Polish Extraleague 2020

[Fromafar]

18 minutes ago, acef said:

Well if you believe the inner speedway circle, the man is a cheat.

I don’t believe the inner circle.He still has to be able to control the rocket ship

[Fromafar]

4 minutes ago, acef said:

I can see both sides of the argument. Guess it depends which side you want to sit on.

For me, if something looks suspicious, then it probably is. To me, he looks significantly quicker. Too quick to be quite honest. Now that is certainly not jealousy from my end, I’m just a man say watching him on the TV, thinking ‘he’s unnaturally quick’

 

When you look at his heat winning times he is not significantly faster than the others.His bike set up certainly looks spot on though.Very entertaining. Smarzlik looks quick when he gets his set up right ,don’t see many complaints about him.

[Col]

Doyle seems to be lacking top end speed, again without scoring a point Swidnicki looked quick enough in that company.

Predpelski again impressive in heat 10 to pass Chugunov & chase down Woffinden who looked like he was about to pass Lindgren until the Pole gave him something else to think about.

Madsen/Chugunov battle in heat 11 best race of the weekend so far, another assist to Predpelski who blocked Drabik out of contention early on.

Another impressive ride from Madsen to complete his maximum in heat 15, though Janowski was going to deny him.  Think Holta & certainly Predpelski deserved their nominated outings over Lindgren but less sure Doyle did.

Częstochowa certainly look like the team that is best placed to deny Leszno this year.  Without doubt they're the best two teams in the league, Wroclaw could end up in a battle for the play-offs with FZG & Grudziądz with one of them missing out.  Is betting allowed in Ekstraliga, what are the odds looking like?

Onto Rybnik v Gorzow, surely Rybnik's best chance of some league points.

[mikebv]

50 minutes ago, acef said:

I can see both sides of the argument. Guess it depends which side you want to sit on.

For me, if something looks suspicious, then it probably is. To me, he looks significantly quicker. Too quick to be quite honest. Now that is certainly not jealousy from my end, I’m just a man say watching him on the TV, thinking ‘he’s unnaturally quick’

 

Do they all still get their methanol from a communal drum?

Or do they all provide their own? 

If so. His might be 4 star..

[racers and royals]

51 minutes ago, Col said:

Doyle seems to be lacking top end speed, again without scoring a point Swidnicki looked quick enough in that company.

Predpelski again impressive in heat 10 to pass Chugunov & chase down Woffinden who looked like he was about to pass Lindgren until the Pole gave him something else to think about.

Madsen/Chugunov battle in heat 11 best race of the weekend so far, another assist to Predpelski who blocked Drabik out of contention early on.

Another impressive ride from Madsen to complete his maximum in heat 15, though Janowski was going to deny him.  Think Holta & certainly Predpelski deserved their nominated outings over Lindgren but less sure Doyle did.

Częstochowa certainly look like the team that is best placed to deny Leszno this year.  Without doubt they're the best two teams in the league, Wroclaw could end up in a battle for the play-offs with FZG & Grudziądz with one of them missing out.  Is betting allowed in Ekstraliga, what are the odds looking like?

Onto Rybnik v Gorzow, surely Rybnik's best chance of some league points.

Last i saw with BET 365 was Leszno E Czestochowa 5/2

Edited June 29, 2020 by racers and royals

[Col]

Lambert has certainly improved his gating, good ride from Milik to resist Kasprzak.

I thought for a lap or two there a Rybnik reserve was going to win a heat, what a fool I am.

Logaczew came awfully close to running both wheels over the white line in heat 3 first bend.  Wozniak again struggling.

Heat 4 looked like 1-5, I assume NKI's first heat of the year.

NKI's second heat of the year was almost as poor, not many GP riders will be beaten by many of Rybnik's Polish contingent other than Woryna. Lambert again superb.

Wozniak poor again in heat 6.

Would expect nothing less considering the opposition but good composed first lap from Zmarzlik in heat 7.

Good effort from Woryna to try and team ride Tudziez home but his partner just wasn't quick enough & it cost them both.  NKI not getting any better!

Heat 9, another superb ride from Lambert. Wozniak is at least making the gate which is making him marginally more effective than NKI.

Good ride in heat 11 from Milik, shame it wasn't quite enough.

Rybnik reserve wins heat 12, Wozniak really is not at the races.  Fair play Nowacki.  Why only 3 riders?  Woryna excluded?  Touched tapes or 2 minutes?

Worrying heat 13 for home side, their best two rides Lambert & Woryna left for dea by Zmarzlik & Thomsen.

Wozniak in nomintaed riders LOL!  Better than NKI I guess.  Good ride from Milik to join Lmabert for 5-1 over Kasprzak.

Best tactic for home team in heat 15 is let Zmarzlik go and try to edge out Thomsen.  Was expecting Lambert not Logaczew.  Can #8 only appear in one of the nominated riders heats?  And thats exactly what they did, great ride from Logaczew to do all the blocking.

Hope that gives Rybnik some confidence for the rest of the season and they can be competitive.  Lebedevs is no doubt out for a while.  I know he was poor last week but why no Batchelor this week?  Zmarzlik peerless performance as you'd expect in this company but the rest of the Gorzow team were very, very poor.

