g13webb

I always believed , If it's not broken, then why fix it.

Totally agree with the idea of no jokers, but feel the need for some form of replacements when a rider get hurt. ( Poland were lucky when Janowski walked away after last saturday's crash) My suggestion would be to have 2 reserves, each allowed a max of 2 rides each. (this would stop teams putting their top men in these positions) but would cover any misfortune and stop race manipulations.

With all due respect, your getting mixed up with riders and quality of the track. When you watch the turbo twin racing each week no doubt you we see some good racings. but when you are comparing the actual race track, Poole is not in the same league as the Norfolk Arena. Your top man , Chris Holder said, the track is awesome man. Its fast, Its smooth, plenty of spaces inside and out, If you cant race here, you cant race anywhere. tracks don't get any better then this. Suppose you'll accept that now, bearing in mind he's a Poole man......

There is not another race track in the country that could have serve up the quality of racing we saw tonight.. Every rider raves about this track and tonight was a brilliant spectical of speedway racing, as it should be.. The crowd tonight was bigger then last year, (I think 8000 was quoted but thats seems high) If they plan to move it somewhere else next year then they'll have a hard act to follow.. Well done Kings Lynn...You done us proud.........

In all honesty, the Aussies are in a differrent league to the rest, and should they fail to win here, it would be one of the biggest upset in WSC history. We need to concentrate on scoring points in each heat to secure 2nd place. That to me would be an achievement in itself. We know we are not the strongest nation anymore, but the Bulldog spirit should show lots of fight. Thats all we can expect. If this meeting is half as good as the one on Saturday, I shall be more then happy. Non. What-so-ever.... There's enough talent on show without having to worry about that.........

Buster wants you to get there early to spend your money.... Seriously though, I got there at half 6 last year and the place was heaving. Everywhere was packed. I think probably this year, it wont be that bad cos' last year we had Poland riding which brought in a lot extra local polish supporters. There expecting a crowd of approx 5000 ( bit optimistic i'd say) but the earlier you can get there will be better. I only live half an hour away and plan to be there around 6, Late comers, car parking could be an issue, especially if it rains. Be warned...

NO-WAY .......... Poole's Ht 15 wasn't as good as Lynn's Ht 15, but both of them fell short to that Ht 20 last night. It had everything, with so much at stake. A truely brilliant race..... I thought the format worked well, and contributed to the exciting climax. It was such a pity that someone had to come last ......

When you look at the other countries teams, it really hits home just how weak GB are now. We can't even name a squad of good riders without including two that are injured. On the face of it countries like Demark, Australia, Sweden, Poland could name their 2nd team and still be stronger then GB. The biggest worry, is that we as a country are not doing enough to breed new talent, and so this situation will only get progressively worse. And to think 35 yrs ago we ruled the world....

I'm sure the Judge could have found him guilty of a far lesser crime, which carried the penalty of not being allowed to ride for Poole any more. I'm sure that would've pleased a lot more speedway supporters...... He could've chosen too serve his 12 months detention at Belle Vue ,

He use to live round this way, His wife worked at the local Supermarket, where her brother is now manager, But I haven't seen or heard of him for yonks. Hope he's ok ...... in his old age...... Welcome to the club. Tony..

Needs a good what !!!!

Speedway racing as is should be : Well done Chris Holder....

I would go for Nigel too, although Eric was a great rider. Not much too choose between them. Footnote: Have many time thought which came first. the Blue leathers or the name 'Little boy Blue'. Did the name come because he wore Blue leathers, or did he wear the leathers because of the name. Be interesting to know ....

Fortunately i was at both, remembered it being cancelled first, but thought the palavar was all on the same day. But its 30 yrs back now. ...

I went to that meeting with Michael and watched it all from the pits. This was the home coming of the New World champion, Bruce Penhall. He arrived on the centre green by Helicopter, The Stars and stripes was playing, the crowd was cheering, a real american dream. Then a telegram was read out from the president saying how proud all americans were of his achievement. When the meeting started thats when Michael was at his briliant best, 3 times he took Penhall from the back. After the meeting Bruce came up to Lee and said 'Damn you Michael, why did we have to race you today of all days' Magic meeting, Brilliant memories, with top blokes, both of them........

The reason why the top four seasoned ( older) riders of Gollob, Hancock, Crump and Pedersen are still dominating the SGP is down to their mentality and desire to be succesful on the worlds stage. Their drive and dedication ensures they leave no stone un-turned in their quest to succeed. It comes from experience and they all know they have that in-born self belief. Of the younger generation, only Hampel , AJ and Sayfutdinov have consistantly shown, they are in the same bracket. Others like Lindback have mixed it at times but no-one else has attained the standard that is needed to figure in the finals regularly. Both Bjerre and Lindgren are good riders, and would figure in most people top 16. But the difference is that neither have shown, the desire, belief or the mentality to totally focus their aim on the SGP. Looking at them competing in these big events, i get the impression that they turn up and expect it to happen. Just look at what happened in New Zealand!!! Thats the difference between, being 'Good' and 'World Class' Sadly there's a lot of riders who fall into this catagory.......

