maintenance for each meeting, he's not doing a total track relay before and after an event. He's also not having to pay inscription fees to BSI. So that's the two major costs of hosting the speedway gp gone. I'd imagine that he's at least breaking even on the cars, and surprised if he's not making a profit, though clearly he loves the sport.

Gustix has already apologised repeatedly for being the only speedway fan onbthe planet unaware of that fact. If he were Canadian he could also apokogise for bryan adams but im not sure what else he csn do.

Phil - do the FIM offcials pay their own way, or are they paid for too by BSI or Bill B?

bill buckley is a very rich man - google him to find out more

I believe the promoter lost shed loads of money, hence it was one time only.

tbf, the chances of him scoring less than 2 were pretty remote (remember, he had rides scheduled against bunyan and harris) - unless he got injured first time out.

is Lambert's only issue with the BSPA the rule on age limits, or is there anything else which has caused this attitude? If the former, then I agree that he's acting like a petulant child, whcih i guess he is. however, i certainly don't think the smart thing ould be for the bspa to react by penalising him in anyway. give it a couple of years and it should all sort itself out, hopefully he will be fulfilling his potential, and representing the uk in wtc and GPs. the most talented sports people often have egos or other issues to match (i'm thinking your lees, wards, tiger woods, ronaldo in NZ kayaker Ben Fouhy, hadlee, crowe etc) - and it can just be a case of living with that, so long as their performances are good enough. obviously it is very early days in lamberts career and he could end up being the next PC/Tai Woffinden, or he could be the next Edward Kennett. I know i'd rather see him in the GB team in three years time than the latter, so fingers crossed he lives up to his promise, in which case I'm sure we can all put up with the odd tantrum in the intervening years.

i agree TWK. In my view the Collins of 76/77 was the greatest Brit of alltime. Lee had meetings in 83 where he woudl ahve beaten anyrider from any era, but over the whol season i don't think his record compares to PCs, he didn't actually win any of the major meetings in 83 and "only" the big one in 80. Collins in 78-80 was orld class, but not as good as those preceding years, and arguably in 80 had been overtaken by Lee and Penhall. Without the injury in last 80 he could well have come back to win another title, but would have been competing with lee, penhalland then of course the two great emerging Danes. i'm not sure i agree that the 70s was that much harder than the 80s. in the 70s he was up against to alltime greats in mauger and olsen, lee and michanek a tad below, and then a host of very good riders in Simmons, Louis etc. but in the 80s he would have been up against two alltime greats in nielsen abnd gundersen, plus penhall and lee in some years, and then very good riders such as carter, moran, ermolenko etc. of course the 80s was noticeable for the premature loss from the sport of a large number of riders (Britain - Carter and Lee lost prematurely, Collins never the sanme after injury ; US lost Penhall and Sigalos,;aussie lost Sanders) - but then in the 70s you had Briggs career finished a few years earlier than it might have been, the tragic loss of Jannson etc. conlusion: i don't think there is much in it tbh, though it is obviously impossible to compare. i'm not sure if you are being serious here? On the chance that you are, can you explain why you woudl rate those riders ahead of the grand slam inning four from 1980 of Lee, Jessup, Collins and Morton? On that criteria, Jessup would be the one exception (IMHO), as in 80 and 81 he was certainly good enough to win the world title - in my view he was the best rider in the world in 80, and would have probably made it back to back runners up finishes if not for the engine failures in the 81 world final (under a gp system i reckon he would have won in 80 and finished second in 81). That said, I agree with the two you mention as the top brits of the 80s.

