HenryW

A great day for the Brits today. Robert, Dan and Adam all through to the GP Challenge. When was the last time we had 3 Brits in the GP Challenge? Edit - Hmm...Seems it was only 2 years ago. but this 3 seem to be better bets than last time

Indeed, but if Jan had got the better of Sasha he'd be out. He still has a chance now.

Lambert gets the bit of luck he needed with the way the scores went in heat 20.

Kostygov a bit of a surprise. Logachev should really have got through. His last in heat 1 really cost him.

Kolodziej really did throw it away in the re-run of the final. As you say, Bartek must be a bit pissed at the stoppage as he looked locked to win first time around. I was a bit disappointed with the meeting, to be honest. Partly because a few big names apparently weren't fit enough for the meeting and partly because the track prep was far below the standard that I expect based on previous big meetings at Torun. Phil Morris has taken some abuse from Poland in the past about his track prep demands for the SGP meetings, but I'm pretty sure every Torun GP I have seen from Torun has had a track that offered up much better racing lines than what we got tonight.

Great stuff from those donating so much, but am I wrong in thinking that the likes of justgiving take a percentage cut of every donation if it's not to a registered charity? So if someone wants to make a decent sized donation to the club, they would be better doing it directly rather than through a site like this. For a large number of small donations these sites are great, even if they DO take that cut as they make it easy for anyone to give a little bit, but for larger donations I'm not sure they make sense. Not knocking the donations at all, it's great to see, but it's also sad to think of some of this money going into the pockets of an internet company rather than Newcastle speedway.

Yeah, but that would be dependant on what the German Government class as "sports stars". The point was that they didn't class riders going to World U21 qualifying rounds in this way, so the Brits that were due to race in Germany recently had to forfeit their place in the qualifying round in Germany. SEC competitors MAY be looked on more favourably as it is a higher level of compatition, but who knows!

As long as they have been out of the UK for 10 days I would think they would be fine. Lambert is living full time in Poland, is he not? If so, he shouldn't have problems. Dan is due to be at Glasgow this weekend and then at Kings Lynn 2 days before the Gustrow round so he definitely could have problems.

I don't have commentary on the player either. As mentioned previously, I'm not sure this is a bad thing. Sam does my head in on comms

I mailed them but have had no reply. I'm kinda hopeful as they just have random nonsense on at the time, but their player app still has it only listed as being on there...not one of the actual channels.

Possibly wasn't invited after not doing the GB Final last year?

That's a fairly uninspiring field for Glasgow. When these meetings get announced you expect to see some riders that have not raced here before, but almost everyone has been a regular in the UK league at some point.

Yeah, from what I have seen of them, which isn't a massive amount, that would be my choice as well if picking a German...but would be tough to take for Lukas as he scored much better than Norick today.

Which one? Baumann, Blödorn or someone else entirely? I'm really not sure which 3 are deserving of a place in the final series. Is it better to add extra Nations or genuine contenders. If it was purely about Nations, a Brit, an Aussie and a German would probably make sense.

The few times I have seen Marko Levishyn racing he has always impressed me. It must be hard for him as he doesn't seem to get nearly as many meetings as a lot of his peers.

I am genuinely impresed with him. Paid 7 is far from a bad return against a team like Leicester. He is looking quite comfortable on the Armadale track already, trying different lines without doing anything crazy. For early meetings, his scores are exactly what you would hope for from a new arrival without any UK experience...Hopefully he keeps settling in and improving.

Was his late call off really taken that badly? In some way I can understand his reluctance to commit to travelling when things were as they were. Bringing him back into the team would be harsh on Jack, but sometimes these moves have to be made to ensure success.

Emil's form this year is slightly concerning as a long time fan of his. He was the top man in Ekstraliga last year and is currently languishing outside the top 10 in averages. I hope he can get himself sorted out and get back to the form that we are used to seeing in the League...unless the lower form in the league leads to better form in the SGP and finally winning a World Title. Then I would be happy

Well, in your scenario the GP would probably either be moved or not take place because every single rider in the field would have been in Poland recently and also unable to enter the UK Nothing was done when Artem Laguta was unable to attend the British GP because the UK Government wouldn't let him in the country. Also, about 10 years back there was a GP qualifying round which 8 riders were prevented from attending by Government restrictions. The round wasn't moved, the riders weren't seeded, they just lost their place. I'm not saying it's right, just that this is how things have been dealt with in the past, so it isn't a surprise that this is how they would be dealt with now. They could probably move the round to Poland so that everyone could attend and an event could be viably run, but then you'd just complain that everything is biased in favour of the Poles like you did with the GP series last year

It's not the first time that riders have been unable to attend a qualifying meeting and I'm sure it won't be the last. I don't think there is any precedent of moving events or seeding riders/teams when this has happened in the past...but someone might be able to correct me if there has been.

Seems that Bellego has broken his left collarbone again and will be going to a hospital at home tomorrow to determine whether an operation is required. Zengota has broken ribs and has a collapsed lung as well. He is being kept in hospital for observation. Absolutely awful luck for Bydgoszcz who have been having a good season.

I think that's harsh on 2 of the 3 names you quoted there. Without wanting to disrespect some of their riders too much, Newcastle are a team that has no top end, but does have a solid middle to bottom end. Against a team like that, I would expect the Edinburgh top end to completely dominate at home, but would expect the mid to lower end to have a harder time. The scoring was close to what everyone expected apart from one rider in the Monarchs team... After that, you can probably guess which 1 of the 3 names I think really didn't deliver tonight...If 4 points had been 12 points, the scoreline would have been far more like what everyone expected. Edit - I used "everyone" a couple of times when I probably meant "I"...Apparently I think my views are the views of the general population...and that's probably far from true

That must be it... No chance that KL is just toxic.

That IS very good news. I hope RooBoy is back racing again soon...The thought of him having another big break in his final season was a depressing one.

100% agree. Edinburgh Monarchs were providing live streams for away fans even before the current pandemic (geo blocked within 50 miles of Armadale). While capacity restrictions are in place these streams have been made available for anyone to buy. The service is brilliant and I can't understand why every other club isn't doing the same!