waiheke1

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.

Of course everone said that about tai last year. If smolinski majes top 8 it will be because he deserves it and has improved to world class. I think he will finish 15th though.

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

I dont think thats the intention as ictually dont think poole will be able to do that. In a couple of months I would expect this poole team to be averaging over 32, meaning no re-declaration would be possible without restructuring thecteam to be within yhe limit (obviously you could swap a higher averaged rider out for a lower averaged one, but you would then be unable to swap them back).

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

I think killer and hans should score about the same, ditto the respective second strings. I can see the coventry reserves outscoring swindon by around six. Morris should outpoint Hansen though by around four, so reckon it comes down to the guests. I think bjarne will be good for a few more than woodward, so will go swindon by two.

Restricting to the 80s: carter had 2 blrc lee 0. 2 british titles lee 0. Carter 1 pairs title and two runners up, lee won a wtc. Neither won an overseas or inter continental title. Carter topped the bl aversges, lee didnt. Carter was regularly englands top test performer, lee didnt top score for england in any test series. Of course, if you include lee's achievement s in the 70s it is no contest, and whereas lee is one of the top 3 post war brits (imho), wheras carter may make the top dozen. But in the 80s it is "only" world final night where lee surpassed carter. For me that is enough to rank lee ahesd of carter as best brit of the 80s, but I was unsurprised that statistical ly carter out performed him.

Well, if you can convince the nimbys to allow it at that hour, underwrite bill buckley for any losses incurred running a meeting at that hour, and run the european gps at an nz friendly viewing hour - you might just have a deal. Otherwise a 6am rise with a can of htfu should do the trick for you northern hemisphere light weights.

sidney, that giant font you have used in quoting hurts my eyes! remember, this is based purely on the 80s, where Carter certainly out performed PC and arguably Lee as well (in all areas other than world finals Carter had a better record than Lee in the 80s). If I get the chance I'll do the same for the 70s, where undoutably PC would emerge top, I'd imagine Lee and Simmonsw ould be next in line.

