Tampere Gp

[sommelier]

So far Bomber has finished 2nd and 10th. If he does that all season as a Bomber fan I'll be happy In fact if his lowest score all season is 6 I think he'll be happy!

 

Sadly, Prague is a track he has always struggled on and 3 would be about what I expect Saturday Desperately hoping he proves me wrong though

Harris & Doyle where bouth outstanding for ther commitment on Saturday IMO

[phillipsr]

Harris & Doyle where bouth outstanding for ther commitment on Saturday IMO

Only Hancock wasnt really that interested and he still made the semi's. Didnt see Anything special in these two performances

[SCB]

Harris & Doyle where bouth outstanding for ther commitment on Saturday IMO

Agreed. But then both always are, its the way they ride. Sadly, certainly for Harris, that effort doesnt reflect in his points as he just can't gate and annoyingly the one time eh did he messed up the back straight and let Hampel pass him.

[Grand Central]

It's a good time to kick the GPs if you are someone who hankers for a time when Barry Briggs was world champion, the Beatles were number 1 and you could get ten pints, a bag of chips and bus home for two bob. The more reasoned thinkers will look at the bigger picture.

 

Has BSI made mistakes? Absolutely. In particular, the PR post-Warsaw was abysmal.

 

Where they right to take the sport to the biggest stadium in speedway's most popular country? Yes, it was bold. but the right move. It's a great shame it didn't work out this time. They need to take full responsibility and serious lessons need to be learned.

 

Are they right to try and broaden the world championship to new markets like Finland, New Zealand, Australia? Of course. Not all will be a roaring success. But ambition is good. The easy short-term solution would be to stage meetings in tried and tested permanent tracks to an ever-dwindling hard core.

 

Has the experiment to take the sport into big stadiums with temporary tracks been successful? By and large yes. Cardiff alone has given the sport some of its greatest nights in the last 15 years - arguably even in the sport's history.

 

It's very easy to say, 'we used to get 90,000 at Wembley in 1821'. Where we actually came from was our one-off World Championship Final being played out in front of crowds around 20k at places like Bradford, Pocking and Vojens with delayed coverage on some satellite station no-one watched.

 

I have to smile when people quibble about whether Cardiff gets 40k or 45k per year. If someone had told you in 1994 that twenty years later, a well-established British Grand Prix would be taking place every year in the Millennium Stadium consistently attracting a crowd 40k, all covered live on Sky Sports at peak-time Saturday night, I think you would have thought they were dreaming.

 

Furthermore, were it not for the success of the revamped World Championships in the form of the GPs and SWC and the subsequent economic benefits and increased profile, it is very much less likely stadiums like Torun, Leszno and the new Belle Vue would be ever be built. The promise of hosting annual World Championship events is huge foundation stone for those projects ever getting off the ground.

 

I do not argue with the general thrust of this post; and certainly concur with the view to look forward rather than back.

Recollections from the past should remain as articles in 'Backtrack' not seen as a bizarre blueprint for the future.

 

But I would take issue for some of the glory that is being reflected on BSI that is a little undeserved.

 

I think that the success of league Speedway in Poland is fairly unconnected to the GP series and that is what has driven stadium improvements there not BSI.

I do not agree with BSI being to blame for the ills of British Speedway, as some do.

But I similarly do not believe they are the cause of Polish success either.

 

It is a little 'rich' to give BSI much credit for the boldness of the Warsaw initiative.

We have been firmly told by Paul Bellamy that this is a PZM promotion.

If BSI are to use this as en excuse to avoid flak they really should not be able to take whatever glory remains after April 18, either.

 

Equally a little too much to give them credit for their moves into untapped areas such as Finland if they have executed the initiative so poorly.

Tampere was wrong to start with and it was wrong to have to go back.

Management decisions are not 'beyond reproach' as some would have it.

 

It is all very well to pat people on the back for trying

But to be 15 years into their 'ownership' we should not be giving them too many plaudits just for their enthusiasm and ambition.

We should be seeing solid results of that experience so that they get more things right and more often, now.

Rather than less.

