HenryW

He's 31 now. He looked like going to the top at the start of his career but some bad injuries caused him to miss a couple of seasons and stalled his progress. The last few years he has been hovering around a 7 point average in the Polish League, I think.

Nice ride by Emil. I like getting to watch a race without the distraction of commentators. I wish there was an option to switch the commentary off and just hear the bikes and crowd on Sky TV.

Does no-one proof read the press releases for the BSPA? "Livi, Ukraine"

I will add my agreement to those already here. I suspect (and hope) it is nothing but idle gossip. I do think Janusz lost a bit of weight before last season, when he was returning to the Extraliga, but it was just a bit, and nothing different from what Nicki did a few years ago when he got serious about training and eating right. Of course, he then had another sudden weight loss just before the first GP of the year when he shaved his head As for the Moto-X gear...Agree again. It just doesn't look right. I always think it looks ugly on a speedway rider when they have a jersey blowing around.

Personally, I can do without seeing Glasgow racing Edinburgh 5 or 6 times a season, but I don't think I'd ever get bored of seeing the very best the sport has to offer going head to head.

You might be right, but I am not entirely convinced that we can claim THAT big a role in his development. As Mr Bagpuss rightly said earlier in this thread, it's about what is done before these guys hit the age of 15. If Tai jetted into Scunthorpe and sat on a 500cc bike without what he had been doing before then, he wouldn't have been anything like as good as he was, and more importantly if he had jetted in when he was 10 he would probably be racing BSB or MotoX now... The current 3rd tier only has a "claim" on the development of a bunch of riders because they can race at age 15 at that level. Most of the guys mentioned could easily have stepped into the PL at 15, but they had to wait until they were 16 (why DO they have to wait until they are 16 to race PL, BTW?) Having said that, I don't mean to denounce the value of the 3rd tier. Any chance for young riders to get track time is good, but I think it would be much better to focus on U15 development and work on providing training track time and competitive action for those that are currently too young to get any. Just looking locally to me (Scotland) it's clear that despite the fact we haven't provided any riders at the top level in recent years, we had a lot more riders coming into the PL back in the days that we had good training facilities available to the kids up here (Linlithgow), but even that wasn't great. A competitive setup for kids, like so many of the other top speedway nations have, would surely provide much better riders. 15 is too late to catch the kids. You need to get them involved and give them opportunities to race competitively when they are still under 10.

Indeed. It was a strangely titled competition back then as (apart from the first 2 years) the competitors weren't restricted to being European. Two Americans and one Aussie became "European Champions" during the 11 years that it was held under that title. The winners from those years should really be credited with a World Title.

A few races have been uploaded on youtube.... http://www.youtube.com/user/7400Herning#p/u/1/D8NGVOb9qFk Video from a phone, so don't expect high production quality Edit - A few more here as well http://www.youtube.com/user/andborg1

Have you decided to stay at home tomorrow?

I had planned to head over to this one, but the Edinburgh - Billund flights were taken off the schedule during the Winter months, so I scrapped the idea. I'm starting to feel glad that I did with these late drop outs! EDIT - And looking at the updates from the match so far, it doesn't look like they have a done a good job with the track tonight. I hope there are still some willing to race tomorrow for you iris!!

I'm sorry, did MOST riders race in the World Final under the old format. I'm pretty sure that only 16 got to take part then, just the same as now. There are still qualifying rounds which EVERY rider has the opportunity to take part in. As for the original topic... Assuming his arm is back to full strength, Jason on 5 looks to have some value. Gollob certainly doesn't on his current prices. I'm also interested in Nicki at 12...He might have lost it completely, or he might just need the right people back around him and he seems to have got that for this year. Definitely too soon to be writing him off. Hampel on 8 also does't sound like the worst bet in the World, but probably not the greatest value. Having said that, I don't think 2010 was a fluke and would expect him to continue to improve. I'm just not sure that he is hard enough if it came down to a fight for the title with Crump, Gollob or Pedersen. KB being offered at 25 could also be worth considering. He is ever improving and has the attributes to make it to the very top, he just needs to find a bit more consistency when things are going against him in a GP.

