Should the double Grand Prix weekends be retained?

[lucifer sam]

A consequence of this year's condensed World Championship held over a span of just over five weeks was the doubling up of Grand Prix rounds - with one on a Friday and one on a Saturday.

I think it's been a winner - it adds an extra element having two rounds over two days.  It's an increased challenge for the riders, it doubles the entertainment provided, and it's fascinating to see how different two meetings on the same track with the same 16 riders can be!  Also, it's a major selling point to travelling supporters, both from abroad and further afield in the same country.

Now, I realise there are certain venues where it might be impractical. For example, the installed tracks such as Cardiff start to rut up badly towards the end of just 23 races - is 46 races worth the risk?

But at stadiums with a permanent speedway track, I can only see positives.  Two rounds at the likes of Torun and Wroclaw again?  Yes please.

[customhouseregular]

Agree with you. Hope the powers that be look closely at how this year played out and schedule some for next year 

[chunky]

6 hours ago, lucifer sam said:

But at stadiums with a permanent speedway track, I can only see positives.  Two rounds at the likes of Torun and Wroclaw again?  Yes please.

Kelvin said the same, and I agree. Have two or three select doubles, and one-offs for the others.

Personally, I loved them...

[screm]

Its been a success and would prove popular with travelling fans to each venue, unfortunately the powers that be, in Poland mainly, wont wear it for a full GP season.

[LagutaRacingFan]

I think it's brilliant, Formula 1 do something similar with their qualifiers and race day. 

It certainly makes sense if you're going to go to Australia or Russia for a GP series, with all of the travelling; it makes sense to have 2 rounds.

If local promoters are concerned about crowds then have two rounds with venues relatively close, one at Torun and one at Bydgoszcz.

[Tactical Joker]

Good point about an indoor track being capable of lasting 46 heats. Safety obviously has to be the most important consideration. But an indoor track does take the weather out of the equation. A whole weekend rained off wouldn’t be good. Like the idea of choosing two adjacent venues too, but how many other pairings are practical, especially outside Poland.

Hopefully travel restrictions will be over for next season, really missed the European trips this year.

 

Edited October 4, 2020 by Tactical Joker

[eric i]

I thought they did a poland v rest of the world meeting after the GP in Warsaw, I don't remember the track being a problem.

[Rob B]

I think the indoor tracks have got a lot better in recent years. I read somewhere in past, think it was Ole Olsen saying that the old practise sessions they did on the Friday involved more wear on the track then a GP.

[ray c]

might as well have five double up weekends over the season all in poland of course 

[Ben91]

The timed qualifying that has happened in previous seasons is pretty pointless. For certain rounds a double header weekend wouldn’t be a bad thing. Cancel the qualifying and have double headers at a couple of the permanent tracks. Don’t make Torun a double round though, hold the GP Challenge on day two (either there or at Bydgoszcz) and make a bigger deal of it. 

[Col]

Ummm. If double up events, do it with one accumalled scoring system Friday (as 2019). Different scoring system Saturday, eliminations (as about 2012).

Actually no... That would work but the other way around. Top 16 from Friday, there for Saturday.

Edited October 4, 2020 by Col

[gbrussell]

As someone who has taken in GP's on Overseas Trips, at Cardiff twice, Parken and Torun I think 2 x GP"s on the same weekend at some but not all venues represents great value.  Now that the temporary tracks seem to be of a better standard than they were, it makes sense to do double ups at Indoor venues which have a bigger capacity and as such should partially alleviate the cost of hiring them. 

I certainly would not have said this after witnessing the farcical practice session at Cardiff 2013 but as others have said the temporary tracks are much better than they were. 

Worth a shot for one season and lets see how it goes. 

Edited October 5, 2020 by gbrussell
Spelling

[OveFundinFan]

I would have particularly like to see 2 GPs in a weekend in Prague again. In Toruń there was only 1 tape warning I think, and that was the final meeting. In Prague I think there was 8 plus 2 exclusions..... that tells you how keen the riders were to fulfil the need to get out first at that track.

[Grand Central]

No.

it was fine for this year when extraordinary circumstances demanded a different approach.

Hopefully next year the GP and domestic leagues can get back to something like normality.

And then the following year under Discovery we'll be having GPs all over the world and everything will be very different !

Edited October 5, 2020 by Grand Central

[Humphrey Appleby]

Double headers might work at some tracks, but could equally be both a racing and financial disaster so not sure you'd want to do it every race weekend. And of course, surely it would start eating into the Polish League programme?

If they're going to have a 2-day event, would prefer the field was expanded to 24 or even 32 riders and they run some sort of qualifying event on the Saturday. Or run a GP Challenge on the Saturday (like F2 or F3) for different prospective GP riders, with a couple of places in the main event for the most successful of those. 

However, I suspect for the same reason that the field was cut from 24 to 16 riders, there isn't the money to bring more riders to each event.

[IainB]

13 hours ago, screm said:

Its been a success and would prove popular with travelling fans to each venue, unfortunately the powers that be, in Poland mainly, wont wear it for a full GP season.

Maybe time for the FIM to start flexing its muscles because at the moment the tail is wagging the dog

[Humphrey Appleby]

10 minutes ago, iainb said:

Maybe time for the FIM to start flexing its muscles because at the moment the tail is wagging the dog

Not really.

The SGP doesn't pay anything like a living wage to the riders, whereas the Polish leagues do. It's the FIM and BSI who've been wagging the dog for years, effectively getting top flight performers at cut prices. 

[IainB]

9 minutes ago, Humphrey Appleby said:

Not really.

The SGP doesn't pay anything like a living wage to the riders, whereas the Polish leagues do. It's the FIM and BSI who've been wagging the dog for years, effectively getting top flight performers at cut prices. 

they've now got 100,000,000 in the bank though

[Humphrey Appleby]

32 minutes ago, iainb said:

they've now got 100,000,000 in the bank though

I doubt it's all paid up front.

Assuming that the FIM still remains responsible for paying the prize money though, even if they quadrupled it, I still don't think it would match what GP riders can command in Poland. 

[IainB]

22 minutes ago, Humphrey Appleby said:

I doubt it's all paid up front.

Assuming that the FIM still remains responsible for paying the prize money though, even if they quadrupled it, I still don't think it would match what GP riders can command in Poland. 

You're kind of proving my point that the tail is wagging the dog