 

Edited May 18, 2015 by Grand Central

[fatface]

"Yes, it was bold. but the right move" ? Its only the right move if you plan things properly! no back up tapes? surely that is basics!!!!!!!!

There are businesses that move premises over a weekend at open again on Monday, BECAUSE THEY PLAN EVERY DETAIL!

There are event companies that travel and set up exhibitions and stands at events GP's because they are experts in planning and leave as little as possible to chance!

I thought I was being clear enough. Maybe not. It was a good move. To take the GP series to the Polish capital was the right move. 50,000 also thought so. As for the execution? Utterly dreadful.

 

BSI deserve a kicking for this and they are certainly getting one. But do I think they should shy away from hosting ambitious events at major international stadiums? Absolutely not. Has the GP series progressed since they first became involved in 1999? Unquestionably.

 

It's fair to say that for many people this is one cock-up too far. I can understand that. The lesson has to be learned and this must never, ever happen again. It certainly cannot be allowed to happen in Melbourne.

 

Crappy though it was for everyone who attended the Warsaw GP, there will be other Polish GPs for years to come and tens of thousands will attend. If the same happens in Australia, you can safely wave goodbye to any future GP down under.

[Mixy230]

I thought I was being clear enough. Maybe not. It was a good move. To take the GP series to the Polish capital was the right move. 50,000 also thought so. As for the execution? Utterly dreadful.

 

BSI deserve a kicking for this and they are certainly getting one. But do I think they should shy away from hosting ambitious events at major international stadiums? Absolutely not. Has the GP series progressed since they first became involved in 1999? Unquestionably.

 

It's fair to say that for many people this is one cock-up too far. I can understand that. The lesson has to be learned and this must never, ever happen again. It certainly cannot be allowed to happen in Melbourne.

 

Crappy though it was for everyone who attended the Warsaw GP, there will be other Polish GPs for years to come and tens of thousands will attend. If the same happens in Australia, you can safely wave goodbye to any future GP down under.

I agree its the right move 50,000 fans cant be wrong can they ? (will they go back again if it was run again next week?)

Go big to build the sport . Then Every cock up costs long term in fans leaving the sport. In this day an age it cost dear to make basic mistakes.

I wish the sport well and a big future.

I HOPE THEY GET IT RIGHT AND QUICK!!!

[Haza]

Who would you want a round a the borefest that is Vojems?

 

Niamh

who would want a GP in Warsaw or Tampere ?

[RPNY]

Id go back to Warsaw. Track was fine, better then Saturdays for sure. The last 4 heats before it was canceled were pretty dam good too. Just needed the started gate to work!

[customhouseregular]

I have been involved with Speedway since 1966, could never get enough of it. I choose to miss the Tampere GP (being shown @ the local Pub) which would have been the first I've missed by choice.

 

Or own Elite league is now guess the guest & that's not one per team but several.

 

Speedway has to reinvent itself on all levels if it's going to survive, do others agree?

well I do for one.

[SCB]

The racing at Warsaw was fine. The issue was the tape and frankly, that could happen anywhere.

Edited May 18, 2015 by SCB

[customhouseregular]

Exactly SCB.

[cphx]

Rider efficiency??? What the blazes does that mean? Pedersen was pretty damn efficient, he won the bl00dy thing! More useless stats.... Why oh why do we need them..

 

hey, sorry for replying late. For GP this stat may not be as relevant as for leagues. But still, for whole season they may be more relevant than for 1 event. You can check stats for every rider.

 

Nicki Pedersen won, but because of point system the real winner was Tai Woffinden. You can discuss, but most points are most points. Opponents beaten are opponents beaten.

