T.N.T.

You would have Kasprzak, Harris, Watt, King, Richardson, Bjerre, Holder, Adams and Lindgren all meet up at a track, compete in three round robin groups to determine three group winners who would ride in the final. Thats 12 heats which if run alongside a meeting like an Under 18;s Test Match (England v Poland say) over 15 heats could create quite a bit of interest and a pretty good crowd.

The Golden Helmet was always a good extra to a meeting but these days riders finish heat 15, get showered and then off to the next meeting. They don't need any extra ware and tear on equipment and would want paying for these extra rides. Although it would be nice, I cant see it happening but maybe another idea would be to include heat 15 results in a competition. At the end of the season, the top two riders with the most race points from each track would then be selected for the ELRC (bottom two as reserves) where the trophy could be the Golden Helmet. Otherwise, you could have the top rider at each track go forward to a Golden Helmet meeting held at say Cardiff (on the Sunday) or even alongside the Silver Helmet with the meeting held at a central track like Birmingham, Coventry or Wolves. You would then have 9 top EL riders competing in three groups of three for the Golden Helmet and 14 top PL riders competing in groups. All races would be match races with the meeting lasting about 40 heats of two riders.If you could get on average 100 fans from each track, thats a pretty good crowd and help pay for the prize money as well as making it a charity meeting for injured riders.

Anders Mitchaneck could well have been as he averaged 11+ in the 73 season while Sam was quite frankly brilliant after coming back from his big crash and 93 was a brilliant year for him, but he did end up the season with a broken leg ! Nielsen for me would have won the title virtually ever year from the early 80's to the mid 90's had the GP's been in place which casts more shadows over the fact that maybe Havelock, Jonsson, O'Pedersen and even Gundersen may not have won the title had it been over a season. There are loads of riders that could have been World Champion over the years going back to Bill Kitchen, Ron Johnston, Vic Huxley, Jack Parker etc, but in the near 40 years I have been watching I would nominate as could have been World Champions on a one-off night as ........ Dave Jessup Leigh Adams Tomasz Gollob Billy Sanders Dennis Sigalos weird how an Anglian theme runs through these names !

01 Neils K Iversen 02 Jason Crump 03 Greg Walasek 04 Tomasz Gollob 05 Andreas Jonsson 06 Chris Harris 07 Greg Hancock 08 Nicki Pedersen 09 Sebastian Ulamek 10 Rune Holta 11 Scott Nicholls 12 Emil Sayfutdinov 13 Fredrik Lindgren 14 Kenneth Bjerre 15 Hans Andersen 16 Leigh Adams

Unless Harris can either come with an unbelievable late run or get through the GP Challenge, then I dont see why there should be more than one Brit in the 2010 line up. Should Richardson be nominated ahead of others like Harris who can battle and is looking a bit sharper at the moment, Tai Woffinden who is riding as well as any Brit at the moment and could end up with an EL title in his debut year after already winning the British U18 and 21 titles. Or Edward Kennett who has had a decent season, but not good enough for the GP's. So should Richardson get a nomination when he pulled out of the qualifiers ? For me if they have to include a Brit, it has to be Harris or Woffinden

Think this years GP series has been a very tight series in many ways as there are good quality riders trying to get into the semi finals. True, Jason Crump is running away with the title, but when you see riders like Nicki Pedersen, Hans Andersen and Leigh Adams struggle this year, it shows that the series has many good riders in it. Leigh Adams has been a brilliant rider in the GP series, but this year time is really telling on him and comments made during last nights GP makes it obvious that Leigh will not be in the 2010 Series, even if he makes it into the top 8. At Latvia, he clearly let Jason Crump through and again last night. With riders like Chris Holder, Tai Woffinden, Matej Zagar and many many more young riders coming through, it will be a shame to see a GP without Leigh in, but he has been one of the best over the years and will take with him a very good record. GRAND PRIX HIGHLIGHTS: Challenge Champion: 1995, 1998; Scandinavian GP Champion: 2002, 2007, 2008; Slovenian GP Champion: 2003; Swedish GP Champion: 2004, 2007; Latvian GP Champion: 2007; European GP Champion: 2008. Adams may never have won the World Championship, his closest effort being second place overall in the 2007 series.

Well it started of well, but nevermind .... I will stick with young Emil as I'm sure he has another final or two left in him.

In the semi finals they wore the opposite colours, wondering if they could choose the gates ?

I have never seen Lewis in his Eastbourne kevlars. All last season when he rode at Wolves quite a few times he either wore his Polish kevlars or a set borrowed from Edward Kennett. Even this year he has had two different sets on but not once have they been Eagles suits. Suprised at Lewis falling for Holders move on the last lap when he slowed to let Lewis look at the inside, only for Holder to close the door on him and allow Hans around the outside. A switch to the outside would have out done them both, but a good race and there has to be a loser whatever. Q ~ Why were the top riders from each partnerships switched to Blue and Yellow helmet colours in the semi finals and finals ?