Alright, to re-open an old topic. I’ve spent a bit of time devising a system for rating riders’ performances in any given season, and have applied this to each year in the 80s. World Championship Qualifying meetings, World Final, Internationals (Pairs, TC and Tests) and British League meetings are considered and each of those categories are given equal weighting (22.5%). Additionally performances in the BLRC are also considered (10%). The output is an “average” which I have included here for comparative purposes only, as it is not meaningful in itself. If you want to try to make a meaningful interpretation of the actual score, the top 15 riders in the worlds rankings for any given year do tend to add up to close to 138, so could be taken as an estimate of what the rider would score as an average in a GP round had GPs been running. Based on the rankings, and taking riders’ top three seasons in the 80s, the list of 20 Brits would be: 1 Kenny Carter 11.51 2 Michael Lee 10.92 3 Dave Jessup 10.36 4 Chris Morton 9.67 5 Kelvin Tatum 9.63 6 Jeremy doncaster 8.90 7 Simon Wigg 8.70 8 Peter Collin 8.29 9 Les Collins 8.09 10 Alan Grahame 7.36 11 Simon Cross 7.22 12 John Davis 7.17 13 Andy Grahame 6.75 14 Neil Evitts 6.62 15 John Louis 6.52 16 Phil Collins 6.49 17 Gordon Kennet 6.15 18 Andy Smith 6.14 19 Malcolm Simmons 6.09 20 Marvyn Cox 6.07 This is not dissimilar to the list I posted earlier, though notably KC emerges comfortably on top, and the three “veterans” Louis, Kennett and Simmons all make the list. Some other points of note: Dave Jessup was the only British rider to finish top of the rankings in any year (1980) Kenny Carter and Mike Lee were the only two other Brits to make the top3 in any year, KC being 2nd in both 81 and 82 and Lee 3rd in both 80 and 83. Jessup would have finished 3rd in the 81 rankings if not for his two ef in the world final. KC (81,82,85) and Tatum (86,88,89) were both the top Brits in 3 years, with Jessup (80), Lee (83), Wigg (84) and Doncaster (87) being the others. Morton was in the top 5 Brits every year except for 82 and 89, and in the top 10 in the world on six occasions (80,81,83,84,86,88). Tatum was in the top 2 Brits every year 1985-89, and was in the top 6 riders in the world every year in that period. 1980 as clearly the best season for England, with four of the top 6 spots being held by Brits (Jessup (1), Lee (3), Peter Collins (4), Chris Morton (6). 1986 was the worst season, with only two Brits in the top 10 and Tatum the top ranked at 6th (Mort the other one 9th). If instead of basing the results on top three seasons you based it on the top 5 seasons, the top 10 changes slightly, rewarding the consistency of Mort and Tatum. 1 Kenny Carter 10.29 2 Kelvin Tatum 9.52 3 Chris Morton 9.29 4Michael Lee 8.99 5 Dave Jessup 8.62 6 Simon Wigg 8.34 7 Peter Collin 7.67 8Jeremy doncaster 7.60 9 Les Collins 7.28 10 Alan Grahame 6.77 Alternatively, if you based it on a single season peak (year and overall world ranking given in brackets): Top 10 (based on single seaon peak) 1 Dave Jessup 13.03 1980 (1) 2 Kenny Carter 12.15 1982 (2) 3 Michael Lee 11.88 1983 (3) 4 Peter Collins 10.12 1980 (4) 5 Chris Morton 9.84 1981 (6) 6 Les Collins 9.83 1982 (7) 7 Kelvin Tatum 9.72 1988 (5) 8 Jeremy Doncaster 9.59 1987 (5) 9 Simon Wigg 9.40 1989 (5) 10 John Davis 8.80 1980 (12) Or if you wanted to reward performances over the whole decade and based the rankings on cumulative points: 1 Chris Morton 2 Simon Wigg 3 Kenny Carter 4 Dave Jessyp 5 Les Collins 6 John David 7 Alan Grahame 8 Kelvin Tatum 9 Michael Lee 10 Andy Grahame Interestingly, under none of the four systems of rankings does Mike Lee, the most popular selection of top Brit above, emerge as top. I’d suggest this indicates: You can look at all the stats you like, but ultimately what really matters is winning the world title, everything else is secondary Results and stats cannot reflect the sheer natural talent that was Lee Kelvin Tatum was the big surprise for me from the rankings, emerging as comfortably the best Brit over the second half of the decade, whereas I have always rated him behind Wigg.

And tbh, even some if those professions aren't ruled out. I'm financial controller for a decent sized organisation, I've had members of my team with dreads, tribal tattoos on their arms etc. and would re-hire them happilly. Probably my best recruitment decision was hiring a young guy with those earings that tai had - smart, hard working, lots of iniative etc.

Tbf, gb surely could have entered a team, but only released riders who didnt hsve a fixture ckadh. So sent cook and worrall for this one, tai and harris for the next etc (examples only havent checked fixtures). What I would really like the bspa to organize would be ofgicial test series against the likes of aussie and Sweden

Of course the track they ultimately prepared that day resulted in one of the greatest gps of all time..

What part of steve brums stateme nt is untrue?

You would expect a better attendance though if it was a genuine world title at stake surely? Just as you would expect a gp to outsell a sec event?Surely you would sell out a gb vrnue - excluding cardiff - or get a good turn out in poland for a sanctioned pairs titke event? I could be wrong but would love to see it back on the cslendar.

Just watched it and enjoyed it, thouggt the racing was pretty good.my thouggts: Ward showed why he is favourite for the title. Gollob emil and laguta/dudek showed why the 2014 gp would be so much better eith them in it thsn harris batch and aj. Good to see lindback looking sharp. Nikki looked regularly like he could fence nki. Smolinksi going to strugglr in the gps on tbis showing (no real surprise). Think in pairs events, if you are going yo have semis and final points should be carried fwd, so a "shared" heat rewards the top qualified pair. Dont agree with "reserves" in a psirs event. Dont understand why bsi dont run a eorld title pairs event.

Think the scores of morris and gustaffson show how averages will be skewed this year. Morris had a 4-2 record against opposition heat leaders and 1-1 vs second strings to finish with 6 points. Gustaffson picked up 4 points by beating only nl reserve s.