World's Most Improved Riders

[arnieg]

There seem to be far to many posts on various threads about the poor prospects for British riders coming through. I think it is time to acknowledge that while there has been a long long period of decline British speedway does appear to be in a position to regain some of the ground it has lost.

 

Here is some data from Dolgin’s world rankings (with the usual caveat that while it is far from perfect it is a useful indicator) - incidentally the first [dated 16 August] to show Jason Doyle as world number one!

 

By absolute points score, these are the world’s most improved riders since the start of the year:

 

 

 

DoB Pts improvement

1 Daniel Bewley Gt Britain 20.05.1999 2315 815

2 Krzysztof Kasprzak Poland 17.07.1984 4007 810

3 Edward Mazur Poland 24.09.1993 2759 707

4 Dimitri Berge France 05.02.1998 2785 660

5 Steven Worrall Gt Britain 23.09.1991 3562 612

6 Jason Doyle Australia 06.10.1985 4733 594

7 David Bellego France 15.05.1993 3155 556

8 Pawel Miesiac Poland 27.04.1985 3129 537

9 Tom Bacon Gt Britain 25.02.1993 2075 532

10 Vaclav Milik Czech 22.05.1993 3890 524

11 Krystian Pieszczek Poland 23.09.1995 3727 506

12 Sam Masters Australia 23.01.1991 3713 503

13 Robert Miskowiak Poland 21.11.1983 3507 500

14 Tomasz Jedrzejak Poland 14.07.1979 3600 473

15 Jake Allen Australia 11.08.1995 2687 471

 

 

 

Three Brits in the top ten, furthermore they are generally younger than some of the riders from other countries in the list.

 

Looking further down the list the top 100 contains:

 

20 Poles – dominate the list as expected, 12 of the riders are 21 or under, including Bartosz Smektala (38) and Dominik Kubera (48).

 

17 Brits – including nine in the top 50 – the three noted above plus Jack Parkinson-Blackburn (28), Josh Bailey (31), Danny King (35), Danyon Hume (39), Jack Smith (43), Jake Knight (50). Adam Ellis and James Shanes are also in the top 100. There are another 20 in the top 200 including some such as Jack Thomas, Georgie Wood, Josh Bates and Max Clegg who might make the top 100 based on form since mid-August. Of the top 17: seven are 21 or under and a further four are 25 or under; only Stuart Robson (at 54, age 39) is over 30.

 

15 Danes- top Dane is under 21 finalist Frederik Jakobsen at 19, followed by 250cc rider Kenneth Jurgensen (36), Mikkel B Andersson (40 & brother of Redcar’s Jonas who is at 57) and Nikolai Klindt (41). Klindt is not the only experienced Dane as Mads Korneliussen, Kenneth Bjerre and Bjarne Pedersen all appear in the lower reaches of the top 100. There are only five 500cc riders under 21 from Denmark in the top 100.

 

10 Aussies – Chris Holder (17), Max Fricke (22) are the only Aussies in the top 50 in addition to Masters, Allen and Doyle. I suspect Rohan Tungate (currently at 72) will move into the top 50 based on recent form and to my suprise Jack Holder is outside the top 100 improvers (at 107).The start date for this exercise which is half way through the Australian season down nder muddies the waters slightly.

 

9 Swedes- perform very badly. Only Joel Kling (32) and an 85cc rider (Lukas Woentin) are under 21, although their biggest improver Jacob Thorsell (25) is still only just turned 23. Only one of the other six: Viktor Palovaara (67) is under 26. Joackim Christensen (who rides for Vastervik’s B team) and Oliver Berntzon are not far off the top 100.

 

7 Germans – Sandro Wasserman (60), Martin Smolinski (71), Erik Riss (79) and Daniel Spiller (80 – included here because he has been representing Germany and riding in their national championships) are the only 500cc riders in the top 100. The other three are 250/125cc riders, including Celina Liebmann. [This is probably a methodology issue I can’t believe that the 125cc/250cc Germans are that good.]

 

6 Americans – including three in the top 30: Austin Novratil (21), Max Ruml (27), Luke Becker (29), and lower down two further 17 year olds (Gage Geist [45] and Dillon Ruml[68]) and 20 year old Jeremy Estes (46) . Broc Nicol is a surprise omission. [n.b. because they largely only race against each other rankings of US based riders are in my view a bit suspect.]

