Gorzow 2017 ....

[f-s-p]

ON one occasion I stood in for Ole Olsen (doing his Danish Strictly Come Dancing thing) as Race Director at Bydgoszcz. Tony Steele was the referee. When we arrived the track staff asked how "we" wanted the track prepared. We replied: "Just do it how your normally do it." After all, this was probably the best race track in the world. Why would we wanted to change it?

Exactly!

[waiheke1]

If PC had not suffered that horrendous accident at Hyde Road just before the 1977 world final there is no doubt he would have retained his title at Gothenburg, in fact only a re-run heat when Muller I think it was came off stopped him and he eventually finished second, I was at that meeting and he had to be lifted on and off his bike, that with a broken leg and over 300 stirches. At the time Peter was at his peak and nigh on unbeatable and I think only for that accident he could have gone on to equal Maugers three in a row. You cant just measure who was the greatest ever by titles alone as good/bad luck often plays a major part. Woofinden in no way comes close to PC,s outstanding ability on a bike and I would also put Lee, Craven, and depending how far you want to go back Parker way above, Jessup could have had a couple of titles only for ef,s for example. And lets not forget these riders had to navigate many difficult qualifying rounds to get to a world final where one bad ride e/f or exclusion meant you were finished for another year. If the GP had existed then PC for example would definitely have had more than one title and Mauger with his tremendous consistency would have had many more than the six he won he would have been in double figures. Titles don't actually tell the whole story, especially not today when riders have 12 meetings to be able to overcome injury problems, engine problems, exclusions, etc.

I assume therefore you are not an Olsen fan? If PC was to win 3 years in a row (76-78), I presume maugers 10 must be 68-75 plus 79. Struggling to see that he would have won it 67 or 80, but you obviously think he would have done and Olsen never won a title. Not sure many would agree.

Not sure you can legitimately say Jessie was robbed of world titles. An ef first time out before rattling off wins in 78 meant he never really had the pressure on him. 81 penhall would have won regardless of ef. Jessup probably would have been world champ in 80 in a gp system.

I'd agree Tai isn't as natural a talent as PC or Lee, but that doesn't mean he shouldn't rank above them.

Personally I'd say winning a gp series is a better indication of being the best rider in the world than winning the old world final.

PC I would agree was best rider in the world in 76 and 77 and Lee maybe in 79.

[Ghostwalker]

I listened to the latest episode of Metanolpodd. One of the hosts had shared a car with Krister Gardell from Kumla to Eskilstuna on Tuesday last week.
Krister Gardell is supposed to have said Gorzow like all Ekstraliga teams have to put new dirt on the track after the halfway point of the season.

This is supposed to have caused that the new and old dirt/track material hadn't bonded properly.

Edited September 4, 2017 by Ghostwalker