Ace no.5

Shovlar, last night, Crump... beat N Pedersen 1/2 beat Gollob 1/3 beat Rickardsson 2/2 beat Adams 2/2 (and yes, one was more good luck...) Shovlar, last night, Rickardsson... beat N Pedersen 1/3 beat Gollob 1/2 beat Crump 0/2 beat Adams 1/1 Just going on top 5 from last night, and the 5 guys, who, in all honesty, I consider the best 5 in the world today. Crump won 6 out of 9, Rickardsson won 3 out of 8. How can you then say Rickardsson was so much better than Crump? Nope, you can't... Night night!

Excellent GP, fair play to Mr N Pedersen, a deserved win. And all fair racing. As someone said, if he always rode like that he'd be one of the most popular on the circuit. Crumpy deserved 2nd place, he beat all the top riders on the night. Admitedly he got lucky in the semi, but it's about time he got some luck. Well done Tomasz Gollob, showing that he can ride GP tracks other than Polish ones...! Rickardsson, deserved a Final spot, but that's about it. Leigh Adams deserved more than he got tonight, but still, he will make Finals this year without a doubt IMHO. Gotta laugh at the stupidity of Shovlar's posts... 'Crump was awful, not a challenger' - 2nd 'Rickardsson was great tonight' - 4th. As SCB says, what will happen when Crumpy has a 'good' night and Tony has a 'bad' night...?!

Who's Steve Shovar?

It's like a couple of months ago when he got excluded in a GP (can't remember which), he got on the phone to the ref and said summat along the lines of... "If you don't put me back in I wil not be your friend..."! PRICELESS! FWIW, i thought the ref made the wrong decision regards the Nicki/Gollob incident. Compared to Cardiff he had a brilliant meeting though! And that's saying something! He really ought to be banned from refereeing in these competitions.

I thought that was as fair a result as you were gonna get tonight. Crump was the best rider, Jonsson the 2nd best and TRick the 3rd best, and the result showed that. Quite ironic that the 2 GPs Tony hasn't won this season have been in his home country...! I think to be honest, with Crump being 2nd all those years previous to him winning the WC, winning it was always gonna kinda affect him the following year. And I think it has this year. He's been more inconsistent this year, and Tony has walked the series easily. Jason has shown glimpses, like last night, and if he can consistently get the form he showed last night back into his GP performances, I have no doubt that he will be WC again next season, or at least be there or thereabouts going into the final meeting.

I'd say Steady probably rode better than Nicholls. Steady got cut up twice in the Final alone, and perhaps should have been allowed to score more points than he did...! But yeah, the averages are still identical.

Lee Richardson last night got twice as many heat wins as the entire Danish team and twice as many heat wins as the entire Swedish team!

Yes Miss...!

My avatar's up...

He elbowed Hampel's arm off the handlebars! If that's not causing a stoppage I don't know what is!

Yep, if the ref had looked at that incident last night carefully enough, he would see that Johnno didn't even touch Rymel. Rymel just bailed out...

There's riding hard and there's going too far, TR went too far.

How do you know how bad both their illnesses were? Wouldn't look too clever if Jason got to the starting tapes and had to go back to the pits for a 'toilet break' would it?

They don't have to make quick decisions! They can look at as many replays as they want! I don't know how some of these guys become referees sometimes. Just look at the guy in Cardiff!

To be honest, if Crump had ridden I think it would have been a very different story. At one point the Aussies were 2 points up on the Danes. That would most likely have been more had Crump been riding. Psychologically everything would then have been different. The Aussies would still have had plenty to race for even when the Danes got a couple of points on them. The Aussies seemed to give up in the end, and that's why the difference in score looks so big. If you have a look at the last 11 heats, the Aussies got 6 points, finishing last in 7 of the heats. They just weren't interested at the end. And whoever it was said they've got a 5-1 bet on Poland. You lucky...! Sounds like a very good bet right now.

I think if Crump was in the Aussies had a great chance of qualifying!

There seems to be more bad refereeing decisions than good ones nowadays!

Well, the Aussies are making a better go of it than I thought they would. Shame Sully missed out to Bjarne in heat 15. Very disappointing. I'm pretty sure though that the Danes would be in big trouble right now if Jason was riding. Damn, after having just seen heat 16 it looks like it could now be slipping away from the Aussies. The Danes have still got their joker yet...

Shocking decision by the ref, as was the earlier Holta decision. Rickardsson basically elbowed Hampel's arm off the handlebars, so it was pretty obvious he'd lose control! If that's not causing the stoppage of a race I don't know what is! It's a long time since I saw Rickardsson excluded. Unfortunately I feel it is now as though he can do no wrong, and we are in danger of him becoming bigger than the sport. And that sure as hell ain't a good thing. He keeps pushing his luck and the refs keep giving him the benefit of the doubt.