 

Also this maybe somehow useful for example for 2014 season http://www.speedwayexplorer.com/speedway-grand-prix-2014-stats Because of some injuries and suspension of Darcy Ward you will see that for as far they ride final standings could look a little diffrent because of points per heat or per match:

 

Greg Hancock 1.99, 12.82

Darcy Ward 1.94, 11.67

Kasprzak Krzysztof, 1.86, 12.00

Woffinden Tai 1.83, 11.00

Iversen Niels K., 1.74, 9.67

Pedersen Nicki 1.70, 10.00

You may also check points per Final heat if rider made at least 2 or 3 finals, then you get:

Woffinden Tai 2,5, 4 finals

Zagar Matej, 2.00, 3 finals

Kasprzak Krzysztof, 1.63, 8 finals

Hancock Greg, 1.38, 8 finals

Hampel Jaroslaw, 1.25, 4 finals

Pedersen Nicki, 1,00, 4 finals

In american sports they love stats, speedway is very measurable sport.

Edited May 18, 2015 by cphx

[MrMungo]

I have been involved with Speedway since 1966, could never get enough of it. I choose to miss the Tampere GP (being shown @ the local Pub) which would have been the first I've missed by choice.

 

Or own Elite league is now guess the guest & that's not one per team but several.

 

Speedway has to reinvent itself on all levels if it's going to survive, do others agree?

 

I've slowly been becoming less interested in the GPs myself lately. These 2 'mishaps' haven't helped, but even before that, I have completely forgotten a GP was on until I saw something or other on Facebook, or on the internet somewhere.

That being said, it is worth remembering that we have lost, for one reason or another, 3 of the most exciting Grand Prix riders in recent times - messrs Ward, Sayfutdinov and Gollob. Sure there are some exciting races still, but every now and again, those riders were capable of pulling off a 'Wow' ride. I look at the current lot and apart from Nicki, there's not many great entertainers. (Harris can entertain in EL, but less so @ GP level).

Fundamentally, I think the GP series desperately needs riders like Ward and Sayfutdinov back in there as soon as possible.

[Starman2006]

Now our photos from Tampere are uploaded:

 

Training:

Slideshow: http://picasaweb.google.com/114630658458485823371/SGPTampere2015Training#slideshow

or

Album: https://picasaweb.google.com/114630658458485823371/SGPTampere2015Training

 

Race:

Slideshow: http://picasaweb.google.com/114630658458485823371/SGPTampere2015#slideshow

or

Album: https://picasaweb.google.com/114630658458485823371/SGPTampere2015

You missed out the ramps and jumps !!

[Humphrey Appleby]

Where they right to take the sport to the biggest stadium in speedway's most popular country? Yes, it was bold. but the right move.

Yes they were, and no it wasn't. What could have been a fantastic development has been nothing but detrimental to the sport because BSI were incapable of executing it properly (and not for the first time).

 

It's more-and-more apparent there's a lack of planning and supervision by BSI - which is why fiascos keep happening. If you fail to prepare, then prepare to fail.

 

Are they right to try and broaden the world championship to new markets like Finland, New Zealand, Australia? Of course.

I think it's highly questionable what taking a GP to the likes of Tampere does for the sport, and nothing has come of the venture in New Zealand except another promoter being burned. With the greatest of respect to Tampere, it's never going to be a major tourist destination, and even assuming it's used to attract interest amongst the speedway laity there, how many will return after witnessing two dreadful meetings? It's done more damage than anything else.

 

This of course assumes that BSI are really interested in 'broadening the world championship to new markets' or having 'ambition'. They go to places where they can find a promoter and/or tourist board willing to fork over their asking price, and when one market is bled dry, they move to the next. And once BSI have finally milked out the market, what's going to be left for anyone who wants to pick up the pieces?

 

Where we actually came from was our one-off World Championship Final being played out in front of crowds around 20k at places like Bradford, Pocking and Vojens with delayed coverage on some satellite station no-one watched.

I'm still convinced the old World Championship was run into the ground by the FIM who wanted to make a case for a GP series. Even during its latter days, the World Final in the Munich Olympic Stadium pulled nearly 50K fans, whilst attendances at Ullevi and Wroclaw were very respectable by today's standards.

 

Had something like the Millennium Stadium been available in the 90s, I have little doubt that you'd have got similar if not bigger attendances for a World Final as for a GP. Equally, cable/satellite television was still in its infancy in the 80s and even 90s, unlike the multiple channels all looking for cheap content nowadays. I'm sure the World Championship then, would easily have got television coverage now, although I don't doubt the SGP makes a better package to sell.

