Bavarian

Indeed, EUROSPORT is the key to success, as is proven by the OneSport SEC and SBP coverage on Eurosport, which has instantly reached fantastic viewing figures all over Europe. That is not because the SEC or Best Pairs are a more attractive product compared to the SGP and SWC, certainly not. It is simply because EUROSPORT is the perfect platform, as it is available to pretty much every ordinary person all over Continental Europe, who has a tv set at home. With Sport 1 + (pay-tv) for example it was never going to be a success when they showed the SGP and SWC in the past three years, because not many people in Germany can view this channel. I coud not, and I had to visit a friend everytime they showed a Grand Prix. Then they often showed it not live, but only delayed coverage, and sometimes after midnight or even on a monday morning a 7 o'clock. Hardly surprising that their viewing figures for speedway were so bad. Oh, and I forgot to add that their commentator was a nut. Sport 1 (free-tv) is a very unpleasant tv channel, but could possibly show the speedway. They won't, though. They will show all kind of rubbish programme as long as they can make money with it. The programme is full of poker, sports fishing and similarly idiotic "sports", and their call-in shows run for hours, and the late-night adult adverts are really showing this channel's true identity. BSI / IMG should do all they can to get the SGP and SWC on EUROSPORT, this would be the key to success, as is proven by the success that OneSport had with their inferior product of the SEC and SBP, which has by far better viewing rates than the much superior product that is the SGP and SWC. There are not many other German tv channels possible for speedway. I agree that SERVUS TV would be very good, but their close connection with Red Bull may be a problem, although they did show some of the World Ice Racing Championship a couple of years ago. Their free to view weekly live coverage of the German (DEL) and the Austrian (EBEL) ice hockey leagues is first class. Other than Sport 1 (and their pay-for-view programme Sport 1+) and Servus TV, there is of course the big pay-tv network of SKY Germany. They show sports, but as far as I know only the premium sports, such as football, formula one and golf. Not sure if they do show anything else, as I have never been a subscriber to pay-tv, and I really don't care about f1, football or golf. iris writes, that many speedway fans in Germany are using the live streams on the internet, which is probably true for the dedicated fans, such as him and myself, but with hacked live-streams (the official SGP live stream is still not available in Germany!!!) the sport will never reach a decent number of viewers and will never reach the general sports fan in this country. The media in Germany does not take notice of a sport that is not present on the screen. I was very disappointed that my local newspaper did not even mention Smolinski's GP win, or that there is such a thing called Speedway Grand Prix at all. There was simply nothing, nada, niete in the German press and I have not heard it mentioned in any of the sports programmes on tv. Smolinski's GP win in New Zealand was one of the great moments in German motorsports history, and hardly anybody in this country noticed it. What a shame and what a wasted opportunity.

Back on topic - the fact is that not a lot of people in Germany were able to watch the NZ Grand PRix and see Martin Smolinski's fantastic victory. There was no tv coverage at all in Germany, not even highlights were shown on German tv. And it was not even possible to watch the official SGP live stream on the internet because access from Germany to this stream was blocked out. What a shame ! Smolinski's win in New Zealand was one of the major sporting sensations in recent years, but the Geman public, currently taking a little bit of notice of Speedway, thanks to the free tv coverage of the SEC and the Speedway Best Pairs, have no chance to see Smolinski in the SGP or the SWC. Anyone here in Germany wanting to see it has to use illegal internet streams or watch it on foreign tv stations, if available. Not many want or have the chance to do this.

and could we ask if the live stream on the sgp site will be made available for Germany, now that no tv station in our country covers this event. We want to seee Smoli in NZ !

Hideaki Ota is Japan's one and only active speedway rider of the 2000s. He rode in California for a few years and was last seen riding in a speedway meeting at Ivan Mauger's short lived Malaysian venture a few years ago. Malaysia is of course another speedway outpost. Some thought it could become a future stop-over for the SGP series, but sadly it did not take off and was all over after just one season.

Well, it IS a great surprise after all the hazzle about Kylmäkorpi on a SVEMO License. There was every indication that Timo Lahti would get the Tampere wild card. Anyway I think Kylmäkorpi is the better choice and he deserves this Finnish GP wildcard.

The rider in question is Mariusz Fierlej, and the Polish team to ride against Wittstock comes from Opole.

