Star Lady

A step in the right direction but I'm reserving judgement until it's clear what happens when riders 2-7 are out. I foresee a team having 3 or 4 riders out injured/unavailable and even more special dispensations being handed out like sweets.

ML I agree totally. Gem's posts on another thread lead me to believe the promoters had far too much time dwelling on their own golden dingly danglies to use their brains has this just started my warning bar on a journey

Well done for knocking doubling down on the head and for limiting guest riders, and sort of implementing a squad system of sorts. As for the rest, what a load of Horlicks

Didn't the Family from Buck House set up the Way Ahead Group???? Never know you might get Steady Eddie flogging GP tickets by phone It would explain the accent too :twisted:

I don't. All riders should have the chance to earn a place. I worded it badly, riders obviously have to qualify the year before. Riders however should have the chance to qualify even if it's only to compete for one GP place in the series. Had the GP riders been nominated by for example the Czech federation, Tomas Topinka would never get the chance simply because one member of the federation doesn't like him. The possiblity that could happen in the GP series to a rider will always exist, now please don't tell me you think that's fair. Falcace like Kevin M, I have no axe to grind with BSI if they try to co-exist with British Speedway but so far I see absolutely no sign of any co-operation, do you? Think back to the Swedish GP, did they consider the effect on British clubs and all the other riders postponments of league matches would affect. No of course they didn't. I'm still not convinced that showing league matches and GPs on Sky actually benefits British Clubs. Name me a club that has actually come out and said their attendances have improved because of Speedway on TV and if by any chance you can please explain all the postings on this and other forums by regulars at tracks who stay at home and watch in comfort and warmth when their team is on Sky! In fact how many Sky viewers actually know where British tracks are, apart from the 8 EL tracks which is all Sky ever mention. Now if Russell the Great were to persuade Sky that as they don't want to show PL or CL racing it might just benefit the sport for terrestrial TV to be allowed to show highlights (or even the occasional live meeting like the PLRC or the 4s he might just be worth the reputed large amount of money he gained from the Sky deal. That's without even touching on the subject of GP riders "shortchanging" their clubs and fans by not turning up, only testing engines etc in League matches, see numerous other threads for confirmation

I realise that Kevin but I'm an optimist. The contract option would be good too if it contracts to invisible especially if BSI are going to play god with nominating riders.

I'm with you too Bryn. The World Champion is supposed to be the best rider of any particular year. That can never be said if ALL riders are not give the chance to qualify. My thoughts are that choosing GP riders is maybe the first step to a whole GP circus with riders solely competing in that competition, well I can live in hope

I'm firmly in the "if it ain't broke don't fix it" camp. The 45 point limit has served the PL well (and the EL to be truthful) so why change it? The only reason I can see is to save costs but as Kevin M has pointed out it's unlikely to do so altho it may well distribute the money round a bit more. Lioness your post above makes absolutely perfect sense to me and should be compulsory reading for any promoter who is even only thinking about changing the points limit. Even if the EL decides to change rider numbers per team and/or the points limit, why the heck does the PL have to.

I was under the impression that the local tracks foot the bill for staging SWC (and GP) meetings not BSI. If that is the case I would suggest there are some very shrewd promoters in Sweden . What's the point of bankrolling someone else's business.

Guess who's working Monday and won't have time to look at the forum

Well done Nicki you took your chances when presented with them. No one can take it away from you. Note to moderators Can TTF be limited to one post only on this thread ;-)

Well said Trees. We can only hope that eventually the Ostriches of the Bird Spotters Party Assoc will take their heads out of the sand

GG4eva sorry was speed reading the posts due to lack of time and didn't read yours properly Glad I'm not the only one who has noticed a lack of team skills in Trick So we basically agree. Great tho Mauger was, I wasn't his biggest fan either. I'm still firmly of the opinion that the greatest rider I've had the honour to see was Ove Fundin, albeit at the end of his riding career.

I would dispute that Trick is currently the best rider in the world. If we are using the number of world title held as criteria it means Ivan Mauger is also the best rider in the world World Titles are only a measure of form in the year they were won. Personally I would far rather have Crump or Pedersen in my team. From my experience of all 3 of them riding for Lynn, Rickardsson was the one who did the least for his team so IMO is not the best all round rider altho he may well have been the best individual rider for 5 years

I know where Trees is coming from Big Josh has always given the very best racing on a very fair track that allows overtaking inside and out. Saturday the track was according to Crumpy far slicker than practice.....Why? The outside line was only working for Gollob, no one else....why? As Olsen is in overall charge of track prep the obvious question is ....why?

Having had the pleasure of watching both Crump and Pedersen riding for Lynn in the past I can honestly say neither of them ever and I repeat ever gave less than 100% to the club or the fans. Just stop and think for a while folks without these 2 brilliant, entertaining, contraversial riders the GP series would have been over and done with weeks ago, would that have made you all happy I'll not comment on Sullivan but am just thankful he was never a Lynn rider. As for which I want to win, well it has to be Crump, I've supported him since he came over here and he fully deserves it.

Wonderful result as far as I'm concerned Gollob best rider on show by far, Crumpy is my god and he and Nicki were by far the 2 most determined riders there If Crump and Pedersen make the A final in Hamar, Tricks had it I do have this conspiracy theory that Olsen doctored the best track in the world to prevent such good racing so that the one off tracks look better by comparison :evil:

Jive there can be absolutely no complaint as it simply gave the cameraman more chance t focus on Bo therefore everything was justified. I rest my case

I thought the opening sequence with the 7 wanted riders was excellent, certainly a new, refreshing twist on things. It really is a sport you know folks and not supposed to be taken too seriously ;-) The serious issue I spotted tonight was the ineffective air fence. Andreas Jonsson went head first and his head actually slipped UNDER the air bags and must have hit the solid fence behind with quite some force. This raises a couple of points 1. could the air fence be anchored to the ground to protect low crashing riders (AJ is not the first to slide under the fence 2. Was AJ really fit to ride in the re-run. At best he looked dazed and at worst looked concussed. Either way I 'm not convinced he was safe to be in control of a 500cc motor bike.

AsJosef Franc as well as Topinka was mentioned as riding at Lynn tonight so I can only assume that Ales Dryml is not riding. Or maybe there are 3 wild cards. Who knows it's the GP they make the rules up as they go along

And maybe they were mere passers by who had a free ticket thrust in their hands so the stadium didn't look completely bare :!: Or am I being too much of a conspiracy theorist ;-)

I was bored too, I was going to say bored witless but I'm sure some would say I ain't got any anyway The only good thing about last night is it has closed up the overall standings but as a speedway meeting it was a non starter :-( I'm pleased there were only 2 hours of it and for once we nearly managed to watch a GP without being force fed "British is best". No objections when they are, as Scott was last night, but it does get mighty tiresome at times.

Oh don't tempt me Bryn I suppose if it's rutted off the Scunthorpe Stags would be happy

As Sky keep telling us Crumpy was born in Bristol it must mean the FIM/BSI are going to change the rules (and oh yes they can do it :evil: ) to make him British at some point in the future. I'm just ahead of my time :roll:

excuse me Jason Crump was born in Bristol how much more British can you get :evil: