Czech GP Prague

[Tactical Joker]

Sitting in a brewery in Prague mulling over the scorecard with a strong dark beer.

Firstly a thank you to everyone who must have worked hard to get the meeting on, it is appreciated by some, regardless of the quality of the racing.

Unfortunately though nearly all heats were three horse races by the second bend, gate 3 the proverbial graveyard. Which is where Vaculik had the edge over Zmarzlik, winning from 3 when Zmarzlik only got a 3rd. Ultimately that gave him the advantge with gate picks.

Agree Martin comes across well, a good ambassador for the sport, so pleased to see him win.

[Hawk127]

Do the British riders have the ruthless streak in them to tackle the best riders in the world which unfortunately generally means the counterpart Polish riders. It is a difficult call but Tai is ducking out, Robert has the ability but seems to fear pushing that extract mile and Dan has his demons and who can blame him for a cautious approach, it can be a short career if you get it wrong too often. Look at Jason Doyle, at the top of his game and progress cut short. Not sure what the answer is but unless some Polish riders defect to these shores, the chances of British rider topping  the podium come the end of the season is unlikely. We live in hope.

[ytsejam]

Think Woffendon needs to pull a tactical sticky for the rest of the GP series to stop the utter humiliation and fool of himself he is making!! He's an embarrassment. 

[Hawk127]

1 minute ago, ytsejam said:

Think Woffendon needs to pull a tactical sticky for the rest of the GP series to stop the utter humiliation and fool of himself he is making!! He's an embarrassment. 

He probably believes he has nothing to prove and that is admirable but if that is the case step aside and let someone else have a chance to reach the top. The sport needs new blood at this level and the format probably needs a radical change to secure the supporter following going forward.

[pubichair]

26 minutes ago, Daniel Smith said:

That's what drives me bonkers with Lambert. When he burst on to the scene it didn't matter how he gates he'd battle hard. 

Now, with 'supposed' experience he's become a curb crawler or just follows back wheels. Also now gives up points easily too. It's not him. Just don't know if he's purposely doing it, or he's being advised. 

Natural racing ability seems to have deserted him, really winds me up. I want 'Ruthless' Lambert back. 

In fact, back to SGP, I'd love to see some more Nicki Pedersen style rider's back in the series, need livening up massively. 

Couldn't agree more!  
 

[pubichair]

12 minutes ago, ytsejam said:

Think Woffendon needs to pull a tactical sticky for the rest of the GP series to stop the utter humiliation and fool of himself he is making!! He's an embarrassment. 

Wouldn't be surprised if he retired from all speedway end of season! 

[THE DEAN MACHINE]

Zmarzlik goes about his business again, he has this world championship game well and truly mastered ,more than likely will make every final in the series, doesn’t matter where he finishes, he is nailed on for 14 points per meeting, he has a 12 point lead already, realistically jack holder has got to finish 3rd or better in every GP from now on to stand a chance , vaculik has won a few GPs now but has never really looked like a tittle contender but as tonight showed he can mix it with the best,  woffinden not sure what’s going on, he doesn’t look quick but in the past even when he wasn’t quick he was a very clever rider and an opportunist who pinched points but he just doesn’t look like he wants to be there, he looked brilliant at Sheffield Thursday but looks poor for Wrocław and the GPs

[Hackett]

Track staff did an excellent job. As mentioned in this thread , the racing was a typical Prague meeting. 

If a hat-trick of wins at the Czech SGP makes Vaculik - King of the Marketa does that meeting make Tai - Prince Harry. 

[tyler42]

6 hours ago, therefused said:

First few grand prixs of the season have been great, this one not so much. 

I think that was always going to be the case. It's never been a great track for good racing and tonight that was proof. As you say we've had some great racing in the other GP's. Alas not tonight.

[tyler42]

5 hours ago, Bagpuss said:

Bewley will be fine at BV, and GB will have as much chance as anybody because of where it is. 

But will team GB have the bottle to drop Woofinden! He will most likely have a good British Final and the usual protagonists will be clamouring for his inclusion. Even though the British Final standard is a lot lower than the GP's. You only have how to look how fast he looked around Sheffield, but he was only beating 2nd division riders. Tonight when the anti was upped he was outclassed !

[Wee Eck]

6 hours ago, tyler42 said:

But will team GB have the bottle to drop Woofinden! He will most likely have a good British Final and the usual protagonists will be clamouring for his inclusion. Even though the British Final standard is a lot lower than the GP's. You only have how to look how fast he looked around Sheffield, but he was only beating 2nd division riders. Tonight when the anti was upped he was outclassed !

But who would you replace him with? There’s a good group of young lads but none are at Tai’s level. And none of the “older” guys like King, Wright or Ellis are better. IMO

[Technik]

9 hours ago, Hackett said:

Track staff did an excellent job. As mentioned in this thread , the racing was a typical Prague meeting. 

If a hat-trick of wins at the Czech SGP makes Vaculik - King of the Marketa does that meeting make Tai - Prince Harry. 

Prince Andrew would have been there as his mechanic but was stuck in trafficing

[KIRKYLANE]

Prague can produce good racing but it is notoriously difficult to pass on. They prepared the track to get the meeting on under difficult weather conditions…. Plaudits to Craig Ackroyd for cracking on with the meeting.

a meeting to forget

[Bagpuss]

13 hours ago, Daniel Smith said:

That's what drives me bonkers with Lambert. When he burst on to the scene it didn't matter how he gates he'd battle hard. 

Now, with 'supposed' experience he's become a curb crawler or just follows back wheels. Also now gives up points easily too. It's not him. Just don't know if he's purposely doing it, or he's being advised. 

Natural racing ability seems to have deserted him, really winds me up. I want 'Ruthless' Lambert back. 

In fact, back to SGP, I'd love to see some more Nicki Pedersen style rider's back in the series, need livening up massively. 

I think Robert probably learned a bit of a lesson from getting passed by Magic in the SWC last year. Last night he achieved four second places when going after the race leader on a poor track gives the bloke in third a chance to attack him and get past. I think that's just sensible riding.

What he does need to crack is the psychology of semi finals and finals, he's not turning enough of them into podiums and wins. 

As for the series, Zmarzlik is once again going to win it at a canter barring disaster and for me that's the main issue, a lack of jeopardy. I'm not particularly interested in people riding into eachother and riders being fenced personally.

Edited June 2 by Bagpuss

[DJC]

19 minutes ago, Bagpuss said:

I think Robert probably learned a bit of a lesson from getting passed by Magic in the SWC last year. Last night he achieved four second places when going after the race leader on a poor track gives the bloke in third a chance to attack him and get past. I think that's just sensible riding.

What he does need to crack is the psychology of semi finals and finals, he's not turning enough of them into podiums and wins. 

As for the series, Zmarzlik is once again going to win it at a canter barring disaster and for me that's the main issue, a lack of jeopardy. I'm not particularly interested in people riding into eachother and riders being fenced personally.

Completely agree on lambert, he always seems to look quicker than everyone else until heat 21/22 then crumbles.

not sure if Crumpy is still with him but he needs someone to help him with that psychological step up because he has shown he’s good enough.

I don’t think anyone is really suggesting knocking people off but there is too much respect for Zmarzlik and nobody bar Holder and Doyle this year  tries to stop his trademark dive bomb going into bend 3x they all just move aside for him.

also on Zmarzlik, I don’t think I’ve ever seen somone bounce off the fence so much going into bends, to the point where he looks out of control a lot of the time 

[davie10]

18 hours ago, Speedway28 said:

Do feel both Lambert and Bewley need to develop a ruthless streak (ironic in Lambert’s case). 
 

Bewley’s speed will win him more GP’s but lacks the fight of Holder for example.

100 percent bewley backs out of way to many runins to the corners where he could have move the rider over 

Edited June 2 by davie10

[IainB]

29 minutes ago, Bagpuss said:

for me that's the main issue, a lack of jeopardy.

I was going to post the exact same thing last night... but bottled it 

For me the maximum jeopardy was when there was 24 riders in the KO race format... when it went to every point counts we lost a lot of that... and now we're on this crazy system it's pretty much gone. I know you can run 2nd's all night long and then win a final in any of the systems. I just think that knowing you're going to be knocked out if you run a couple of thirds adds that jeopardy, instead of riders just thinking, if I run a couple of thirds, that's okay I'll just win my last 3, scrape into the semi and win the final.

Zmarlik would still win it of course as he's head an shoulders above anybody else in it at the moment... we may just get the odd shock round though, where he gets knocked out... or at least in a bit of trouble

Edited June 2 by iainb

[The Cheese]

Since the start of 2022 there's only been 1 GP where neither Lambert or Bewley made it to the semi-finals and they're often towards the top after the qualifying heats. But both seem to struggle to get past that point, Lambert has been knocked out in the semi's 12 times with 6 finals (2nd twice, 3rd twice, 4th twice). Bewley also knocked out 12 times in the semi's and just 3 finals albeit he's won them all. 

[Daniel Smith]

1 hour ago, Bagpuss said:

I think Robert probably learned a bit of a lesson from getting passed by Magic in the SWC last year. Last night he achieved four second places when going after the race leader on a poor track gives the bloke in third a chance to attack him and get past. I think that's just sensible riding.

What he does need to crack is the psychology of semi finals and finals, he's not turning enough of them into podiums and wins. 

As for the series, Zmarzlik is once again going to win it at a canter barring disaster and for me that's the main issue, a lack of jeopardy. I'm not particularly interested in people riding into eachother and riders being fenced personally.

That's exactly the problem, happy to finish 2nd comfortable. Lindgren, Zmarzlik & Vaculik would all prefer finishing 3rd trying hard for 1st than just settling, especially from heat 16>.

Lambert is thinking far to tactically than letting his ability come through. 

[Bagpuss]

3 hours ago, DJC said:

I don’t think anyone is really suggesting knocking people off but there is too much respect for Zmarzlik and nobody bar Holder and Doyle this year  tries to stop his trademark dive bomb going into bend 3x they all just move aside for him.

Very much agree with that. I think he's far too good anyway but people do seems to leave huge holes for him.