Parsloes 1928 nearly

Brilliant!! Thanks for all this info.! Provided my flight arrives on time, will have time to make it for the 6pm start-time. Only thing that worries me is that the Under 19s event is not actually on the Calendar of Events on the Marketa site..

Blimey - thanks for tracking this down iris; and for tommy confirming. Any chance of a start-time and location..??!!

How stupid am I..??!! (they’ll be no shortage of responses to that question..: but it was posed largely hypothetically..!!! ). Am going away with a couple of mates to Prague from Thursday 11th. to Sunday 14th. of this month. Yes - a whole four days after the trio of big Speedway meetings this coming weekend!!!! So...: am wondering, does anyone with knowledge of these things, know by any chance..: is there any Speedway in Prague on those three days I will be there..?? Here's hoping!!!

I think you badly under-estimate how many people interested or involved with Speedway see a GP 'Rround' as a GROSSLY inferior product to a proper World Championship Final... I am very confident that IF a proper World Final was being staged at the new Wembley it would indeed sell out: it would be, as the World Final always was, a hugely exciting event. A British GP round always held in June and so, early in the series is totally without immediacy and relevance to the overall world championship outcome; and therefore has to rely on being a stand-alone event - which only has limited appeal. I know it's a matter of opinion, but in all honesty I don't see how ANYONE who ever attended any of the titanic World Finals across Europe (and indeed in the US) when the title was decided that way could possibly think that the GPs even come close...

The proper World Final used to sell-out Wembley.. Does anyone seriously think that the GP nonsense could ever do that..?! Those who harp on about Sczakiel & Muller are admitting by default that those are - arguably- the only two dodgy WF results in a long history of one-off Finals. The GP will ALWAYS, though, be remembered for the year when the World Championship was won (sic) by a rider who never actually won a meeting. THAT could never have happened under the proper WC system... I note that a few posters are saying that the GP system will go on for ever..: hmm, only as long as there's a sport to have a World Championship of.. IMHO, the GP system is the BIGGEST single liklely contribution to the end of international Speedway...

But why would Gollob winning be a problem. There's no rider in the history of the sport who more deserves to be World Champ. Empirically, that's the case as he's the ONLY rider in history with as many as THREE World Championship rostrum positions but never a first place on that rostrum. Also he's been - and unlike some others..: Mr. Hancock springs to mind! - he still gives his absolute all in the GPs and is still the most exciting rider in the series. Also as you allude to, no-one has lost out more than Gollob by the change to the season-long GP system..: if there'd been a one-off World Final in Poland, what, three or four times in his top class career he would surely have at least two World titles by now and may indeed have won at another venue out of Poland too..

Absolutely. I don't care about anything else, the TOP priority for this winter is to get Buzz's Testimonial organised and staged as early next year as possible. As you say, the campaign starts here; now!!

But as things already stand IF he was to opt to ride as an Australian, he'll have denied a young British rider a place in the British Under 21 Final, a slot in the Under 21 World Championship and now an Under 18s British title. And that's before likley inclusion in all those again next year.. No, I can't see once a rider has so significantly competed for GB or as a GB rider in such events, that he can at a later date decide that, no, he didn't mean that, now he wants to be Aussie..! I'm NOT having a dig at Tai because I don't believe he'd do this; but I do think that it should be made clear for the future that participation in these events can only be as a precursor for riding as a Brit at senior level.. I note Nicki Glanz rode yesterday too - yet the Plymouth programme last week happily described him as a "young Dane"..

Hmm, surely EVERY Speedway meeting is, to some extent, only for a "select", "invited" few.... Indeed one could say the same about any sporting event one goes and sees!! Sadly I can't make it Friday - good luck to everyone taking part but especially to young Marc. Well down to all at Lakeside for putting this on..: the club's commitment to young riders this year has been much improved, getting back to the good old days...

Surely as he's already ridden for GB Under 21s, represented GB in the World championship and won the GB Under 18 championship then he has decided..: he is BRITISH (as previously noted, he was born here of English parentage..)

I can't make it either so Buzz's machinery should be okay!! Seeing the form he was in last night at Plymouth and in recent weeks, I too reckon Buzz has a good chance of a rostrum position tonight.

And Shane Waldron..: is he going to be fit to ride..?? Sorry for the questions, but with Gary & Jerran the two reserves am anxious to know if they're going to be called into the meeting line-up proper..??!!

Is Greg fit to ride then..????

