HenryW

So, what would you suggest the correct action should be? No FIM ice meetings in Russia? No Russian riders in FIM meetings?

Would that be the Agency for the Legal Deposit Libraries, which is at 21 Marnin Way, Edinburgh, EH12 9GD? It moved to Edinburgh from Euston Street in London in 2009. Although it seems this is unrelated to the British Library archives. They just represent the 5 other deposit libraries in the UK...so maybe this isn't the right place.

More relevant than Nicki Petersen might be Jake Allen, Erik Riss and Adam Ellis. I guess there are.probably others but those are the 3 that come to mind immediately.

I think you are right that there was no ice racing in Belarus, but I thought Viktor Sidorenko who raced in the 97 ice final was a genuine Belarusian. He had moved over to ice from shale in the mid 90s. Was he actually Russian as well?

I could be wrong and am happy to be corrected as I might be out of date on how things work, but I think that Gleb COULD race for Russia if he wanted to as he still holds a Russian passport and that is what counts for FIM team events. However, he also holds a Polish passport so can race for them as well...and he has been included in the Polish national squad for 2021, so seems to have decided that he's going with Poland. Assuming I am right with who he is elligible to represent, I have no idea what would happen if both Russia and Poland selected him for their team in the SoN....but it's probably a moot point as it seems unlikely either nation would select him now that he is over 21. Both nations have far better options for senior riders in the SoN.

Laydows came into common use at a time that the UK league was THE place to race, and all the top guys that raced there switched to use laydowns in the UK...So are the tracks really unsuitable for laydowns? Have the tracks got worse? Or is it nothing to do with upright vs laydown and more about engine developments/tuning? Genuine question...I don't know, and guess that you probably have more insight...

As far as I recall, that was to allow him to do the French league as well as Poland, Sweden and UK. As the French league is not fully pro and happens mainly before the Polish season starts, they gave the Ok for him to do that as an extra. However, it looks like he has signed in Denmark and Sweden instead of the UK as his other 2.

The latest tweet of pics from the stadium says that shale will be arriving soon, so they clearly plan to make it a shale track.

Are we sure that William Lawson isn't a rising star?

Todd Wiltshire is probably the only one that I can think of.

Thanks. Not sure how I missed the fact that almost all the riders from the Overseas Final had been booted when I was looking through the round results It's available to rent online from rerun videos if you were willing to pay a few quid to watch some old racing.

A bit odd to start a topic on this meeting so long after the event, but I just watched the video of it yesterday and thought it was worth discussing... The meeting was held at Prague's Marketa stadium. There was lots of chat before the meeting about the fact that solid block tyres were being enforced and how bad those were... There were two nasty crashes in heat 1 which sadly saw the riders withdrawn from the meeting, and there was a lot of talk about how the tyres were responsible...and yet, the rest of the meeting had some absolutely brilliant racing. Far better than I can remember seeing from that track in more recent years. I am wondering whether the good racing was down to the tyres that the riders didn't like, or was the track just prepared differently back then? Also, I looked into the route to the GP Challenge that year and was really confused by the way that Gerd Riss got in...He finished 9th in the Continental Semi Final in Bydgoszcz, with the top 8 from that semi final and the other in Togliatti going into the Continental Final in Abensberg, but Gerd raced in the Intercontinental Final in Holsted and finished 3rd. 9th in the other Continental Semi Final also raced in the Intercontinental Final. How did 9th in a Continental Semi Final, which at the time was generally regarded as the easier route, take them to the Intercontinental Final??? Anyone remember what was going on there?

This all sounds a bit strange. Does anyone know the background to this alleged harrasment that Connor is suffering from?

Have the visa rules been confirmed for the post brexit transition? Regardless of whether they would be interested in racing here, would Lasse, Dmitri or Tomas even be eligible for a work visa in the UK next year? Extra doubling up seems like a terrible option to me. Solving a problem by making a bigger long term problem doesn't seem like a win to me....

I understand the frustration, but the changing race nights was not just a UK thing, it was a European speedway issue. Genuine question...Do you think things would have been different if Rye had dropped down a league? Surely they weren't FORCED to race midweek, just had to race midweek if they wanted to be in the top league in the UK?

Not knowing where the offers came from, I wasn't sure where to put this post, but thought this was the best place even though it was probably lower leagues in Poland. COOK TURNED DOWN POLISH OFFERS (speedwaygp.com) Wow! Just Wow! I guess I might be reading this differently from what Craig intended, but it reads like he was made offers but decided that he couldn't guarantee easy points and money so found it easy to turn down because it's a bit difficult to get up to speed on Polish tracks when he is used to British ones. This is a man who has previously qualified for the GP series. I read this as an admission that he has found his level and he has no interest in considering a push to get into the top level now, which seems a bit sad to me. He preferred to have a year of no racing than going out and challenging himself, trying to develop new skills and move up in the speedway World.

Oooh....The FIM/BSI are going to invest some money in getting Bradford or Coventry back up and running

You really have to wonder why they announced it for May in the first place. As soon as that date was announced there were plenty of people questioning whether that was a viable date.

I'm sure that there is a story there which I don't know, but I find it hard to believe that any problem was entirely on his side...He was far too good and professional for it all to be on his side.

I'm not sure which site to trust as rainfall stats for Manchester seem to be different on many of them, but the first one that came up when I searched on Google said that October was the month with the most rain in Manchester, although November was the month with the most rain days. As I say, other sites seem to disagree with this, but October still seems to be high in the chart of months with the most rain in Manchester. It just seems a strange choice to take the risk to go with one of the wetter months. As for the heated seats...You do know that the BV stadium isn't an all seater one, yeah?

Ah...That was actually the same meeting, and in fact the same race as the one I mentioned, just the restart after PC had fallen. Rather blurry quality, but this video starts with the race in question: https://youtu.be/PZT2okwsw-g

A bit before my time, so I don't really know of Hans, but have seen him mentioned online...assuming there wasn't any other Hans Wassermann who was a star of German speedway in the past! I believe that after the initial recovery from his crash he stayed involved with speedway, doing coaching for his local club and was instrumental in bringing Gerd Riss into the sport. Gerd and him still seem to be close, or at least in contact with each other. There were photos from Herxheim last year where Hans and Gerd brought an old bike of Hans' along and Gerd went out on track with it. The album of pics was on facebook but looks like it can be viewed without an account. Photo of Gerd and Hans together that day: https://www.facebook.com/MSVHerxheim/photos/a.2079089285543407/2079091315543204 Video of Gerd on Hans' old bike: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkLuXhZaiJM

He was the ref at the 1983 World Pairs Final and allowed PC back into the rerun after he appeared to fall on his own at the first bend in the race against the Danes...Not sure if that's the one you are thinking of?

Drabik is still waiting for the punishment from his doping issues. There was slightly worrying news this week that WADA won an appeal to get Andrea Iannone's sentence increased. The FIM initially gave Andrea an 18 month ban which WADA felt was too lenient and it has now been increased to 4 years. 18 months was the number most commonly being guessed at for Drabik. If Drabik gets 4 years it's hard to see him coming back.

Yes. Alan Cowland was Keith's Uncle.