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mark cox

Ivan Admits That Tony Is The Best!

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Do you really think so he doesnt need to he can do it from a standing start tony doesnt cheat.

 

Don't be so naive. If rolling starts were still allowed and part of the game then a rider like Tony would take advantage of that and probably be brilliant at it.

 

You can't say one rider was better than another because of the rules of the day. It's an irrelevant argument. It's like saying Ivan was better because they didn't have air fences in those days or the bikes were apparently more difficult to ride.

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Interesting what he says in Backtrack.Would congratulate Tony if he wins this year,but after this year as there isn't anyway of qualifying he doesn't consider it to be a World Championship and shouldn't be called one.Just an invitation series.

 

So what the Speedway governing body are doing then is........

 

Ivan Mauger 6 times World Champion (Individual Championships)

Tony Rickardsson 6 (tempting fate here) times World Champion (GP Championships)

and

A N Other 6 times World Champion (Invitation Series)

 

Yes? which goes back to the arugment who's better Mauger or Rickardsson and like I said, each are Champions in their own rights.

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Do you really think so he doesnt need to he can do it from a standing start tony doesnt cheat.

 

It's just plain silly to suggest that Ivan Mauger couldn't have coped with the present tape-touching rules. Like TR, the guy was a total professional and he'd have adapted, just as Neilsen and Gundersen adapted and flourished. In fact, Mauger would probably feel that the present-day rules would have suited him more than his contemporaries.

Edited by Subedei

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As we all know Ivan won six world titles which meant having to win one big meeting in that year,in Tonys case he has won four big meetings this year already [should of been five if it wasnt for you know who's mad antics]and let alone all the gps tony has won over the years and his world final win in 94.I know who is the best champ.

Not so. Ivan had to go through all the qualification stages each year, often winning stages en route to the final. You didn't qualify for anything by right in those days.

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Every World Champion should be honoured, and not be pulled to pieces to try and make another champion appear superior. As for Ivan and Tony they are both great.

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You are so right sjw. How can anyone compare the two, what with the advances in the sport from Ivan's day to now, who knows what Ivan would have won if he'd been riding these days same if Tony was riding back then. They were/are greats of their time as Fundin was a few years further back and Nielsen in the 80's.

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firstly i feel they are both the greatest in their own day,but suppose Tony wins 7th? well 7 is greater than 6 so i guess its game set and match! after all why hasnt anyone mentioned ivan vs ove fundin in a head to head-cos ivan's won more than fundin!! (c'mon who are we kidding,Ivan's never gonna say it's Tony that's number 1 is he,and it's his privalige not to! )

as for rolling starts we'll never know and i hope we never will as they were ruled out as deemed to be unfair,like the other stuff i mentioned

and even if is is a kind of invitational series,we are watching the best every week-who else would you put in? you put the next best 8 qualifiers in when the worst 8 in this series meet the next 8 challengers in a race off and who would be prepared to dump a hefty bet on any of them lifting the title?

no thanks i'd rather see a quality field rather than the old finals (which i can remember!) where you had a few absolute "no hopers" usually from obscure countries who got in through the "back door" with easier qualifying rounds.There were really only 4 or 5 favourites in the one-offs,not unlike now,would anyone disagree?

someone brought up Loram and Pdersen winning on being consistent but who would argue that either didn't have the abiity to win a one-off?

Another thing,would egon muller or jerzey wotshisname ever win a grand prix series? my guess is they'd have people wishing they could "invite" someone else in,i wonder who Ivan would have in? Tony may well come out on top whatever

Tony has also gone from uprights to lay-downs,and race times are so much quicker demanding quicker reaction times and more aggresive "do or die" moves.

i'm sounding biased maybe,but i've heard of many tricks used in days gone by that simply are denied now-looking back you say to yourself "my god how naive!" Look at when tyres were changed a few years back and people sofened them,the match results spoke for themselves and rules chaned and we all had the same tyres given to us on the night

Like i say if Tony wins 7,then he'd re-write the history books and go down as the greatest,except for those who feel the "good old days" were best and to them it'd be Ivan,and to those who feel the "vintage era" was best it's Ove for sure,each to their own,total heroes all of them,total respect,total admiration,

anyway that's my next ten cents

'nuff said

LOL

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as for rolling starts we'll never know

 

well if you read Backtrack magazine you would ... Ivan has stated that rolling at the tapes was outlawed on the Continent but he STILL beat all the top riders out the starts to win big meetings, this being at a time when Ole Olsen, Peter Collins etc were riding abroad at weekends ... quality will always shine through.