Absolutely: an excellent example that shows how completely unfair the current GP system is. For most in the so-called GP series, it it's just a pay-day - they've no intention of winning it, just staying in it. Greg Hancock is the perfect example..: is there honestly anyone out there who believes he’d have let Chris Harris past him if that was the final bend of a World Final with the title up for grabs..? Another good example which compares the meritocracy that was the proper World Championship system with the tired monopoly that is the travesty masquerading under that title today, is the rise of Michael Lee. A raw 16 year old newcomer to the Second Division (NNL) in 1975, by September of 1977 and aged just 18 he was able to ride in the World Final (and indeed get into a run-off for third place in that Final; could have even won the title but for the reinstatement after 2 minutes exclusions of Olsen & Mauger.. ). Now fast-forward to now. There are young talents around as good as Lee was in '75 as a 16 year old in Tai Woofinden and Lewis Bridger. Now let's estimate how many years it'll be before those two will be 'allowed' into the GPs..?? Perhaps by the time they are, they may have lost interest: the opportunities to excel and achieve having been denied them in their early prime…

Hang on. We all know that Scunny fans are unhappy that Andrew Tully has been overlooked; but each club is entitled to one rider (their top rider..) in the CLRC (as is the case in the EL & PL versions..) and Buzz is that for Cleveland. Having a pop at one of the most fantastic servants and true gentlemen of the sport because you're frustrated about something else is out of order....

Greg Blair & Jack Roberts are both named but are they going to be fit to ride..???

Does anyone have details of the line-up for this meeting yet..??

Gosh, Tony.. I do sincerely hope this goes okay but you know my reservations about the Kenny Caret business; and I do hope that the piece doesn't dwell on the tragic circumstances to the (possible) detriment of the sport .. TBH, though, I really can't imagine that the journalists won't pick up on this..??

Sam told me last time we met that she does have a copy... The moment Buzz won his final ride to win the Laurels will always stay with me as one of my absolute favourite ever sporting moments.... The testimonial..?? Well, the obvious locations are Redcar and I agree, Scunthorpe would be good. Or of course Stoke... As I've recently posted on another thread I've still got 800 or so of the Testimonial brochures from the thrice rained off 2004 meeting..!!!!

Roger rode for the Dons in 2002 NOT 2004..... But yes, he's the same fella who'd made that appearance for the Witches all those years earlier...

True the Brits did poorly (seemed SO down on speed/power!!??) but what an awesome track, great racing and superb excitement. This was more than a million times better than ANYTHING any GP round in ten years has served up!! Proof to me that we MUST for the sake of the future of our sport return to the old individual World Championship system without delay.. Would a Brit win under such a system though..?! Currently hardly any chance, I'm afraid...

What you don't think that the fact that Britain's top rider at the time did what he did and it was front page news in all the national dailies did any harm to the reputation of the sport and didn't have an effect on the shunning of the sport by that same media over many following years....??

Thanks for this Mauro. Don't suppose the wife would've been too keen on me nipping off to track down some Speedway whilst on our hols anyhow..!!!

Well, it depends in the setting in which they're promoted.. Obviously many books are written about awful crimes..: but one wouldn't expect the Yorkshire Tourist Board to promote the Ripper books by selling in their outlets with a smiling face of Pete Sutcliffe on the cover and a blurb that read "the full sensational story" etc. And ditto with books about the awful events in Soham a couple of years back.. Not that I'm comparing Kenny Carter to those crimes (it was someone else who made the Ripper comment...): but I personally have reservations about a biography being sold at tracks around the country and promoted the way it has, when - as Rob has pointed out on another thread - the awful circumstances of Carter's death and that of his wife was splashed luridly over the front pages in most of ours recent-ish memory bringing the whole sport and those of us who love it into a measure of disrepute and shame. I respect Tony very much and am sure he's written an excellent, well-balanced book and I think Richard Clark's review in the Star summed up the problems with the subject matter and did say it has been handled sensitively and expertly. Just my opinion really (and yes, maybe a touch puritanical on my part.. ) that this was an incident (and by association, a life & career) which I didn't in all honesty want to see promoted in this way.. Learning lessons is valuable from any incident (and yes, there's been tragic suicides of other riders including a great hero of mine, Billy Sanders..) but the case of Kenny Carter is an awfully dark one and sometimes darkness is best left alone..

Committing the cardinal sin of going away abroad on holiday during the Speedway season!!! Wondering if anyone out there in BSF-land knows of any Speedway, grasstrack, long track or short track meetings happening in Italy in the first two weeks in August, as that's where I'll be..! Sure Italy's a big place..(!!): but any details would be multo welcome!!