spanner47

I had the pleasure of that meeting last year. The french championships in the afternoon plus various other races of all shapes and sizes, and the main event in the evening. My advice is this, stay at the campanile in marmande, it's easy to find from the track <turn right out of track and head east for about 6 miles>, you'll also be near and handy when you want to leave the meeting and go back later. Last year there was a 3 hour gap where nothing much happened apart from a bit of practice. The track is fairly unique, well banked, and up and down a bit. The stadium is basic, grass bank on 2nd bend and halfway up the back straight, then fairly rough terrain for the rest of the straight and 3rd bend, nowt on home straight. The worst bit was it dragged on and on and on, the last race was eventually over at about 1am, they then had all the presentations <god knows how long that took>. We could see from the itinerary on the website it was going to be a long day, as we were hand luggage we made the sensible decision to take 2 bin liners, we then got the spare pillow and blanket out of the hotel room and made a nice cushion. I've never known a meeting with so many 10-15 minute gaps, but it was an enjoyable and interesting experience and i would certainly recommend it <despite it faults>. One other thing, buy at least 3 programmes, anybody who can figure out what the hell was going on in the afternoon is a far better man than i, even the french championship bore no resemblence to the programme. If you do go, have fun and let us know what you thought.

Pointless releasing a line up when you're almost certain a few will cry off with "injuries". I notice 2 of the polish meetings start early on sunday at 3pm, wouldn't be surprised if some of them have booked saturday flights, safe in the knowledge an excuse can be found not to turn up. At least ippo have done the right thing from the start, and are fielding a 2nd rate pair.

Hi petteri. Went there for the world junior final 2 years ago, like yourself got a cheap flight to bergamo and drove, i tend to book with travelsupermarket.com these days, the quotes include C.D.W., and sometimes that can be as much as the car cost in the first place. No probs with hotels in the town on the morning of the meeting, racing wasn't up to much, inside line all night, when lindback tried to go wide he just went backwards, so the rest of them just huddled on the white line hoping for a mistake.

Thanks Mr E, Very informative. I read a while ago that moscow has now overtaken tokyo as the most expensive city in the world to visit. I'm told the mafia are in charge there these days.

T.P.Tours had a trip planned for russia last season, but due to lack of numbers it was cancelled. I know of 4 people <who usually travel independently> who had hoped to go. If Mr Easter is reading this, could he inform us of why he thinks people weren't interested. Was it the cost? Or didn't folk trust the russian league to gaurantee the fixtures. Or does he think people just didn't fancy russia. Would love to know, as i've never known a T.P.T. trip cancelled before.

Not too sure if russia will ever follow ukraine and drop the visa requirement, would certainly attract more visitors if it did. A friend looking at going to the champions league final in moscow this season reckoned £92 for the visa. If you live in london or edinburgh and can do it by hand, then it's cheaper. But it's certainly something that would put me off.

I think "no concessions" kept most people away. But i'm glad it went ok for all those that did turn up.

The early birds will be the ones who have forked out for a seat, as most of us know, if you're not in the front 2 rows viewing is awful in that dilapidated old shack. I tried to get a good view for the elrc the other year, but the locals had got there really early and reserved all the decents seats for thier friends, it was like the germans with the sunbeds scenario. But i hope the weather stays fine for all those going, and the meeting lives up to expectations.

I'm not going to upset Petteri by putting norway fixtures on his finnish news. But as norway hardly deserves a thread of it's own, they can be found at elganemk.no and a few other places no doubt.

Another easy one is copenhagen. There's a train station in the airport, this takes you to the main station, just book hotel near the station and when you get there pop into tourist info, get a map and it's a pleasant 40 min walk to stadium. No need for buses, trams or taxis, it couldn't be easier. But if you want to make a long weekend of it and sample the delights of the area, then prague and lonigo are as good as any, as boggle says, stay in verona <lovely city> and also give yourself a spare day to got to venice.

If it was just about a few quid then no problem. Lets take the german g.p. for example. Last year i drove and total cost of weekend <transport,hotel and best tickets in the stadium> came to £85 each. Those who flew told me they paid £120 if they stayed one night, or £140-£150 for 2 nights. Looking at tpt prices, when you add on expensive seat you'll pay £600 per couple extra. All you get for that is one more night in hotel and a nice coach to take you around. Some people on here say travelling with tpt cuts out the hassle, very true, but how much hassle are you expecting for £600 per couple? You go online and book flight, then book hotel <try and get one near a station makes live easier>, then all you have to do is get from flughafen-bahnhof-hotel-stadion. If one of these is a problem then get a cab, even if you end up paying £100 in cab fares, you'll still be £500 better off per couple. No twominutewarning, i dont only think about money, but lets face it, what would you rather pay? P.S. Nice to see the tpt brochure has got the dates right this year.

We also enjoyed our trip to slany, but we paid £1 each way on train <bus £1-70 return>. £1-25 to get in, including grandstand seat, and if we'd wanted a meal we can easily get one for a fiver, with the choice of a whole menu. I think we got the better deal.

Fully agree with each to their own, but these extra trips should be included. 2 years ago those poor sods with TPT were charged £25 to get to slany on the friday, those of us that just hopped on a bus or train got there for under £2. I noticed in last years brochure some of these trips were included, probably because most of us there made sure the TPT crowd heard how much it really cost. But well done to mr easter, he's found a market where people are stupid enough to pay 2-3 times as much as rest of us, and he'd be an idiot not to exploit it.

Agree the racing was crap, but the whole weekend cost £90 each, which included the best seat i've ever at a stadium. Right on top of pits, A.J. and Nicki to our right and Leigh and Hans to our left, it certainly made up for the poor fare on the track. Wont go again but can only feel sorry for the folks that paid £40-£60 on the home straight, the £30 ones on the back straight were the best if you booked very early like we did.

Seems like they'll be a gaggle of forum members in D2, we're row 1 seats 1&2.

Matej Kus? Didn't he have a bad crash at glasgow 2 weeks ago?

Got to agree, the poles will probably walk it. We should finish second, hopefully tomicek and sitera will give us a run for our money. Cant see the germans doing much, even though it's a home track. We're doing this one on the cheap, a day return to salzburg and grab a car, only 2 hour drive.

At the time most of us non-danes on the 2nd bend thought all4back or freddie excluded. after seeing the reply umpteen times i can only assume bates excluded KB as freddie was in front of him at the moment of impact. For those who didn't see the TV, KB fell when his handlebar got caught under the rear wheel guard of freddie's bike. Very harsh decision but it seems if a ref wants to get on in the world of gp's, he must exclude someone wherever possible, where as in league meetings it's all4back.

Thats not the only problem with that cardiff central travelodge, the bloody noise is very loud until about 4am, we'll never stay there again. Maybe we were unlucky and got on the wrong side of the hotel, but i certainly wouldn't recommend it to light sleepers.

Ok, i will too but not in tobi's heat.

Just be told from the track that A.J. will ride and captain the side.

Thanks for optimistic posting rob, i was dreading another 21 heats of that when i go to the g.p. qualifier in september.

Cheers for the info petteri, looks like we've picked a good weekend for our first taste of finnish speedway. See you there.

I've always been searched at gate 1. So i just shove all the booze down my sleeves, secure them with rubber bands and throw jacket over shoulder. Dont know why but when i've stood back and watched from various points of the stadium gate1 always appears to be the worst for security.