 

Fundin was a master in his era, Mauger a master in his, and Rickardsson a master in his.

there is no 'game, set, match' about it ... it's about how they get on in their own surroundings, and has been mentioned earlier, Fundin and Mauger had far more quality to deal with than Rickardsson has now.

 

another thing ... the 'upright/laydown' thing you mention, with TR having riden both ... with Ivan openly stating how easy they are to ride compared to what he was on, just how well do you think Mauger would have done on those?

all you have to do is ask people that have seen Ivan ride a laydown just how good he looks (and still does when he jumps on a bike at the age of 65).

 

the 'good old days' to me is when it was a cut-throat business and riders had to qualify for meetings and earn their places against tough opposition ... not a closed shop of coming last in one meeting but being able to still ride in the next round whatever happens.

just what sort of incentive is there now for youngsters coming through?

when riders start riding to become world champion but know they'll only get that chance if they have a long enough tongue and they are the right nationality.

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Maybe they could do the same as the Longtrack GP's.If you come last you have to qualify against nominated riders in a sudden death run-off before the meeting.

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Top post Honey.  :wink:

Agree with that.

Liked his(Ivan's)comment on the GP venues,saying Norden is like Wembley compared to Krskro,Lonigo....Bring it on,lets have a GP at the Wembley of Ostfriesland :D

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Very, very good interview with Mauger - interesting to read not only his comments on the GP, but also Kenny Carter, Hans Nielsen, etc. I was surprised to read that the Nielsen/Mauger combination nearly survived through to 1989, because when Hans went I did his own thing in 1988 (to be honest, I think that Hans was stuffed in that run-off whichever tyre he had on - gate 1 was underwater!!!) I though the relationship ended then.

 

By then, I don't think Hans needed the extra vital 1% that Mauger could provide, as demonstrated at Munich, he no longer needed anyone to tell him he could do it, he now believed it.

 

Anyway, back to the topic title, Mauger certainly isn't taking any credit away from Tony Rickardsson at all.

 

His comment that we shouldn't really compare the greats is true - and all you can say is that Fundin, Mauger, Nielsen and Rickardsson all dominated their various eras.

 

Still, it's great fun to try to compare.

 

Maybe the question should be changed to - which is harder to win, a one-off final of a GP series? I'd go for the former, when one split-second of misjudgement can cost dearly, no matter how consistent you are over a season, but again there really isn't a definitive answer.

 

All the best

Rob

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I see on the SKYSPORTS website that Nigel Pearson has added his voice to the current "by invitation only" situation in the GPs, saying there should be some sort of qualifying system in place as it is discrediting the world championship. Trouble is that means more blinking dates out of the league calendar for dear old BSI!

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Much is made of Ivan's era being tougher than todays era, but I actually disagree. There is another way of defining a tough era. Having been someone who has straddled all eras since the mid 60's, I reckon racing has never been as furious and cut and thrust as it is today. There is carnage in nearly every GP, so manic and intense are the first corners. Three recent world champions have had their careers ended with serious injuries. Craven aside, this never happened in the 60's and 70's.

I have lots of videos from the 70's, and it surprises me how tame(ish), some of the racing from that era looks compared to today.

 

In those days there were certainly thrills aplenty from the likes of Peter Collins and one or two others, but today we have umpteen Peter Collinses. Look at the death defying stuff we see all the time from Mark Loram, Andreas Jonsson and indeed Rickardson himself.

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it definateley is more cut and thrust nowadays,the video footage of years gone by looks like slow motion sometimes!

as for someone's comments of lay-downs being easier to ride,well that's down to rider preference-i found them harder at first actually,but so what if they are-its the same for everyone.Tony has had a transision to deal with-especially as it was a change that no-one even knew where it was going cos it was a delve into unchartered waters

in 10 or 20 years time people will be having the same discussions,and if tony gets to 7 then that's a record and people who weren't there will be hard to be persuaded any other way and we don't know when he'll stop yet-this is his best form yet and he may even improve!! so then what's it gonna take for people to make their minds up?

a GP series means you ride the best every time,a qualification series sometimes means you only have half a feild of genuine contenders-remember that the other half are in another qualifier

im in awe of all still, there's no getting away from that

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