Niclas

The speedway is better in Malilla (and that you sitting closer to the track) but its so much easier to get to Gothenburg than Malilla and the cities are not even comparable to each other. So if you plan to do something else than just speedway choose Gothenburg. And I agree with Ghostwalker about the atmosphere, it needs to be plenty of people...

As far as I know the frame is made out of aluminium, and its like Coca Cola. Noone else than AJ himself has the recipe. I think he has made them in cooperation with five different companies and has cost plenty of money...

When I went to Prague three years ago, it was heavy rain both thursday and friday. The practice was cancelled and I remember Lindback was very pessimistic about the possibilities to race at all. But the track swallowed all the water and it was a fantastic competition. If you dont mind to do some extra travelling I can recommend a couple of days in Warsaw if you going to Bydgoszcz. Its a perfect oppertunity to get some polish culture. The Palace of Culture and Science is just magnificent even if I have realised the Poles dont like it, its still a part of the history and unique building. I also recommend to visit the Castle (cool building and some really nice paintings) and the old town. And then its pretty easy to go by train from Warsaw to Bydgoszcz (3 1/2 hrs). The same if you going to Daugavpils. You have to spend a couple of days in Riga. Both The Occupation Museum of Latvia and the Castle is worth to visit. The city of Daugavpils is a kind of strange experience. It like nothing to see, just visit the big hotel, have a couple of Stolichnaya and speak a lot of speedway with fans from Denmark, England and Finland, waiting for the big day to come. So dont spend to much time i Daugavpils, spend it in Riga. By train it takes 3 hrs from Riga to Daugavpils. But I have to say that me and my family are a kind of cultural nerds. We enjoy travelling, being cultural and do some more than just drink and watching speedway.

It takes 13 minutes by train to go from the airport (Kastrup) to the centre of Copenhagen (If you coming directly you can go from the airport to the arena by the same train). If you plan to come few days before the event, it easy to go from the centralstation to the arena. From the central station (Copenhagen H) you can go by train to Osterport St, which take you 5 minutes and then you walk for 15 minutes to the arena (Parken). Even if there are 2 million people living in Copenhagen, its easy to walk more or less everywhere, or i you prefer, catch a bus.

If you want to se really good speedway I recommend Malilla, Sweden in August. The problem with Malilla is the size of the town. If you planning to stay before and after the GP, you have to stay somewhere else than Malilla because there are just around 1700 inhabitants and the accomendation in Malilla is limited. If you coming by air, choose to fly to Nykoping and then you rent a car at the airport, and go by car to Malilla (around 230 km one way). The other GP in Sweden is located in Gothenburg, the second largest city in Sweden. There is plenty of hotels and hostels and the arena is located in centre of the city. There are lot of things to do, for example visit Liseberg, the largest amusement park in Sweden, or The universeum where you can find experimental workshops, space ships, giant aquariums with rays who love to be stroked, deadly-poisonous snakes, mountain streams and a complete, Steamy Rain Forest – complete with apes, caymens, piranhas and all. The easiest way to go to Gothenburg is to catch a a Ryanairflight from London. But the speedway in Gothenburg is usually not as good as its use to be in Malilla. So far I have visited Prague, Bydgoszcz, Daugavpils, Copenhagen and Cardiff. Daugavpils is like coming to nowhere. Nothing to do except for speedway and go to the hotelbar (where everybody seems to stay). Bydgoszcz is fun because it is Poland and speedway in Poland is always an extraordinary event, but as someone else said, more bars than culture. Prague is such a wonderful city, cheap, good beers, great food, culture and the speedway was very good. Copenhagen is like Gothenburg, the arena is in the middle of Copenhagen. The city has plenty to offer (The largest city in Scandinavia). The danes are very kind, and there is lots of local places to visit (The Tivoli, Copenhagen Zoo, Experimentarium, Denmark's Aquarium or the New Carlsberg Glyptotek). The easiest way to Copenhagen is by Easyjet from London.

