Bavarian

Gafurov should have been their fourth rider, but is not there. Anyway, no use in the Russian trying to qualify for an SWC event in the UK (King's Lynn) when they know pretty well that their best riders wouldn't get a visa to compete. It's ridiculous, as is the FIM prize that is on offer for this qualifying round. How can they expect the Russian riders travelling thousands of miles to ride for peanuts.

Is this European 125cc Youth Cup a speedway or a long-track competition?

Having seen Kildemand and Jepsen Jensen ride for Czestochowa against Torun in the Polish League last Sunday, no one should question the decision to give Kildemand the wildcard for the Copenhagen GP. Jepsen Jensen is stuggling big time this season, not at all living up to his own high level of expectations. I wouldn't be surprised if Czestochowa releases him during the season. He should do much better. What's his problem?

Gafurov is out, he has to ride in the SGP Quali at Abensberg on Monday.

Smoli to win

Who is this Vegaard Starsveen? A newcomer? junior? Have never heard of him, but had quite good score in the first meeting. WHo is he? By the way, how can he ride for Mjosa in round 1 and for Oslo in round 2. Is there a guest rider scheme in the Norwegian league? Riska without Rune Sola and without Remi Ueland ? Elgane team looks unfamiliar without the Bjerk brothers. I see Inge Bjerk rode for Oslo in round 2. Where was Mikke? Has Mikke quit speedway, or why didn't he ride? On the other hand, where was the younger of the Gunnestad brothers, Thomas, who used to ride for Oslo ?

These ticket prices spell disaster for the SWC finals in Bydgoszcz. Much too expensive. Why don't they learn and make it cheaper for the fans, instead of heading for another disappointment with an empty stadium as it was at this year's SGP there. Stadium facilities there are crap, seats are a long way away from the track and viewing is not good from some of the cheaper places. Interest for speedway in this town is at an all time low. There may still be a half-decent crowd for the SWC final, I'd expect maybe about 5,000 or more, with the Polish team in this meeting, but there will be an empty stadium for the race off without the Polish team. I just can't understand the logic in seeding the hosts straight into the final, when the home team would be just as much needed in the race-off on Thursday to attract the spectators. If the home team is good enough, they will qualify from the race-off anyway, and will so be in both meetings. If not good enough, they will be eliminated, which is only fair play. The crowd for the final will still always be halfway decent, as it is a world cup final, which in itself is an attraction, regardless of with or without the home team. Ticket prices must come down to avoid empty stadia in the SWC, and the host nation for the race-off and final shall only get seeded for the race-off instead of for the final.

Martin Smolinski is a crowd puller here in Germany. He certainly polarizies, some love him, some hate him.

Andersen was quite relaxed just watching the action from the pits. He seemed to take it easy and did not seem to really expect getting a call-up to ride.

Not sure if the Eurosport commentators were actually at trackside or sitting back home in a studio, but I saw Kelvin Tatum strolling around in the pits at Landshut and watching the racing. Very good racing last night, the first big speedway meeting here in Germany for a long time. One Sport did a great job to organise this. Not much difference in the quality compared to the events organised by BSI/IMG.

BSI/IMG failed to bring a fresh face, that's a young Polish pretender, into the 2014 SGP series as a direct replacement for Gollob. Now there are only two Polish riders in it, Hampel and Kasprzak. A third Polish rider would have been desireable, with three GPs being staged in Poland. Harris replacing Gollob wasn't greeted with applause over there.

Seems that the live stream for Germany was looked at, as someone told me that the Bydgoszcz SGP was NOT blocked out in our land. I have not seen it myself but will give it a try next time with the Finnish SGP to confirm this. Thank You to Phil Rising, Paul Bellamy and all, who made this available here in Germany.