[Mark]

1 hour ago, acef said:

I can see both sides of the argument. Guess it depends which side you want to sit on.

For me, if something looks suspicious, then it probably is. To me, he looks significantly quicker. Too quick to be quite honest. Now that is certainly not jealousy from my end, I’m just a man say watching him on the TV, thinking ‘he’s unnaturally quick’

 

If his bikes are checked at every GP's and in the League what can be your suspicion ?    Some riders are better than others, they have better bike control. 

[racers and royals]

23 minutes ago, Col said:

Lambert has certainly improved his gating, good ride from Milik to resist Kasprzak.

I thought for a lap or two there a Rybnik reserve was going to win a heat, what a fool I am.

Logaczew came awfully close to running both wheels over the white line in heat 3 first bend.  Wozniak again struggling.

Heat 4 looked like 1-5, I assume NKI's first heat of the year.

NKI's second heat of the year was almost as poor, not many GP riders will be beaten by many of Rybnik's Polish contingent other than Woryna. Lambert again superb.

Wozniak poor again in heat 6.

Would expect nothing less considering the opposition but good composed first lap from Zmarzlik in heat 7.

Good effort from Woryna to try and team ride Tudziez home but his partner just wasn't quick enough & it cost them both.  NKI not getting any better!

Heat 9, another superb ride from Lambert. Wozniak is at least making the gate which is making him marginally more effective than NKI.

Good ride in heat 11 from Milik, shame it wasn't quite enough.

Rybnik reserve wins heat 12, Wozniak really is not at the races.  Fair play Nowacki.  Why only 3 riders?  Woryna excluded?  Touched tapes or 2 minutes?

Worrying heat 13 for home side, their best two rides Lambert & Woryna left for dea by Zmarzlik & Thomsen.

Wozniak in nomintaed riders LOL!  Better than NKI I guess.  Good ride from Milik to join Lmabert for 5-1 over Kasprzak.

Best tactic for home team in heat 15 is let Zmarzlik go and try to edge out Thomsen.  Was expecting Lambert not Logaczew.  Can #8 only appear in one of the nominated riders heats?  And thats exactly what they did, great ride from Logaczew to do all the blocking.

Hope that gives Rybnik some confidence for the rest of the season and they can be competitive.  Lebedevs is no doubt out for a while.  I know he was poor last week but why no Batchelor this week?  Zmarzlik peerless performance as you'd expect in this company but the rest of the Gorzow team were very, very poor.

Woryna was excluded for having Wozniak off- i told you Nowacki was good didn`t i  Lambert had had all his rides.

Who would you have dropped to put Batchelor in ?

Edited June 29, 2020 by racers and royals

[Shockster]

14 hours ago, False dawn said:

And 12 last places for Wroclaw will bring defeat pretty much any day.

And while we're on the subject of stats (I didn't start it). 7 wins from gate 1 and zero from gate 3. Can nothing be done to remove such a diaparity, even during a meeting. Men with rakes?

 

Easy to even up gates by letting riders move at the start.  As long as they don't touch the tapes i'd let them move.  No false starts either. 

[Bagpuss]

1 hour ago, Fromafar said:

When you look at his heat winning times he is not significantly faster than the others.His bike set up certainly looks spot on though.Very entertaining. Smarzlik looks quick when he gets his set up right ,don’t see many complaints about him.

I think the key point made is that ‘he generates speed from nowhere’. Zmarzlik usually gathers momentum during his races. 
 

I agree with acef, without proof nobody can accuse him directly but what people can see with their own eyes is enough to raise some suspicion and keep an open mind.   

[E I Addio]

13 minutes ago, Mark said:

If his bikes are checked at every GP's and in the League what can be your suspicion ?    Some riders are better than others, they have better bike control. 

 But are the bikes  checked every meeting ? I don’t think they are unless someone lodges a protest. The answer is we don’t know and probably never will know if he is cheating. It was Jason Crump that coined the expression “ Polish Fast” years ago . The suspicion of cheating has been around for  years, nor necessarily referring to Madsen. But then this is speedway and who knows what to believe about what we hear ? 

At one time I used to think Darcy Ward must have an oversize engine judging by the amount of acceleration he could generate from nowhere, but I eventually came to the conclusion that it was sheer talent ant nothing else.

 

[Mark]

8 minutes ago, E I Addio said:

 But are the bikes  checked every meeting ? I don’t think they are unless someone lodges a protest. The answer is we don’t know and probably never will know if he is cheating. It was Jason Crump that coined the expression “ Polish Fast” years ago . The suspicion of cheating has been around for  years, nor necessarily referring to Madsen. But then this is speedway and who knows what to believe about what we hear ? 

At one time I used to think Darcy Ward must have an oversize engine judging by the amount of acceleration he could generate from nowhere, but I eventually came to the conclusion that it was sheer talent ant nothing else.

 

Some riders are better than the others.   We should accept it.         

I think bikes are checked every GP.    As Madsen was 2nd last season does this make Bartosz a bigger cheat than Madsen as he was quicker.  

