HenryW

I totally agree with this. I never found the World Pairs very interesting when it was held in the past. The SWC has consistently been a highlight of the year. Oh well, another bit of the sport ruined.

Fricke confirmed at Wrocław it would seem.

That particular rule has been in place for a few years now.

Holder is a former World Champion who has only once before failed to qualify for the series and that was when he suffered serious injuries and missed most of the season. I don't think it's unreasonable to suggest that a former World Champion with a proven record of making the top 8 each year should be given one free pass after a poor year. I wouldn't have shed any tears if he had been left out, but I think it's reasonably easy to argue that with the system in place and the history of who has received selections, Holder would be a likely candidate regardless of who his primary sponsor is.

Nicki finished third in the series in both 2014 and 2015. Pretty harsh to say that's off of Championship pace.

Seems like they should have selected locals that were in form rather than just promoting the initially selected meeting reserves... that would still seem to fit with that ruling.

Shakhtar Donetsk spent a couple of seasons playing in Lviv in the far West of the Country but from this year have moved much nearer home and play their games in Ukraine's 2nd largest City Kharkiv which is about 300KM from Donetsk. They still base the players in Kiev and train there for safety reasons. Once you are outside of the troubled areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts in the far East, things are relatively safe...although the UK Government also advise against travel to Crimea, which Russia obviously claim isn't part of Ukraine any more.

If you were to include foreign league appearances for riders who raced in the UK then Andrzej Huszcza would be up there. I think he started with Zielona Gora in 1975 and raced for them through 2005, then raced for Poznan in 2006 and 2007 before finally calling it a day.

Seems reasonable if the UK are moving to Monday and Thursday fixed race nights. After all, this was a proposal made by the Polish authorities.

Given Doyle's absolutely pathetic efforts at the business end of the season, where he has clearly been thinking of his own individual glory rather than the club, I would think they would be questioning whether they wanted him back. Having said that, with Hampel deciding to leave they probably don't want to be hunting for two new top end riders for next season. I suspect that Doyle may choose to move on anyway and it'll be interesting to see what they come up with to replace that pair.

I didn't think the National League made any claims to be professional...or has that changed?

New blood is already coming in with Pawlicki, Laguta and probably Cook. I guess the question would be whether the organisers think that the likes of Lebedevs or Milik would be better than the likes of Holder or Vaculik (assuming he stays out of the top 8)

Don't the top two scorers have to go into heat 15? I don't think you are allowed to use them in heat 14 except as a tac sub if you are 6 or more behind.

There is still a possibility that Rybnik will get points back after their appeal on the Laguta situation. That would leave Grudziadz in the play off matches rather than Torun.

A good sensible ride from little Thaysen to steal the points...I can think of a few riders that wouldn't be interested in this track.

Should it not maybe be made a requirement that outdoor GP venues should have track covers available? It seemed crazy that the track hosting the U21 round the night before had covers but the more prestigious GP venue didn't.

Ooh...Just imagine his excitement at the possibility of seeing Jason Doyle brought in for an extra race!!

That is certainly the way the warning system works in the SGP series but I'm not sure if it's the same for domestic meetings. The rules clearly state that a second offence after a warning will result in disqualification, but it doesn't mention subsequent offences. As it only refers to a second offence after a warning one could assume that a new warning would be required before a disqualification could occur again. As for heat 12. Is it possible he was withdrawn from the meeting injured after his previous fall?

Surely if Teterow had been a one off World Final Jason Doyle would be champion as the top scorer across the 20 heats. No semis or final in the old one off World Final format. Of course, if it had been a one off World Final there would have been a completely different level of pressure and the approach of riders would likely have been different. Having said that, I agree with you that the SGP format is a better way to get our World Champion.

Ref's having a laugh there...That's a shocking decision.

I'm having a right laugh at Stal's failure there. They were coasting against a badly weakened Wrocław in front of their home fans and threw it away :rofl:

Already had a warning earlier apparently.

I think he's still working with them in developing the engines even though he isn't using them regularly in competitive meetings. I found it quite amusing that Matej Zagar blasted to a GP win on a PJR engine after almost everyone else has abandoned Johns engines!

Doyle has massively underperformed in the play off meetings so far. Very poor given his form in the GP series.

It's being reported that they think Drabik has broken his shoulder in that nasty semi final crash.