Who says that international test matches have no appeal to the public? If the BSPA would try a little bit harded these could be the gems of the British season. But sending Premier League teams (GB v AUS) out, isn't the same as having the best on track, isn't it? This was a very enjoyable meeting between Poland and Australia tonight. The Poles were handsome winners, always the favorites with Gollob and Hampel in the team, and the Aussies minus Darcy Ward. There was good competitive racing, and yet still a friendly atmosphere prevailed. And it was an excellent crowd in attendance at this second division track Ostrow. Every speedway nation should do one or two of these international tests each year. This would bring a little more colour into the rather dull and deserted international teams' speedway calendar. I'd love to see a Denmark v Poland test match next year.

What a shame that Ward is not riding. Makes it hard for the Australian team tonight. He isn't injuried, is he?

POLAND v AUSTRALIA on Thursday, May 1, is transmitted LIVE on polish tv channel nSport, starts at 16.45 UK time.

I don't think they will get it on tv here in Germany, ayway. Sport 1+ say they would be prepared to show it again, if they get it for free, as was the case in the past three years. No other tv-station is really interested since speedway is such a minority sport here in Germany, that hardly anyone knows it exists at all. So, BSI/IMG, please make the official SGP live stream available here in Germany, as long long as there is no tv coverage. The live stream is still blocked out here in Germany!

Pretty tough qualifyers, with only four from Leicester, and five each from Terenazano and Stralsund going through. There will be some cracking racing in these junior meetings.

No one knows, not even here in Germany. The officials (DMSB) surpirse us every year with something stupid (much like Your BSPA), and this year we have got a Heat 0 in the Bundesliga. For better undersatnding, we had 14 heats in the Bundesliga up until last year, but this year a fifteenth heat was added. But instead of re-numbering the heats from 1 to 15, they go from 0 (zero) to 14.

Poole would probably be without Holder on May 10, as he rides in the SBP at Landshut. But would Eastbourne agree to postoned the league meeting?

And at Bydgoszcz they certainly dislike the chosen wild card Adrain Miedzinksi, who is a TORUN rider ! I will never understand why Miedzinski got in. A terrible choice! And the question is "why" choose him? He is already quite sure of getting another wild card in Torun as well. Why is he treated so favourably? There's lots of other exciting Polish riders (Buczkowski is just one of them), there are many more. Anyway, in Bydgoszcz they love to hate everything that comes from Torun, and Miedzinksi will not feel at home there.

OneSport's propaganda against the SGP is very much to blame here. A gerneral anti-SGP feeling was created by the propaganda in Poland during the winter and many people have said they would boycott the SGPs. Interest among the Polish fans for the SGP has fallen to an all-time low this year. This was evident even in the first round in NZ, with a lot less Poles traveling, compared to the past two years. Gollob is gone and there are only two Polish riders in the GP series. Neither of tehm has much charisma. Hampel was very mediocre in NZ and Kasprzak, even though riding exceptionally well, is a rider who has not a lot fans and followers even in Poland. Perhaps it is also a question of ticket prices at Bydgoszcz being set too high.

To Your information the SEC Quali was set for May 4 at Rivne in the Ukraine. This has been cancelled due to the polticial situation in the Ukraine, and Daugavpils has now taken over this meeting, but at later date which is May 17th.

Thank You, DutchGrassTrack, I am not alone and a reminder to f-s-p : the title of this particular thread here is "Gp's not on German tv"

Not sure what You want to tell me. In my country I can watch EUROSPORT free of charge all year long 24 hours a day, so that is what I call free tv.

EUROSPORT is free to watch on the European Continent, except maybe in Scandinavia and the UK, who may have seperate versions of Europsort in their countries. We also have EUROSPORT 2, which is not available free to view but only via cable and You have to pay to view it. In Germany we have the regular version of EUROSPORT, which is available in most Euroepan countries, except Scandinavia and the UK, who get their own special versions of Eurosport. It is likely that Poland is the stumbling block for EUROSPORT coverage of the SGP and SWC, because afaik they have the same (regular) version of EUROSPORT in their country as we have here in Germany, and in other countries such as France, Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Russia, and all the other Southern and Eastern European nations.