T.N.T.

I have fallen behind in updating the scoreboard but all is in hand and I appologise to all for the delays. However we now have Stockholm coming up and POSSIBLY the confirmation of a NEW World Champion !!! SWEDISH PREDICTIONS 12 Tai Woffinden 12 Jarek Hampel 11 Nicki Pedersen 11 Darcy Ward 9 Greg Hancock 9 Neils K Iversen 8 Tomasz Gollob 7 Fredrik Lindgren 7 Matej Zagar 7 Krzysztof Kasprzak 7 Andreas Jonsson 6 Martin Vaculik 6 Antonio Lindback 5 Leon Madsen 3 Ales Dryml 2 Kim Nilsson BONUS POINTS; Sweden or Poland ...... Where will the Title be decided 20 points if you are right

Hans and Batch do ...... Bomber could still be in ? MAYBE .... Just maybe Robins will use R/R and Simon Gustafsson and let Hans and Batch still ride .... I'm sure Lakeside won't mind

It's a shame that a few big names are going to miss this meeting due to injuries or prior commitments but there is still a great line up and there are a number of riders in the line up that can challenge Freddie on his home soil and no doubt Bomber, Batch and Hans will get a try out at Monmore before the play offs the following week. For many though the real star of the show will be Sam Ermolenko riding in the meeting and at 52 no doubt showing some half his age that he can still throw it around the bends as fast as most.

Maybe you are correct about most of those but most stadiums are rented and as for the standard of racing ..... get to Monmore Green more often !!

Firstly Tai would have preferred Emil to have been fully fit and in the GP tomorrow but if anyone thinks he will now play it safe is totally wrong. Tai had a plan set out from day one which included diet, training, relaxing and when he raced which is why he decided not to ride Sweden so he can be abroad at the weekends but weekdays he is in England going through his routine day in day out. Now he has 3 rounds left and holds a 21 point lead over Jarek Hampel and playing it safe would be to score 30 points in the remaining rounds hoping Jarek doesnt somehow score 52. However Tai will be going to Slovenia and te other two rounds looking at winning or at least making the rostrum. He will still be on the gas full time and if he does end up as the 2013 World Champion it will be because he has done what he set out to do in each and every round. Can't wait for Torun as I am 95% sure to be flying out to hopefully celebrate the crowning of a NEW BRITISH World Champion !!

Nolw confirmed to the line up is ....... Hans Andersen Troy Batchelor Maciej Janowski and ..... SAM ERMOLENKO

PLEASE NOTE; Emil Sayfutdinov has yet to be rued out of Saturday's GP ...... however I have ruled him out of this one Ales Dryml and Leon Madsen are both in there on 4 points each ..... if either doesnt ride, you will NOT be penalised IF Emil does ride, all he will be doing is taking points off the others ...... but unlikely !! MY PREDICTIONS 12 Tai Woffinden 12 Darcy Ward 6 Andreas Jonsson 5 Martin Vaculik

Birmingham are going to finish top and will get to pick who they want in the semi final. Swindon and Wolves are safe while Lakeside, Poole and Peterborough battle it out for the last spot. If Poole win at Belle Vue, then they will go through. If they fail, Panthers should make it by winning their two remaining home matches. Not too sure how long Covatti is out for, but he has an average much the same as Jacob's so Wolves need to plan in advance to get the right guest for the right track. Rohan Tungate has a PL average lower than 7.35 but has an EL average above Jacob's 4.41. This is the same with Ulrich Ostergaard, Aaron Summers. In the other direction, Kozza Smith has a PL average slightly too high but his EL; average is well under Jacobs average. Which average is used ? ...... Can Wolves use Summers ? ..... Can we use Smith ? We know we an use Nicolai Klindt and think he may be used in most matches. ....... unless Brumies book him !!

The last time Wolves came to Perry Barr, Tai and Freddie had tactical rides and both failed to beat a Brummies rider and it ended 57-33 which was a bit of a smacking The time before ended 46-44 and Wolves never used a tactical ride, however the result was so close mainly due to Freddie and Tai only dropping one point between them from 11 starts and gained 5-1's in heats 13 and 15 ..... hardly a smacking. Can't think of any sport where you can take out a lesser person and put in a top star for a short time. However no one complained when that was in place. The main reason a tactical ride was introduced was to replace the tactical replacement was to give the lower riders all their programmed rides as you would often have teams with a 3.00 number seven, e has 3 rides but got taken out of one race just to give the big earners an extra ride, Thankully the 15 meters back was taken out, although it did provide some good races, but again it only suited the real top riders like Ward, Lindgren etc and now at least you can have riders like Skornicki, Barker or Zengota gven tactical rides. To me it's a lesser of two evils but for a team to really pull something back, they need an 8-1 and that means oth programmed riders have to perform and if they do get maximum points, they were at least going to get a 5-1 anyway, so they will still be losing either way. PS; If you think Wolves always get a smacking by Brummies ...... bring on the play offs and hopefully the final !!!!

