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Many years ago we had the Berger Grand Prix. It was driven by Ole Olsen's passion for a Grand Prix style World Championship. Attendances were poor and it was a bit of a failure  Ok I'll concede that the World Championship was a bit stale but attendances were good Speedway Riders were recognised and it was the UK's most popular Summer Sport. 

Speedway is now a pan European sport but the consequences are British and European Speedway have little in common like the EU !! Unfortunately tracks don't operate of a weekend, many riders don't need British Speedway and creedy promoters cannot see past a star rider that brings in 500 elderly die hards week in week out who are prepared to pay obscene amounts to watch very little mediocre racing. 

Sadly the sport will die unless a new approach is investigated.

 

 

Edited by Pieman72
grammar
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1 hour ago, Pieman72 said:

Many years ago we had the Berger Grand Prix. It was driven by Ole Olsen's passion for a Grand Prix style World Championship. Attendances were poor and it was a bit of a failure  Ok I'll concede that the World Championship was a bit stale but attendances were good Speedway Riders were recognised and it was the UK's most popular Summer Sport. 

Speedway is now a pan European sport but the consequences are British and European Speedway have little in common like the EU !! Unfortunately tracks don't operate of a weekend, many riders don't need British Speedway and creedy promoters cannot see past a star rider that brings in 500 elderly die hards week in week out who are prepared to pay obscene amounts to watch very little mediocre racing. 

Sadly the sport will die unless a new approach is investigated.

 

 

If I recall the Berger Grand Prix was a stream-lined version of the originally successful Daily Mirror Grand Prix whereby the first winner in 1976 was Peter Collins.

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The Berger Grand Prix format was more like the present day Grand Prix. Am I right in thinking the Daily Mirror Grand Prix had a Grand Final and none of the previous qualifying scores counted? Lets face it other than Cardiff (if that floats your boat) the Grand Prix has destroyed British Speedway. If I had the choice between Krsko and Odsal I know where I would be.

It's become the Scandinavian World Championships and unless you have a 2.1 in Geography your not going to have clue where they are staged.

I'll stick to the Grass full on racing with a variety of machinery and all out of their own pocket.

 

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2 hours ago, Pieman72 said:

Sadly the sport will die unless a new approach is investigated.

I disagree Pieman72. The sport in the UK most likely continue on a downward spiral over the next few years - team aka league racing no more. Instead I think probably spasmodic individual type racing in the USA or Australian style. Maybe with just one promoting group hiring the stadiums/venue still with a track in future years.

Outside the UK it will most probably continue for a good few years as now disproving your sadly the sport will die prediction.

Edited by Guest
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I completely agree with you perhaps a new format to underpin what is left of the Speedway Leagues could be the answer. The problem is a lot of Stadiums are under threat from our slanted planning guidelines on brownfield sites and there is the old favorite finance aka sponsorship.

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1 hour ago, Pieman72 said:

The Berger Grand Prix format was more like the present day Grand Prix. Am I right in thinking the Daily Mirror Grand Prix had a Grand Final and none of the previous qualifying scores counted? Lets face it other than Cardiff (if that floats your boat) the Grand Prix has destroyed British Speedway. If I had the choice between Krsko and Odsal I know where I would be.

It's become the Scandinavian World Championships and unless you have a 2.1 in Geography your not going to have clue where they are staged.

I'll stick to the Grass full on racing with a variety of machinery and all out of their own pocket.

 

Yes the points scored (graded 1-10) from three qualifying meetings were carried over into the Grand Final where the winner of that meeting scored 50 if I recall?)

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1 hour ago, steve roberts said:

Yes the points scored (graded 1-10) from three qualifying meetings were carried over into the Grand Final where the winner of that meeting scored 50 if I recall?)

That was certainly the system in the first year, Steve. That was how Simmo didn't win, because he refused to ride in his qualifying round at Somerton Park, which meant he only went into the final with 40 points.

Each rider (the three heat leaders from each of the 19 BL teams) had five rounds, and in the final, the points were just multiplied by five (50, 45, 40 etc).

There were some tweaks in later years - and don't forget it was also the VW Grand Prix (when Freddie Starr bought a bike for Tony Davey) before switching sponsorship to Berger. I felt that the original system was best (and more rigid), although I think actual points scored rather than finishing position, would have been better. In the end, the GP qualifying rounds were combined with the British World Championship qualifying rounds. I didn't like that, because a British rider's World Championship chances could be affected by riders who weren't even eligible for the WCQR.

Steve

Edited by chunky
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1 hour ago, chunky said:

That was certainly the system in the first year, Steve. That was how Simmo didn't win, because he refused to ride in his qualifying round at Somerton Park, which meant he only went into the final with 40 points.

Each rider (the three heat leaders from each of the 19 BL teams) had five rounds, and in the final, the points were just multiplied by five (50, 45, 40 etc).

There were some tweaks in later years (and don't forget it was also the VW Grand Prix (when Freddie Starr bought a bike for Tony Davey) before switching sponsorship to Berger. I felt that the original system was best (and more rigid), although I think actual points scored rather than finishing position, would have been better. In the end, the GP qualifying rounds were combined with the British World Championship qualifying rounds. I didn't like that, because a British rider's World Championship chances could be affected by riders who weren't even eligible for the WCQR.

Steve

Yes I'd forgotten it was over five rounds. Remember the first Grand Final at White City when Ole Olsen ground to halt in one race due to his own helmet colour getting caught up in his chain...and Gordon Kennett riding some superlative races finishing second overal in the competition. I seem to recall that the 'World of Sport' cameras were present to catch the action?

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23 minutes ago, steve roberts said:

Yes I'd forgotten it was over five rounds. Remember the first Grand Final at White City when Ole Olsen ground to halt in one race due to his own helmet colour getting caught up in his chain...and Gordon Kennett riding some superlative races finishing second overal in the competition. I seem to recall that the 'World of Sport' cameras were present to catch the action?

I was at the final in 1976; the first of my many visits to Wood Lane. Not sure about tv coverage, because there is nothing on YouTube.

Steve

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26 minutes ago, chunky said:

I was at the final in 1976; the first of my many visits to Wood Lane. Not sure about tv coverage, because there is nothing on YouTube.

Steve

I seem to remember Olsen being interviewed regarding the helmet colour and saying that the race should have been re-run (?) and that an action replay clearly showed that it was his own helmet colour that had caused his bike to stop?

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26 minutes ago, chunky said:

I was at the final in 1976; the first of my many visits to Wood Lane. Not sure about tv coverage, because there is nothing on YouTube.

Steve

I was there and I remember watching the replay of Ole's helmet colour (white, I think) going into is his rear wheel on TV.

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If you saw the Wroclaw GP you won’t get a better advert for speedway!

The skill and speed on show was breathtaking on a track suited to fast racing.

Yes it was the cream of speedway but not all GP’s produce that sort of racing.

Alas many of our tracks cannot cope with the modern power and speed bikes produce so the racing suffers.

 

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I know that everyone is trying to remember whether they saw the 1976 Grand Prix Final staged at White City stadium on TV or not.

A few years ago I brought copies of the TV Times on eBay on DVD in a PDF format and I do have those from 1976. I can confirm that World of Sport showed this meeting at 3:10 p.m. on Saturday 7 August.

in reading the Speedway Mail match report of the meeting it states that after Malcolm Simmons broke the White City track record in heat 1 the old track record was broken on a further 10 occasions. Also that David Hamilton who had planned to use a mic from the centre green found out hat t was not compatible with the White City PA system despite it working perfectly earlier in the afternoon during tests.

 

Other programmes shown alongside the speedway on World of Sport that day included 12:35 International Show Jumping - and German F1 Grand Prix 1:20 the ITV Seven from Newmarket and Redcar 3:10 Speedway Grand Prix Final 4:00 Wrestling 4:55 Results Service

Edited by Robbie B
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On 8/7/2019 at 4:25 PM, Robbie B said:

I know that everyone is trying to remember whether they saw the 1976 Grand Prix Final staged at White City stadium on TV or not.

A few years ago I brought copies of the TV Times on eBay on DVD in a PDF format and I do have those from 1976. I can confirm that World of Sport showed this meeting at 3:10 p.m. on Saturday 7 August.

in reading the Speedway Mail match report of the meeting it states that after Malcolm Simmons broke the White City track record in heat 1 the old track record was broken on a further 10 occasions. Also that David Hamilton who had planned to use a mic from the centre green found out hat t was not compatible with the White City PA system despite it working perfectly earlier in the afternoon during tests.

 

Other programmes shown alongside the speedway on World of Sport that day included 12:35 International Show Jumping - and German F1 Grand Prix 1:20 the ITV Seven from Newmarket and Redcar 3:10 Speedway Grand Prix Final 4:00 Wrestling 4:55 Results Service

Ah! The days of 'World of Sport'...personally I feel that when ITV cancelled the programme it was one of many issues that started the decline of speedway in this country and was no longer regarded as a high profile sport that it once enjoyed during it's last "Golden Era' of the 1970's early 80's.

Edited by steve roberts
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2 hours ago, steve roberts said:

Ah! The days of 'World of Sport'...personally I feel that when ITV cancelled the programme it was one of many issues that started the decline of speedway in this country and was no longer regarded as a high profile sport that it once enjoyed during it's last "Golden Era' of the 1970's early 80's.

Yes, Frisian canal vaulting was also never the same afterwards... :D

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Surely footage of the 1976 Grand Prix is out there, somewhere. It was a great tournament. Obviously it shrunk in size after the initial two years. Each top flight track staged a round. In 1978 and '79 British riders' scores also counted towards British World Championship qualification. In 1980 I think there were just four rounds. But the summer of '76 was a special year, sponsors the Daily Mirror having reports of each meeting the following day. I even filled in the score grid published in Speedway Star for the 1977 rounds. Magic days.  

Edited by moxey63
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6 hours ago, moxey63 said:

Surely footage of the 1976 Grand Prix is out there, somewhere. It was a great tournament. Obviously it shrunk in size after the initial two years. Each top flight track staged a round. In 1978 and '79 British riders' scores also counted towards British World Championship qualification. In 1980 I think there were just four rounds. But the summer of '76 was a special year, sponsors the Daily Mirror having reports of each meeting the following day. I even filled in the score grid published in Speedway Star for the 1977 rounds. Magic days.  

For me, 1976 was special too, and I thought the GP was brilliant. Unfortunately, it soon lost its way, and I'm not sure why. I don't think there was any need to change things the way they did (perhaps the riders complained a full series was too hard on them, I don't know), but I think it started deteriorating the following year when they moved from a summer series to later in the year...

Steve

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