ouch

I wasn’t going to go this year, after the farce that was last years event, but I got some free tickets so made a holiday of it down there and took in the meeting. I’m glad I did. Crump real is on a different planet at the moment in term of the GP’s. To win the flagship event and go 34 points clear at the top was awesome. He also provided some thrilling entertainment on a tricky indoor circuit. It was a case of the local boy done good as Crump who hails from just over the bridge at Bristol stole the show to the delight of the fans both in the stadium and watching at home. After Hancock was unfortunately excluded from the first running of the final, it left Crump to represent British league speedway. He didn’t let us down and after the agonising disappointment of seeing an outsider win last year his victory was even better received. Quite how he managed the victory with 40 odd thousand British speedway fans riding pillion with him is beyond me. The major disappointment of the night was the failure of the Brits on show. Lee and Scott carried on were they had left off, and Simon I believe was a bit “spooked” and seemed to continually be in the wrong place at the wrong time. No doubt this will be a major learning curve for the lad and with this together with the forthcoming world cup should hopefully see him better prepared for next year’s series. Oh, one more thing, the ref was a bit weird in some of the decisions he made. It is going to be a tradition that we have an imbecile in the box at the Cardiff event?

I don't read his posts, but I couldn't help myself when I saw another thread having a got at him. It's his opinion I'm not interested in, not the rest of you.

The blokes a plank I’m afraid. He sits nicely in my ignore box and has increased my enjoyment of the forum ever since. When I first signed up I thought he was a genuine fan with strongly held beliefs. I sparred with him many a time (always winning) before realising he was just an annoying wind up merchant with little knowledge of the sport. The sad thing is a pop at him usually involves a pop at Poole, and then you get an all out war with the other fans, (who by and large are a great bunch) who get drawn into his silly games.

You could be right. It could have just slipped his mind. Quite easy when sorting the British final line up to forget about Loram, the multiple winner….. member of the British WTC team for more years than I care to remember……last British World Champion. Yep it wasn’t done on purpose, it was indeed an oversight. Just as an exercise, when at your next meeting ask five people around you to name the best three British riders from the last few years. See if Loram slips their mind aswell.

I don’t think you can blame Mark, as he has at least been consistent in his actions. He hasn’t returned a signed form in previous years, and the result was he took part in the British Final. Somebody at the BSPA has now acted differently without, it seems letting anybody know until it's’ too late. As Mark pointed out in the Star, its not as though the BSPA has to plough through thousands and thousands of forms, that could result in an oversight such as this happening. We fans know full well that this somebody has purposefully acted to stop Mark riding in this meeting, when simple dialog could have seen the matter nipped in the bud and not left speedway (once again) looking foolish. BSPA fool: "Lorams not sent his form back again. I’m going to stop him riding in the British Final." Voice of reason: "Why not ‘phone him and tell to sign the form, or he won’t get a ride." BSPA fool: "No, stuff him, why should I. I’m far too busy looking after the well being of British speedway." Voice of reason: "Well don’t forget you are not only punishing Loram, but also the fans." BSPA fool: "The fans! Who cares." Have a go a Loram for not filling the form, but not at my expense.

I must admit I never seem to see much of Bjarne and he never sets the place alight when I do. He puts me in mind of Gert Handberg, another rider who never looked much when I saw him ride, yet still managed a rostrum place in the world final.