I understand the rules but injuries like those suffered by Ben Barker, Peter Karlsson and Jacob Thorssell are not something you can fake, so changes should be allowed under these circumstances, especially when they happen a week before the cut off date. We would all rather watch seven riders take on seven riders and now the play offs are going to be guests and r/r on virtually all the teams. Not good TV and not good for the sport.

Covenry have bought in Sundstrom for KK Lakeside have bought in Tyson Nelson for Doolan Now we have Lakeside with PK injured, Birmingham with Barker injured and Wolves with Thorssell injured. Why can't these teams (all possible play off teams) made a new signing in September due to unforseen circumstances. Common Senseshould prevail so Kasprzak can join Lakeside (again), Brummies are better with r/r or Beck guesting while Wolves could have Andrew Tully doubling up and hope he rides like he did on Monday.

Now this example shows a fault in the system. Iversen and Dryml both had just ONE heat win while Madsen and Zagar had TWO and Batchelor had THREE In my opinion, BATCHELOR should have been seeded to the Run-Off final Iversen and Dryml should have had a runoff with the winner going to meet Zagar and Madsen with the top one or two going to meet Batchelor. As it was, Iversen and Dryml did have a run-off but Dryml got another chance instead of being eliminated. As for the Poole GPC, when Iversen finished in the top three here, they should have ordered a run-off as fourth place was almost certainly going to be a qualifying place. If they are saying that 4th was only a reserve, then they should stick by that and either nominate another wild card or 9th highest in the GP's qualifies instead. They knew 4th place was going to be a qualifying place, so a run off should have been run.

LEADERBOARD WILL BE UPDATED SOON SLOVENIA PREDICTIONS 12 Tai Woffinden 12 Emil Sayfutdinov 12 Darcy Ward 9 Matej Zagar 9 Nicki Pedersen 9 Neils K Iversen 9 Greg Hancock 9 Jarek Hampel 7 Tomasz Gollob 6 Krzysztof Kasprzak 6 Fredrik Lindgren 6 Andreas Jonsson 5 Martin Vaculik 4 Ales Dryml 4 Leon Madsen 4 Antonio Lindback 1 Aleksander Conda Matej Zagar holds the track record he set back in 2006 while the last GP here was in 2009 and won by Emil Sayfutdinov. Tai Woffinden wants to lift another GP title and is fully fit now but his main aim is to match or better Emil's score.

Is that Ole OLSEN or Tony OLSSON

First let me say that I didn't agree with Bomber riding in the GP Challenge and thought Krzysztof Buczkowski should have ridden being next in line. He did ride and did a good job to score 10 points and now has to wait and see if Smolinski gets in because of Iversen being Top 8 after being given 5th place due to heat wins ...... however Dryml wasn't given the extra place last season when Crump announced his retirement before the end of the campaign. When you look back at previous GP Challenge finals, there is a question that needs answering The GP Challenge in 2012 had 5 riders finish on 10 points behind KK on 11. These were 2 Matej Zagar 1 3 3 2 1 = 10 3 Niels Kristian Iversen 3 2 2 2 1 = 10 4 Ales Dryml 1 2 2 3 2 = 10 5 Leon Madsen 1 3 1 2 3 = 10 6 Troy Batchelor 3 3 0 3 1 = 10 Heat wins were NOT taken into account and if they were, Troy Batchelor and Leon Madsen would have qualified instead of Iversen and Zagar after run offs In 2010, Freddie, Kolodiej and Zetterstrom finised on 11 points behind Artem Laguta and Lindback on 12. 3 Fredrik Lindgren 3 3 2 1 2 = 11 4 Janusz Kolodziej 3 3 3 2 0 = 11 5 Magnus Zetterstroem 2 3 0 3 3 = 11 Had they have gone on heat wins, Janusz Kolodiej would have qualified ahead of Zorro and Freddie 5th and not had a run off. If Smolinski IS to take the third qualifying position due to Iversen finishing Top 8 ..... Why did he not have a run off with Chris Harris as has been done in previous years for the last qualifying place ?

7.35 Premier League or 4.41 Elite League Tai back a #1 on 9.23 with Freddie on 9.21 Nicolai Klindt fits on his 4.24 EL average while from the Premier League Pontus Aspgren has a 3.00 EL average and his PL verage is under seven. Tyson Nelson has shown a liking for Monmore Green and has a 6.49 PL average and tonight guested for Birmingham and did well (it was against Cov though). While he has a PL average that fits, please not Alex Davies who has failed to be on the pace in a few appearance already. Can't Wolves bring in a 4.00 rider as a full replacement due to unforseen injuries. We still have 2 league matches left and the young Pole Adam bought over before, Oskar Fajfer may only be 19 but he hasn't done a bad job in the matchs he has ridden in and would do a better job than some guests may do. Pawel Przedpelski is another who is fast emerging at Torun. Have to say that living near the track and we know he can gate and go, Nicolai has to be the best option (as guest or repacement) and knows the fast way around Swindon

