HenryW

Michael Jepsen Jensen is 2nd reserve for this season despite not racing in the GP challenge last year. Edit - Of course he was maybe selected to replace PK who got a wild card. That would make sense from the way you describe it.

The reserves for the season used to come from the GP challenge but they are now selected. There is no guarantee that Bjerre will be on the reserves list despite finishing 4th today.

Amazingly, locating athletes for out of competition testing is something that other sports have to deal with as well. Luckily WADA have a system in place to assist with this and other problems related to having a proper drug testing process: https://www.wada-ama.org/en/adams However, just testing riders regularly at meetings in the UK would be a good start...maybe even riders who withdraw from the meeting at the last minute

Just a very minor clarification...I believe PePe could have raced in the GP series and still raced Extraliga as he had offers from at least one other club but he had no desire to leave Zielona Gora who already had their GP rider place filled.

No. Not even the first time Edinburgh have. They have previously used Woelbert, Busch and Dilger in the same meeting.

Let's get this right. The rule wasn't misinterpreted, it was written wrong. There was no other way to interpret what was originally written than how it was implemented at Glasgow and Wolverhampton. What was intended was irrelevant at that point. The rules as written were followed. They have now corrected the rule to be what they apparently originally intended but failed to write.

According to a recent article (17th May) on the SWC site, Greg was soon to get a new passport and apply for a visa, which suggested he didn't have one at that point...has something been said since then to confirm a visa application has been approved? http://www.monsterenergyswc.com/news/article/4882/laguta-eyes-russian-swc-glory

Sad news for Maksym. I hope he makes a quick recovery. Doesn't sound like Antonio Lindback had the best night either...arrested after the meeting according to this: http://www.aftonbladet.se/sportbladet/motor/speedway/article22921836.ab

Jye didn't come here on a tier 2 or tier 5 visa, which are the ones that you could apply for based on performance in the State championships. He has an Ancestry Visa which doesn't require any previous performance related evidence.

I guess my confusion comes from the fact that the meeting in question was part way through when the snow started. At that point it's down to the referee whether the meeting continues or not. As far as I'm aware it was the ref that decided things continued, nothing to do with the club itself. I can't really comment on Doyle today as I haven't seen the meeting yet. However, as I say, he has always been a very hard rider who rides close to the edge. I guess the pressure of the event maybe got to him today and he pushed a little further than normal. As for the fans. Having visited the town for speedway a few times I can assure you that I found plenty of very friendly and welcoming people there, so it's not all as bad as you may imagine. I think, though, that today the most important thing isn't results or fans behavior, it's the health of Krystian Rempala that takes priority. I hope we get some more positive news very soon.

Doyle has always been a hard rider. I'm not sure what the meeting in the snow a few weeks ago has to do with that.

Most likely an issue with the advertising provider used by the site. If they have had any malware in their ads, which does happen every now and then, lots of sites using the ad provider will get flagged until it's confirmed as resolved.

I'm not sure this is accurate. I don't think Jye requires a visa due to patriality. His Australian results wouldn't have qualified him for one if he had.

That's very much the Eurosport way, unfortunately. They have always been dreadful at editing sports events...as you say, it's just lazy/cheap.

That's not even close to being true.

Yeah. Richie Worrall is the only Belle Vue rider officially listed as doubling up.

I'm currently in Poland and the replay of what was the live feed from BSI on youtube is available here now. I'm not sure if the live feed itself was available as I didn't look for it during the meeting as it was on TV in the bar I was in. Was the live feed available on youtube in the UK? Is the replay of it available now? If it is, I'd be surprised if BT Sports were happy with that, and similarly if Canal+ were happy here in Poland...unless BSI have sold a contract that only offers them live rights and nothing else.

No. The clubs I was referring to just share home venues with other clubs, like Cradley do in speedway's National League. If you are purely talking about clubs that don't compete in professional league competitions and have no permanent home venue then that's pretty irrelevant to the thoughts of serious sports journalists, is it not? There are no professional league speedway clubs that have no permanent home venue, but I'm sure that there are lots of amateur football, basketball, baseball, rugby, etc clubs that move around different venues.

Serious sports journalists are constantly mocking the likes of the German football Bundesliga, Italian Football Serie A, American NFL and NBA to name but a few because teams don't have a stadium of their own....How right you are!

I watched the 1978 Volkswagen Grand Prix Final on youtube earlier today. The sport got lucky that they didn't still have that association when the emissions test cheating story broke

The track still exists, or at least it did as of the middle of last year. However, it didn't look in the best state of repair and I don't know when it was last used! I have this vague recollection of a meeting being arranged there at some point in the not too distant past (as in, the last 5 or 10 years). There is an article about a little reunion that was held there last year on this Ukrainian speedway blog: http://gorka-speedway.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/25-2015.html There was some talk 3 or 4 years ago about the Neva club starting racing league matches again and either joining the Ukrainian league (which has since fallen apart) or the Finnish league again. However, everything went quiet about this without anything happening. BSF member F-S-P might know whether there was actually any serious discussion with the Finns about them rejoining or whether it was just internet rumours. As of this year, the Neva club are apparently starting the construction of new tracks in the St Petersburg Oblast, and had a stand at the St Petersburg Mortorbike show last weekend, so there is still some life about the club. You can follow their activities on their VK page: http://vk.com/nevaspeedwayclub

That sort of thing could surely never happen to a major speedway event in Germany...

That was a fine performance from the Bydgoszcz team. I'm not sure many would have given them much chance of winning before the match. Krakow will surely be questioning Chris Harris' inability to win a single race against this level of opponent on a track he had raced many times.

The Wolfslake club's website has the location of their track: http://www.speedwayteam-wolfslake.de/da-finden-sie-uns-1.html

Fine for their qualifying round but what are the chances of the Laguta brothers securing a visa to race in Manchester? I'd imagine that would be fairly slim. Edit: I see I was completely wrong and the Laguta's already have the visa situation in hand. Great to hear!