Predictable and boring GP I’m afraid, save Crumpies pass in the final. Predicable as Crump won and Trick floundered and boring due to racing on a track that offered little chance to entertain on. Can’t see anyone taking the yellow bib off Crump even at this early stage. All his main challenges will have of night or screw up in the semis/final. The contest for the top eight will be where most of the interest lies this year. If Trick makes the top eight then ninth place will see you through to next year. Trick this year doesn’t seem to have the technical edge he has enjoyed before. Thats the problem as at some point anybody can get hold of this or that gadget and it then even things up. From what I’ve seen so far he won’t get the rostrum place I had him down for. I was genuinely shocked when Pedersen cocked it up in his semi. It would have made the final more interesting with the top three in there, but there’s always that likelihood that something will go pearshaped for him during the series. Hancock looked the real deal save for his desperate move on Bjarne whilst last. The rest of the top eight just quietly went about their business in qualifying. The bottom eight was filled with the usual suspects apart from Trick. Pepe, Bjarne and Richardson all probably aware it’s their last year in the GP’s and Lindback happy to be there and safe in the knowledge that he will be given a seeded stop next year. Modern day world championships eh. So Crump sits top of the tree and that’s where he’ll stay, but with the next GP coming from Sweden, I’m sure all the Swedes taking part will be looking to raise their game at home and have a tilt at the People’s Champion. Hope it’s a good one.

Cracking GP with plenty of good racing. The Brits weren’t to disappointing and the “Ace” Crump finished 2nd whilst still not looking as awesome as he does in his league racing. Some riders were lucky when taking to the grass and not being excluded. Crumps luck came when Adams broke down, if Crump is going to have the luck this year then it will be all over bar the shouting pretty soon. I know he’s been unlucky over the last few years but I’d rather see him take the luck off Ricko and Pedersen, as these are the guys who’ve gained most from Crumpie’s misfortune. Crumps race with Adams and Pedersen were true class from all involved. I don’t think you could get a razor blade between them. Such trust in one another’s abilities. Before the start you have to look at a Crump/Trick battle, so if they finished 1st and 2nd then Crump would be 5 points up. As it is he is 4 points up, but had the confidence boost of easily beating Trick twice in a GP. I think the battle for 2nd this year will be wide open, and I like to see Adams (for all the effort put in over the years) or one of the younger lads like Lindback step up.

I have a transcription of the audio taken during the riders meeting with Tony Steele at the recent U21 World Final. All the time this took place an FIM offical stands with a loaded revolver at Tony Steels’s head. Tony. “Right lads the track is too dangerous for any more racing, so the meetings abandoned.” A rider. “What’s the result then?” Tony. Errr, let me see. Who’s got the most points then.” A rider. “Can we come back next week or the week after?” Tony. “Sorry no. I’ve got the in-laws coming for tea next week and then I’m on holiday, so I’m just looking to see who’s won.” An official. “Errr Tony. Two riders have finished on eight points each!” Tony. “Right then we’ll have a run off.” Thomas S. “You just said the track was too dangerous to race on.” Tony. “Bugger. So I did. Well maybe just one more race then.” Thomas S. “Well lets run heat 13, if you say we can run one more race.” Tony. We can’t run another heat, because it’s too dangerous. A run off is like half a heat, ‘cause there is only half the riders.” Thomas S. “Is the track safe to ride or not.” Tony. Under his breath. “This blokes getting on my nerves with all these questions.” “I feel the track is unsafe to ride with four rides, but ok with two. So there.” Thomas S. “We’ll I’m going with your first comment that the track is unsafe and I’m not going to race on it again. We will just have to re-run the whole meeting” An official. “He’s got you there Tony.” Tony disappears to the loo for 30mins and on his return gathers the riders once again. Tony. “Even though I wanted you to race on a track I said was dangerous to race on, and due to my unavailability for the next two weeks I propose the following. Pick a card. Rock, paper, scissors. Toss a coin.” Thomas S. “Well seeing as we have all invested a large amount of cash, time and energy in a season long pursuit to become World Champion, I’d have to say toss a coin.” FIM. Just after the momentous coin toss. “I quite like this way of doing things. It a lot better than running with those messy heats and stuff. I can see more tournaments being decided this way. You could have a meeting to decide who the greatest tosser is.” I THINK WE ALL KNOW THIS ALREADY. Flippin’ (clean version) Incompetent Morons.

So British fans from Premier and Conference tracks don't come to Cardiff then, only Elite fans. Might be worth BSI putting a Brit in just to get some new fans in.

