IainB

Like we all used to laugh in the days before the GP when a lot of places in the world final were taken by mediocre riders from the eastern bloc through the continental final?

It's not a matter of getting home 5-10 minutes earlier, for me it's the flow of the meeting and keeping punters interested. If I wanted to stand around and look at an empty track or tractor racing I'd go to the countryside and look at a field... It's a hell of a lot cheaper!!

Made my first visit to Leicester this season last night and what a load of rubbish! The 2 and a half hours it took to run this meeting made even Coventry's presentation look slick. Numerous restarts, riders heading straight to the pits after each, boring racing, all the dirt being scraped off the track (twice!), R/R, two riders on the trot, Interval, riders messing about at the start line for an eternity... I could go on about how to put all this right... but why bother? Nobody listens or does anything about it... So I just won't go again, as simple as that And I only live a mile down the road. Cardiff will probably be my last Speedway meeting this year

...and now it's stopped

Jesus! And I thought British crowds were bad!!

you mean they're liars?

well done Trumpy... it takes a big man to apologise, especially when what he said was bang on the mark. I imagine the hairdresser is mincing about his salon waving it about with glee

Congrats to Gollob - genius! Also let's not forget last nights other winner... Leigh Adams regaining his title of best rider to never win a world title

was going to go... now off to Stoke instead

FIM bottled it then

Anybody know if they're using the new silencers?

I hope Ben Barker doesn't qualify for cardiff as It's more entertaining reading about his antics in the crowd on the forums

Well what a surprise! It was actually a very entertaining meeting with some good tussles on track. A prize worth winning and in my opinion a million times better than the PLRC last weekend which really was quite boring. Perhaps the BSPA can now build on tonights meeting and put the ELRC back at the top of the domestic calendar where it belongs. Also perhaps the BSPA ought to think about barring any rider that drops out of this meeting without a genuine reason from having a testamonial/benefit/farewell meeting when the time comes as they'll expect riders and fans to turn up to support that. Well done to Leigh Adams who has always been a good servant to the British Leagues

£25! forget it

I did that myself a few weeks back when the poole arena match overran... all I got was the overrun bit instead of the whole thing, even though I had recorded the whole thing. As soon as it started to overrun into the next program it over wrote the original recording

quote from Sully's website Ryan said: "Boyce told me Crump wanted me off the team because my face didn't fit. So I agreed to stay home to keep the team happy and I wished them luck! Boyce also admitted he gave me the worst draw in Peterborough with twice gate 3 every track grade. I don't think if they want me to ride in the final, but if they do, I'am ready to race for Australia!"

but the danes, swedes and poles all move on to ride in the swedish and polish leagues (acknowledged as the strongest leagues) out of our lot who rides regularly in these leagues and more importantly how well do they do?

Well I saw that coming... on the back of last years performance in the final, which is why I stayed at home, this was always on the cards. Lynch made a terrible error for me by announcing before the competition had even started that Allen and Stead wouldn't be riding any further on in the competition. Blame the track, the engine setup, gating or the riders inability to raise their game... any of the usual stuff but for me it's been the gradual deteriation of the standard of the so called "Elite League" over the last 5 or 6 years that has left us in the state we are in today, christ! none of our boys could even win a race in the GP's until they were on home soil. The Elite has now been watered down to the standard of the Premier League which was shown tonight by the fact that Premier riders were beating our boys! Maybe good for close league matches (this year only) but a disaster internationally. Just look at heat 13 line ups from Coventry over the last few weeks Heat 13: Adams, harris, Schlein, McGowan Heat 13:Pedersen, Holder, Swiderski, Burza Heat 13: Harris, Crump, Stead, Screen Heat 13: Jonsson, Harris, Davidsson, Stead Heat 13: Pedersen, Harris, Holder, Stead Heat 13: Crump, Schlein, Stead, Screen Heat 13: Stead,Hampel,Schlein,Miskowiak Heat 13: Nicholls. Stead. Schlien. Kennett It wasn't so long back that you could expect to see Rickardsson, Loram, Hamill Hancock riding in heat 13 with all of them at the top of their game, even the commentators used to say the lineup would grace the final of a Grand Prix, and out of that lot since the start of the season we've only seen maybe 1 of the riders in the race in a GP final if we're lucky. A lot of foreigners maybe, but if our boys are not riding against the best how are they supposed to beat the best? Havvy for England manager!! ... Will the last one out of the Elite League please turn the lights off

taken from www.speedwaygp.com The FIM Scandinavian Grand Prix was postponed on Saturday night due to problems with the track that made racing impossible at the Ullevi Stadium, Gothenburg. The rescheduled date of the event is next Saturday, August 30th at 1900h. John Postlethwaite, Chief Executive, Benfield Sports International, rights holders of the world championship series, said: “From a racing point of view it was the only decision we could make. It is not fair to decide a world championship on a track like we had tonight. There were mitigating circumstances and mistakes made and the rain on Thursday and Friday combined with the cancellations of practice exacerbated the problems we had. If we had had practice on Friday we would have been aware of the problems earlier and been able to take earlier action. “I have noted that SVEMO, the Swedish federation, have taken public responsibility for the poor state of the track but this of little consolation to the speedway public at large. “The people I feel most devastated for are the fans who have put a lot of energy into supporting us and speedway’s revival. This will only make me more determined to make sure that none of these problems will ever arise again. I would like to apologise to everybody and I hope that we are able to put a meeting to be proud of on a new track surface here at Ullevi next weekend." Anyone who cannot make it back to Ullevi next weekend will be fully refunded with both the ticket price and stadium booking fees. The track was prepared by SVEMO, whose spokesperson Rolf Sundberg admitted at the press conference immediately after the event that mistakes had been made. FIM Race Director, Ole Olsen, whose track building team have been responsible for the excellent surface at PARKEN Stadium, Copenhagen, this year, will take over the responsibility for preparing a suitable race surface for the world championship event next Saturday night. Tickets for tonight’s event (August 23) will be valid for the Grand Prix next Saturday (August 30). Those unavailable to attend next weekend’s event can obtain a full refund at Scandinavium’s ticket office or from point of purchase from Monday August 25 at 10am or alternatively send tickets back to: Got Event AB, Ticket Office Box 349, 401 24 Gotheburg. With your name, address, telephone number and bank account details for money transfer refund. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ LOOKS LIKE OLE STAYS !

Olsen couldn't even perpare his OWN track for the World Cup FINAL. These one off tracks have always been dodgy and I seem to remember last years track at this same stadium being dry dusty and rutted a complete pudding of a track was bound to happen sooner or later and they've been lucky it hasn't happened until now

Stupid & Selfish