Chris Harris Cardiff Wild Card

[jimmy jimmy 298]

They were frightened Eddie Kennett might have won it

 

maybe the winner could go into the european championship instead?

 

That isn't a bad idea

 

Its BSI who pick the wildcards I consultation with the staging promoters. Who are the staging promoters? BSI. Maybe in the past they were happy to go along with it for Sky. I'd prefer Bomber gets it than Kennett, King or Nicholls tbh. We don't really have a 16-18 year old we could give the wild card to, maybe Worrall?

 

I don't get the hate aimed at Bomber, he is our second best rider after Tai.

 

You are right, he is, so I don't get the another nail in the coffin crap that others are coming up with. The Polish Champion doesn't get seeded, the Swedish one doesn't, but any old excuse to moan again. The British Final riders will still want to win just as much as before. The EL riders final has nothing at stake apart from pride, but it didn't stop Rory putting himself in hospital trying to win it!

[SPEEDY69 1,253]

Terrible decision in respect of the worht of the British Final. Woffinden should coast to the title this year and the interest was really around the wild card spot. If I was Kennett I'd be fuming right now as he has a real chance of second place. BSI are interested in the revenue and they probably believe that Harris, a former winner, will increase the attendance. We'll have to wait and see on that one. I wonder which Brit will get the wild card spot for the GP challenge at Poole later this year?????

[GARY POPPS 6]

This has obviously been a political decision,and it is damaging to British speedway, as it will greatly affect the attendance of the British final and probably the determination of the riders involved.

Yes,Chris Harris is probably the 2nd best Brit,but i feel most of our supporters would have liked to see a younger rider given the oppertunity.

Edited May 1, 2013 by GARY POPPS

[AGM 0]

Think it's time for a bit of rider power the money men are ruining it.Time Alex and the rest of BSPA put the Grand Prix promoters in their place

[JT 167]

Terrible decision in respect of the worht of the British Final. Woffinden should coast to the title this year and the interest was really around the wild card spot. If I was Kennett I'd be fuming right now as he has a real chance of second place. BSI are interested in the revenue and they probably believe that Harris, a former winner, will increase the attendance. We'll have to wait and see on that one. I wonder which Brit will get the wild card spot for the GP challenge at Poole later this year?????

 

Oh you can guarantee if Harris buggers up the qualifying rounds, they'll happily give him a free ride into the GP Challenge. Then if he cocks that up, they'll probably give him a series wild card again in 2014.

 

BSI are being made to look a laughing stock with their Harris obsession, it's actually quite comical. I can't think of single rider who gets close to the amount of charity Harris has had over the years. Yet even with all of the benefits of unparalleled TV exposure (sponsorship) since his spell in the GP series began, he was still absolutely crap last season. Why reward such a serial failure?

 

I can only imagine one of Harris' sponsors is important to BSI, because as a rider, there's no way he deserves yet another opportunity. The sad consequence of this constant charity is Harris appears to be totally delusional. He still can't understand why they didn't give him a full time spot this year.

 

JT.

Edited May 1, 2013 by JT

[Coventry_Bee 467]

It looks political, the reason being that if Harris is the best man for the GP he would have got the wild card spot fair and square by finishing first or second! The fact he finished behind Nicholls the past 2 seasons is a risk the bsi don't want to take again. It must be bums on seats as if you are going to mix it with Holder, Hancock, Ward, Tai, Gollob, Hampel and yet the doubt if you can finish in the top 2 against our own then fair play, there toy there rules.

 

Again it's not anti Harris, I hope him and Tai do really well it's just again the bsi have devalued British Speedway. Look at the riders that don't agree with the ruling and they are not just the Brits either.

 

Best of luck to Bomber and Tai

Edited May 1, 2013 by Coventry_Bee

[TheReturn 1,724]

The only reason I can think of (and its not a good one!) is that as SKY do not show the GP's they will not have to go on about riders qualifying during the British Final.

 

I found it interesting that Shouty Pearson last night talking about the pinnacle of the speedway year being the British Final, when in previous seasons it was always the Cardiff GP.

 

BSI are being made to look a laughing stock with their Harris obsession, it's actually quite comical. I

 

It's not just BSI, after he won Cardiff, Pearson was sucking up to him for a year, then he moved on to sucking up to Holder and more recently Ward.

[John Ernest Holland 2]

agree with other members about bomber he has had his time but his inclusion shows how little genuine talent we have now or in the forseeable future to compete at the highest level

 

[david2905 230]

I found it interesting that Shouty Pearson last night talking about the pinnacle of the speedway year being the British Final, when in previous seasons it was always the Cardiff GP.

 

The British League shoulden't buckle to Sky's ill informed belief that Speedway doesn't exist if Sky don't have the rights to it, if Sky don't want to pay for the GP's or other league's, then that's their business, but they shoulden't be allowed to mislead viewers that the Elite League is the be and end all, fact is British Speedway is far from the pinnacle of the sport currently, and letting Sky helpe people believe all is well in our little bubble won't help change that.

[hrhbig 69]

They were frightened Eddie Kennett might have won it

 

 

 

That isn't a bad idea

 

 

 

You are right, he is, so I don't get the another nail in the coffin crap that others are coming up with. The Polish Champion doesn't get seeded, the Swedish one doesn't, but any old excuse to moan again. The British Final riders will still want to win just as much as before. The EL riders final has nothing at stake apart from pride, but it didn't stop Rory putting himself in hospital trying to win it!

I think you will find that Scott Nicholls was invited to appear in the European series , but the ruling body here put a stop to that, well thats what I saw on Polish speedway news quite a long time ago. Edited May 1, 2013 by hrhbig

[Shadders 4,134]

Any truth in the rumour that Harris was making noises about not riding in the SWC if he didn't recieve a wild card spot? Perhaps he was being leaned on by sponsors?

[Dave_minall 232]

Any truth in the rumour that Harris was making noises about not riding in the SWC if he didn't recieve a wild card spot? Perhaps he was being leaned on by sponsors?

 

He did say this and since he was denied the GP slot nothing has been said since. He must have thrown his toys out the pram and then realised that he needed them afterwards.

 

We need to bleed in some fresh blood into the GPs. Look at the other rounds - we have unknown youngsters at every round (pretty much) with the exception of cardiff.

 

Craig Cook would at least put the cats among the pigeons because in reality, he doesn't give an S as to who's alongside him at the tapes. It would be very much like when Lee Richardson (RIP) rode superbly well back in 2006 I believe and very nearly made the final.

 

No pressure = more fun

 

Harris will go in believing that he might have another shot at the GPs and he will probably crumble. I'd love to see a youngster going out and beating the best. Looks like we'll have to wait until they qualify outright though as Harris will probably get the wild card spot until he's using a zimmerframe.

[PHILIPRISING 7,298]

WE would all love to see a British youngster going out and beating the best ... but who might that be? Apart from ability and experience, current SGP riders have equipment that is far superior to youngsters like Craig Cook. We need to be looking at the bigger picture and planing long term rather than contemplating throwing a kid in at the deep end in the hope that he can swim.

[Dave_minall 232]

WE would all love to see a British youngster going out and beating the best ... but who might that be? Apart from ability and experience, current SGP riders have equipment that is far superior to youngsters like Craig Cook. We need to be looking at the bigger picture and planing long term rather than contemplating throwing a kid in at the deep end in the hope that he can swim.

 

But surely by doing so it would teach him what the big boys are like? I know just being there will be an experience but he has no idea what he's up against by standing by the pit gate all night watching them go around.

 

Personally I think Craig would love the chance to prove that he wouldn't be there to make the numbers up.

 

Granted if the track was one of the normal purpose built tracks he would struggle but in my opinion not around the small space that is cardiff.

[TheReturn 1,724]

We need to bleed in some fresh blood into the GPs.

 

Whilst I agree in principle, in practice I am not sure we have young fresh blood capable of winning the odd GP race right now. Whilst I do think the British Final should be the qualification for the wildcard, if we all had to pick a rider capable of doing enough of reaching the semi's, I am not sure there is anyone on good enough form that could be argued better than Harris right now.

 

I would like to have an explanation though of why this decision was taken and why the wildcard qualification was removed from the British Final and whose decision it was.