SPEEDY69

Two tickets in an excellent position beside the riders/VIP area and pit entrance. Gutted I can no longer go due to a bereavement for a German friend I was going with. PM me for details if you're interested.

You would! I watched that meeting and it was dire, made the last GP seem like the best meeting ever - it didn't seem to matter who you were if you made the start then that's largely how they finished. Janowski was luck to qualify in my opinion due to a re-run and Dilger & Kroner got lucky with not having to race Smoli and Pawlicki due to falls. DIdn't Woffinden also fail to get through qualifying last season & not just Harris?

Darcy Ward plus 4th-6th in the challenge.

What an awful meeting from a spectators viewpoint - virually no overtaking. Shame that falls and the roll of the dice played against Nicholls who was always going to struggle on a gate and go track. Does he go forward as a reserve for the next rounds? Tobi Kroner through - only in Germany!!!

I don't think the BSI selection devalued the British Championship itself but it did remove one key item of interest for both riders and fans - who will get the wildcard for Cardiff. I wasn't that interested in the meeting simply because Tai was always going to win and I couldn't care less who was 2nd/3rd etc.

Somethign wrong with your stats there. I make it Nicholls qualified 3 times out of 8 seasons, Harris only qualified once out of 6. However the debate between the two is not really at issue, it's the lack of any announcement by the BSPA that the British Final no longer carried any GP incentive, when they knew a long time ago, that sticks in the throat. BSI have nominated Harris in my view as they think he's the best choice to help with their promotion of the event - not because he's the most deserving recipient.

Terrible decision in respect of the worht of the British Final. Woffinden should coast to the title this year and the interest was really around the wild card spot. If I was Kennett I'd be fuming right now as he has a real chance of second place. BSI are interested in the revenue and they probably believe that Harris, a former winner, will increase the attendance. We'll have to wait and see on that one. I wonder which Brit will get the wild card spot for the GP challenge at Poole later this year?????

Just watched the GP - there was very little to get excited about apart from the two very bad refereeing decisions. Iversen clearly laid it down and should have been commended rather than excluded, and if it was anyone else except Bunyan it would have been called differently. Where were all these new faces in the final - oh yeah, they weren't!

You may be in a minority but so am I as I agree with you.

One of Pedersen, Hancock or Holder. Sajfutdinov an outside bet with Ward a bit of an unknown - could make the rostrum. The rest also-rans with Gollob to drop out of top 8.

Blimey, an SS post I agree with! Interesting when the boot is on the other foot isn't it? Forget the average nonsense, that makes no difference to the principle and was simply astute work by the Poole promotion which nearly paid off It is also the same situation being faced by Cov/Birm over Barker. The original ruling last year has opened this can of worms and it'll be interesting to see how it's resolved.

Just look at Gollob at the recent Monster Event in the USA for a demonstration.

I too expected the replay to be available much sooner than this afternoon! It was pretty good racing, with Nicholls, Kennett and Lindback showing up well. Gollob was hopeless, this wasn't a full throttle and go type of track. The announcer was pretty interesting although his strangest comment was "we've all dropped our drawers here so it's time for you to drop your at home"!!

Does anyone know if this is being shown on TV or on the web? Presumably it starts around 3.30am so maybe I won't stay up to watch live!

I cancelled a month ago and from december enjoy the rest of sky TV but my bill has gone down by over £20 a month.

Ahh, but not for the same year whilst they're enjoying a purple-patch season

Completely agree about qualifying - sometimes riders have really great years which they never repeat and during that year they should have the chance to be world champion. The biggest example of that was NKI last year, 1st 2nd and 3rd in Poland, Sweden and UK leagues.

I don't actually thinks it's that bad an idea. Let's face it, for the first 20 heats the gate positions are a lottery so will one more race make that much difference? If you are unlucky enough to have the worst gate twice in your five rides, and scored poorly then it's unlikely you'd have gotten first pick in the semi's under the old system. Essentially if you are going to win one of these individual meetings, you need the luck on your side. Plus I seem to remember it taking about half an hour just for the last three races - which is why I always watched a recording if I did watch it.

Many professional riders have progressed through the amateur racing scene and it would be nice if this was recognised by the BSPA - perhaps there can be some sort of tie-up between this excellent new facility and the amateur clubs, who do offer racing opportunities for those developing their abilities and are run by volunteers, not for profit. At the moment we have to pay around £1000 to hire a track, provide all the officials and organsie all the riders and racing programme etc.

I don't really feel like we're having a debate here as you continually keep diverting the argument into a one-off versus GP issue, which is not the point both White Knight and I are making. Therefore this is the last I'll say on the subject.Referring to the last two sentences of your post, did I say Iversen was the best in the world? However, let's go with it, the evidence to support that suggestion is that he was way ahead of Holder and other GP 'stars' in both the Polish and Swedish leagues and had an excellent World Cup. What else could he have done to convince you that he had the potential to be World Champ this year if he had had the opportunity - which he didn't due to the system of selecting riders this year for next year, up to 4 of whom are for commercial reasons.

But Iversen, arguably the best rider in the world this season (number 2 in Poland and number 1 in Sweden) wasn't able to compete to be World Champion this year was he. Therefore, if you really need me to repeat what I've said yet again, it's not necessarily the best rider who becomes world champion - I don't mind that, it's this variety and unpredictability which I like. I do think though that all of them should have a chance to qualify and fight for the title in the same year.

So, NP was the top rider in Poland this year and second behind Iversen in Sweden. These are the two toughest leagues and you still think Holder was the 'best rider' last year do you? All I'm saying is that whatever system is in place, it's not necessarily the so called 'best rider' who becomes World Champion.

Disagree - for example last year I think Pedersen was the best rider, in 2004 it was Rickardsson - GP or one-off examples can be found. With your determination for the best reider to become World Champ, why are you not in favour of awarding it based upon a world ranking across the season?

Thank you for that. You still haven't answered as to why you want to turn this into a one-off vs GP debate? I have never said I wanted a return to the old World Championship style but there are plenty of other sports where the championis is decided either 'on the day' e.g. Athletics, or by not beating everyone else e.g. any sport which uses groups e.g. Football, Rugby, Badminton. Even with the speedway GP it's possible for a rider to be World Champ without beating one or more of the other riders over the entire series. If you and Gavan simply wanty the 'best' rider to be World Champion every year then simply use a World Ranking system to decide the champion, based around perfomance over the season at all other meetings. What I would like to see is more variety - when I was at Gorzow last year I was cheering, as were most of the stadium, for Zmarlik to win and he did do very well but outside of this one home rider wild card, there is no other opportunity to have this. Ideally I'd like qualifiers in the same season as the champion is decided because who's good this year maybe sh1te next year. Anyhow, I expect next year's World Champion to be either Hancock, Holder, Pedersen or Hampel

You seem to be trying to turn it into a GP versus one-off debate? And why are different winners so important?