barrow boy

They would have been practising on it all week so they would have their bikes set up perfectly. Should be different next time.

Sorry. Silly me.

I just want to add my support to those who have praised Frederick Lindberg for his great evasive action. In the past I will admit that I have sometimes been critical of FL's riding style, especially between the start and the first turn but last night his couragous effort certainly prevented a serious injury to someone.

I was going to start a new thread with this in mind but instead I will simply say in response to your above comment. Yes Yes Yes please let's have it this way. It is totally unfair for any rider eho finishes 4th in either the semi finals or the final to leave empty handed. Come on organisers change it for next season please.

My first reaction was that TG had definitely taken away AJ's left leg but having looked at it again I am of the view that realizing that his leg was being touched he moved it out of the way causing him to lose balance. If he had not moved it he may have been seriously hurt. What was he to do? If it had happened on the first corner most referees would have allowed a restart but as it was not then he had to disqualify someone. Perhaps in such instances it would be fairer to allow a rerun with all 4 especially if the referee himself is unsure.

Correct. There used to be a small marker post placed on the grass on the infield between the gate and the first turn. Any rider seriously deviating from a straight line before this marker was deemed to be the cause of an unsatisfactory start and the race was usually stopped and rerun with all 4 riders. If however such an offence caused an accident the offending rider was liable to be disqualified and excluded from the rerun irrespective of the option of the so called first bend bunching allowance.

My original topic opening post will explain Bruno

I somewhat agree with your first point but by allowing the top 2 to go straight to the final they would not have to race off again to qualify. By allowing the 3rd and 4th highest scores to go staight to the second semi final their job is easier than the 5th to 8th who would be required to race off twice to qualify making their job much more difficult than those who scored more than them.

I think each GP must have a final and I also think that the winner should gain the most points. I would also welcome the KO system back but yes with less riders who should be given at least 4 rides somehow in the meeting. Going back to my original post however with the present format I think the top point scorers deserve to be given preference when the KO stage has been reached.

Should the top 2 qualifiers from the qualifying heats go straight to the final with the 3rd & 4th going into the 2nd Semi Final who then race off for the 2 remaining final places against riders 5 to 8 in a first semi final.

Cannot see RH finishing last though. By using the same maxim I decided NP should win, Rh was the third best rider in the final 5 2009 GPs.

I am a fan of MZ and on his GP qualifier gritty performance I see no reason why he should not competitive. This year's lineup does look stronger this time but I do not think he will be out of his depth. He may well not be challenging for a top 8 finish but I do not think he will finish last.

If last year's title had been decided over the last 5 GPs the winner would have been NP so if this trend continues in 2010 then I see no reason why NP should not win his 4th championship,

Agreed. he did the job on the night by beating some more fancied rivals but he only had to do it once in the final because he did not have to qualify via the qualifiers and semis. Why was this incidentally?

What I originally said was that I would like to see all riders who have won at least 1 GP being invited back who this year are the top 6 finishers. Add to these the next 4 and the top 5 finishers in the GP Challenge final who include one rider who has pre qualified giving the final place to the 6th best finalist who was Chris Harris. Simple really and only my thoughts on being fair allround. I know this won't happen because it is not the rules but I am just conveying my own personal wishes for how it ought to be done. This way everyone properly qualifies on merit.

Exactly. Then Harris would be in on merit

But if the GP quality invited wild cards are riders such as Zagar, Lindback etc didn't they also enter the GP Challenge competition and didn't they fail to even reach the final so why should they get prefence over riders that did.

It's not about whether I think he is GP quality or not, he has in my opinion done enough to be there because he has earned his place by trying to qualify in the required manner. Anyway there are one or two others in my list that could be considered not to be GP quality by some but if they deserve to be there then they deserve to be considered to be GP quality if only for the moment. Thank you for your taking the time to discuss this matter, I have enjoyed our chat.

Because on the night other than Zetterstrom, Holder & Hampel who all qualified by right and Lindgren & Protazeiwicz who I have put in, Harris was the next highest scorer i.e better than all the others who you quite rightly say were also trying to qualify.

He got through to the GP Challenge Final and finished the next in line after Protaziewicz so having made the effort to qualify by right I think he should be in.

Fairest way to go is to invite all riders who have won at least 1 GP this year for a start. I feel that to win a GP should be enough to earn a place next time. I would then fill up to 10 places from the current GP Series' finishing order with the remaining 5 places coming from the GP Challenge Final. For 2010 we would then have the following:- Crump Gollob Sayfutdinov Hancock Pedersen N Jonsson Bjerre Holta Lindgren Andersen Zetterstrom Holder Hampel Protasiewicz Harris All of them being in on merit

If Crump does enough to clinch his 3rd title he is certainly being asked to do it the hard way having been drawn to ride in the dreaded number 1 slot. No one has won this year from number 1 and the total points amassed by the previous 10 incumbent's is 75 at an average of 7.5 per GP. Olsen will now of course decide how well he does by how much water he has put down after every 4 heats. Would it not be better if the meeting wild card always got the number 1 draw leaving the other positions available to the more important riders.

I agree that the reigning British Champion should be the one if a pick is forthcoming and I agree that it should be Harris on current form and reliability etc but I should just like to ask if in fact it is not Richardson who is the highest averaged British rider.

I agree with the previous posters who have critised the racing surfaces and the same old dross fair that is being offered. I would like to see some different riders from time to time also. Would it be possible in future to have all those riders that do not qualify for the semi finals race off against 8 others in a qualifying event before each next GP with the top 7 joining the previous GP's semi finalists. Those that did not pre qualify and also did not get through the qualifier to be included in the next lot of 8 to try the next time and so on.

If there has to be a British permanent wild card then it should be the reigning British Champion