 

4 Russians – European Under 21 Bronze medalist Sergey Logachev is the most improved Russian at number 23. All four are under 21, the others are: Viktor Kulakov (62), Gleb Shevchenko (77) and Pavel Laguta (83).

 

And the appearance of two French riders in the top 10 is pretty impressive.

 

Highest riders from countries not already mentioned are Nikke Lunna (30 – Finland), Dmitri Mostkovich (34 – Ukraine), Fernando Garcia (42 – Argentina) and Nick Skorja (47 – Slovenia).

 

note: Skorja, Kubera and Becker are the only riders from last year’s top 50 improvers likely to feature again (although Ellis is close to the top 50 and may make it again by the season’s end).

 

Summary: Polish domination to continue, prospects for Sweden very gloomy and GB should be challenging Australia and Denmark for number two in the world rankings in a few years if this trend continues.

Edited September 20, 2016 by arnieg

[moomin man 76]

Interesting - where is this data available? I checked on-line, but couldn't find anything with the usual google search.

I'm moderately surprised though that the only Finn mentioned is Nike Lunna, as I would have expected Jooa Partanen and Jesse Mustonen to feature somewhere. All three are still U21, which bodes well for the future.

[arnieg]

Interesting - where is this data available? I checked on-line, but couldn't find anything with the usual google search.

I'm moderately surprised though that the only Finn mentioned is Nike Lunna, as I would have expected Jooa Partanen and Jesse Mustonen to feature somewhere. All three are still U21, which bodes well for the future.

 

Niklas sayrio 82 and Timo Lahti at 111 (but strong recent form makes me suspect he'll soon be in top 100 improvers.

 

Partanen and Mustonen both in top 200 risers

 

You can find the spreadsheet if you follow the link in Dolgin's signature, for example on the rating of racers thread

 

https://docs.google....f=2&pli=1#gid=0

Edited September 20, 2016 by arnieg

[Red Flag]

Well Daniel Bewley had to be No 1 as he hadn't scored before this season and has been a sensation, saw his first competitive ride at Wolves and thought wow! And has impressed me every time I have seen him since and seems a nice quiet unassuming lad as well, on the world stage in my opinion only 1 winner Vaclav Milik

[waiheke1]

It's a good post arnieg.

But worrall and bacon for example are both 23. When you look at the poles that age, there is no comparison.

Will we catch up to the danes and aussies. If you measure on swc, who knows, there you need 4 good riders but with a spread of up to 20 years in age. GP series is really just for the exceptional talents, and too early to tell if any will make it, though Im confident lambert will. Not sure any of the brits so far through the edr will.

But I think the edr has worked to bring brits on, the NL set up seems good, what I'd suggest is needed is something at pl level. And obviously would be ideal if the EL were strengthened so our riders don't need to be reliant on picking up team places in sweden and Poland to really make it.

Is Sweden the new Britain of days gone by? Strong domestic league with lots of foreign talent, but struggling to develop their own. Though I recall in the 80s they had only Jan Anderson of real calibre, then nilsen and Jonsson led a wave of new talent. Maybe Swedish speedway is just very cyclical?

[iris123]

 

 

7 Germans – Sandro Wasserman (60), Martin Smolinski (71), Erik Riss (79) and Daniel Spiller (80 – included here because he has been representing Germany and riding in their national championships) are the only 500cc riders in the top 100. The other three are 250/125cc riders, including Celina Liebmann. [This is probably a methodology issue I can’t believe that the 125cc/250cc Germans are that good.]

 

 

Personally don't see any real significance in all of this,but i did see Celina become the first female to win the(maybe it was any)German national 250cc title yesterday.Maybe says more about her oppo,but she did look very impressive

[arnieg]

Personally don't see any real significance in all of this,but i did see Celina become the first female to win the(maybe it was any)German national 250cc title yesterday.Maybe says more about her oppo,but she did look very impressive

 

Sabrina Bogh 2001 Danish under 21 champion (also on the podium was Ulrich Ostergaard) is the leading example of a female national champion. Edited September 25, 2016 by arnieg