HenryW

Yeah, the FIM seem to be happy for riders to walk out their events whenever they want and for whatever reason, without handing down any punishment... reference Mr Hancock in Melbourne for more details on this.

I believe Max lives in Andorra these days as well.

If you are going to ask for a season long commitment you surely have to make it a 2 way thing... give a commitment to the riders as well, something that isn't done at present. Every rider knows they are just 1 meeting away from being dropped if another rider with an attractive average becomes available. Often the rider being dropped hasn't done anything wrong, their average just fits for the changes wanted elsewhere in the team. With that attitude from promoters, it's not hard to see why riders look out for themselves!

Freddie Lindgren.He was using a GM in the Polish league at the weekend.

I think you maybe undersell his efforts in 1988 by just saying he moved to heat leader. He was probably the best rider in the league that season...I can't actually remember if he topped the averages or not.

They do develop riders from other Countries and seem quite happy to do that. Riders from the likes of Russia and Ukraine in particular are regularly brought into Polish squads at a very young age and given every assistance to develop. For example, Sayfutdinov, Vaculik and Lebedevs along with many others all started in the Polish league as soon as they turned 16. Unlike most British clubs, most of the Polish teams can offer regular training and coaching sessions on track. The surprise packet of the Speedway World Cup, Gleb Chugunov, has been signed to Polish league clubs since he was 16 and regularly trained with his club. I have doubts that he would have made such an impression without the development work put in by his Polish team. Australians tend to prefer to come to the UK and get regular meetings to prove themselves rather than going to Poland and working their way through the way that Russians do. If the Aussies wanted to take that route I'm sure there would be clubs willing to sign them. It's also worth mentioning that developing a rider doesn't start and end in their first season of league racing. Just because riders have made it to a certain level before they join a Polish team, it doesn't mean that they don't help to develop them further. Many young riders get opportunities in Poland well before they have "made it".

That was my thinking as well. If we look at the example of Jacob Thorsell recently, Zielona Gora could have offered Andrei Karpov (who couldn't race as he doesn't qualify for a visa in the UK) or one of their junior riders who doesn't make it into their already weak reserve positions. It's hard to imagine any of the ones outside their team scoring anything over here. Then you would have the problem that presumably anyone from ZG would have to race in the same team in the UK. Assuming Swindon already had a partnership with ZG for Doyle, when ZG signed Thorsell at the start of this season, would he have to have left Wolves to sign for Swindon? If not you could have the situation where Doyle was unavailable as ZG were racing, but because they were using Karpov in the meeting they could offer Thorsell to Swindon as a replacement despite the fact that he's a Wolves rider... not much better than the current guest mess.

Yes.

I remember seeing a survey that said 33% loved and 33% hated it.

That seems sensible...and yet some people on here have had a right moan about the Polish league doing exactly this!

This could have changed in the last couple of years but until then the normal process was that their visa sponsor had to inform the authorities that their employment had been terminated. They then process the details and send out a notification to the worker that they need to leave the Country. They were given 60 days from the time of the notification. It wasn't unusual for it to take several months for the home office to send out the notification.

If they want him, surely they can use him in these meetings as Extraliga must take priority. As far as I understood, if they don't have paperwork from Jack's other teams saying that Extraliga takes priority then they are not allowed to use him in any meetings. I guess it's possible that they got the teams to sign on the understanding that they wouldn't take up their right to use him on other weeks.

Not quite so impressive from his brother.

They probably don't have the riders to win things this year but they should be doing much better than they have done the last couple of seasons. Their riders seem to be underperforming when they represent their country at the moment, something which hadn't been seen for many years.

I wonder if the TV match on Wednesday might be what Nicki is targeting for a racing comeback...

I'm no big fan of Tai's but he's done better than any British rider in the modern era, arguably ever, so deserves some respect and if he's willing to do anything to help others from GB the opportunity should be leapt on... Obviously a racing record isn't a great guide to what you can offer to and get out of other riders (we need look no further than the current state of the Danish national team to know that) but Rosco clearly isn't the answer, so why not let Woffy have a crack at organising things? He can't do any worse and we'd at least be getting his points even if he gets no more out of the others!

So last in the SWC meeting and last in this. I wonder how many more Nations we could put into a meeting in Poland and still have GB come last...Latvia? France? Ukraine?

It has to be like this. Anything else would be insanity...Then again, it is speedway we're talking about.

As you suggest, Nicki is getting back on a bike. He hasn't made a definite decision on his future yet but will be practicing at Leszno tomorrow to see how he feels.

Hayley Perrault apparently finished 3rd in the recent meeting at Ventura in California. Admittedly, Greg Hancock's older brother finished second in his first meeting in over 30 years, so I'm not entirely sure what the standard was like

So have Poole signed the Polish priority release now, or are Torun breaking the Extraliga rules?

There haven't been any scheduled matches recently. Round 10 was the weekend of the 26th of June and round 11 is 30th of July.

Swiping right works on mobile devices. If using a desktop or laptop I'd guess clicking on the left side of the page you are taken to with the original link (Not certain about that as I've only looked at it on my phone)

Go back through the previous pages of the online magazine.

Bydgoszcz newspaper is claiming that Cook is trying to get out of the Bydgoszcz deal to sign for Rybnik as a replacement for Laguta. http://www.expressbydgoski.pl/sport/a/polonia-bydgoszcz-bez-cooka-w-rzeszowie,12252351/