Bavarian

What a pity that Germany had to go into this meeting with such an understrength line-up. We had to replace the scheduled top three of Michael Härtel (of the Ipswich Witches), Lukas Fienhage and Sandro Wassermann, with unexperienced youngsters such as Wachs, Hillebrand, and Wessel. A couple of our boys, who were drafted in a late notice, were using loaned bikes provided by the Riss Brothers. Another top rider missing from the German team was our current national U21 champ Daniel Spiller (formerly with Eastbourne). With Härtel, Fienhage, Wassermann, Spiller, and Möser at reserve, the German team would have had much quality. Anyway I am glad that this meeting was so very entertaining fro the Glasgow Speedway folks. It sure is always refreshing to see some new faces on the track !

Michael Härtel is ruled out for the German team by injury after breaking his arm last week's world long-track round in France

It is gone because the synthetic oil that is used today has no "smell" It is sad that this "smell" has gone, it was so very typical for speedway. The clueless younger generation of speedway fans may not even know what we are talking about.

True, I believe the Americans thought they had found a cheap solution with Greg Hancock and Luke Becker being based in Poland, and willing to ride. Problem arose when Becker was injured and a substitute was needed. Donators and sponsors from America never really warmed for the Speedway of Nations, no in the same way as for the Speedway World Cup.

True Last year for the World Games Best Pairs at Wroclaw they had a sell-out crowd simply because the organisers did not charge unreasonably high entrance fees. And it is the same reason (money) that they can not find tracks outside of Poland willing to pay for the right to host the SWC.

Are the Swedish Eliteserien attendances up this season? Seems to me that most clubs do generaly get good crowds, maybe because of the fine weather so far this year?

Mike's mother married an Austrian some time ago and she moved from Germany to Styria in Austria, and has taken her son Mike with her of course. The Jacopetti's lives in Austria since several years now and Mike rides speedway with an Austrian Motorcycle Federation license, even though his nationality is still German.

It would be the same with Rory Schlein being listed with ACU (Federation) and Australia (Nationality)

AMF is his Federation (Austria) and Germany is his Nationality.

Slovakia

... and Edward Kennett has broken his arm in this meeting.

True ! But what a stupid rule anyway ! Martin Smolinski is prevented from riding in a German 2nd Division meeting at Landshut today ! The local fans expecting to see him here are not happy !

The European Ice Racing Champion Igor Kononov has return to speedway racign this year, re-satrtign hsi summer career with STK Oktyabrsky, the club were he started out as a junior speedway rider. Interview with Kononov in Russian with English subtitles

Riders schould not be excluded for a tapes offence, especially in this pairs event. Imagine this happening in any of the semi-finals or final heats, when one rider on his own can't beat the other pair, even if he wins the race! Any offending rider should be penalised with a 15m handicap for the re-start, but no exclusion.

Tomorrow's encounter in Poznan will be the 54th Poland v Sweden speedway test match. It is nearly 27 years since their last meeting, when the Swedes defeated the Poles by 67 points to 41 at Linköping, on 29 August 1991 The Overall Test Match record (since 1949) between these two nations reads: Test Matches: 53 Sweden wins: 28 Poland wins: 25 See all the matches raced in Poland here http://www.internationalspeedway.co.uk/polvswe.htm and all the matches raced in Sweden here http://www.internationalspeedway.co.uk/swevpol.htm

Erik Riss is not picked either. And it was Riss and Huckenbeck who finished fourth in last year's World Games Best Pairs Event in Wroclaw. The dilema for the TM is that You only have two SoN spots to fill now instead of four in the SWC. He could never leave out Smolinski, who is the most experienced of all the German riders and has been the top and only reliable point scorer in most of the Germans' SWC appearances. So it was a straight choice between Wölbert and Huckenbeck, and the Team Manager has decided against Wölbert. I can see nothing wrong with that desicion.

Apparently the Poles are selling two-days tickets only for the SoN Finals on Friday and Saturday. They need to, otherwise the stadium would be half empty on the Friday.

Best Swedish line-up possible - I am looking forward to their performance against the mighty Poles !

The current formula in the SGP with sixteen riders, twenty heats, two semis, and the final, and all points scored counting for the world cahmpionship is simply the best they ever had.

Torun is a club rumoured to be run by the so-called "Polish Speedway Mafia". Some very unpleasant peole involved there, but they seem to have a lot of influence in Polish speedway. Lots of money on offer for the riders. Each year they can buy the very best of riders, but no wonder the riders don't feel happy riding for this club and often perfom below expectations when riding in the Torun colours. Last year they were nearly relegated, but escaped under suspicious circumstances. There was a bribery scandal when Torun were riding in the relegation matches with Gdansk and someone (said to be a sponsor of the Torun club) offered one of the Gdansk riders (Kacper Gomolski) lots of money if he doesn't perfom so well, has just been swept under the carpet. Gomolski went to his Team Manager and they informed the PZM. But nothign much happend. The Torun Club escaped without punishment ! It's a scandal ! By the way, the Torun team loses more an more of their supporters. Friday night's crowd at Torun for their home match against the league's number one Team Unia Leszno was disappointing to say the least (less than 5,000).

Germany has Michael Härtel and Lukas Finhage still under 21 years old

Holder didn't have a Crash in the Torun meeting last night. Did something happen to him in the pits?

For a round of the Czech U21 Championship, including the 125cc U16 Championship round, at Plzen a couple of weeks ago, the admission prize was 60 Czech Crowns (ca. 2 GBP), and this was inclusive of a full coloured 12 page progamme. Still there were less than a hundred spectators in attendance.

Could a new (fourth) rider come in on the secdon day (Saturday) of the final to replace a rider who was injured on the first day (Friday) of the final and is unable to ride on Day Two?