richsimpson

LOL

Bring back Odsal, now that WAS a stadium for holding Speedway GP.

You know what I meant Youngy

Richard, your spelling of the word everything in the topic is a disgrace How very dare you

Yes the footage was crystal clear. Will be saving that one on the box to compare to the other GP's that are just being upscaled to HD rather than being filmed/transmitted in true HD. I think they said the world cup at Cov will also be in HD at the end or possibly on Mondays Sky match?

Bit of a stupid comment to make johnno4! I can't see any rider is dumb enough to fall off and hope for a rerun. A class racer like Nicki could pass if they missed the gate so why bother taking the risk of falling and getting excluded??

If you set off now you could walk and swim for free LOL. I went last year by road and as Superbart from the forum can confirm it proved expensive. I would fly I think.

I think both first bend Nicki Pedersen incidents should have been called as restarts. Was unfair and incorrect to exclude Leigh or Bjarne, but to be fair I dont think Nicki should have gone from in either race. The correct call on the Holta crash, the correct call on NKIversen crash with Harris. The correct call on the flyer for AJ first time around but the wrong call for him second time around. The second was the perfect start. The wrong call earlier in the day for Nicki at the tapes, that should have been awarded differently if the rules allowed it or re-run with Nicki excluded. The dead heat mmmmmm I thought it was Adams on the day, also from the replay on the big screen (I could see one LOL). The Camera isn't perfectly on the line but I think the red line was in the right place. If no dead heat is allowed in SGP then correct call and Greg won it by the smallest margin. So I think ref got it wrong 4 out of 7 times. Thats not good and after the previous occassion where Crump got exluded every time his wheel touchjed the track a few years ago he deffinetly needs to be investigated. Cant beleive he had to sit right in the middle of the crowd though, one bloke was literally about 60 cm away from him! Good job he wasn't a irate Adams fan!

Disagree that Nicki is a cheat, the calls went his way on the night but can't blame a guy for trying. To suggest he was aiming at the back wheels to fall of is just plain stupid. No rider wants to risk an injury which could so easily happen. Loved his cheeky smile and the pantomime villain routine. Thought he had lost that to Hans but he has got it back again. Well done for getting off the track so quickly in the final, at least he got on the rostrum. Bad luck to Scotty, so near yet so far.

I thought the whole event was great - super presentation and music b it biased there though LOL Looking forward to 2009 event now, I hope they never move it from Cardiff the whole day is a great experience being in the town and literally taking over the roads at the end of the night. Thought the Motocross demo team was good but probably lasted double what was needed. Scary how high they went and how short the distance was for stopping at the other end of the jump! Thought the flame throwers added a bit of pizazz. Also liked the interviews being done on the center green rather than behind the scenes. A lot of the footage underneath breaks up so was good to have clear picture on the big screens. Shame that one of the big screens failed. Think they should have left it on at the start with the colors looking a bit naff. As soon as thy turned it off to reset it lost everything and went blue then just turned off! Will leave the comments on Nick P and the ref on the specific threads, there are plenty of them LOL Bit of a shame about the airhorn confusion as the stadium and town was not as noisy as normal, I guess many people never knew about the restrictions or decided against the stadium approved gasses. Rich

Just to step in here, as the thread has clearly got a bit silly We took this booking following the Speedway World Cup at Coventry in 2007. IMG were suitably impressed with the presentation on that evening and many of our traditions were used at Cardiff on Saturday. The people who booked us liked what we did at Coventry, they were also very happy with Saturdays meeting at Cardiff too. The SGP team are extremely professional and every last detail is thought through in advance, including final preparations on the day to check that every part of the show goes to plan, our intentions were also discussed during these meetings. Yes we acted on their instructions as our employer for the day. Yes I feel the day went very well. And Yes I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your feedback I would also like to say to those forum members who have afforded constructive criticism that it is very much appreciated. We know what we like, we know what many other people like but as this forum demonstrates, Speedway fans are a very mixed bag and needless to say we are never going to please everyone all the time, we know that is not possible. As Chris (Superbart) has stated, we value your feedback and we are pleased that the general consensus is that the majority appreciated our efforts. We do not plan on replying to each and every question thrown at us, this thread could continue for weeks or months if we did that, there was over 5 hours worth of music and jingles played over the evening any one of which may be scrutinised, however needless to say that the event was massive, and we have taken on board some of your points for future meetings. We are aware of the issues that people have brought up that they did not enjoy and will assess whether we want to change or consider it necessary to change our presentation in the future. These decisions will be made with the mass audience taken into account rather than the minority however. The reason for the thread being started was not to stroke our egos, merely to gauge an honest opinion of the cross section of fans that come onto these forums, some are young, some are old, some are rockers, some are clubbers, some correctly thought Nicki did nothing wrong on the night and others think he is a cheat (save that for another thread LOL) some are very intelligent and others not so, some of us look for problems and some of us are extremely politically correct, some of us are game for a giggle and some fun, some of you wanted it quieter, and some of you wanted it louder. We certainly hope to be a part of the Cardiff 2009 SGP (incidental or otherwise), the 2008 event has been the highlight of the speedway side of our lives so far. These forums are a great place to complain, moan and whinge and so we are extremely proud that we have received some great comments, that is certainly a rarity in our new internet world! My personal thought was to leave the original thread as it was as some nice feedback was coming through naturally, asking for your specific opinions on this new thread was our decision so that we could get specific feedback, of course we prefer the positives but all the negatives have helped as well. Please do not misjudge this post as attempting to defend ourselves, we do not feel that we have to do that, but I did want to make my own personal feelings known as well as those of our combined efforts. Thank you also for your kind suggestions not to be to downhearted by the feedback, that was never going to be the case. Thanks and we hope to entertain you some time soon. Rich

