HenryW

Good to see Zorro giving the Russian's a preview of what we can all expect in the SGP next season...A spectacular 4 points from his 5 rides in Togliatti today

Hmmm....You WANT to see your team beaten by Torun again this year?

Or they could hold it off and try again around Christmas when I am back over in Poland

They'd be as well just giving the title to Torun now if they are going to do that...The home advantage was Falubaz only hope.

sop://S0PCAST.SOCCER-LIVE.COM.PL:3912/80257

Interesting to see that Scott Nicholls has stated that the only British rider deserving of a GP place next year is Lee Richardson

Overcast, with chances of rain from 19:00.... What's maybe more important is how well the track has dried over the last few days....anyone able to offer info on that?

I think you made a typo or a miscount there...You listed 12 wildcard riders!

Nah, I think he has a bit of a problem with pressure. Always seems to crumble when it comes to the crunch. He had his 1 day in the GPs when he was wildcard in Bydgoszcz a few years back and made the final...Still managed to screw that up, though, and missed out on the rostrum

Yep. Tend to agree. Now that I have got over the deflation of not seeing the second leg, I am pretty happy with the thought of seeing the mighty Falubaz on their home patch

Despite my earlier post, I think I was maybe misinformed. The Torun website seems to suggest that there will be tickets put on sale on Saturday and will be available on race day as well if there are any left.

I would guess that the Torun leg can't be moved cos they already sold all of the 15,000 tickets for it, including some to Brits like me that are only in Poland for one weekend....(at leat I hope they have sold one to me....please tell me they have, Rico!!) To run the Zielona Gora leg after the Torun one would mean Torun losing their advantage of having the second leg....and I am SURE you can relate to that situation, being a Kings Lynn fan

Ahhh...cummon, Mark put him in his 15, and salty had him listed as a possible. The boy has had a blinding season this year, and I honestly believe he has been one of the best 15 in the World in 2009. He was very unlucky at Coventry. Without his one big mistake he would be in and Zorro would be out....but that's what I love about PePe! When he goes out, he goes out in style

It was, indeed, without Darcy. They used Matej Kus in that match....Not even Darcy could have saved them that day tho! The change of date could also go against Falubaz if anything happens to Freddie on track tomorrow, or if he just gets p*shed in the after match celebrations

You do remember what happened to Torun last time they travelled to take on Falubaz, don't you? They came away completely humiliated after a 67-23 spanking! I'm not expecting Falubaz to do anything like that on Tuesday, but I'd be very disappointed if they didn't win the match!

It's not easy to pick 15 for NEXT year, as there are some riders that I would certainly put in the top 15 just now, but I am not sure if they would still be there next season. Leigh Adams is a fine example of a man who has been on a dramatic slide this year. I'd say he was still inside the top 15, but if he continues his downward progression next year then he certainly will not be. Similarly other riders are moving upwards fast, and may well work their way into the top 15 next year. Just using form from this season, I would go for: Leigh Adams Hans Andersen Kennth Bjerre Jason Crump Tomasz Gollob Jarek Hampel Greg Hancock Chris Holder Rune Holta Andreas Jonsson Freddie Lindgren Adrian Miedzinski Nicki Pedersen Piotr Protasiewicz Emil Sajfutdinov

Any chance of you finding some quotes to back up the highlighted section? It's my recollection that when the wild card nominations were being discussed on this forum last year, almost everyone was in agreement that Emil should be selected...His SWC, WU21 and Polish League form was just far too good for him to be left out. I think he's probably surprised most people, possibly even himself, with the results he has achieved, but I don't recall anyone saying that he wouldn't score a point

The figures that Emil was quoting during the winter as his "requirement" to make a serious challenge on the series were truly scary, but I don't think he actually got the money that he was looking for. I could be wrong, but I think that some of his planned sponsors fell through due to the financial climate in Russia, and he is pretty much relying on his Polish sponsors this year.... Glad it wasn't just me that liked the larger field. I agree about the format...I said earlier that the old format probably wasn't the best. Ideally, but probably impractically, I would like to see a qualifying meeting on the Friday...Semi Finalists from the previous round go straight to Saturday, while the rest race off on the Friday over 20 heats to determine the other 8 for the Saturday.

Yep...Pretty sad that they dropped it for the sake of a few thousand pounds. Maybe I am an exception, but I thought the product was much more attractive and marketable with a larger field.

I'm not convinced the top guys would be taking part in the qualifiers even if there weren't selections. Of the riders currently outside the top 8 in the GP series, Lindgren, Holta, Walasek, Harris and Ulamek opted to take part in the qualifying rounds. Kenneth Bjerre, who is inside the top 8 at the moment, also chose to take part. The only rider who is currently guaranteed not to get a top 8 place who didn't race in the qualifiers was Scott Nicholls! Obviously I am just guessing, but without any selection process I would have been surprised if any more than 2 or 3 extra riders took part this year...Hans Andersen, Scott Nicholls and Emil Saifutdinov would be my guess at the ones that would also have tried them. The qualifiers basically had the best riders outside the GP series plus virtually the entire lower order of the current standings, and Zorro still got through.... As I have said before, find me any other top line world motorsport series that has ANY qualifiers? All entrants are selected... Personally, I think the single biggest problem with the SGP just now (other than the track surfaces ) is that it is restricted to a 15 man permanent field. That is far too limiting. Things were much more interesting when there were 22 permanent members in the series. That offered much more scope for the young hopefuls to get in and mix it. I'm not sure that the format used back then was ideal, but the larger field was certainly preferable.

Yes, you are correct Iris. Next years World Under 21 Championship is scheduled to be run as a mini-GP series. There will be the normal qualifying rounds, but the final will take place over 3 rounds, provisionally listed as being in Gdansk (July 11), Daugavpils (August 7) and Pardubice (September 18).

He actually turned 18 in August but, either way, he's got a few more shots at this title!

I think Darcy has a few far more impressive scalps this season than that pair...Nicki Pedersen, Greg Hancock and Emil Saifutdinov being a few of them. He is clearly an exceptional talent and has a very bright future in the sport if he can keep on progressing at his current rate. As far as which league he races in over here next year, I don't think it makes much difference. Either way it'll just be a bit of extra track time. Returning to the Extraliga and getting a contract for the Elitserien will be far more important to his development unless there are some drastic changes to the leagues over the winter.

There hasn't been a guaranteed place for the World Under 21 Champion since the 1998 Championship when Robert Dados received a place in the 1999 SGP series. For the next few years the winner was given a place in the GP Challenge final before even this idea was abandoned around 2002 (I think). Emil had to win two titles back to back before he was offered a place in the SGP series!

If only he had learned not to touch the tapes in his first race...Two years in a row he has done that!