Does nobody remember that the Poles have already tried something similar before and failed? About ten years ago they held the SGP in the then national stadion, the Slaski Stadium in Chorzow (Katowice) and could not fill it, even though the capacity of teh stadium has been much reduced since the times of the 1973 and 1979 world finals at this same place. Warsaw has proven to be difficult territory for speedway. There is a speedway stadium in town, but it is not in use anymore. They tried to establish a league team in Warsaw, but it did not get enough support.

They show today's ice Assen racing meeting right now on Eurosport (Continetal version). It is heat 5 now coming up. There have been several crashes in the first round of heats already, with Bauer injured in a spectacular crash in heat 2.

The real cause of this unholy "war" between IMG/BSI and OneSport is in the recent restructuring of the FIM and its respective continental sub-organisations such as the FIM Europe (formerly the UEM). Competencies wre not clearly defined before and the FIM could not accept that FIM Europe, at a lower level, could sell a quite similar product, the SEC, at a ridiculously low price to OneSport, while BSI/IMG had to pay the FIM a seven-figure sum each year for the exclusive rights on the SGP and SWC. FIM had to act to protect their paying customer and make sure of the exclusiveness of the product SGP/SWC. FIM are rather furious with what certain people at UEM / FIM Europe have done and have now made it clear what their competencies actually are. FIM Europe can not operate at the same level (world level) as the FIM. With a European centred sport like speedway this is a problem. This had not been made clear enough in the past and has unfortunately led to the current situation with BSI/IMG and OneSport both having bought the rights for what would in effect be a rather similar competiton, the FIM's World Championship SGP and the FIM Europe's European Championship SEC. This is of course a ridiculous situation and the FIm have now found a very sensible solution to this.

Or maybe they invite some guest riders to represent Poole Pirates - who cares - this is how it is done in British speedway anyway

Do You know which teams participate? Last year were the Helzold Stars from Belgium, the Veenoord Rams, Blijham Eagles and Groningen Lions. Any changes, or is it the same four ?

The Speedway World's gone mad this winter. It has all become a joke. Is this the beginning of the end?

The GPs are not really the problem for speedway in the UK. The problem is that British speedway clubs have become much too dependent on foreign riders. And that's not just top stars, but very average riders all through the teams 1 to 7. Too many foreigners, who need to ride in way too many of their own national and international competitions all over the Continent. The inflation of all those new competitons in recent years is of course a problem, and U can understadn that the BSPA is not keen to see teh FIM Europe events expanding ever more. If the British speedway clubs would employ in the main UK based riders, that's British and non-European Overseas riders, they would be able to do their own thing, without having to worry much about any Poles, Danes or Czechs missing for having to ride somewhere else.

EUROSPORT is absolutely free to view everywhere here in Continental Europe. And that is the one big advantage that One Sport and their SEC series hold over the SGPs, that are only available to view on a limited number of PayTV channels and just in very few countries. SGP/SWC will no longer be broadcast live in Germany, and I think in Sweden, too, this year.

A bit late, but these are the full results for this meeting. F.I.M. OCEANIA SIDECAR CHAMPIONSHIP Olympic Park, Mildura, Victoria, Australia. 23rd of November 2013 A-Final: 1st Mark Plaisted (& Brian Anthony) - South Australia 2nd Darrin Treloar (& Blake Cox) - New South Wales 3rd Mick Headland (& Paul Waters) - South Australia 4th Warren Monson (& Matt Morgan) - Victoria B-Final (Winner to A-final, others to decide positions 5 to 7): qual. Darrin Treloar (& Blake Cox) - New South Wales 5th Grant Bond (& Glenn Cox) - New South Wales 6th Brodie Cohen (& Josh Sinnott) - Queensland 7th Dylan Blain (& Rob Gottardi) - Queensland Qualifying heat scorers: Mick Headland (& Paul Waters) - SA - 14 (3 3 3 3 2) Mark Plaisted (& Brian Anthony) - SA - 13 (3 3 1 3 3) Warren Monson (& Matt Morgan) - VIC - 12 (2 2 3 3 2) - - - - - Grant Bond (& Glenn Cox) - NSW - 10 (3 1 0 3 3) Brodie Cohen (& Josh Sinnott) - QLD - 9 (3 0 3 2 1) Darrin Treloar (& Blake Cox) - NSW - 9 (2 2 T 2 3) Dylan Blain (& Rob Gottardi) - QLD - 9 (2 3 2 2 R) - - - - - Mark Mitchell (& Tom Golding) - SA - 8 (2 1 2 0 3) Trend Headland (& Jesse Headland) - SA - 8 (1 2 2 1 2) Jason Hardy (& Geoff Langdon) - SA - 6 (1 2 1 2 T) Andrew Buchanan (& Philippa Burns) - NZ - 5 (R 1 3 1 X) Mark Cossar (& Darryl Whetstone) - GB - 5 (1 3 X 1 X) Joe Jones (& John Glover) - USA - 3 (1 0 1 0 1) Hayden Bond (& Brady Cox) - NSW - 3 (0 1 1 0 1) Mick Cave (& Garreth Williams) - GB - 1 (0 0 0 1 0) Byren Gates (Mick O'Loughlin) - VIC - 0 (0 X N N N) reserves: Rick Stephens (& Darcy Ristromm) - NSW - 2 (2 - - - -) Neale Hancock (& George Hancock) - VIC - 0 (0 - - - -)