Nicholls- The British GP is the biggest on the calendar. He will be one of two Brits seeded. Lindback – Two GP’s in Sweden = Three Swedes in the series. He’s in. Hampel - Two GP’s in Poland = Three Poles in the series. He’s in. He is actually the most deserving after his injuries this year. Andersen – Danish. Ole Olsen GP director, Danish. He’s in. Richardson - The British GP is the biggest on the calendar. He will be one of two Brits seeded. Rullivan – No Aussie GP. He’s out replaced by Zager. Chrzanowski – Cannot seed the rider that’s finished last. Will be replaced by Kasperzak due to the Polish two GP round rule. The only deviation from this would be Andersen out and another Brit put in, due to the success of Cardiff. That Brit would be Stead.

Well I really enjoyed the last individual world championship we’ll be seeing for a while. We move on next year to the GP open (?) series run on an invite only basis from 2006 onwards. It’ll be strange not having a World Champion to salute come next September. Subedei you must surely be posting in jest. Exciting racing is exciting racing, however it is produced. If I had a pound for every time a rider returned to the pits and said “the guy in front didn’t make a mistake but I managed to pass him”, I’d have not much at all. If however a pound was give every time I heard, “I tried to force him into a mistake to allow me to pass”, or “he went off the line and I was able to get through” or “he didn’t make a mistake and I couldn’t get by”, then I’d make a good few bob out of it. Try and put yourself in the position on someone new to speedway. Would they prefer riders dropping the clutch and riding flat out with space in between all four riders? Or would they prefer riders close together, jostling for position and being passed due to the mistakes they made? It can only ever be the case that a rider doesn’t win a race because of the fact that he has made a mistake, on any track. If you don’t win you have made a mistake either with your gating, your first bend, the line you choose, etc, etc. There were similar comments made on the “favourite tracks” thread, where tracks that caused rides into errors were somehow marked down, including my track Belle Vue. Well, give me close racing, riders passing and re passing and riders showing great skill to get the best out of the track and conditions they are presented with. Actually Subedei, typing this makes me understand you are not posting in jest, merely standing up for the kind of speedway you enjoy, which is just the opposite to mine as described above.

Nice touch with Cardiff ref Marek Wojaczek carrying out the trophy presentations. ouch!!

Thought I’d run this by you all and see what you think. Instead of having the junior races tagged on at the end of the meeting when a large majority of fans leave, how about running them during the main match? Run the heats as follows, one race before the main event, and before heats five, nine, twelve and fifteen. The advantages to this would be the main guys being around and no doubt observing the youngsters and offering guidance if they want and have the time. The juniors would be riding in front of a decent crowd who would I’m sure cheer them on. Moving a junior heat if necessary could fill any delays in between heats that result in the fans standing about, and the race before heat fifteen would help fill that long gap. I’ve watched to juniors many times and find them to be as entertaining as the main lads and as the fifteen heats are usually finishes between 9.00 and 9.15 at Belle Vue it could easily be accommodated. If rain or any other hold up threatened before tapes up then the option to move the juniors could be taken if need. If it helps bring the young British riders along any faster then even better.