I believe PUK will perform better in the GP nest season than his last apperance. He is more matured and now he knows what it takes to be a GP-rider. One good thing with PUK is that he differ from the rest of danes concering the safety of the opponents on the track. PUK is very rarely involved in any crashes and as long as I know his reputation is far much better than the rest of the danes. I believe he will be able to be among the top-ten. Its great to see Lukasz back in the GP, since the horrible crash 2004, he hasnt been the same but I think he is recovering a lot as a rider and I strongly believe he still is a rider who might be even better in a couple of years. He might as well be top-ten. Comparing to PUK I believe Lukasz is much more of a "winner" than PUK. Bjarne... He hasnt done anything this year to make me happy (I would have preferred to se KB instead), but Bjarne is the one who made it. I cant see anything that will change his performance next year comparing to this year. Bjarne has been a great rider in England, he has performed well in Sweden but he´s like Holta, he isnt the man for the individual races, he might just be a great "teamracer" Lindgren will be a GP-rider nest year, not only for his performance in the swedish and scandinavian GP but for the simple fact that BSI realise there need to be two swedes in the GP. If Anton had performed better he would have been the other swede, but Lindgren is today the better of these two.

Agree, the juniorfinal last year was a great competition, it was plenty of good racing with many tight heats. I am pretty sure this year will be even better, especially when there is noone can say who is going to win. Last year it was just a question of Lindback or Lindgren. This year, THJ, Ludvig Lindgren, Billy Forsberg, Simon Gustafsson, Ricky Kling are all candidates.

Even Chris Harris scored better than Crump, 5 from 5 rides (3,2,0,0,0);-).

Ron, I totally agree. It is a human right to be the way you are, for better or worse. To be a shy, quiet lad is nothing to say about. The problem is if you behave in a bad manner so the team doesn´t work out well or ride in a careless way. I think its a pity if Bjerre is starting to get the same repuatation as some of the other danes, ´cause I dont consider him as a danger rider who is hard to deal with in a team. Mostly of the time I consider him as a entertaining rider. I guess KB will join another team in Sweden next year, I wouldnt say no if the he was willing to sign a contract with Elit Vetlanda.

As far as I have heard, the problem with Russia is the security. The idea has been that the riders buses should go as a caravan from the border to the Stadium (I guess the Grand Sports Arena of the Luzhniki Olympic Complex in Moskow with 84000 seats would be a good option), just to guarantee the safety. BUt last year I meet one of the polish GP-commentators in Latvia. She said BSI have been thinking of a race in Hungary and a smaller town in Russia. Just to invent the interest of speedway in Russia. But she was talking about 2007, and nothing happened, so the might wait another year or two, or even until Emil S is qualified

It is strange that the danes are the ones with this reputation. Hans, Nicki, Bjerre and even Bjarne is sometimes involved in crashes (Bjarne was the one who sent Zagar of the track in the Copenhagens GP). Someone said once that ride and kill is the danish way of speedway (note: my translation).

In the last round of the swedish elitserien Piraterna met Smederna. In the first heat Bjerre and Kosiecha met Kasprzak and Buczkowski. Kasprzak won the start followed by Kosiecha and Bjerre. In the third corner Bjerre was trying to pass Kosiecha on the inside, but Kosiecha didnt notice Bjerre and tried to go at the inside as well. The result was that Bjerre more or less ride into Kosiecha who lost his balance and went straight out in the fence. Kosiecha was very unlucky and broke the same arm as he hade broken just a few months ago. Plenty of the fans of Piraterna are very upset about Bjerre way of riding and have declared they dont want to see Bjerre in the Piraterna-team anymore. The teammanager has asked Bjerre to make a call to Kosiecha and ask him how he is doing but Bjerre refuse to that. According to the media Bjerre doesnt think he is the one to blame for this incident. So the teammanager has decided to dropp Bjerre from the team for the next race. There is also some discussion that Bjerre has been problematic to deal with in the team, that he has been in conflicts with other teammates. You can have a look at the accident on: http://svt.se/svt/play/video.jsp?a=884873 However, my question is Does Bjerre has a reputation in England of being careless on the track or hard to deal with?

Tarabanko, Im afraid its going to be Oz & Poland but I give Sweden a shot anyway. But AJ, Lindgren & Davidsson have to go for superb competition , and PK & Max have to make a decent performace. So Sweden & Poland makeit to the final.

I think that is a good option if you want to win the semifinal. I am pretty sure the Swedes will be hard to deal with, especiallt after the poor appearances the swedes have been up to lately in the league.. But even if the swedes havent been in bad shape in the Elite League, they always get better when they perform as a team. And I am pretty sure that Lindbäck & Davidsson want to show the public that they are better than their last performances. So I believe this semifinal will be a tough fight between Sweden & GB, but I believe Sweden turns out as winners

It is nice to see that AUS is giving Holder a chance to prove that he is a man for the Aussie team, and the semifinal is the right place to give him a try, if Holder fails Watt will replace him in the race-off and final.