waiheke1

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.

Aces by eight i reckon, even without Zagar the sort of fixture they should win comfortably if they are to be genuine play off contenders. Reserves should at least match Swindon for points, the Swindon second strings have been dreadful so far so Palm-Toft should get close to matching Gustaffson and Worral should comfotably outscore Klindt. the home heat leader trio, even without Zagar, should outpoint Swindon, assuming Hans can match Mads score of the two guests.

No. Most on here are hoping Poole will simply abide by the rules, which would mean redclaring with Holder as your number one, and using Holder to cover this spot until Darcy is fit, which i think all hope will be very soon. Given that Holder is probably the best available option anyway, i don't see how this is unfair on Poole. If the intention was always for darcy to be your number 1, he should have been in your original declaration, the mucking around ith holder in the line up (which i have no problem with) is what's caused the issue , so the fact that you aren't entitled to a facility for Darcy is no-ones fault but Pooles.

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.

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.

He will get an average this season every rider who rides a race gets an average. The average he gets will not be an official average for next seasons team building, but that wasnt the query.

So what do bees fans reckon - will Garrity end the season topping your EL averages? I'd imagine its very likely he'll average around nine, so probably in the top half dozen riders in the EL?

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