waiheke1

Agree sid could have been very nasty. Nicki of course gave the crowd a wave afterwards.

no I think ole stuffed up in 81and thought penhall was coming up the inside and left it too late to block him. U reckon penhall would have let carter go round him?

Also noticably less polish fans there this year. Dont know if thats the gollob factor, the bsi/fim/one sport feud or some other factor.

Tbf, nielsen penhall olsen would all have done what nicki did and shut the door. A real heart in mouth moment, but he had the lead and thrrefore entitled to do what he did, dirty/hard as it may have been .

Well that was a very enjoyable evening. Gutted that kk blew the final as my bet on him would have covered my evening. Good racing much improved on last year. Crowd if I had to estimate maybe 10k. Certainly well down on tge first one. Speedway so nuch better under lights. And bunyan didnt come last. I must be a lucky charm for germans, i was there in 83 for mullers victory also. Sat by tais gf plus a bunch of heavily intoxicated darcy mates from 4300. Would love it to come back next year but chances must be very slim indeed. Good to meet briggo pre meeting. Hope darcy ok, smoli just hit the rut which has been there every year - remember emil cleaning out nicki in the same way in 2012. Care to explain how he could have been better prepared? Im pretty sure he didnt intentionally injure himsrlf last weekend! This may be your most ludicrous comment yet!

Would love it but reckn the crowd only on par with last year so think v unlikely. Tais better half sat two seats fom me for most of meeting, reckon she was freezing

Not true. Gates only opened two hourse before start and there were plenty of programmes at that point. Raising the prce of beere mid meeting to ten dollars a can cos they r running low is off though!

Safe bet I reckon unless he does sonething silly and crashes

Beautiful morning in auckland, and forecast good for rest of day. Here's hoping for a good crowd and some good racing.

1 is also his average score in gps

Ok, come the end of last year there were a lot of people very smug about Tai doing so well, but funnily enough none of them had predicted on here that he ould in, and only a handful had predicted top 8. Ok, so put your pick down and at the end of the season feel smug or stupid! My guess: 1 Ward 2 Hampel 3 Tai 4 NKI 5 Holder 6 Nicki 7 Hancock 8 Jonsson 9 Bjerre 10 Zagar 11 KK 12 Lindgren 13 Batch 14 Harris 15 Smolinski Ward if he can stay injury free is such a talent, I think he is justifably favourite. Hampel will be there or thereabouts as he has been the last four years (2012 up til his injury). Tai, its going to be tough defendng his cron, and proving that he can be a true great rather than a one season wonder like say Havelock - I think his professional approach will pay rewards, and ould love him to make it back to back titles, but i think a place on the podium would still be an excellent result. NKI was the form man at the end of last season, can he translate his excelletn domestic perfomances into a full season of stong GP displays. Holder - depends spo much on recovery from his horrific injury, perhaps this season is a little too early for him to challenge for the cron again? Nicki will be Nicki, and you can't right him off. Greg - last year he reminded me of Crump in his last season, still world class from the start, but hen races got tought perhaps lacking that ultra hardness a world champ needs 0- greg must have lost 90% of battles he was in last year i reckon. still class, and ell capable of winning the odd GP. I have a feeling one of the swedes will scrape into the top 8 this year, they need to as i cant see either, surely, getting a nother Wc next year - particularly if Lindback can reproduce his 2012 form, and in the pairs meet the other day he looked very sharp. Bjerre - was a top 8 rider in 2010 and 2011 and one of th bext outside the series last year, he'll be close to making top 8 this year. Zagar - would love him to finish top 8, as an aces fan, and a fan of racers, he's one of my favourite riders in the series. KK- could finish top6 or 15th, and will no doubt make finals and have the odd GP where he finished rock bottom. Batch - i think will be competitive, and have a small bet on him for the nz gp. Harris - hope he proves me wrong and does well, but i can't see him scoring much more than 2012. Smoli - nailed on for 15th I'd say, but ont be too far off the pace.

I think PROBABLY rather than possibly. Cars will continue until 2017. we're not choosy, take what we can get... actually recall Bunyan and Harris having a good battle in 2012. Yeah, it is probably best for Harris to get one of his gate 4s against Bunyan, but also for Bunyan getting Harris or Smoli off gate 4 when he is on gate 1 is his ideal scenario. Allright predictions for tomorrow: I'll go 1 Ward 2 Hampel 3 Hancock Others to make the semis Nicki, Tai, KK, NKI and either Batch or Holder, I'll plump for Batch. Bunyan to record a top score of 2 points. Really hope the track produces racing similar to 2012 and not 2013.

