IainB

Well, so much to say, and most of it bad. Most of it has already been said, so I won’t re-tread over old ground in great detail but at least reading most of the posts on here during SGP2 kept me entertained more than anything going on inside the stadium. Getting in was not as bad as I feared it may have been so that was a bonus The crowd was clearly very disappointing, I would say the lowest ever at Cardiff The reasons behind that are probably many and have already been discussed but I’ll throw in the absence of the World Champ + Emil and Bartek being the runaway leader making it less of a sporting event. It’s clear that different people go for different reasons, I think it’s fair to say the Speedway purist did not enjoy Saturday night, for me I enjoyed it as an event with the icing on the cake seeing Dan win the thing but that was about the only thing I enjoyed about it, maybe it was the heat and/or the lack of oxygen inside the arena but I did feel a bit “funny” while I was in the stadium. I’ve been to every GP at Cardiff, the track has always been a bit dodgy, but has steadily got better over the years, Saturday night took us back 20 years. Whether it’s the calibre of rider competing today I don’t know? I think Phil Morris has come in for a lot of unfair criticism, as far as I am aware he’s responsible for the running of the Speedway meeting, timings, track grading, watering etc. Discovery Events seem to have subbed this whole event out, the actual GP itself to Paul Bellamy’s company and he in turn the track to Ole Olsen’s track laying company, there are too many fingers in the pie. You’d hope there’s some pretty high-level meetings going on this morning. Sunday’s meeting was very much an after the Lord Mayors show affair, I wandered in, didn’t even have to show my ticket and although a great experiment to hold the SGP2 at the same venue as the SGP, I think it was a failed experiment and I doubt we’ll see it again. As for the debate on whether the event should stay at the Principality, absolutely YES! It’s a no brainer, look at where it’s come from, Hackney to Coventry to Cardiff, that’s not to say I wouldn’t want to also see one at the NSS. You look at the demographic in the Cardiff crowd and it’s very different to that you see at a league meeting. It’s more akin to a Polish Crowd (I know a lot of them are) but this is exactly the demographic Speedway in this country needs to attract. I thought the whole presentation of the event on Saturday was just lacking, no innovation which there has always been in previous years at Cardiff... even the Champions Parade before the meeting was a half arsed affair and the much trumpeted (get your cameras ready!) light show at the start, reminded me of Telford! Finally, what a great result for British Speedway with Super Dan winning the event, it washed away much of the disappointment with the rest of the event. The lad should be a Superstar and you can easily see him going on to dominate the series in the years to come. I fear Tai’s days as a contender are over, I hope not, but he’s not really shown anything for a few years now, he seems to spend a lot of his time appearing to try and be cool and it’s all a bit of an act, where as Dan is the real deal and is genuinely cool. It’s just a shame that if you do a Google search for Dan Bewley his victory barely gets a mention and even Ronnie O’Sullivan’s attendance pops up in the results… and he very much seems contractually obliged to be there! All in all, it was generally rubbish but finished brilliantly... see you next year, in fact I've just bought my ticket, £22.50

Are you actually Ole Olsen? If so your final comment would explain a lot

Easily fixed... just fix brake lights to the bikes (and before you reply... yes I know)

Well, that's one on the attendance for next year... all we have to do now is get him to pay for a ticket

They were running GP's behind closed doors not so long back

Seen enough of this crap... I'm off home! It'll probably still be on and I can catch the end

It's more relevant than points scored from each gate as you don't always get the points from gating (except for Cardiff, where you do)

Why wasn't he wearing his Lions top

Is that where these lads come from?

We've pumped a lot of resources into our junior programme though, we know the Danes and Poles do and to some extent the Swedes, just wondering if the Czechs do, you get the feeling by watching them at the SoN2 that they don't

Where have all these young Czechs come from? Do they have a big junior programme like the "Big" Speedway nations?

We are in a good mood today

This track usually struggles to handle 1 practice and 1 GP... Asking 2 practices and 2 GP's from it, in hindsight was a bit of a gamble

If it is... and they're now out after heat 2, I'll be blowing it out early, i can see this at Leicester!

It's very steamy in here... people understandably don't really want to be sitting next to other bodies

Even if the track is bad, should still be better than it was in Prague... hopefully the kids will just do as their told and get on with it

How many people do you need to start a riot... I'm not sure we have enough here

Gusts injured in practice apparently, replaced by Drew Kemp... sounds like the track is going to be fun again... could be a long one

Dear God, will this ever end?

Hmm... https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/often_wrong,_never_in_doubt#:~:text=often wrong%2C never in doubt (not comparable),that is impervious to failure.

Fair play to them for their support... but what is this Never in Doubt all about... as @Racin Jason 72 says it does come across as arrogant

I'm just wondering what is never in doubt?

When did Lebedevs get the nod for this? Sat in the pits on Max Fricke's bike with zero kit around him!

It can be summed up in three words: Never In Doubt

Well done Redcar, solid pairing... Never In Doubt