Bavarian

Which really is a scandal in my eyes. Even the Ukraine have got 2 places this year, who have no real background as an ice racing nation, no meetings in their country and to the best of my knowledge there is only one rider, Oleg Dozaev. Why the Swiss are treated like that I don't understand. They do stage ice racing each year and have a number of riders (more than the Netherlands for example), but are not given a fair chance to compete.

I often wonder why it is that no Aussies come over to race in New zealand? Last year there was sidecars tour of some Australian outfits in NZ, which wa a great success. But apart from Queenslander Tyson Nelson, who was riding in NZ last season, I don't recall any Aussie solo riders in NZ for ages. What stops You from inviting an Australian Solo team on a tour of NZ?

Isn't there a qualifying round or semi-final this year? I am told that Poland wants to enter a team in the Ice racing world cup and are prepared to stage the qualifying round. The idea was that seven teams wouuld contest this qualifyer and five progress to the world cup finals in Berlin, where the hosts Germany and cup holders Russia are seeded. The two extra nations needed to do the qualifyer are obviously Poland and Switzerland, who have applied for participation in this competition for several years now.

@Gorka I hear there is a problem at Lviv with the avaialbility of the speedway stadium. They did not ride their final home league meeting against Turbina, and have cancelled the final round meeting of the MACEC Cup? What is the problem at Lviv?

Just want to let You guys know that perhaps it is wise to buy entry tickets in advance. I'm not an ice racing fan, so it does not concern me at all, but if You go there You should be aware that the stadium capacity has been more than halved because of converting the stadium into an indoor facility. I am told that only about 5,500 will make it a sell-out crowd! Should be full on both days! And I could imagine that with theimproved facilities and teh much reduced capacity, Inzell ticket prices may be on the rise quite dramatically!

Not much hope for speedway at this track. There won't be a meeting there this year as far as I know, but maybe someone knows better?

After a year off due to the construction work, this winter's ice racing at Inzell will be the first in the brand new Inzell Indoor Ice Arena! One can expect the Arena to be similar to how it was at Hamar in Norway, but hopefuly with a lot more atmosphere!

Good, at least two young hopefulls. I will keep a watching eye on their performances from now on. I'd love to see Wales and Scotland back in international speedway!

Let me ask something. It's nice to see meetings staged at that tiny little Pinjar Park oval, but don't You WA guys long for riding on a bigger track? Are there any other tracks for solos to ride in WA, because the only track I read about is Pinjar Park and at 142m length this is even smaller than Coast Mesa in USA, the most famous of those mini speedways. What is this other track were they hold the WA State title this year? We never hear anything about it!

Fly into Slazburg, its much closer to Inzell than Munich Airport. No problems to buy tickets on the gate. The vast majority of people do so. Inzell is not a big town, rather a village, and distances are not problematic, but it is about 2 or 3 km from the town center to the Ice Arena. Depends where Your hotel is. For more info take a look here: Inzell

I wonder if IMG still have Malaysia / or Singapore on the SGP radar. And what about the USA, a couple of years ago there was talk about a brand new speedway stadium (for the American Dirt-Track motorcycle racing) of some 400m length to be opened at Daytona Beach, right next to the Daytona Superspeedway they use for the Daytona 500 NASCAR race. That would be a great loaction for a Speedway Grand Prix!

Any Welsh riders left in the game? Tony Atkin, I know, but are there some others for the future?

What the hell is going on in Holland? Speedway is down on its knees, even though there are three or four speedway tracks and more than enough riders willing to have a go! How bad can the administration of the sport be? What would be the solution?

So the great Norwegian Speedway Mystery remains unsolved! Anyway, thanks for the kind reply, mothorsen!

Ah, yes, I remember. So has only the Drammen track made the use of the new silencers compulsory? I wonder what will happen next year then???

Easy for the Gunnestad boys, but .... Why did Elgane not send a team? Also, Riska once more rode with a poor line-up, where were their top riders? And what was Marius Rokeberg doing all year long? This is the first time I see his name in any results list from Norway this season. And this in the final meeting of the year! Has he come back from retirement?

Germany 2010 ... Martin Smolinski

spot on! This Gollob move reminded me so much of Hackney 1995, when Boyce floored him with a right hook. Same stupid riding by Gollob. Perhaps his nerves begin to come into play again, as the title is on the horizon.

Boring? What meeting did You watch then? The Thriller in Malilla was excellent speedway racing from start to finish. I have rarely seen a better and more entertaining meeting. The Gp series this year is phantastic, the best it has ever been, and everyone seems to be able to beat everyone out there. The tracks are excellent, too. Seems Tony Olsson is the right man as race director.

My god, Parramatta !!! Now that's big News! I wonder how good the track surface will be adapted for the bikes? If successful, could this possibly be a forerunner to an Australian SGP there?

Now that Debrecen has closed, there's really only two clubs/tracks left in Hungary, Miskolc and Gyula, so communication and coordination should not be THAT difficult. Hungary really only stages a handful of meetings this year, other than the Polish League meetings of Miskolc. And so many of their riders have recently retired from the sport that even some of the old timers like Adorjan, Kocso and Nagy must ride again from time to time. Other than Tabaka and Benkö there are no new riders coming through. It sadly reminds me of the demise that speedway took in neighbouring Austria, where the end is near!

One of the most talented German riders as a teenager on a par with Martin Smolinski, who is one year older and also graduated from the junior ranks of MSC Olching. Hertrich never had the same backing that Smoli had. His parents were against him riding speedway, only his grandpa helped him get going. Money was always tight, and at times young Michi showed a difficult character, one that needed a guiding hand. Hertrich had to stop riding about four years ago simply becuase he did not have the money to continue. He never wanted to end his speedway racing, but he had no choice. He then concentrated on his other sporting activities, that's boxing and kick boxing. He signed for a military career in the army, where he could earn some money. Now Sonke Petersen has approached him to help out the Brokstedt team in the Bundesliga. Sonke, who You will know is now sadly paralyzed since his accident at Abensberg in May 2009, is a co-team manager at Brokstedt. He had kept contact with Hertrich since the tiem tehy both rode in the German national under 16 team team that toured the UK. Despite his injuries, Sonke still has kept his speedway bikes race ready, so Hertrich really only had to come along and ride them. This he did now twice for the Brokstedt team. Despite him being out of the sport since 2006, he immediately showed glimpes of his rich potential and scored well for his team. I have asked him since if he intends a full time comeback to the sport, but he would not give me a straight answer. All he said was "let's wait and see"!

This is so sad, only two Hungarian riders in a meeting in their own country. They will soon be no better off than neighbours Austria with just a handful of riders and a handful of meetings.

I like this, would be a postive step in the right direction. Can't see Brum in the EL though, but with Ipswich dropping down, it would work perfectly well with eight teams in the EL, and leave a little extra options for rain-offs re-stagings.

Are You sure the Aussies will beat the Swedes tomorrow? Even without AJ, Sweden is on par with the Aussies (without JC) and the Brits (who have all on board). Finland may struggle a bit, but I expect tehm to score more than the Czech did today.