Warsaw Gp Saturday 18th April

[Ghostwalker]

The initiative to have the riders meeting came from Nicki and Greg,

 

Nicki also says that the organizers have shown previously that they can make these types of temporary tracks but that it requires more "supervision".

He also said that it is rumoured that the organizers tried to use a new type of shale material for this event.

 

Det var fynske Nicki Pedersen og den regerende verdensmester, Greg Hancock, USA, der tog initiativ til det køremøde, der resulterede i, at sæsonens første VM-speedwaygrandprix lørdag aften i

den polske hovedstad, Warszawa, blev aflyst efter kun 12 kørte heat. Greg (Greg Hancock, red.) og jeg samlede de øvrige kørere, og der var enighed om, at vi ikke ville køre.

 

- Nej. Arrangørerne har før vist, at de godt kan anlægge de midlertidige baner. Der må bare mere opsyn til. Og så går rygterne også på, at de forsøgte sig med en ny type belægning i Warszawa.

 

 

http://www.fyens.dk/sport/Nicki-Pedersen-Jeg-vil-ikke-slaas-til-lirekassemand/artikel/2697269

https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=sv&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fyens.dk%2Fsport%2FNicki-Pedersen-Jeg-vil-ikke-slaas-til-lirekassemand%2Fartikel%2F2697269&edit-text=

Edited April 18, 2015 by Ghostwalker

[Starman2006]

How long have the powers that be had to organise this ??? Biggest farce going.

[Jacques]

CANNOT defend the indefensible ln his occasion but need to calm down before making any further comment other than heads must surely roll now given that lessons we were promised would be learned quite plainly have not..

 

Can't wait...

[Midland Red]

Starting gates do fail - that's a given, seen it many times over the years

But track surface - that's much more serious, and if I recall an earlier post on this thread, there's one,and only one, person responsible for track preparation - and its failure - and that is Ole Bl@@dy Olsen

And the one he built for himself - Vojens - isn't particularly brilliant

The rest of the blame goes to the greedy b@st@rds who insist in laying Micky Mouse tracks inside some wonderful stadia, instead of using real speedway tracks, albeit in lesser quality surroundings

Edited April 18, 2015 by Midland Red

[Jacques]

CANNOT defend the indefensible ln his occasion but need to calm down before making any further comment other than heads must surely roll now given that lessons we were promised would be learned quite plainly have not..

 

Can't wait...

[Fromafar]

We have just to forget it took place.(as usual when there is a problem at speedway meetings) just turn up next meeting as though nothing happened!!

[markyb]

Meridian lifts ! Holy moly - great baptism of fire.

Sure you glad to be associated with failure ! Money well spent - guess not.

You be looking for a new marketing manager come Monday morning ?

 

 

.

[E I Addio]

We have just to forget it took place.(as usual when there is a problem at speedway meetings) just turn up next meeting as though nothing happened!!

Except that each time a few less turn up.

[2ndBender]

Fifty one years ago yesterday, I saw my very first Speedway meeting - the first match at Somerton Park, Newport. Tonight, I finally lost interest. Following a long, slow, painful illness, Speedway is finally dead. At one point during tonight's dreadful proceedings, I switched over to Britain's Got Talent, and saw a man firing a cloth dummy 20 feet out of a home-made cannon. It was difficult to tell which channel was the most entertaining.

[SCB]

But did you have a bet on that?

I did during play Also bet on Holder under and AJ under 5. Sadly my KK under 9 has been void and my Doyle vs Holder - both of which looked good. Also bet on Woffy and lost that but made a tidy profit tonight

[uk_martin]

CANNOT defend the indefensible ln his occasion but need to calm down before making any further comment other than heads must surely roll now given that lessons we were promised would be learned quite plainly have not.

 

I dare say that the War Room at Speedway Star Towers is now a seething hotbed of activity with plans being made to investigate the matter down to the the "n"th degree.

 

The meeting rooms will be busily hosting crash refresher courses for all the journalists on how to ask a searching question.

 

Strategies will be hatched on how to excuse the British Referee, the British Race Director, the British shale supplier and the British Promotions company, and how to blame those pesky Poles for all that is wrong with the world.

 

Can't wait to see what comes of all this.

[oldtimer]

What a complete farce, once again speedway has shown what an amateur run sport it is and will never be taken seriously by the media. Did they not test the gate before the meeting started, did they not have spare starting equipment and magnets, it beggars belief. Nobody seemed to be in charge or willing to make a decision it just dragged on and on, good job it was not a football crowd. Phil Morris should stick to his catering business.

[iris123]

 

Can't wait...

Don't pester the bloke luv.......once is enough

 

I did actually download a photo of Ole yetsrday when this all started with the idea I would Mickey Mouse him up with big ears and a mouse nose in case something happened like this.Then I thought it would be a bit cruel to Ole.Now I am thinking it would be cruel to Mickey.Sad sad day for speedway

[SCB]

Has any other PL team ever contained 2 riders who both went on to finish on the podium of a GP together? Trelawny Tigers - Chris Harris and Matej Zagar have done it!

[New Science]

Think tonight we saw the definition of car crash TV.Tonight rivalled George Best on Wogan and Sam Fox and Mick Fleetwood at the Brits for the Cringe Factor.The only thing that was missing was the Benny Hill music over the PA. What a fiasco! I dare say the next few days will all be about the BUCK , passing it !

Edited April 18, 2015 by New Science

[Trees]

Yes at the end of the day our sport suffers big time, the Speedway World Championship should be taken away from this company surely, they cannot keep getting away with this!

There was NO EXCUSE for the faulty starting gate as they should have had a replacement or two and as for the track, been there done that, riders have the injuries to show for it! Disgusting, get rid!

