waiheke1

40 emil 35 hampel 5 zagar 7.50 ward

Robbie - still dont think the figures are right, for example dont get how u have 540 quid. u won 300 on hampel, 75 on gollob , plus 60 quid stakes back on those winning bets, so shouldnt u be on 435 quid?

racers - thanks for doing the calc, however you've ignored that i had a 100 quid opening balance i.e. the seventy five quid you've deducted came out ofthat rather than my winnings. so based on your calc i reckon my balance should be 87.50 to look at it another way i had a hundred quid and bet it all. what i get back is 87.50 per above so that should be my new balance. Edit: maybe im doing something wrong,and not wanting to be a pain as i appreciate robbie b setting up this vomp, but ive used a spreadsheet to check and actually think almost all the balances calculated are incorrect

Robbie b are u sure my balance is right? with quarter odds for gollob getting a place shouldnt i have roughly 50 quid?

Gollob zagar emil vaculik

yes the main pointvis that teams compete as a pair. Rather than a glimpse forward, its move to rexestablish the world pairs from the past - the comp actually got dis establushed when they merged it with the old wtc in the 90s, i think this is a step towards having both again, no way bsi would get rid of the world cup (imho).

Should be an excellent meeting and great that the world pairs has been resurrected. just a shsme that its not an official world championship event and thst there is no team gb/ england. perhaps 2014 could see this made official, the new Belle vue stadium would seem an appropriate venue. certainly it would represrnt the best chance gb would have for a world championship medal even if they would start as probably only sixth favourite.

Buczowsi 50 more emil 20 more hampel 20 more hancock 10 less lindback 10 less

Without having the full details around the accident, it would seem his actions are probably on a par, or perhaps slightly worse, than those of Darcy in December. I can't see this thread running to twenty odd pages however, unless his manager (or the England manager) come out with some nonsense about "it's what all the kids are doing isn't it"

Well, you're right that someone is obviously lacking in the brain food department, I'm not sure its scb though..

but u already get a point reward in the semi. Personally i think they should have stuck with the double points, but unlikely to make much difference over a season

in a Chris holder interview i read (don't know if it was on the net or in the paper) he was saying they can't believe that they travel all this way and don't have to pay a thing, unlike the gps in Europe. he didn't specify what they have to cover themselves for the other gps

end of the day what is worse. someone rated say number20 out of England riders not getting a chance in the qualifiers? or a genuine world title contender missing out on a final because of injury or engine trouble at the wrong time?

He keeps mentioning Mike Lee...

does bill buckley pick up the tab for that?

top eight are picked? there i was thinking their qualification was based on performance over 12 meetings, more meetings than any rider going through the old qualifying route had to ride in.

all expenses for theriders - flights, accommodation, shipping of equipment - are paid for for the nz gp . i presume they still have to pay for their support team but not certain.

I'm confused... So just to confirm, hot, dry summer weather doesn't impact upon track preparation, but hot summer sun does?

???

Ok, the GP was another excellent afternoon/evening’s entertainment, can’t wait for next year, a few thoughts on the day. Whereas last year I was absolutely buzzing after the event, this year I was a little disappointed. The crowd was clearly a few thousand down on last year, which makes me concerned that next year could be the last, and I would be gutted if it was. There were some mitigating factors – another motorcycle event which Buckley reckons drew away a couple of thousand fans, the test match and a beer festival would also have drawn away some of the casusal sports fans who may have othersise turned up. We really need a bumper crowd next year – aliied with some council backing – to make sure Bill is willing to keep going with the series. The racing was not as good as last year – in fact it was probably about in line with what I expected last year, which overdelivered. It may have been the track, but perhaps it was just a result of The gate positions were unbelievably unequal. The fact that red had such an advantage, and yellow such a disadvantage I think must have contributed to the lack of passing – try catching Hancock or Gollob when they have a 10m head start by the first corner. Red picked up 54 points out of a possible 60 in the heats (including a zero from Bunyan), while yellow delivered jsu 11 (3 of which came from Jonssons win, 2 from beating Bunyan, and two from beating excluded riders). While gate advantage is not unheard of in world finals (Odsal 85 saw red score 32 out of a possible 36 points by the interbal, while Gothenburg in 80 saw gate three score only 18 points all meeting)- to have two gates with such a massive difference had a definite bearing on things. And a couple of things that made me smile: I know the grid girls aren’t selected (entirely) for their brains, but seeing them line up in the wrong order (red on the outside, yellow the inside) for the first heat was pretty special. Hearing the explanation for the 4pm start time as being “because of the global television viewing audience.” Yes, that was it, nothing to do with the NIMBY’s forcing restriction on racing after dark, everythijng to do with how much better it was for you guys in the UK and Europe to get up at 3 or 4 am to watch it rather than having it start at 6 or 7 am your time!

We were pretty close to both incidents, and both in real time, and after seeing the replays, I thought the ref had made the right call with both. I seem to be in the minority though, and as you say, they weren’t clear cut. Mr Buckley was interviewed for the Herlad on the Saturday of the event, and in it he was complaining about the job the guy who had been flown over by IMG to do the track prep was doing – Bill of course though he could do it better himself - so I’m not sure the fault is entirely his. Ward isn’t the world’s best gater, but he’s far from poor. I think he’s perhaps like a young Mike Lee, to Emil’s Peter Collins. On Saturday Ward made great gates in his first two rides – off the favoured inside gates, and then had gate 4 for his next two, and no one gated off those allnight. In his fith heat he was outgated by the two riders inside him, and in the senmi he gated second , but Pedersen clamped down on him, allowing Hampel to blast by round the outside. So, I think its harsh to say he gated poorly. Agree, he was bloody exciting though. It is a real shame SCB, but it’s used for car speedway for most of the summer, so can’t see it ever being a full time “proper” speedway track. Of course Auckland Council in its infinite wisdom (backed by the NIMBYs) want to get rid of motor racing at the springs and move it to industrial south Auckland, and move the Auckland warriors from the south to western springs (city fringe). If they do that, both sports will instantly lose I’d guess 50% of their regular fan base – madness. Speedway in some form has been at the Springs since the 20s I believe, it would be a sad,sad day if t has to move – it’s a lovely stadium, good location and with a lot of heritage. A pretty good synopsis. Though I’d add that heat 20 was much better than good, it was bloody brilliant. Tbh, I think the Herald review was pretty much on the money. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=10873281

not true that they were un beaten darcy was on 7 and aj on 8 before that race. but still very impressive that he left them trailing not once but twice

Where did I stand on Tai prior to the GP: I was definitely a supportive of Tai getting the wildcard slot, but my prediction for where he would finish was 14th – basically expecting him to ride better than Harris, but score a similar number of points (due to the harder line up this year) And this: I think I would now amend that last part to “pleasantly surprised.” I certainly don’t expect him to finish top8 over the series, but would no longer consider it unthinkable. To do well in the GPs you need to be able to gate, and have good equipment – Tai showed in Nz that he has both, not something that could be said about Harris last year. Overall, I was very very impressed by my first live viewing of Tai, in particular the way he chased Gollob hard first up, the way he kept his cool to gate twice from the favoured inside gate after the race was stopped first time out, and the way he headed home Hoklder in his final ride to ensure the semi final spot. Let’s not get too carried away though - he had a decent draw, and this meeting along with Cardiff probably represented one of his two best opportunities to make the semis. But he has shown he deserved to be in the series, that he will not be outclassed, and I would absolutely love to be proved wrong and see him finish top 10 this year.

its a possible 21 per gp not 18. dont worry, the anniuncer at the gp last night didnt know either, kept banging on about the double points until someone must have had a word