oldace Posted November 5, 2012 Report Share Posted November 5, 2012 Take a look at the line-up circa 1995 and 1996. Much stronger: Nielsen Rickardsson Ermolenko Hamill Hancock Havelock Loram Gollob EIGHT World Champions, for starters. And that's before you mention Knudsen, Louis, Gustafsson and Screen. Much weaker line-up these days. All the best Rob Of course, but when you look back you are judging all those riders on their form at the peak of their careers, not at that particular time Ermolenko wasn't a contender by 96, Loram, although good, still hadn't made that breakthrough to world class. Gollob was only at the beginning of his career in 95, he was nowhere near the world class rider he was to become. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghostwalker Posted November 5, 2012 Report Share Posted November 5, 2012 (edited) Take a look at the line-up circa 1995 and 1996. Much stronger: EIGHT World Champions, for starters. And that's before you mention Knudsen, Louis, Gustafsson and Screen. Much weaker line-up these days. All the best Rob How many of those had actually won a World champion at the start of the '95 and '96 season? Not, Billy (won in '96), Greg ('97+'11, Mark ('00) and Tomasz ('10). So it wasn't more then four champions then which is the same as next season (and the past season). We don't know how many of next years riders that will win a title in the future. Perhaps it will turn out to be that 2013 was stronger then 1995/1996. Edited November 5, 2012 by Ghostwalker 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lucifer sam Posted November 5, 2012 Report Share Posted November 5, 2012 Forget young master Crump was also in the 1996 line-up. Make that nine world champions. All the best Rob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woz01 Posted November 6, 2012 Report Share Posted November 6, 2012 For me there are no weak links in the 2013 GP including Woffinden. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghostwalker Posted November 6, 2012 Report Share Posted November 6, 2012 Forget young master Crump was also in the 1996 line-up. Make that nine world champions. All the best Rob how do you know that 2013's lineup won't have 9 world champions? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gavan Posted November 6, 2012 Author Report Share Posted November 6, 2012 If you win a gp are you world class? Gollob won the first gp of 95 so i think he was world class though he did drop out the top 8 i believe losing to Henka in a run off at Hackney (sorry will always be hackney not london staduim to me!). Took Leigh Adams an age to win a gp same as AJ so are they not world class. Loram was world class in 95 look how he destroyed the semi final in 94 and i believe he finished world number 6 or 7 in 95? Its a good point Lucifer Sam and on achievement maybe 95/96 is better but this year does have potential Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike.Butler Posted November 6, 2012 Report Share Posted November 6, 2012 world championship final line-up 1989 Munich: Doncaster, Smith, Tatum, Wigg Brhel, Matousek, Riss, Adorjan, Maier Correy, Olsson, Shirra, Tyrvainen, Butler Nielsen, Gundersen I would wager this was one of the least inspring world finals ever..Jan O was out injured and Neilsen cruised it after beating only reeal rival Gundesren in their 1st heat..talk about a meeting not reaching any sort of climax..we knew the winner after heat 4! Was that the best the continent could come up with! how times change... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gavan Posted November 6, 2012 Author Report Share Posted November 6, 2012 Troy Butler won the NLRC the year before in 1988! And with due respect to Troy was hardly world class! Also 4 brits? How times have changed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike.Butler Posted November 6, 2012 Report Share Posted November 6, 2012 ..and out of those riding in Britain they were 3 Reading Racers 3 Oxford Cheetahs 2 Coventry Bees 1 Bradford Duke 1 Cradley Heathen 0 Poole Pirates (lol) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PHILIPRISING Posted November 6, 2012 Report Share Posted November 6, 2012 world championship final line-up 1989 Munich: Doncaster, Smith, Tatum, Wigg Brhel, Matousek, Riss, Adorjan, Maier Correy, Olsson, Shirra, Tyrvainen, Butler Nielsen, Gundersen I would wager this was one of the least inspring world finals ever..Jan O was out injured and Neilsen cruised it after beating only reeal rival Gundesren in their 1st heat..talk about a meeting not reaching any sort of climax..we knew the winner after heat 4! Was that the best the continent could come up with! how times change... AND one of the worst World Final tracks of all time (well, my time at least) as well ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike.Butler Posted November 6, 2012 Report Share Posted November 6, 2012 Agreed, and then on to a Beiekeller where i got to dance with Andy Smith when he turned up....but then the coach journey from hell back to the UK.. And did you ever read such comical english translation of the rider profiles!.....Surely the foreign GP progs have moved on a notch...I haven't my Prague one to hand at the mo.. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SPEEDY69 Posted November 6, 2012 Report Share Posted November 6, 2012 world championship final line-up 1989 Munich: Doncaster, Smith, Tatum, Wigg Brhel, Matousek, Riss, Adorjan, Maier Correy, Olsson, Shirra, Tyrvainen, Butler Nielsen, Gundersen I would wager this was one of the least inspring world finals ever..Jan O was out injured and Neilsen cruised it after beating only reeal rival Gundesren in their 1st heat..talk about a meeting not reaching any sort of climax..we knew the winner after heat 4! Was that the best the continent could come up with! how times change... That's fine but that was a world final not a GP, which is what we're talking about here. Whether or not people liked the old world finals is for another debate but they were unpredictable because everyone had to qualify. As for GPs, it's the same as any other meeting in that there have been many many dull ones on poor tracks, as well as exciting ones but next season's line up I find uninspiring because it's the same old same old as too many riders are the same as last year so it's not fresh. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The White Knight Posted November 6, 2012 Report Share Posted November 6, 2012 I've got a good suggestion for the GPs. Put some b****y DIRT on the Tracks !! ...........and no - I am not anti Dane. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gavan Posted November 7, 2012 Author Report Share Posted November 7, 2012 i cant really agree next year is uninspiring i really think its a great line up. old faces? well Hancock and Nicki and Gollob are there but they deserve to be and would you bank on any of them not challenging next year? to me the deadwood of Hans, Bjarne, Harris, Ljung and even Bjerre have gone, and with the exception of Ljung these guys best days in gps are behind them. i feel we have a great series to look forward to. If you had of asked anyone to pick the top 8 last year it was fairly straightforward with maybe Lindback the only surprise. So people name your top 8 and i reckon there will be at least 12 different riders named (not woffy) its all about opinions speedy but if we take out Hancock , Gollob , Nicki and say AJ then who should be in and would they really have a chance of being a contender? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SPEEDY69 Posted November 7, 2012 Report Share Posted November 7, 2012 I don't really have a top 8. If we simply go by averages across leagues then that will give you a top 8. I just think seeing the same old faces riding against each other year after year in a n individual event to be boring - I like speedway which has a level of unpredictability to it. The track wild cards do at least give a little bit of this - such as with Zmarlik last season. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The White Knight Posted November 7, 2012 Report Share Posted November 7, 2012 I don't really have a top 8. If we simply go by averages across leagues then that will give you a top 8. I just think seeing the same old faces riding against each other year after year in a n individual event to be boring - I like speedway which has a level of unpredictability to it. The track wild cards do at least give a little bit of this - such as with Zmarlik last season. Perhaps if EVERYONE had to go through Qualifying Rounds - things would be different. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trees Posted November 8, 2012 Report Share Posted November 8, 2012 And they should happen in the same year as a shorter, more exciting GP series ............... less is more as far as the GPs are concerned, do away with the same riders every two weeks for 24 or however many weeks it is ............ the riders need to concentrate on their league racing, where they have always earned their crust and where they can rely on getting a job once their GP dream goes out of the window, instead of having to plan for all these intense, money draining, individual meetings .......... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
5 FURROW Posted November 8, 2012 Report Share Posted November 8, 2012 And they should happen in the same year as a shorter, more exciting GP series ............... less is more as far as the GPs are concerned, do away with the same riders every two weeks for 24 or however many weeks it is ............ the riders need to concentrate on their league racing, where they have always earned their crust and where they can rely on getting a job once their GP dream goes out of the window, instead of having to plan for all these intense, money draining, individual meetings .......... Oh dear we have got it bad as usual have we got out the wrong side of the bed again sounds as though you need a chill pill or a pot of them Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haza Posted November 9, 2012 Report Share Posted November 9, 2012 And they should happen in the same year as a shorter, more exciting GP series ............... less is more as far as the GPs are concerned, do away with the same riders every two weeks for 24 or however many weeks it is ............ the riders need to concentrate on their league racing, where they have always earned their crust and where they can rely on getting a job once their GP dream goes out of the window, instead of having to plan for all these intense, money draining, individual meetings .......... as per norm anti GPs I expect nothing less . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gavan Posted November 10, 2012 Author Report Share Posted November 10, 2012 put everyone through qualifiers? dont agree with that sorry. yes it used to be like that i know but we had a lot of dead wood in most finals as the eastern block got their quota. also an injury or an engine failure could rob us of the best riders. nope sorry im all for the top 8 qualifying, and riders like Hampel deserve their place after injury. 4 wildcards and a qualifying system is fine and has insured that we have a great line up this year. who would want a qualifying system where say Holder picks up an injury and Emil has 2 engine failures and Ward has an off night and so on and so on. Would love a system where we could get Protasiewicz and Bjarne and Walasek back in the grand prix!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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