Well Cov terraces are basically concrete steps that go down to track level (and slightly below), so standing should not be any issue as its staggered all the way apart from the home straight which is seating with a small flat section beneath it.

Nicki to win. I am really looking froward to decent racing again with the real top riders in the world all in one place. A bit like what everyone hoped the elite league would be one day. I said the same thing last year, I was really excited that hard close racing would resume where in many heats there are 4 very very good riders all chasing the same first place, and quite often all having a good chance of getting it by the chequered flag. I wonder if Scott will up his game this year for the GP. I hope so. Harris is likely to look 75% of what he was last year judging by league racing. AJ to score well too. Any thoughts on how Greg will be riding this year. Shame he went off so bad last year in the second half of the series.

Think it may be the same 2 horse race but I truly hope AJ moves up a gear. He has a good chance if he can stay consistnet this year. Adams I feel missed his best chance and iwll go backwards now, along with Hancock, Gollob etc

Quite a good GP all in all I thought. Loved the final and the lap after it where Nicki was chasing Gollob, and Gollob was clearly giving him a bit of time to calm down and so also kept the throttle on! Classic Gollob riding, pleased to see it. Very dignified interview from Nicki, think he was right to be a bit upset on track but got over it easily when he realised he is probably the 2007 World Champion anyway now!

Quite a good GP tonight, hope Hans is ok. Maybe he will come to Coventry next year with Nicki? Heres hoping Great move from Nicki on Hans, text book Track seemed to be very wet after grading, not well prepared IMO. Leigh looked super fast from the start, no suprise he won tonight. Just not enough points taken of Nicki who is undoubtadely the best rider of 2007 in the series. Really happy to see Gollob have a nother good round. Hope he gets a win next time in Poland, fantastic rider when he is on form! Bomber tried to go just a bit too wide! LOL, nice try, better luck next time! Can't fault the guy for trying. Real shame to see greg having such a bad run

Not sure what it was Gemini, it came through to the box as a FORD and a reg number, nothing else, racking my brains and cant think what it would be?

Absolutely, Well done to AJ tonight and fantastic to see Nicki get to the final and grab second. Would have prefered to see Golob third and Adams at the back but happy with overall result! Ahh, poor Hans As for Chris/Scott, dont think they will ever compete really, Harris is soooo much better than the miserable Nicholls who has now got nothing to his name, British Champion??? EDITED FOR SPELLING

Steve, not trying to have a pop at you with your posts on both threads but got to add some comment to this one... I don't want to see Scotty make the same mistake as the likes of Brian Anderson and keep on riding with injuries, which no doubt ended his career early. I would rather he rest the injury and come back in style. What I do disagree with though is when the riders are happy to risk their UK legaue standards for their own personal benefit in the SGP. I can understand why they do it but I don't agree with it. If your fit for the SGP, you should ride your league meetings too. They are more important to MOST of the Cov fans than the SGP surely?

People are starting to agree with you now Sub! I can't blame them! I wonder come the end of the year who the top brit will be in the GP series? If it is Harris instead, what will Nichols have going for him then? The only response you get at the moment is "well he is the no.1 brit!" I can feel that people are slowly coming round to your way of thinking Subedei

Prague GP is good. the city is nice and the beer is cheap. Will be good for a stag do, but dont get up to any naughties! The stadium is a fair trek away and is a tram ride but get yourself well prepared before you go and all will be well. most folk get a two day pass for the public transport which serves busses, trams trains, underground etc. The stadium is standing apart from the mainstand and is over run by the poles which is good, because for a lads night out, they are good for banter. Best of luck and enjoy Prague! get yourself well researched before you go!

Yeah, on the inside fork, the one with the orange gaiter on. Just below the frame covers. seems to have a wire going down the centre of it, but perhaps just the picture. The one below shows it from the wrong side but its just above and in front of the gaiter on that one. SCB you may well be right as th first image I think was from the 2006 season, didnt Jason have the yellow race jacket on Saturday? This may be clearer

Here is the only image I can find that shows the device, seems to have some sort of wire going to it? crumps bike click here

Did any one else notice a strange looking device on Crumpys forks in the GP. I thought at one stage it may be a camera but no shots were recorded from it on the night, and the 'device' was on both bikes when he changed them in his early race.

After the Zagar and Holta crash in heat 12? did I hear correctly that they have 'got rid of Tony Steele as far as the GP refing in concerned' Or was that meant in a different way?