article in today's nz herald Motorsport: Speedway Grand Prix looks to be Auckland's lastAustralians Darcy Ward and Troy Batchelor racing against Swedes Andreas Jonsson and Fredrik Lindgren on Saturday. Photo / Sarah Ivey Speedway Grand Prix will almost certainly not return to Auckland. Despite another great spectacle on Saturday night, a combination of poor crowds, eye-watering costs and inflexibility by Auckland Council is likely to consign the event to history. A crowd of 9125 saw German Martin Smolinski win a spectacular final on Saturday. That was more than last year but fewer than for the first event in 2012 and not close to the number needed to break even, meaning local promoter Bill Buckley is staring at another six-figure loss. "We will have the future sorted before the end of this month but if the crowd doesn't turn up, that's it," he told the Herald on Friday. There had been talk of a second meeting in Australasia (possibly Sydney) to defray some of the costs of bringing the Speedway circus to the Southern Hemisphere but Buckley said that would not reduce the fees the international promoters charged. "I would probably just lose spectators from Australia." Laying the track is a huge expense, and he had looked at running an Australasian Sidecar Championships in the same week to use the bike track and spread some of the costs. It was a good idea - New Zealand has some of the world's best sidecar racers - but the council is unlikely to amend the resource consent which limits Buckley to a set number of meetings a year at Western Springs. Meanwhile, Andrew Aldridge of Christchurch provided one of those feel-good sporting moments on Saturday night. The 28-year-old track reserve was called into action in heat 18, after Australian Darcy Ward was concussed in an earlier race. He was given just a few minutes' notice - and happened to end up in the strongest heat of the night. "I knew there were two world champions in it," says Aldridge. "Then I looked across the start line and saw [current world champion] Tai [Woffinden] pull in and thought, 'Wow, this has made it even harder."' Aldridge once raced for British league team Bournemouth but since 2010 has raced only at amateur level in New Zealand, usually practising just once a week. Now on his inside he had two-time world champion Greg Hancock, outside him 2012 world champion Chris Holder, and Woffinden was in the far gate. "I mucked up the start - a few nerves maybe - but it was good to know they weren't pulling away," said Aldridge. "They got to the first corner but didn't extend from there." Aldridge, who still hopes to nab a New Zealand title one day but is now more focused on family life and his job as an engineer, came in fourth but wasn't disgraced in a career highlight for the scrapbook. He raced yesterday at Rosebank Speedway in a local competition but will always remember his battle with the best of the best. "It was an unreal feeling to be able to do it. It was nerve-racking to start with but once you let the clutch go that disappears and you focus on the race." a)9125 is the lastest figure i've seen (NZ herald article above) c)Totally unscientific, but i would guess maybe 500 hundred travelling Aussies, maybe up to 1000. d) not many at all would be my guess e) there were noticably some poles and danes. far less polish campervans outside than previous years. some brits . i'd imagine a few hundred. so out of 9125, i'd reckon probably around 8000 were nz residents. that is purely speculation on my part.

Also the cost of totally relaying the track for the event (and then afterwards)I imagine must be substantial. I believe a figure of 20000 attendance to break even was mentioned. Final loss to bb mentioned on the news last night was $2m (about a million quid) over the three years. Based on reprted attendances, gate money fir the three events would have been round about the $1.75m mark. Had there been average 20k per event that would have been roughly an extra $1.5m. One of the other main issues was lack of a main sponsor for any of the three events. So looks like it is gone, sad but i never expected the gps to come here so the last three years have been brilliant and much appreciated Scb you also omitted accomodation costs, which for a five night stay plus flights could make the total cost over two thousand quid per person. And possibly more than 50 people if you assume fim and bsi officials also have to be paid for?

Tv3 news just quoted 10k as attendance, andsaid wont be back next year, likely to be one in australia. Reported that bill buckley has lost around $2million ovrr the three years (about a million quid). Will post a link when i get the chance.

No I could well be wrong. But it definitely wasnt capacity, packed would be stretching things. I am certain it was down on 2012. It could well have been up on last year, but im pretty confident it was closer to 2013 than 2012. I hope im wrong and there were enough to justify a return .

I would be very surprised. Dont know what the figures are, but my estimate is crowd simlar to last year, perhaps slightly up, but nowhere near year 1. The only way I reckon is If bsi markedly drop the rate and possibly an aussie gp gets added to split transport costs. Or if bill decides last night was so good that its worth him sinking another million and a half dollars over the next three years.