CANNOT defend the indefensible ln his occasion but need to calm down before making any further comment other than heads must surely roll now given that lessons we were promised would be learned quite plainly have not.

OMG!!!

[mikebv]

The track won't be Ole's fault......

 

You can be rest assured...

 

I couldn't get the vision out of my head of some 'minion' being sent to the nearest Polish B&Q for 'speedway tapes', running there and back at full pelt, sprinting back into the stadium with them in his hand, blowing like a whale, gasping for breath, and handing them over to 'whoever' was in charge only to be told "We can't use these as they are not the 'Official FIM Barry Briggs TM' starting tapes"....

 

Speedway eh? Bloody Hell! (again)...

[RobMcCaffery]

I do suspect that tonight will be a very significant turning-point for the sport at international level. To me, the sport's been trying to over-reach itself for many years, based on the ability to pull off meetings at Cardiff, although that's been a very close-run thing on a few occasions.

 

Trying to take the sport to a new stature and level of public awareness are of course noble ambitions but I do wonder if the sport simply has the resources to pull off these grandiose schemes often enough?

 

Is this a brown ale sport pretending it drinks champagne? (No Darcy Ward jokes please - there's a separate thread for that).

 

Just how far can speedway reach? Is it wiser to play it safe, run meetings on tracks that can allow a decent product to be offered to the world or do we keep aiming too high and falling on our noses? Yes, it does work sometimes but you cannot build a sport on just atmosphere and hype. You can fool some of the people etc. etc.

 

What we saw tonight was simply deplorable. It was like seeing a former love in the gutter, begging for fags or another drink. Jim Lawrence was not in control. The failure to exclude Troy Batchelor was questionable but the inability to either see the problem with the starting gate or why riders were pulling-up, or simply to choose to plough on regardless was simply unacceptable.

 

The Grand Prix tries to provide us with the best riders, the best stadia and best racing. Is Jim Lawrence one of the best referees? If so, we need an urgent training programme! His on-screen body language during the early problems was worrying. It did not look like someone in control, and I've been in the company of enough referees over the years to have a clue about this.

 

Regarding the role of the Race Director, Phil Morris faced three crises in his first meeting - practice, starting gate and then the track break-up. The fact that the meeting failed after 12 heats shows that it was not a happy start. But his predecessor in the role Tony Olsson was clearly there, as seen on TV and I presume that his predecessor Ole Olsen was also present, given that he was in charge of the track installation. Surely either or both were on hand to advise?

 

Just how many times will we suffer these fiascos and just how many more times will we hear that lessons have been learnt and that the problem can't happen again?

 

It has. It has many times. It's been happening for years, even back at Wembley, such as 1975. Speedway cocks up, eventually. Gelsenkirchen, Riga, Ullevi. The list goes on.

 

I am certain that BSI's rivals One Sport will be delighted to see them fail so spectacularly in the most prominent stadium in Poland. Is this a turning-point in speedway politics that sees Poland trying to take control of the sport it already financially owns? (Ask any rider fined by a Polish club for getting injured riding for a team outside the country, or at least threatened regarding that latter point)

 

It's time for the sport at ALL levels to live within its means, to stop thinking that a few flashy risks will bring riches. They won't. Solid development will, putting good value for money meetings on at sustainable venues. Let people grow to love an all-action sport rather than use smoke and mirrors to convince people that crap is gold-plated.

 

It's time to focus on the product, the racing, not the wrapping. Then, once the product is strong enough, organisationally and financially then take it to those higher levels. We can see some great racing at GPs. Not enough though.

 

Any fool can reach for the stars and fall. To get there you have to do more than reach, you have to build on solid foundations.

 

In Britain, in a week of generally fine spring weather we have staged how many meetings at out highest level? Two. Just two. This is to accommodate tonight's hubris in Poland.

 

That's a high price to pay and once again the British public have been mugged as much as those fools who think that flying to Poland's going to automatically give them great speedway.

 

Still, the atmosphere was great I suppose and the beer was cheap., Who needs more?

 

So far this year for various reasons, notably health I've no been able to get to any live speedway. Fortunately that's changing and I can hopefully start getting to some league matches, ideally in the PL or NL. I'll leave the rest of you to be dazzled by the shiny shiny.......

 

Speedway cannot afford to self-destruct like this yet again. Sadly it will. It mustn't.

 

(P.S. - "So, this time in English please Tomasz.....")

Edited April 18, 2015 by rmc

[Starman2006]

Yes at the end of the day our sport suffers big time, the Speedway World Championship should be taken away from this company surely, they cannot keep getting away with this!

There was NO EXCUSE for the faulty starting gate as they should have had a replacement or two and as for the track, been there done that, riders have the injuries to show for it! Disgusting, get rid!

 

 

Agreed. You ALWAYS, have back up in at least two of something.

Edited April 18, 2015 by Starman2006

[spanner47]

I can't believe the riders were refusing to ride because of the track, we've seen far worse and they've got on with it. If it was the track then surely they'd have spent more time working on it, but all the time was spent trying to get the tapes to work. If they were complaining about starting with a light then they should all be heavily fined. If 20 F1 cars can stay completely still until a light says go, then surely 4 blokes on bikes can.

Hopefully this will be remembered and the guilty riders will NEVER be considered for a wild card again.

And the fireworks weren't that brilliant either, for those that just happened to be in the right place to see them.

Apart from that, we had a very nice day.

I'll still be going to Oz, but more for the meetings at Mildura and Gillman, a bit of sightseeing and hopefully some footy and cricket chucked in, then if we get another joke at some one off track in a super stadium, I won't really care.