[Col]

24 minutes ago, racers and royals said:

Who would you have dropped to put Batchelor in ?

On that performance & his showing last week, none of them.  Have to admit of not being aware of Logachev before.

[Fromafar]

10 minutes ago, E I Addio said:

 But are the bikes  checked every meeting ? I don’t think they are unless someone lodges a protest. The answer is we don’t know and probably never will know if he is cheating. It was Jason Crump that coined the expression “ Polish Fast” years ago . The suspicion of cheating has been around for  years, nor necessarily referring to Madsen. But then this is speedway and who knows what to believe about what we hear ? 

At one time I used to think Darcy Ward must have an oversize engine judging by the amount of acceleration he could generate from nowhere, but I eventually came to the conclusion that it was sheer talent ant nothing else.

 

Most of the top men are trying to get one over on the opposition without breaking rules( whatever they are in Speedway).I was always suspicious of Hancock ,but Greg is such a nice guy he wouldn’t cheat!!!!

[BarracudaAce]

Premier Sports at it again - unless they announced an extremely late change to their TV schedule after midnight last night and too late to be reflected on the Sky EPG.

I double-checked around midnight last night before going to bed, and both the Premiers Sports Website TV Schedule and Sky EPG showed 1.00am - 3.00am Czestochowa v Wroclaw and then starting at 3.00am Polish Football. 

I set both programmes to record, as I know from experience Premier can have a tendency not to stick to their schedules - and again, it was a good job I did.

The first hour of the 1.00am recording (still described as Czestochowa v Wroclaw) was some form of car racing before the speedway started. The 1.00am - 3.00am recording then stopped at heat 11. The 3.00am recording (still described as the Polish football match) then started with the remaining heats of the speedway, and Dave Goddard signed-off about 30 mins or so into this recording.

So the speedway must have been broadcast at 2.00am - 3.30am.

For anyone that might have missed the end of the match due to this, the Premier Sports TV schedule has both Sunday matches being shown again tomorrow from 2.00pm  & 4.00pm (if they can be believed that is!!)

Meantime, here is a link to youtube for the Czestochowa v Wroclaw match with Polish commentary.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_iczE91uzc

[Dave Goddard]

The speedway was meant to go out at 1am but the live NASCAR race that was on before it over ran because of - YOU GUESSED IT - a sodding rain delay.  I think motorsport promoters are just going to give up completely soon.

[False dawn]

5 minutes ago, BarracudaAce said:

So the speedway must have been broadcast at 2.00am - 3.30am.

[Not directed at Dave Goddard....]

Premier Sports aren't doing themselves any favours are they? I have become a regular fan of Polish speedway for the first time (along with many from the discussions on here). This is likely to continue (this year, next year) when British speedway resumes, for me at least. So there is a window of oportunity for any TV sports provider to capture a new fan base (albeit a niche one). Premier Sports have a first class commentator who seems to command a good deal of respect. They could easily become the go to place for at least some of the speedway on air. But to change the schedule on a delayed transmission in the middle of the night is not the way to do it. 

[bigcatdiary]

3 hours ago, racers and royals said:

And to think that everyone who didn`t used to watch the Polish league were moaning about the starts( including Nige and Kelv !!) when the GP`s had a Polish ref or were in Poland, it`s how they do it and long may it continue.

Trouble is the UK don’t, I have no idea of the other leagues in Sweden and Denmark.

If everyone got excluded for any movement before the tapes going up it would stop it everywhere.

[E I Addio]

1 hour ago, Mark said:

Some riders are better than the others.   We should accept it.         

I think bikes are checked every GP.    As Madsen was 2nd last season does this make Bartosz a bigger cheat than Madsen as he was quicker.  

If the bikes are checked every GP that is not every meeting .  My understanding is that only the bike on which the rider completes his last ride goes into the parke ferme, but he still has two others. Theoretically the top three finishers are liable to be “checked “ by which I mean stripped down, but I think ( and I stand to be corrected if it is otherwise)  that it rarely happens . Think about it a rider spends an arm and a leg on tuners getting it right them some F.I.M bloke strips it down and leaves it for the tuner to put all back together at great expense. 

Some riders are better than others, some have enormous talent, far above the rest. That’s what makes it so difficult to pin point anything. I am not pointing the finger at Madsen or Bartosz or anyone else. I am only going by what I have heard from riders. Two ex GP riders have told me that you wouldn’t be competitive in Poland if you didn’t have “something done “ to the engines . I didn’t ask them to enlarge on what “something done “ meant.

All we do know is that odd ones here and there have been caught cheating so it does happen at least occasionally.  Anything beyond that is speculation. 

[THE DEAN MACHINE]

1 hour ago, Dave Goddard said:

The speedway was meant to go out at 1am but the live NASCAR race that was on before it over ran because of - YOU GUESSED IT - a sodding rain delay.  I think motorsport promoters are just going to give up completely soon.

This is a genuine question, is nascar a big thing over here ? I know it’s everything in parts of USA but over here ? I don’t know anyone who follows it, does it get more viewers on premier than speedway ??

Edited June 29, 2020 by THE DEAN MACHINE