It's a bit of a pain for the lack of hotel rooms, though. You generally get gouged by the local hotels at GP weekend. A GP in London would certainly be better for hotels, and actually probably better for public transport as well! However, the massive thing that Cardiff has in it's favour is that big roof over the track

How can you say that without knowing what the compromise would be? For example, the compromise could be as simple as Coventry running this year under the agreed rules on the basis that there is a complete overhaul of the management structure of GB speedway before 2011.

I presume that by "most", he actually means "none", because no other SGP promoter is asked to pay travelling expenses for the riders. The travelling expenses are "included" in the prize money for the riders at current SGP events. I doubt that could ever be the case for an Australian GP so someone other than the riders would have to pay for the travelling. Having said that, the money has to come from somewhere. Either the European promoters have to front up the cash for an Aussie GP, or the Aussie promoters do. Ultimately, there is nothing to be gained by Euro promoters paying for a round at the other side of the World unless they believe that they are going to get a financial return from it. The fact that there are no Aussie promoters willing to front that cash suggests that no-one over there believes that there is a good guaranteed return on the investment, so it's not surprising that the Euro based promoters aren't rushing to get in on the action. I am sure that eventually SGP will return to the Southern hemisphere, it just waits to be seen when and who will be the one with the guts to actually stump up the cash before the event...It could be IMG themselves or it could be a local promoter. If it's IMG and they make a success of it, look forward to howls of protest from Aussie speedway about how they are just taking money out of the sport in Australia and giving nothing back, a bit like some do over here when they run their GPs at Cardiff and get great crowds. Anyone could have done that before they came along, but instead the British promoters were running the SGP in front of 8 or 10 thousand at Coventry, Bradford, etc.

Yep, as I said in my previous post, there are a good number of Latvians who have Russian ancestry, and some of them might prefer to describe themselves as Russian rather than Latvian. On the other hand, I bet there are more Russians that wish they could describe themselves as Latvian and have free and easy travel and work in the EU An ex of mine called herself Russian despite not being born in Russia or ever having lived in Russia. Her Father was born there and apparently she preferred to be "Russian"

Are we going further off topic now? It's a topic that I like, but just wanted to check Thanks to their shared history of being part of the Soviet Union, there are a large number of Latvian citizens who have Russian ancestry, especially around the Southern areas of the Country. However, a large part of the Nation has some pretty bad feelings for Russia for the way they scooped them into the Soviet Union. Most of the women are unlikely to be able to class themselves as true Russians, but how many I wouldn't be able to say. I am happy to carry out a further investigation of Latvian women if you want to sponsor it and get me over there to meet more of them The Czech Republic is very different as despite being Communist for the latter part of the 20th Century, it was never part of the Soviet Union, so the Russians didn't really move there. A tiny portion of their population has recent Russian ancestry, and the Czechs probably dislike the Russians even more than the Latvians. Essentially, the women from Central and Eastern Europe are generally pretty hot. They don't have to be Russian to be hot

It's going a bit off topic, but... Areas of what now makes up Latvia have been part of Poland, Lithuania, Sweden, Russia, Germany (and possibly others that I don't remember) over the years, but in the speedway era, it has never been part of Russia. I guess that Australian's maybe have a different definition of "close" given the expanse of their Nation, but Prague is about 1,200KM from Russia and there are a couple of not insignificant Countries between them. As for a "type of Russia"...What do you mean by that?

