Robbie B

8 Jason Crump 7 Fredrik Lindgren 7 Michael Jepsen Jensen 6 Jarek Hampel

Thanks for that.

My memories go back to Marcg 1976 and my very first live meeting at Plough Lane. I think it cost me 50p (childs price) which include a programme to into the main grandstand at Wimbledon. I'm sure that it was 35p for the back straight. I watched the first two or races inside, so it wasn't until I went outside that the full impact of live speedway hit me, the noise and smells (I'm sure that get us hooked on the sport). Sadly no Tommy Jansson riding in this meeting as he was still recovering from a broken shoulder from an accident in Australia. No Christer Lofqvist either as he and the Wimbledon management couldn't agree on pay terms. Sad too say that he never for Wimbledon during this season, or even in the British League Division One, in the future, for any team. And against a very strong team like Reading the Dons didn't stand a chance and lost the Challenge Match 32-46, but it made no difference to me, as I was a Dons supporter from that moment on. Mind you we did get our revenge on them in September when we beat 40-38 in the league. Roger Johns became the very Wimbledon I saw win a race, at Plough Lane, and strangely he was the member of the Dons that I saw win an away heat, at White City the following Tuesday night. The moments of what happened in May that year no Dons supporter will ever forget. Extremely emotional times for our team, supporters and of course Tommy's family. All credit must go to the riders who carried on riding for the rest of the season. The 1976 season did end on a high though, as the Dons won the London Cup with a fantastic 49-29 away win over Hackney. A double header meeting in November, after the original staging was cancelled due to rain. Hackney beat White City 42-36 in the other fixture. The London Cup was decided on race points,this season. And as Hackney rode in two meetings their match points were halved to give them an overall total. Best meeting I saw I would to say in 1980 England Vs USA (1st ever official test) between the two nations.54-54 was a just result in the end. Just wished I had a real Tardis to do it all over again. Also like to add Peter Collins new track record in 1976 of 58.5secs this was in a time when sub 60secs at Plough Lane only happened now and again. Plus Scott Autrey's 58.2secs in 78 or 79 that broke this record. As I recall Scott was so far in front that he was entering the 3rd bend before the other riders were out of the 2nd. Brilliant rides by both of them.

Maybe, I have to check the Speedway Star match report. The heats details are from I file that I made several years ago listing all of Tommy Jansson's UK race heats details (not second halves) that I had on a website of mine. The website is No longer on the web.

Here are Tommy's heat details from this meeting. Heat 2 Plech, T.Jansson, Stangeland, Lomas 66.2 Heat 6 T.Jansson, Louis, Gooderham, Stangeland 66.6 Heat 9 T.Jansson, Lee, Betts, Stangeland 67.2 Heat 14 T.Jansson, Wilson, Teromaa, Stangeland 66.8 Heat 18 Thomas, Morton, Stangeland, T.Jansson 75.4 Heat 21 Davis, Stangeland, T.Jansson (f), B.Jansson (ret) 74.6

This is just a formula for 12 riders that I found on the web. I'm sure a better formula could be used. This no perfect formula that you can use. 16 riders over 20 heats all riders have a particular gate more than once. They only perfect formula is to have 4 riders racing over 16 heats using all the available gates permutations, but no-one would pay to watch that. But the idea was of showing a way that more top class riders could ride in a GP. After all everyone wants there favourite rider to be in the GPs..