Good Meeting and well done to Poole, great moves by Holder to slow down Lewis on the last lap so Hans could get past. Thought Wolves would have been in the mix, but PK was moved out in one and Freddie made a nightmare gate in the other. Those mistakes cost and to be fair, Eastbourne, Coventry, Lakeside and Poole rode well all night. FORMAT - That really needs looking at. This is all about not coming last and team riding ! ...... So had say Ipswich team rode in 2nd and 3rd place in each of their 4 qualifying heats, they would have svored 20 points .... not enough to make the semi finals. This really needs cutting down to 8 teams (Belle Vue would have been the odd one out last night - sorry Aces fans). Then you draw two groups of four, all riding against each other with the top two from each group going through to the final. As good as the settings were, think this meeting would have been even better at Monmore Green with more racing lines and loads more grip or hold it at a Premier League track like Kings Lynn, Somerset or Birmingham.

Surely Swindon have a higher rider available than Travis McGowan for tonight ? No Zagar, Stead or Pavlic ..... James Wright in for Belle Vue is not going to make much difference, but Troy Batchelor in for Ipswich isnt too bad. Think its between Poole and Wolves for this one really.

Contact the track itself Wolverhampton Speedway Labroke Stadium, Sutherland Avenue, Wolverhampton WV2 2JJ or email in at <info@wolverhampton-speedway.com> Interesting to see certain riders at the meeting, Darcy Ward as expected battled hard and could have scored more but for a rider drifting as he went to pass two in one move. Lewis Bridger who made a big run around the pack only to be suprised by a rider coming up alo9ngside him that caused him to go wide and under the fence while Kenni Larsen looked pretty good. Ty Proctor battled hard while William Lawson yet again showed his true Monmore Green form with a great runners up spot. Really though, Tai was way ahead and never looked like losing the top spot as the other impressive rider was Nicolai Klindt who messed up his first ride by locking up while leading on the first bend, causing a rider to fall. Joe Haines ended up replacing the unlucky Andrew Tully, but Joe struggled until his final ride as he challenged Lawson and Larsen all the way in heat 17.

Chris Louis mentioned in last nights GP that Daniel King has been ruled out for 2-3 weeks after crashing with Andreas Jonsson in Sweden on Tuesday night. Hopefully Ludvig Lindgren will take his place, if not maybe Josh Grajczonek, Robert Mear, Josh Auty, Simon Gustafsson or Andrew Tully could be suitable replacements. Think it may be too soon for Joe Haines to take part sadly, it would have been good to see him against Darcy, Tai and the rest of the field, but its no good rushing back.

The track was good, level, no real ruts, good shape and length ..... but totally the wrong surface. What was that stuff as it was mainly grey in colour (like the old ash tracks) and had no real consistancy to it. Even after watering, you could see a fine spray of dust being pushed back. If that track had more of a clay style base like Wolverhampton, I firmly believe we could have witnessed a great GP However, what we saw was Gate 4 and Gate 1 working well and the only success from the middle was Kenneth "Rolling Start" Bjerre and Emil Sayfutdinov in his easiest race of the night possibly. Gate 4 only had one rider fail to score .... Laguta being excluded Gate 4 only had two third places .... Emil (Bjerre rolling on gate 2) and Nicholls Gate 4 was where Walasek gained 2 wins .... and never scored in other three races Crump's only 2 wins were from Gate 1 and Gate 4 Leigh Adams only had 2 wins all night ... both Gate 4 Ulamek gained a win from Gate 4, a second from Gate 1 and his only other win was when Laguta was excluded Iversen won off Gate 4 and Gate 1 Rune Holta 2 1 2 1 1 .... Guess which two races he had the Red and Yellow helmet colours in ? Greg Hancock wins the GP winning 4 races during the night .... All from Gate 4 and Gate 1 Fredrik Lindgren had a poor night .... 2 1 0 2 1 .... Guess where he had Gate 1 and Gate 4 ? Tomasz Gollob looked better tonight with two good wins .... Gate 1 and Gate errrr ? Must admit .... I prefered watching Gate 4 during the night the most as well (very nice )