Got up at 3.30 to watch the SGP live. Must say , I thought SKY did a wonderful presentation of a really good Grand Prix. Herbie was a well deserved winner, But already, we can all pick out the fore-runners of this years championship. I was hoping more riders would step up to the mark, but as we all saw, it is going to be the same riders in contention as before..

Good point. Take on board what you say. I believe in Lee's instance, that by him being brilliant from the off, it was always going to be difficult to maintain his increditable start to his career. Also, it was unfortunate that his brushes with the authorities was to bring such an early finish what could have been a record breaking career. So i am aware he only achieved the 1 World title, but I am in no doubts he would have added to that, had he'd raced longer.

Understand what you say, but I feel you are wrong to tar all riders with that same brush. There are some riders out there with loyality and committment. Talking with them, you learn some are in this sport for the enjoyment, the money side is secondary. Equipement is expensive and bills need to be paid, so, of cause money comes into it . But it's not the be all that you prophesise

Looking back through our lifetime I believe we have been very privileged to witness some extraordinary sportspeople that other people, in the future, will be talking about them as past greats, like we are doing now. People like, Arton Senna, Valentino Rossi, Stephen Hendry, Mohammad Ali, Jack Nicklaus are all legends who ruled the world at their own sport. We have been able to witness this first hand and by doing so we are able to judge others against them. We have seen lots of GOOD sportspeople, but we judge them against those GREATS that we have seen. Rightly or wrongly we arrive at a conclusion, and this becomes our opinion. If we hadn’t seen Rossi we would have said Mick Doohan was the greatest or even Mike Hailwood. It doesn’t diminish their achievements, they will always remain the same, but it’s our opinion that alters. So when looking back and making judgements about the greats of the past we must remember that in their time, they will have been looked at in the same way as those mentioned above, and it is morally wrong to perceive them in any other way then as GREATS of their time. When thinking of Craven, Collins or Lee in that vane, for some reason, they all fell short of that greatness, Sure they were all very special, but they didn't achieve the true status of legends. That went to the likes of the Maugers and the Fundins. Probably, had time been different , or kinder to them, then all three, could have reached that mantel,.......... with ease.

Would be interesting to note : How many members are in SWAPA now ???

He probably did. It's just my memory that each time i saw them it seems that Fundin always won. But Fundin was a special rider ....... so no disgrace there....

I'd would just like to add that the list above was my opinion of the best riders that can be remembered more easily. I have nothing but praise and admiration for Peter Craven. I watched him many times and was amazed he was able to ride that well , being so small. My recollections are tarnished by the fact he was always beaten by the great Ove Fundin and that why i didn't rate him as high as some other , on here, do. Probably had he'd been around in a different era, he would have won far more. I rate Collins and Lee at the top, and went for Lee on the basis that I remember thinking , Lee would take Collins from the back, far more often then Collins taking Lee. Usually if Michael made the gate, Peter wouldn't get by, whereas Lee would normally find a way.

Reading between them lines , are you saying that this country is not doing all it can to promote speedway , in the same way as other countries. I've always believed we are the worst of marketing our sport. Looking at the BBC sport website, they cover all aspects of sport (48 in total) but not one mention of Speedway. Surely the BSPA should've picked up on that before now and done something about it.

I understand your point of view and can appreciate what you say about the top riders competing for the top prize. Theres a certain amount of credit in what you say, but at what cost? When the SGP first started, I sat down and thoroughly enjoyed the spectical of this new concept. There weren’t too many rounds and the process was about right. But now after a few years we have the same riders competing every year ( bar a odd change), we have twice as many rounds and the enjoyment seem to be taken a back seat in the quest to milk more money out of the event. That wouldn’t be so bad if the sport was to benefit, but we get no reward from this at all. We now have an SGP event. 16 riders taken part spread over 12 meetings. Of those 16, probably, only 10 have a realistic chance of winning the title. After 4 rounds, that 10 decreases to, say 5or 6, so now we still have 8 rounds to go and already, 10 have given up all hope of winning and are only concentrating on the next years competition. As the rounds tick by, then the number of potential winners decrease. Someone who, say is in 6th place, competes in the last few rounds, assured that he’s qualified for next year with no hope of winning the title, he can do so with no enthusiasm as all. And this is suppose to be the World Championship, the biggest competition ever. By assuring the top riders race each year, I believe this has devalued the competition, not made it better. Theres no passion anymore, no romance, nothing that compares to that of a World Championship. By assuring all the top riders are in the SGP, the appeal to the public and fellow riders has deminished.