Bad draw for Tai, Harris, Zagar and Smolinski, with to heats each off the outside gate. For Bunyan, his best chance of points is going to come up first time out, off the inside gate ith Bjerre (who he beat in 2012) off 3 and Harris off 4 - potentially he could pick up a couple of points there which ould be a fabtastic start to the meeting for the crowd - can't see him getting near Darcy though. Hanacok, Batch, Bunyan and KK all have two heats off the favoured inside goat - Hancock looking great valeu at 15-1. small feature on tv3 news tonight http://www.3news.co.nz/Speedway-champs-could-be-last-at-Western-Springs/tabid/415/articleID/338791/Default.aspx and a couple of cips from tvnz also http://tvnz.co.nz/othersports-news/speedway-fans-need-vote-their-feet-video-5884903 http://tvnz.co.nz/seven-sharp/tai-woffinden-world-speedway-champion-video-5886259

180 batchelor more 20 kk more

Buy batch 5 Buy jonsson 5 Hampel/kk Hampel Kk Batch Hancock Thanks tnt

article on Nicki P in today's herald http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=11231686

November wouldnt work, as no way would bsi want the last round here, and its too early forcthe first round of the new season. Feb would be ideal, but wouldn't work from a springs promotion pov coming while the car speedway season still running.

Got a tenner on hancock at 15s and ward for the nz gp, plus a whopping $2 on batch at 50. Will put a small bet also on the four riders with two gate ones whiever they may be (unless bunyan), in case there is a repeat of lsst years massive advantage off the inside gate.

Thanks for posting wolfhound. If thise are the true atteneance figures they are also lower than most estimates at the time - not just bsi, but nz media and regulars at the springs all estimated higher. Hopefully lack of conflicting events and an eveni g start time should boost crowds back to the level of tge first gp. A real shame that bsi have seemingly priced this too high to make it sustainable, but lack of support from local government hssnt helped. Id imagine the riders will be disspointed to see it go, an exoenses paid trip to nz I would think was a nice way to kick off the season. A shame also no aussie promoter came on bosrd as that would surely have generated some cost efficiencies. Anyway, im very grateful that bill b gave this a shot, and hope auckland turns out in numbrrs on saturday.

R and r - this was by far my favourite of the betting/prediction comps, and I will get my picks in after Friday's draw. Cheers

have to agree to disagree Sid. , I reckon the 82 Carter (averged over 11, won BLRC,World Pairs title, excelelnt in the WTCqualifiers/tests, rostrum every rounf od the world qualifiers) was better thean the 83 Lee (talking about over a whole season, LEe on any given day could be utterly unstoppable). Lee in 83 as better than Carter, and in 80 was miles ahead. But 81,82,84 -86 Carter was conforably the bteer of the two. I notice you didn't mention the 81 and 92 BLRC where Carter "piddled all over" the likes of Nielsen, Penhall (81)/Gundersen (82), Lee etc. In terms of my "ranking"S I make Carter 82 version the best either achieved in the decase, followed by Lee (83), Lee (80), then Carter (81), Carter (83), Carter (85). Now I reckon Carter 85 was much better than the Carter of 83, but his ranking there is dragged down by failure to make the world final, poor score in his one completed ride in the i/c, and poor England performances.

article on Tai in the weekend's NZ Herald http://www.nzherald.co.nz/motoring/news/article.cfm?c_id=9&objectid=11227972

Fingers crossed its not the last one, but I will be making the most of Saturday in case it is. Hopefully an evening meeting will encourage a few more locals to come down to watch it, and the weather remsins as brillisnt as it has been the last couple of weeks. Tbh, its not just the gp but all speedway at risk at the springs, with a distinct possibility that 2017 might be the last year for motorsport, which would be a travesty. Last time I saw a reigning british world champion live would have been lee in 81, so loking fwd to seeing tai in action. Darcy was superb here last time so hopefully the track is conducive to good racing, and that gate 1 doesnt give the huge advantage it did ladt year.

well, this was the first issue of my online subscription, and very impressed. Nice work all involved!

A couple of articles from the nz herald in the lead up to tis. obviously the news that Gollob has withdran from the series hasn't made it this far yet! http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=11219765 and Briggo's view: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=11228770