More names will be added in the next week or so and this is a meeting you won't want to miss !!! CONFIRMED GREG HANCOCK EMIL SAYFUTDINOV PETER KARLSSON CHRIS HARRIS SCOTT NICHOLLS ADAM SKORNICKI RICKY WELLS HANS ANDERSEN TROY BATCHELOR MACIEJ JANOWSKI NICOLAI KLINDT ROBERT MISKOWIAK JASON DOYLE CAMERON WOODWARD FREDRIK LINDGREN and ..... SAM ERMOLENKO

Batch is already on #1 points money and Doyle not far behind. They will earn more money by scoring more points but clubs won't be paying the four figure sums to others but will instead be paying lower riders a quarter of that. There will still be 90 points up for grabs that need paying, but on average these will be 30% down on what is being paid out now. Riders that miss out riding in 2014 will only return on a newly assessed average. So a 7.30 point rider would return on a 8.39 average which is a 15% increase.

Don't have the big earners in the league. 30 meetings at roughly £2,500 per meeting = £75,000 per season also take off the air fares and possibly two of these riders in each team, that's roughly £160,000 a year saving SWINDON; Troy Batchelor 8.31, Jason Doyle 7.15, Edward Kennett 6.48, Nick Morris 5.32, Ashley Birks 3.77, Kyle Howarth 3.69, ...... 3.00 = 37.72 WOLVES; Tai Woffinden 9.22, Adam Skornicki 6.23, Ty Proctor 5.78, Ricky Wells 5.55, Jacob Thorssell 4.60, Ashley Morris 3.00, Tom Pery 3.00 = 37.38 Still get to see some top clas riders that entertain and also see the young stars of tomorrow coming through the ranks ..... and cost effective !!

Will be interesting to see if he has his own bikes over here and if they are the same bikes used in Poland, let's hope they can manage 4 laps !!

While there will possibly be a number of big names missing next season, you will still have some top riders here that ride in another league or even the GP's. Tai Woffinden is likely to be back at Wolves and I would guess that either Darcy or Holder are back at Poole with the other moving on to pastures new. Even Matej Zagar could stay at Belle Vue, maybe even Iversen at Kings Lynn and Bjerre at P'boro but these riders would have to commit to racing just here and ONE other league which is likely to be Poland. Sadly this would make it hard for a riders like Fredrik Lindgren, Grzegorz Zengota and Peter Karlsson to stay as they would have to still ride in Sweden and would then have to decide on riding in Poland or Britain and in Freddie's case possibly a new club as it would be hard to fit in both Tai and Freddie as both are 9+ riders. .... Hopefully he does stay in British Speedway but the money is clearly elsewhere. Harris, Schlein, Nicholls, King, Smolinski, Doyle, Watt, Batchelor, Barker, Skornicki etc could all still be based in Britain but there has to be question marks on the Danish riders that ride in numerous leagues and may opt to miss out Brtain instead but as there are not many Danish matches, these may not get in the way as Iversen has ony done 2 this season and Bjerre 7. The question would be if they were willing to ride for less money or do less meetings, ie share the #1 position in some cases (Ward/Holder ... Andersen/Kildemand for example) but mainly I would think a number will be missing and the 7+ riders we have now will be the main riders in 2014 EXAMPLE ONLY; WOLVERHAMPTON Tai Woffinden (Britain/Poland), Adam Skornicki (Britain/Poland), Ty Proctor (Doubling Up), Ricky Wells (Doubling Up), Jacob Thorssell (Sweden/Britain), Ashley Morris (Doubling Up), 2.00 National League rider.

TOP EIGHT .... any order Tai Woffinden Emil Sayfutdinov Jarek Hampel Nicki Pedersen Neils K Iversen Matej Zagar Greg Hancock Darcy Ward QUALIFIERS Krzysztof Kasprzak Kenneth Bjerre Martin Smolinski WILD CARDS Chris Holder Fredrik Lindgren Tomasz Gollob and/or Patryk Dudek then Michael Jepsen Jensen or Martin Vaculik if a place is available (ie Gollob)

Iversen looks set to finish in the top 8, so Martin Smolinski will be in the 2014 Series once NKI is assured of a top 8 place KK is now assured of a place next year but is 20 points off the top 8 (Holder) but only 11 points behind 9th placed Gollob ... If KK grabs 8th spot, then Bomber gets in !!

Krzysztof Buczkowski who was next in line from the qualifiers and was riding in England last night Yes ..... but until NKI is confirmed in the top 8 he will have to wait .......... but not for long

He has had a great season but please not Martin Smolinski in the GP's !!! His final ride is his easiest and if he finishes on 11 he could get straigt into the final and with Iversen in already he will be in the GP's