Oh yes, I have seen a fair bit of ice racing, and not just on tv. I attended some meetings in Germany in the 1980s and it was a very exciting sport in those days. It was much more competitive then, as even some well know speedway riders took to the ice in those days. Compared to that, I can tell You, that the ice racing scene now is quite boring.

Serenius is 66 years old in March ! I think it is embarrasing of all the other competitors in this "sport" that a rider his age can still be competitive, in fact even better than most others, except the Russians. This sport of motorcycle ice racing has become a boring joke.

This numbers game is so boring. Who cares about the riders numbers? This is about as exciting as the invention of the green helmet colours a few years ago. Who cares?

I agree that last year the Torun pairs meeting was not really exciting to watch on TV, and I struggle to get excited about having three of that kind this year. Surely the Polish Ekstraliga will NOT change their fixtures just to please the organisers of a pairs event in an other country. Substitute riders will have to be used for the pairs event in case of fixtures clashes. After all, this pairs events are no officiall FIM or FIM EUrope event. They are just a series of lucrative and well promoted open meetings.

Such a "World League" with F.I.M. blessing should not be for club teams, but for national teams. A speedway competition similar to the Rugby Union's Six Nations tournament, featuring Great Britain, Australia, Sweden, Denmark, Poland and a Rest of the World team. Aussies could ride their home matches in the UK, or elsewhere if they want to. Rest of the World could have their home matches in any other country, such as Germany, Czech Republic, or Italy. No problems with the allocation of riders, their nationality tells them for what team they have to ride.

This Speedway Best Pairs series, that that the Polish company OneSport is promting this year, is nothing more than an open invitational competiton without any official status. F.I.M. Europe runs an official European Pairs Championship (Germany are the defending champions of 2013). F.I.M. may give the green light to a revival of the official World Pairs Championship from 2015, promoted by rights holders IMG/BSI, and alternating bi-annually with the SWC. The British League will not be affected that much by this Speedway Best Pairs (SBP) series. How many top riders of the six seeded nations are still riding in the UK anyway? And how many of those few would be required on the set date of a SBP round also to ride in an UK fixture? Not many, if any at all, I guess. But even if it is the case that dates/fixtures clash, any rider could always be replaced in the SBP by another man of that respective nation, since this series is not an individual, but a pairs/team competiton for nations. I wonder if the BSPA will once more try to block the British riders from taking part. It would be a shame, for the series will be broadcast live on EUROSPORT, and British Speedway would miss a great opportunity to present themselves. The six seeded nations are: Poland, Russia, Denmark, Sweden, Australia, Great Britain, plus one alternating wild card nation for each round (Latvia in round 1, Germany in round 2 and the USA in round 3).

What is the situation with Hammarby?

Ice racing was an exciting sport in the 1980s, but has become terribly boring now. Nothing exciting happening for several years, it is always the same old, same old, ...

#84 Martin Smolinski born in 1984

I wonder why Marcus is left all alone with all the work to organise such a tour for the young British Lions. Is there nobody who could help? This surely should be done in co-operation with someone in the UK, and that person is the Team GB team manager. The organisation and management of such a tour should be dealt with by officals from the speedway federations of both nations. I wonder how such tours were organised in the past with accomodation, transport and all that for the official British Lions tours to Australia in the 1960's and 1970's ? Sure those were other times and the big city speedway promotions in Aussie had much more money to spent. Nowadays money fro solo speedway promotios is tight, but then again only about ten years ago we had an official Young British Lions team doing a highly successful Australian tour. How did they organise and manage this?