Firstly, assuming my quick mental arithmetic is correct, Australia and New Zealand combined have provided 8 riders who have lifted the World title for a total of 19 times, while Sweden and Denmark combined have provided 10 riders who have lifted the World title for a total of 28 times....So, yeah, Australia and New Zealand combined are "2nd to none" as long as you don't let any other near neighbours combine as well... Secondly, when did you become such a lover of New Zealanders? Did you just throw them into the mix to get some extra world titles? Did you miss the fact that they haven't had a rider worthy of World championship status in the last 25 years? Thirdly, how did you drag Russia into this? There have been more FIM Speedway World Finals held in Australia than Russia. In case you aren't sure, there has been 1 in Australia, which obviously means that there have been NONE...EVER, in Russia...So where did Russia come into the equation of "taking over World speedway"? WTF? Do you think that the leagues in Europe would die without Australian riders coming over to race here? Do you really think the rest of the speedway World owes you something because you have some riders at the top level? Flip the switch in your head, mate...Australians get a career in the sport BECAUSE of the leagues in Europe....and BECAUSE they pay them good money! As soon as Aussie speedway offers good money to the European guys, they'll be over racing on your tracks... I think you have lost me here....Are you suggesting that Australian speedway riders should hold the European Leagues to ransom by refusing to race in them?. Hahahahaha!!! Good luck to them with that move. I think you may be right with this statement, but who is to blame for that other than Australians? If your promoters don't want to pony up the cash to advertise or attract the top riders over to your Country, what do you expect? Again...No chance of BSI or the FIM saying "no" if the cash was handed over...But don't expect the rest of the speedway world to give you gifts "just because".... Again....WTF? You blame the World governing bodies for the failure of the sport in your Nation? No offence, but look a bit closer to home for the problems. If Australia can't even get it's top riders to race in the National Championship, why would you expect the rest of the World to send their top guys over to race? Yep, Australia...A true production line of World Speedway Champions...Good on ya's for that...You've got Jason Crump (ironically, born in Britain) and, erm....who was the last one before him? Oh, that's right....Jack Young, back in 1952!!! Let's forget the GP's. You could have one every year if anyone in Australia was willing to put up the cash, but it's been proved that they aren't. Similarly, you could have some great individual meetings with the World's best, but no-one is willing to pay for those guys to head over to Australia to race... What's this???....You have "no league possible"? Is there some law against "sports leagues" in Australia? I'm pretty sure I have seen Rugby, "Football" and Soccer leagues from Australia on TV here in the UK....Do you actually mean that a league isn't financially viable for speedway in Australia, cos that would be an entirely different thing! Prague saw 145,000 fans attend the first Czechoslovakia v Soviet Union test match in 1960...Does that prove anything other than speedway was more popular in the older days? Don't get me wrong, I love your passion for the sport and your discontent at the lack of big meetings in Australia...but I think you are turning your anger at the wrong target when complaining about the FIM or IMG not running big events in Australia. Those guys will run their events where-ever the money is... It's surely up to Aussie promoters to show that they can run professional speedway...Recent years have surely suggested that Australia can train the kids well, but if they want to see big events, they also need to show that they can attract big crowds and make the sport pay at a professional level...

I guess it depends where you are wanting to fly FROM. The nearest airport to Torun with direct flights from the UK is Bydgoszcz, with Ryanair being the airline providing these. However, Ryanair haven't released their schedule for Summer 2011 yet, so you would probably be as well to hang on until they have announced what flights they are going to be doing before making any definite plans.

Harsh, but I agree with some of it. He would have been better off sitting out a few weeks, getting himself right and proving what he could do on his return. As it was, he carried on racing, and did little for himself or the fans entertainment. If it wasn't for his final round win, I don't think AJ would have been included ahead of Hans, but the actions of AJ and Hans combined to virtually force the hand of the selectors. Could they really leave out a multi-GP winner who finished ahead of a guy in the points that has never won a GP and claimed his poor form was caused by injury?