 

Furthermore, were it not for the success of the revamped World Championships in the form of the GPs and SWC and the subsequent economic benefits and increased profile, it is very much less likely stadiums like Torun, Leszno and the new Belle Vue would be ever be built. The promise of hosting annual World Championship events is huge foundation stone for those projects ever getting off the ground.

So which GPs are being held at Leszno and Belle Vue? It may have been bigged up as a motivation, but I very much doubt Belle Vue was built on the back of a promise of a GP. Polish cities may be willing to subsidise speedway for prestige reasons, but you don't stage GPs if you expect to make money - certainly not on the scale of recouping stadium building costs.

 

And with the greatest of respect, I wouldn't really put the 'National Speedway Stadium' up there as a prestigious big city venue yet...

Togliatti is a great stadium and has never hosted a GP

Togliatti could and should host a GP, except for the one problem that it's in Russia. No sane organiser wants to deal with the criminal bureaucracy in that country.

Edited May 19, 2015 by Humphrey Appleby

[fullbore]

who would want a GP in Warsaw

Would have been fine with a working starting gate...

 

Niamh

[customhouseregular]

A lot of negative comments about Warsaw but problems can occur anywhere. The original decision to use Warsaw was sound as 55.000 tickets sold shows. A previous question was "Who would want a GP in Warsaw?". One could have asked the question "Who would want a GP in Cardiff?" some 15/16 years ago. Poland is the current home of speedway so Warsaw made sense. Wales? or even the UK back in 2000?.

[Mixy230]

A lot of negative comments about Warsaw but problems can occur anywhere. The original decision to use Warsaw was sound as 55.000 tickets sold shows. A previous question was "Who would want a GP in Warsaw?". One could have asked the question "Who would want a GP in Cardiff?" some 15/16 years ago. Poland is the current home of speedway so Warsaw made sense. Wales? or even the UK back in 2000?.

It would have been a great GP i think (If they had planned it properly)!!!!!!!!

 

The planning always lacks something

Loose surface racing should always have a little track variation! thats the nature of it

 

But the tapes farce NO EXCUSE

[weatherwatcher]

Just watched Saturday nights GP, had the grandchildren here on Saturday and can't watch it because of the noise and distraction. Would have been better watching it on Saturday. The total nights racing was a turd. Did they have long elatic band attached to drag the riders around, because the gaps between the riders where had to belive at times.

If they called of the meeting 2 weeks before due to dangerous track conditions. Then this one should have been finished by heat 4.

At times it was like watching those mot-cross lads over a rutted cow field. How many more time are they going to be selling rubbish like this to speedway fans, perhaps when the crowd's, nearly wrote crows then, but soon that is al that will be watching the GP's from the stadium roof. Any back to what I was saying, when the crowd levels drops to a few hundeed fans, will they they at long last take off the rose tinted glasses they seem to wear and realise that they must start to up their game and give the public, some truely great speedway meetings instead of the rubish they have put forward as a spweedway GP series so far this year.

Truely dreadful show, so far.

[customhouseregular]

Just watched Saturday nights GP, had the grandchildren here on Saturday and can't watch it because of the noise and distraction. Would have been better watching it on Saturday. The total nights racing was a turd. Did they have long elatic band attached to drag the riders around, because the gaps between the riders where had to belive at times.

If they called of the meeting 2 weeks before due to dangerous track conditions. Then this one should have been finished by heat 4.

At times it was like watching those mot-cross lads over a rutted cow field. How many more time are they going to be selling rubbish like this to speedway fans, perhaps when the crowd's, nearly wrote crows then, but soon that is al that will be watching the GP's from the stadium roof. Any back to what I was saying, when the crowd levels drops to a few hundeed fans, will they they at long last take off the rose tinted glasses they seem to wear and realise that they must start to up their game and give the public, some truely great speedway meetings instead of the rubish they have put forward as a spweedway GP series so far this year.

Truely dreadful show, so far.

Time to get off the fence

 

Seriously though, I can't fault your reasoning.