People on the forum what to see the best riders contest the GP series, but with only 15 places available there will always be riders missing out. So maybe a shake-up in the GP series is needed to allow more riders to compete. This is not like the old style KO formula. And would have only requires four extra races on the night. Using 24 riders including one wild card (the SGP series seems to like them and I doubt if they will ever be disposed off). The riders would be split into two different groups depending on their GP points standings. (I’m using the standing after the Scandinavian GP). Groups are split into odd and even GP standing numbers. The top four from each group would then contest the semi finals. In the first Semi Final the first and third highest points scorers from Group A would met the second and fourth highest point scorers from Group B. In the second Semi Final the second and fourth highest point scorers from Group A would met the first and third highest points scorers from Group B. Rider who came first and second in both of the semi finals to contest the Grand Final. The points scoring for both the semis finals and grand final would be 4-3-2-1. Each group would consist of 12 heats with all riders having each gate, once only. At the end of the GP season the bottom seven riders would met the top nine from the GP qualifying final in a GP Challenge, where the top seven riders from this meeting would qualify for the following seasons GP series. As there would be no need for any current GP rider from this series to contest the qualifiers this would allow more new riders to have a chance of qualifying for the GP series. The heats could be raced one heat from Group A then from Group B etc, etc Let me know what you think of the idea. Group A 1 Chris Holder 2 Nicki Pedersen 3 Jason Crump 4 Fredrik Lindgren 5 Andreas Jonsson 6 Chris Harris 7 Bjarne Pedersen 8 Kenneth Bjerre 9 Niels-Kristian Iversen 10 Darcy Ward 11 Grigory Laguta 12 Kryzstof Kasprazak Group A Heats 1 1-2-3-4 2 6-5-7-8 3 9-10-11-12 4 5-9-1-11 5 8-3-10-6 6 2-4-12-7 7 11-1-6-3 8 10-8-5-2 9 7-12-4-9 10 4-11-8-1 11 12-6-2-10 12 3-7-9-5 Group B 13 Greg Hancock 14 Tomasz Gollob 15 Emil Sayfutdinov 16 Antonio Lindback 17 Hans Andersen 18 Jaroslaw Hampel 19 Peter Ljung 20 Martin Vaculik 21 Tai Woffinden 22 Michael Jepsen Jensen 23 Matej Zagar 24 Wild Card or Jurica Pavlic or Ryan Sullivan Group B Heats 1 13-14-15-16 2 18-17-19-20 3 21-22-23-24 4 17-21-13-23 5 20-15-22-18 6 14-16-24-19 7 23-13-18-15 8 22-20-17-14 9 19-24-16-21 10 16-23-20-13 11 24-18-14-22 12 15-19-21-17 Please note that heat formula is something that I found on the Internet it's not perfect and for that reason it just showcases the idea. Depending on the riders point scores they would be paced into Group A for odd numbers placings in the points scoring chart or Group B for all the even numbers placings in the points scoring chart for the next GP. This way both groups will change riders regularly and could add some extra excitement during the season.

King's Lynn Vs Birmingham tonight Lakeside Vs Coventry on Monday

10 Greg Hancock 9 Emil Sayfutdinov 9 Andreas Jonsson 9 Antonio Lindback

Does anyone know if Premier Sport will be showing highlights of the other Play-Off Quarter Final 1st Leg being raced tonight between Västervik vs Dackarna as Canal + will have footage of it.

Cheers I've Added Crump instead of Bomber now.

13 Greg Hancock 10 Nicki Pedersen 9 Jason Crump 9 Andreas Jonsson TEAM GB = Chris Harris & Scott Nicholls ........ 10

I hope that Smederna cone into next season's Swedish Elite League, as they are my Swedish team

Shame that the British elite league don't have a final night with all teams riding as this makes brilliant TV with all these permutations

You could be right just rewatched the race and Ljung didn't put his left foot on the track Thanks for the info

Nicely done by Ljung over Holder. Last heat decider but whoever has gate 4 has a lot of work to do. Coin toss to win the meeting.