Thanks for the race card, but I cant open it - What do I open it with as all i get is loads of boxes and numbers Found this on the GP site 1 N.Iversen (19) J.Crump (2) E.Sayfutdinov (15) L.Adams (6) 2 F.Lindgren (10) K.Bjerre (12) H.Andersen (5) S.Ulamek (14) 3 G.Laguta (16) S.Nicholls (9) C.Harris (11) R.Holta (8) 4 T.Gollob (3) G.Hancock (4) G.Walasek (13) A.Jonsson (7) 5 A.Jonsson (7) N.Iversen (19) F.Lindgren (10) C.Harris (11) 6 G.Hancock (4) G.Laguta (16) J.Crump (2) H.Andersen (5) 7 S.Nicholls (9) T.Gollob (3) K.Bjerre (12) E.Sayfutdinov (15) 8 L.Adams (6) S.Ulamek (14) R.Holta (8) G.Walasek (13) 9 H.Andersen (5) G.Walasek (13) N.Iversen (19) S.Nicholls (9) 10 R.Holta (8) F.Lindgren (10) T.Gollob (3) J.Crump (2) 11 S.Ulamek (14) C.Harris (11) E.Sayfutdinov (15) G.Hancock (4) 12 A.Jonsson (7) L.Adams (6) G.Laguta (16) K.Bjerre (12) 13 K.Bjerre (12) R.Holta (8) G.Hancock (4) N.Iversen (19) 14 J.Crump (2) A.Jonsson (7) S.Ulamek (14) S.Nicholls (9) 15 G.Walasek (13) E.Sayfutdinov (15) G.Laguta (16) F.Lindgren (10) 16 C.Harris (11) H.Andersen (5) L.Adams (6) T.Gollob (3) 17 N.Iversen (19) S.Ulamek (14) T.Gollob (3) G.Laguta (16) 18 C.Harris (11) J.Crump (2) K.Bjerre (12) G.Walasek (13) 19 E.Sayfutdinov (15) R.Holta (8) A.Jonsson (7) H.Andersen (5) 20 F.Lindgren (10) G.Hancock (4) S.Nicholls (9) L.Adams (6) Heat 15 is my favourite with Emil, Freddie and Laguta in

Well he was quick in practice after Mondays meeting, but the previous week it was thought it may be a bit too soon. Having said that, at reserve he may not get a ride, but if he did, he could beat a fair few of the line up and really shake things up in just a few heats.

I was standing opposite the third bend, my favourite place, and witnessed Alan Graham pass on Gary's inside coming out of the pits turn to lead into the third bend. Not to be outdone, Gary took a wide line attempting to pass on the outside of the bends, but for some reason which we didn't know at the time, he failed to turn and accelerated towards a robust light column which had no guard and thus no protection for the riders. I'll never forget the noise Gary's bike made on impact. It was similar to steel sheets falling off a roof. "Afterwards it was suggested that Alan Graham had clipped his wheel, but from the vantage point both myself and dozens of other spectators were enjoying, no such contact was observed. I remember the night well and Gary did try to pass on the outside and caught the back of Alan Grahame's bike. For a split second, his bike stopped, twisted towards the fence and shot off at full speed. On hitting the fence, Gary was thrown over the fence into the lighting stand. I have many great memories of speedway since 1971, but this has to be one of the worst I have witnessed in all those years. A great line up full of potential riders and hopefully a good crowd too.

Sticking with Emil as the captain

Nicki will be riding in the next GP even if they have to strap him onto the bike, he may be many things, but he will be eager to still fight for every point. Ulamek is more likely to be missing, so Iversen looks odds on to be in the next one.

Australia lost this meeting more than Poland won it Poland won by 1 point due to them making a tac sub joker that netted them 4 points instead of 0 or 1 had Pepe stayed in. Thats an extra 3 points given to them because ..... any of the following or all three 1 Crump should have stayed behind Kasprzak 2 Boyce should have warned Crump to just follow Kasprzak 3 Did Kasprzak know what he was doing and let Crump past ? Some good races, but it was a shame they had the delay as the meeting was really hotting up unril the break with Russia looking good bets after starting the meeting so poorly.

I'm not British ... I'M ENGLISH Wont wear a Union Jack, wont support Team GB .... Make it England again and fine but sadly this Country is losing its pride and vanishing into a European hell hole of political correctness

So Antonio Lindback ~ born in Brazil ...... Jason Crump born in Bristol, England Mark Loram born in Malta Lets go all the way, Sir Cliff Richard !

Charlie is fine, but there is something about anyone that steps in front of the camera's for Sky .... They all make mistakes every sentence Kelvin the other night described one race hard for the Australian as he was against two very good Swedish riders Think the Mole is a bit stupid myself, but they are doing well with the coverage and seem to have quite a few on these meetings now. For me, Sam Ermolenko, Chris Louis and Kelvin Tatum in a Studio, Nigel Pearson and Steve Johnston doing commentary with Charlie doing pit interviews would be a great set up.

Take a step back ! There is a Norweigan in the Polish Squad The Aussies have their top rider born in England (against England) The Russians have a Polish mechanic running them (against Poland) The Russians have a British Engine Tuner with them The Russians have Tony Rickardsson backing them (against Sweden) The Russians had a Latvian in their squad But Wait !!! One English lad (raised in Australia) wears a T Shirt to help out friends as his team are no longer in the competition ..... Shameless

Honestly thought Crumpy knew what he was doing against KK as it looked like he deliberatly sat behind him for the first two laps, even when he made a mistake. There are so many team talks going on, the situation should have been known that finishing behind KK would have meant Australia were 4 ahead with Protasiewicz out in heat 23. Maybe Pepe might have beaten Watt, but giving Poland two extra points in the next by allowing Hampel to come in, really cost them as a team. Having said that, surely Poland should have ensured that KK let Crump pass him if he was in front of him. Works both ways really, but Poland benefitted from it big time