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GRAND PRIX CHALLENGE


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13 minutes ago, customhouseregular said:

Let’s agree to differ shall we?. 

The problem is that you can't get your head around the fact that it is not "seeding". Look, let's take darts. The bulk of the World Championship field is made up from the rankings. In other words, players battle it out over a number of tournaments during the year, and get points based on their performances. Fair? The GP is just the same. Riders compete not only tp be World Champion, but to QUALIFY for the following year.

When you have a series lasting several months, it os virtualli impossible - and unfair - to introduce various qualification systems on top of the main qualification system

You are making a common mistake. As a speedway fan, you are still thinking, "Well, this is the way we've always done it, so it must be the best!"

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Everyone in this years world championship number 1-15 qualified by what they did last year.        
first 6 in last years championship qualified by being top point scores in the previous years GP series.  (was it 8 rounds, usually 10ish)          
first 3 in last years GP Challenge final last year this qualifies for this years GP series, they have qualifying rounds too..    
first in last years European championship, run over three rounds.       
5 riders are selected/qualify at the organisers discretion taking into account their performance and injuries etc in the previous year.             
no 16 is perhaps the only one that doesn’t need to qualify, and that is arguable.

that’s how I see it. This years gp is not some closed club to some riders, each and every one has qualified in some manner. Ok, occasionally someone gets through the system and gets into the GPs but he has had to work at it.

I loved the one off world final, the atmosphere was great, but also love the current GP system where the best rider over the season is world champ. Not only has the winner needed to ride each different track well, he has had to select the right engine/setup for different tracks.

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18 hours ago, Welwyn said:

How about?

Top 6 through.

7-14 join 8 qualifiers in the GP Challenge. 15th misses completely.

Top 6 in GP Challenge Qualify.

Leaves 3 spots:

1 goes to SEC Champ.

2 Wildcards (allows for covering riders who get injured and end up in 15th or miss the Challenge as a result).

I would regard that as pretty much a perfect set up.

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1 hour ago, OveFundinFan said:

Everyone in this years world championship number 1-15 qualified by what they did last year.        
first 6 in last years championship qualified by being top point scores in the previous years GP series.  (was it 8 rounds, usually 10ish)          
first 3 in last years GP Challenge final last year this qualifies for this years GP series, they have qualifying rounds too..    
first in last years European championship, run over three rounds.       
5 riders are selected/qualify at the organisers discretion taking into account their performance and injuries etc in the previous year.             
no 16 is perhaps the only one that doesn’t need to qualify, and that is arguable.

that’s how I see it. This years gp is not some closed club to some riders, each and every one has qualified in some manner. Ok, occasionally someone gets through the system and gets into the GPs but he has had to work at it.

I loved the one off world final, the atmosphere was great, but also love the current GP system where the best rider over the season is world champ. Not only has the winner needed to ride each different track well, he has had to select the right engine/setup for different tracks.

That is my point exactly. When somebody is placed at a certain stage without competing, that is "seeding"; that certainly doesn't apply to the GP's - unlike the old World Final system.

The ONLY time I can recall an attempt at that was when Greg Hancock was offered a wild card after having a year off.

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On 6/16/2022 at 3:17 AM, chunky said:

The problem is that you can't get your head around the fact that it is not "seeding". Look, let's take darts. The bulk of the World Championship field is made up from the rankings. In other words, players battle it out over a number of tournaments during the year, and get points based on their performances. Fair? The GP is just the same. Riders compete not only tp be World Champion, but to QUALIFY for the following year.

When you have a series lasting several months, it os virtualli impossible - and unfair - to introduce various qualification systems on top of the main qualification system

Countless examples: tennis, golf, snooker all based on rankings. F1 is effectively 100% wildcard. 

Most team sports, participation in a league is based on performance the previous year. Cricket and rugby World cups, many teams qualify based on rankings or previous tournament performance. 

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I think some people still seem to forget that it's a commercial enterprise, i.e. to make money.  The primary concern is not fairness or equal opportunity.  Several riders have had many wildcards, even when they've failed to enter or get through the qualifying rounds they were in but they get picked in my view, for commercial reasons e.g. Vaculik.  Lambert, Bewley, Thomsen, J Holder all failed to qualify for this year from the 2021 qualifiers.  Others finished ahead of them in the challenge but did not get wildcards.  This to me is unfair.

I prefer to see riders who are having a banging season be given the opportunity to become world champion that year because their light may fade the following year and the opportunity has been missed.  There's nothing more boring to me than seeing the same riders every time, it just gets tedious and is what many people dislike about doubling up/down in the UK.  Tennis is great in that respect - Becker at Wimbledon, Radecanu at the US open and countless other examples where someone fresh comes in and defies the odds, generating a lot of media attention.  I accept it's a different set up but the principle is that of the unknown.

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On 6/15/2022 at 3:56 PM, customhouseregular said:

Once upon a time nobody got seeded. Everyone from the World Champion down started the next year from scratch. Didn’t stop Mauger winning 6, Fundin winning 5 or Briggs winning 4.

Peter Craven was seeded direct to the 1956 World Final; Barry Briggs was seeded direct to the 1958 and 1959 World Finals; Ronnie Moore was seeded direct to the 1960 World Final.

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1 hour ago, norbold said:

Peter Craven was seeded direct to the 1956 World Final; Barry Briggs was seeded direct to the 1958 and 1959 World Finals; Ronnie Moore was seeded direct to the 1960 World Final.

Thanks for the update 

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On 6/15/2022 at 8:38 AM, bruno said:

I'd have thought this would be a good meeting to stream, BSN?

Probably way way out of their remit as its an FIM meeting. Surely Discovery would have first dibs, but if they're not interested then BSN could put in an offer and as Del Boy always said he who dares wins

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 4 weeks later...

FIM Speedway Grand Prix World Championship – Challenge 20th August 2022 – Glasgow (SCO)

 1 Oliver Berntzon SVEMO Sweden

2 Vaclav Milik ACCR Czech Republic

3 Dan Bewley ACU Great Britain

4 Max Fricke MA Australia

5 Andzejs Lebedevs LaMSF Latvia

6 Rasmus Jensen DMU Denmark

7 David Bellego FFM France

8 Anders Thomsen DMU Denmark

9 Symon Wozniak PZM Poland

10 Chris Holder MA Australia

11 Rohan Tungate MA Australia

12 Robert Lambert ACU Great Britain

13 Jack Holder MA Australia

14 Dominik Kubera PZM Poland

15 Kai Huckenbeck DMSB Germany

16 Kim Nilsson SVEMO Sweden

17 Drew Kemp ACU Great Britain

18 Connor Bailey ACU Great Britain

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4 minutes ago, Shockster said:

That's good for me, but what will happen to the Ekstraliga play offs as riders will be involved?  R/R??

They will be off- already mentioned in their communications, as well as possibly altering start times on the Sunday if riders are struggling to travel to Poland from Glasgow.

Edited by racers and royals
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