10 Andreas Jonsson 9 Emil Sayfutdinov 7 Antonio Lindback 7 Kenneth Bjerre

Not sure about Polish qualifiers in 1973 for their four riders, have to check up on this. I know that Poland ran qualifiers for their riders for the 1970 World Final. You would have the best riders in the GPs as they are the one's that would have qualified. Maybe some surprise names but at least they would have earned their places. Not much you could do with racing surface I think, as I doubt if they would change the racing surface. Ruts happen at all tracks even though at the starting gates last night they were very deep. Totally agree with you the people who run the GP's have too much power. The old Grand Prix Challenge was great meeting, as it gave everyone a chance to qualify for next season's GP meetings. Would the crowd go down if there was no British rider in the GPs it would be disappointing not to have a British rider, but I think people will turn up and watch the meeting. And of course the meeting will still be on TV not matter what riders are in the event, so no loss of TV money there.

I know - some of the World Champions in the 1950s were. But you would still have this, with the top eight GP riders being seeded in 2013 as normal. A top seven or eight from a GP Challenge like it used to be would freshen-up the GP series every year, with every rider having to earn the place.

Sorry I have to disagree with there. I remember the day when all riders had to qualify for World Finals. Occasionally very good riders did miss the World Finals due to injury, but I also remember riders riding in severe pain just to ride in these qualifying rounds. Darcy Ward, didn't even bother with the GP qualifiers this season, so why should he have a pick in front of all the riders, that made an effort to qualify for GP's in 2013. He maybe a great rider and I would love to see him as a full-time GP rider, but surely all riders should be treated the same otherwise you have inequality.This is just my opinion. Anyway top three in the GP Challenge is unfair a rider could have a engine failure that would stop him from qualifying. Have seven places in a meeting with the bottom seven GP riders and the top nine from Groican would eliminate this problem.

They should bring back the Grand Prix Challenge as it used to be. The bottom seven from 2012 Grand Prix's should race against the top nine for the Grand Prix Challenge, in Groican, for seven or eight places in Grand Prix 2013. Anything else makes a mockery of a World Championship. Get rid of the Grand Prix 2013 picks. 2012 Grand Prix Challenge Finalist Ales Dryml (Czech Republic) Krysztof Kasprzak (Poland) Peter Ljung (Sweden) Martin Vaculik (Slovakia) Troy Batchelor (Australia) Niels-Kristian Iversen (Denmark) Davey Watt (Australia) Michael Jepsen Jensen (Denmark) Grzegorz Walasek (Poland) Adrian Miedzinski (Poland) Antonio Lindback (Sweden) Leon Madsen (Denmark) Martin Smolinski (Germany) Hans Andersen (Denmark) Matej Zagar (Slovenia) Jurica Pavlic (Croatia) wild card for the meeting most likely My top nine qualifiers are in BOLD these verses the bottom seven Grand Prix riders would make a brilliant meeting

Maybe the Premier Sports TV man don't know about Crump's broken collarbone. Ghostwalker, do you know the reason for the change in TV meting tonight?

7 Fredrik Lindgren 5 Kenneth Bjerre 4 Jurica Pavlic WC 3 Chris Harris

Tuesday's TV match looks interesting. Troy Batchelor riding at number 7 could be the key for Hammarby winning the meeting. But I will be cheering on Vargarna as they deserve some good fortune, after the season they have had. Many thanks for the updates Ghostwalker

The Speedway World Cup for 2012 is now done and dusted, for another year. So what will we remember from this years competition. Will we remember it for the way Russia won and beat Poland in their our backyard in event one - no. Will we remember it for the way Great Britain pushed the pre-tournament favourites Australia all the way in event two - no. Will we remember it for the way Denmark won the race off and knocking 2011 World Champions Poland out the competition - no. Will we remember it for the way the two Danish under 21 riders superbly performed to help their nation in the final to win the competition - no. Whether you like it or not the 2012 Speedway World Cup will be remembered in years too come, only as the final where riders deliberately stop racing, so a team couldn't gain an extra points advantage, because of this stupid joker rule. A real travesty I think. FIM please listen to the speedway riders and supporters (who pay their entrance money) no-one wants this stupid rule, so get rid of it. As the joker rule has now become a farce and the Speedway World Cup along with it.