As a fan of his, I might a little biased, but I think Nicki should be left out of that kind of discussion. Despite him suffering a bad season for him, Nicki made 8 semi-finals in 11 GPs, and in one of the others he was injured in his first race and then was obviously still injured in the next round. Only 2 riders made more semi-finals than Nicki this year, and they were Tomek and Jarek. If you discount the 2 injury GPs, Nicki was averaging over 9 points per GP yet finished just 5 points outside of the top 8... Given that, and his SGP record over the years, I think it's perfectly acceptable for Nicki to have sat out the qualifiers to give other Danes a chance. After all, failure to qualify due to injuries to star performers was one of the primary reasons for BSI retaining the right to select riders for the series. Anyway....If Nicki had done the qualifiers, what good would it have done him? He would have been out injured and missed out in them too...Would that have made him more or less deserving of a place next year? As for the other 2, AJ has had a shocker of a season by his own standards. The jeers of the locals in Bydgoszcz when he stepped onto the podium in the final SGP said all you needed to know... Having said that, injury or not, AJ was still better than Hans this year, and I don't think Hans has a case against either AJ or Koldi. Nicki, Emil and Koldi have to be picked if the SGP has any credibility....After them, AJ has probably made himself the best choice for 4th pick with his win in Bydgoszcz.

I have never been to Gothenburg, so I can't comment on that, but I would hope that Prague wasn't dropped from the series. The City of Prague is a fantastic place to visit, and the ease of access to the track from the City Centre has to be one of the best in the SGP calendar. I have seen some good racing on the Prague track, but it doesn't happen often. To me, that seems to be one track that the locals need to be kicked aside and some proper track experts brought in to set the track for the SGP event. Prague is one of the "Big City" jewels left in the SGP series...It just needs the track to be given a little shake up.

Once again, I am late into a topic, so there are a few things to cover. In some ways I like the idea of a 2nd tier for the SGP series, but I think I agree with Humphrey that the sport just doesn't have the media interest or finances to carry it off just now. Despite how much I love the SGP series, it isn't exactly awash with major sponsors just now, so I am not sure if there would be the backing for a new series below it... Whilst you can complain about the "fairness" of the way riders get into the SGP series, looking back over the season just past, the only genuine complaint I would have is the inclusion of Tai and, with the benefit of hindsight, Janusz Kolodziej would have been the man that was most deserving of that place....yet he failed in the SGP qualifiers at the first round last year behind rider like Pavlic, Zagar, Davidsson, Ferjan, Karpov and Kasprzak....So how DO you make a fair and representative qualifying system? If you were to make an SGP2 series with a "fair" qualifying system, would it not look something like the SGP qualifying system without the invites? If you DID go for something like that, then 2010's SGP2 series would be comprised of the following riders: Protasiewicz, Watt, Smolinski, Miedzinski, Walasek, L.Dryml, Davidsson, Pavlic, Bogdanovs, Nieminen, Kroner, Lindback, Gafurov, A.Dryml, Risager and B.Pedersen. A 2011 series would have these guys: Zetterstrom, Jonasson, Iversen, Karpov, Povazhny, G.Laguta, Stead, Madsen, Ulamek, Gapinski, Walasek, L.Dryml, Miedzinski, Dobrucki, Pavlic and Gizatullin. With all due respect to them, I'm not sure a series that had those riders involved would have the fans fighting each other for tickets....and that is the biggest problem that I can see for a proposal like this...The guys just outside the SGP series just aren't actually as "box office" as you might hope. I attended the SGP qualifier Final in Zielona Gora in 2008...This was a meeting that had 16 riders fighting for 3 places in the 2009 SGP series, and at best estimate the stadium was more than half empty. This is a stadium that is packed out with the best and noisiest fans for every league match that Zielona Gora race in....If a meeting like that can't bring out the fans in one of the most fanatical speedway towns in Europe, what chance that the same riders could get enough people interested in an SGP2 series? I think you could put together a series that does have some "box office", but it probably wouldn't be with the riders that were just outside the SGP level...It's more likely to be at U21 level, and I think that is what the FIM are trying to work towards. This year it was a 3 match series. Next year I believe it's scheduled to be a 4 match series....I suspect that the FIM are looking for someone to take on the U21 series and market it to the international TV companies like BSI have done with the senior series.

Thankfully for the legend that is PePe, 2006 only had 10 rounds... However, if I remember rightly, he was a BSI pick for 2006, which sadly would probably make him the worst pick in the history of SGP.

Lovely link.....but "The Damned" were still better