lucifer sam

Yeah, we do have different perspectives of that weekend. For me, it was special, simply because it was my first foreign final, and of course, as you mention, we had Hans Nielsen to cheer on. The Saturday night meeting was definitely the better for racing, which was just as well, the way Hans was trapping that night. Even Mort gated in front of him. I think he had problem with his clutches, but still scored 12 points to keep himself in the mix. I do remember the Saturday night being a really cracking meeting. I think there was some decent races on the Sunday afternoon as well, although only John Cook gave Hans any kind of race. But, to also answer Grachan's point, the place wasn't heaving, but I already knew from Bradford 1985 that every final couldn't live up to Wembley 1981 (my first World Final) in terms of atmosphere. By the time we reached 1990, I realised how good a venue Bradford was for a World Final. But I think all the British fans were in a big cluster at Amsterdam and therefore there was a pretty good atmosphere in the stadium. The one that was really a damp squib (literally) was Vojens in 1988, where the bus took the wrong turning, got there less than a hour before the meeting and we ended up stood in a big puddle! Vojens wasn't fit for a World Final. Never gone back there again! And then you had Munich, which was a magnificent stadium, had the perfect result for us Oxford fans BUT it wasn't really racing was it? Amsterdam was my favourite of the foreign finals that I attended (there was also Gothenburg in 1991). It was great that it wasn't 20 heats and then bang, it was over. It's no coincidence, that when I started going to Assen, I continued going for a good few years. Again, you were getting two meetings rather than one (three if you included the international meeting on the Friday. featuring the best non-Grand Prix riders), and that's always an attraction to visiting fans. Maybe the two-day final should have been repeated somewhere like Gothenburg or Wroclaw and then fans would have got a real feel of how well it worked.

Never? Would it interesting to go back and check but I would say the winner did have the most points in at least two-thirds of cases. And every other motorsport offers points PER RACE. In F2, separate points are awarded for both the feature race and the sprint race. Likewise, British Touring cars awards championship points for each of the three races per round. A Speedway Grand Prix has 23 races and was awarding points for each of them, in line with other motorsports. It is now the outlier in not doing that. If you want to give the final greater emphasis, go back to 6-4-2-0 for the final. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. The worst thing the new points system will produce hasn't even happened yet. It's when riders, having already qualified for the semis, manipulate the results to stop their rivals from getting through and speedway is then accused of being corrupt. It's most likely to happen in the last couple of rounds.

FIM need to get tougher and make qualifying on Friday nights compulsory. Any rider failing to do so is banned - while no Federation is allowed to take sanctions against riders taking in an official practice. It's not like there aren't enough other Fridays in the season. If the Federation continues to offend, it receives a heavy fine and has sanctions taken against them - maybe that Federation has receives no wildcard nominations for five years. Stop the tail from wagging the dog.

It does make an awful lot of sense. I never understood all the negativity over the two-day 1987 World Final. It was the first time we'd travelled abroad for a final and loved that it was over two days rather than one, and we got to see 40 races instead of 20.

It was changed to the knockout formula in 1998, when they extended the series to 21-22 riders (plus 2-3 wildcards). It was also open to manipulation, with riders dropping points in the final outing to prevent another rider taking part in the A Final. That's what was good about the "every point counts" scoring system - it cut manipulation almost completely out.

The exact format and scoring for 1996 and 1997.

The problem is us anoraks will quickly adapt to the scoring system - e.g. it wasn't that hard for me to work out the points last night, as much as I think the new system is daft. It's the more general fans which won't understand the new points system e.g. how a rider can score 6 points in his races and yet end up with 8 Grand Prix points. It's really weird, having two different sets of points, and throws speedway out of kilter from almost every other motorsport where points are scored per race.

Remind me, is it OneSport taking over? If so, the European Championship has retained the "every point counts" system.

Yup, plus the pressure of winning the final and therefore the Grand Prix and standing at top of that podium at the end of the night. If Bellamy thinks riders are happy to sit back in second place in the final, he needs to go back and watch some of the finals from the last few years. When the Managing Director of BSI is so out of touch with the fan base, maybe a change is required.

F1 has 1 race per event, F2 has 2 races per event, British Touring Cars has 3 races per event, a Speedway Grand Prix has 23 races per event. Each used to award points per race - speedway is now the odd one out.

On the contrary, in F2, points are awarded in EACH race - in the feature race on the Saturday and the sprint race on Sunday. In the British Touring Car series, if there's three races, points are awarded for each of them. Same in virtually every motorsport discipline - points are awarded in every race. Speedway has now gone out on a limb.

OK, two examples: Laguta has 14 points entering the semi-finals. His reward for taking a further two wins is another 6 points. Lindgren has 7 points entering the semi-finals. His reward for a second and a third is another 9 points. That's nuts! If it ain't broke, don't fix it with a sledgehammer!

Hmm, yes. Another reason it's not a good idea.

All four gates are winning races.

Laguta might as well not come out in his next two and save the engine for the semis! Point scoring system is utter cr*p.

Spot on

It's all inclusive. Most National League tracks charge £14, plus a couple of quid for the programme. The price is for admission, programme and parking. At how many tracks could you do all of those for £15.50? It's 19 heats and nine riders per team.

Outright seventh for Jordan, then. Might have to amend the Scunny site, although I'd already used a little artistic licence in placing him ahead of the other riders on seven points and ignored any heat wins, etc

So does that count even if the referee got them the wrong way around?

Driving through a country is fine. Stopping to refuel and pay by card at the pump is fine. As long you don't stop and socialise.

AND was only one of two riders to beat Kenny Carter in the 1984 British Final!

So, do you honestly think that people inside their own vehicles can somehow catch the virus? How exactly?

The fact they had a run-off for eight (right to be first reserve?) bodes well for Palin.

Yeah, not sure, but I think he might have made it through!

Yes, the updates seemed to come to a halt.