Well I’ve just read through this lot and please don’t jump on me for thinking happy thoughts but…… The Poles were always going to win the final, no question. I did feel we could have got silver or bronze, which, with the make up of the team and the Poles being so dominant I’d have been happy with. In reality we were very much on a par with the Swedes and the Danes. Only Scotty’s E/F forced us into last, and Screeny would have been replaced with someone more effective had injuries not kicked in on the lead up to the tournament. If we had had the smallest of changes in fortune and finished second, would the general tone of the posts be any different. I think so. Now looking to next year. Poland will only ever win the SWC in Poland and we this year were evenly matched against the other nations on show. Hopefully without injuries we should be stronger next year, so why can’t we be optimistic about achieving something next time? Also on the incidents…. I’m absolutely amazed how it can be said the Gollob/Stead and Jonsson/Stead incidents could not seen to be anything other than dangerous. The ONLY thing that made these appear ok was the fact that no one came down. That is no defence. So Gollob only impeded himself by running into Stead. How could the ref know that Stead’s bike wasn’t bent or damaged from the impact or the rider himself not phased by the incident? A damaged bike won’t ride the same and would/could have affected his riding. Stead’s rear mudguard was smashed on impact. It wasn’t intentional by Gollob, most incidents aren’t, but that no defence. Gollob would have passed Stead anyway during the race as he was on top form, but that’s no defence. The Jonsson/Stead incident was about five inches short of a Pedersen/Hancock re-enactment. To focus the mind the only thing you need to do in relation to these incidents is watch in your minds eye, Stead go down. Then play referee and tell me who in all honesty you would exclude.

Did you see the TV coverage of the Hampel/Rickardsson incident? Rickardsson clearly, absolutely, took away Hampel's arm. NO Ifs, buts or maybes. Did Hampel make the most of it? No of course he didn’t! But Rickardsson made contact, he didn’t admitted he made contact and no matter how you look at it, if a rider makes contact and the opponent falls, then the rider who made contact is excluded. He wouldn’t give an interview straight after the incident, but shown the replay, might have said, "well fair enough I did touch him".

16 minutes to be precise

So thats Kasprzak-8.19 Pedersen-8.03 Lindback-6.73 ? ? Walasek-5.10 Junior----3.00 The two ? can only equal 11.45. This, with a 3 pointer at seven and using the green sheets as they stand now,before your massive upturn in form (and therefore averages) that you say will see you top the league next month. With the league due to finish next month, its almost as if you in Poole know more than the rest of us about the rules re team building next year.

Actually you got me there. Those bloody Aussies, speaking English, driving on the left with the Queens head on the bank notes. Bloody foreigners. Now give me those famous anglophiles from Sweden and Denmark any day of the week. We agree at last. Just thought, Crumpys even worse, he was born in Bristol for Christ sake.

Yep, if Trick could but even more daylight between him and Crumpy to seal the championship mid season, that would keep the interest high and enable us to attract sponsors and media attention more easily. I’m looking forward to more GPs run with the same success at the Aussie GP the other year. We need GPs as close as this year so we can hopefully grow the series world-wide….blah blah blah So I’m whinging again. Need to knock this habit of wanting what’s best for speedway.

Balderdash Sorry, just trying something out (Rubbish) whereby you completely disregard the post you are replying to (Utter Tosh) by posting a few random words (Balls) or go onto make another point as though they are somehow related. (Arse) Nope, doesn’t do it for me. (Bernard Crapper, Colin Pratt, oops, it’s not as easy to stop as I thought.)

Balderdash.

Many reply and two question within it. You’ve not answered them. Thanks for that. Balderdash is good though, certainly moves thinks forward. I’ll gladly agree to disagree with you and end the “debate” now. Cheers Ouch.

Crump is more popular than Trick, British fans applaud him on a weekly basis. Same cannot be said of Trick. You would say TRick fans outnumber Crumps two to one at least, because you ALWAYS get it wrong. The best rider in the world according to the offical FIM records is the current World Champion. The Peoples Champion, Jason Crump. It’s not yet been officially taken from him. Nice insult with regards the Aces fans and site. True to form. Waste of bandwidth though. Face it. Crump is not in the same league as TRick. Correct, Crump rides in the Elite league. The SO popular TRick has turned his back on his adoring British fans. Bit of a kick in the teeth as I see it. It was an interesting GP, and like I said the crowd was good. I had fans from Brazil, Sweden and Denmark all near me, judging from their flags. Strange coincidence that the national dish for all three nations is whelks. I think so anyway as they were tucking into them at every opportunity. Kept getting dirty looks when cheering for the BRITISH born rides in the meeting. Being a Belle Vue fan it’s just what we do, very patriotic us Aces fans.