HenryW

But....ermm....If a rider gets injured in his first race, surely all his races should be able to be covered?

I'm sure he didn't need eyes in the back of his head to know Nicki was there...Those bikes are a bit noisy To be honest, I think Greg WAS intending leaving room for Nicki until he lifted....I was actually getting mad, shouting at the TV telling Greg to move out and close the door before he lifted.... I also think the lift was the reason for the exclusion...It was a really tough decision. I think the fact that Jan and Hans both said that it was difficult one to decide on suggests that they probably think Nicki was the one that would normally go.

Ah right...Well you will see from another post of mine that I completely agree with you.

It was in the same interview...the very next sentence, in fact, if I remember right.

Yeah. Only the Danes didn't use their reserve if I remember right. Seemed to me that the sensible thing to do would have been to allow reserves to replace an off form rider, rather than getting rid of them.

In fairness to Nicki, he DID say that it was his fault immediately after making the statement that Emil rode into him. On the other side of that incident, Emil's claim that the Parken crash was the worst between the pair of them because Nicki deliberately took him out there while the others were racing accidents was just as ridiculous!

Well...They did introduce reserves for injured riders in SWC a couple of years ago, but certain people whinged so much about the rule it was removed....Oh, was that the Danes? What a shame!

It would be incredibly tough to schedule all the matches in that space of time. The leagues would be struggling to get a day to run if you tried to do that. Possibly just as importantly, the riders who ended up contesting the GP series wouldn't have any time to prepare. Without knowing for sure that they had a GP place, it would be a much tougher sell to some sponsors!

Agree 100% apart from the part about "kiddies disco"....Pensioners disco more like!

Worth every penny to see PePe racing over here again!

More importantly, where is PePe on your list of riders expected to qualify from Daugavpils

Which was still better than Scott's, as it turned out

Far too late for me to actually look it up, but I thought that it was used as a final verse...My point was more about the fact that it isn't used any more, and was actually only used very briefly, but then you already knew that I also have this nagging thought that the song was originally used by the Scottish Stuart Royal Family, but I'm probably wrong about that, and I'm sure Humphrey will appear some time tomorrow to correct me I should probably also point out that I have little interest in the song, but that's more to do with my thoughts of the Royal Family rather than any former lyrics

Ermm....you might want to check again on that one

Best coverage the sport has had from the Daily papers in many a year. I hope Emil and Scott will be seeing a nice bonus from IMG to go with their fine from the FIM

It depends what standard of speedway you want to see. If you are happy with lower league action, the nearest is probably Łódź, which is around 120KM from Warsaw.

I was just thinking the same thing while looking at the field for this round. As a rider, you would surely be delighted to get into this qualifier....Definitely much weaker than the other rounds.

Hmmmm.....It's a shame that Somerset is a track that gating counts for less than on than many other tracks! I don't have much confidence in the Monarchs pair's chances.....but I hope I am wrong! Nice attempt to deflect attention from the Stars pair who are clearly favourites! Try doing the count again without using the 6th finger

Please tell me you have been taken in by "Ole's media show" and are not talking about "on track"! Greg seems to be a really nice guy, but it's a long time since I saw him do anything exciting on the track....Nicki, yes. AJ, yes. Tomek, yes....even Scotty, yes....but, Greg, no! Agree entirely. If there are any doubts about the engines that Ash is providing Emil, they gotta be checked very quickly even if it is just to stop the rumours. Ermmm....The two aren't mutually exclusive in my mind! These days you have to be consistently excellent across several matches, rather than just delivering 5 excellent rides on one track on one day!

Not sure what is going on....I know that it has been said before that Ole thinks that slick tracks make for more interesting TV action as the riders often stay close together....If that IS the case, I really can't agree with that approach. There is no interest in seeing guys racing close together when you know that there aint a hope of any passing going on... I was shocked by Crump's praise at the end...Was he being serious? "What a show"? lol....ermmmm....NO! Epic fail on the "show" front! Not sure why Ole was getting so many name-checks tonight....Hopefully it WAS to highlight that he is the man responsible, but I doubt it. As for Emil's bikes.....Would be very surprised if there was anything amiss there. As Ash said in the interview, he gives good feedback and knows what he wants. That makes a big difference I am sure. His lack of weight probably doesn't hurt either

Plenty of shots of the "start tarts" on Sky tonight, and IMHO they weren't worth looking at, so you were saved from that sight Dave As for Nicki....Just like earlier in the night, he had a puncture in the rear...but this time it was his tyre and not his butt!

Not just press releases...

I'm pretty sure that the bike checks are more serious at GPs than they are at UK league matches. I'm not sure what checks they do "post match", but at least a few years ago all bikes were impounded once a rider completed his races in a GP so that they could be checked in any way that was required.....but maybe that was just a formality and only minimal or no checks were done... I'm sure Ole could demand a check on any bike from Nicki's evil rivals if he wanted, but all that would prove was that Nicki hit his rival and wiped them out (I'm joking, before the hate mail arrives.....from Ole's fan club )

Hmmm...yeah, you might be right. Seems that they gave it to Holta on having 2 firsts....Thought that it was head to head if it was just 2 riders on the same points, but maybe that aint the case.

I think the ref had a tough decision to make, and could have gone either way. 1. If he had been past him no problem then he wouldn't have wiped out Emil's front wheel. 2. Yep. He knew he was coming...he shut off very early to let Nicki go past and then turn in after him, but Nicki chose to go much deeper into the turns than he had on the previous laps. 3. At first I thought Emil DID try to pull a move to con the ref, but the more I look at it, I don't think he did. He was looking for Nicki to go past him and turn at his normal point and then follow him into the turn, but Nicki took him deeper and forced Emil to try to turn in beside him. 4. Ermmm...Crump shut off and took it careful in almost every race.....Don't think that's an argument at all. 5. As I said earlier....after watching it over and over, I genuinely don't think he was playing for it, but only Emil knows! It was a racing incident on a really sh** track. On a proper track, it probably wouldn't have happened, but the rider's were being forced into strange lines to cope with the crappy surface.....Best move of the night was Hans' slow handclap as he returned to the pits after his crash!