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9 minutes ago, BWitcher said:

I understand, you've been up all night celebrating the achievements of Britains most successful ever World Champion.

yawn

 

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I'd like to say that at 48 years old, to come 5th is a brilliant achievement! Well done Greg Hancock !

Edited by GiveusaB
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1 hour ago, Aces51 said:

Tai was brilliant and a deserved winner. He is without doubt the best rider of the current era and I think he will add to his 3 titles but you really can't compare him with  riders of different eras. I have seen the best since the mid 50's and there is no way you can realistically say how someone like Fundin would fare today on completely different machinery, different racing surfaces and against different opposition.

I would say that Mauger is the best I have seen. Not only because of his 6 titles but because of the way he dominated the sport week in and week out both domestically and at international level for so many years but it's an opinion not a fact. The is no-one today who dominates as he did but that doesn't guarantee that he would have shone so brightly with the changes that have occurred since he retired. I think he would but the truth is nobody knows for certain. It's the same in reverse. We don't know with certainty how Tai would have done in the 50/60's when riders had more or less the same standard equipment, tracks were deeper and the best in the world rode in the UK on the many and varied tracks that were different shapes and sizes. I think he would have done well but good enough to match the like of Fundin, Briggs, Craven and Moore, I don't know and neither does anyone else.

Agree 100%

You can't really compare these multi world champions but I think they all share a common mindset that sets them apart. Tai has been so composed all the way through and scored some important points when he wasn't ib top form. Love to see him win a few more

 

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5 hours ago, THE DEAN MACHINE said:

Was there any speedway fans left in Britain last night, think most were in Torun last night, even sat a few seats away from buster last night , Torun is a must do event for any fan, decent racing, good atmosphere, well done woffinden, a deserved winner and a deserved world champion 

No it's only the riders who have deserted Britain , the fans are still here

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You only have to look at old films of the way speedway used to be. Even forgetting the 30000 crowds, it was very pedestrian compared to todays bikes and tracks and even the top riders (Craven in particular) seemed to stop on the apex of some turns. Well done Tai, and let's hope the BBC do the decent thing and let us vote for you.

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7 minutes ago, adonis said:

No it's only the riders who have deserted Britain , the fans are still here

They are.. and they're celebrating the THREE TIME BRITISH WORLD CHAMPION.

It's bloody brilliant isn't it? :)

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2 hours ago, BWitcher said:

They are.. and they're celebrating the THREE TIME BRITISH WORLD CHAMPION.

It's bloody brilliant isn't it? :)

Id say the attendances at tracks shows the fans arent... the ones that are are celebrating though 

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6 hours ago, Gavan said:

I can take anything buddy but start saying slanderous stuff and lies about my personal life then you will get what’s coming simple as

Yeah whatever 

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4 hours ago, BWitcher said:

They are.. and they're celebrating the THREE TIME BRITISH WORLD CHAMPION.

It's bloody brilliant isn't it? :)

yawn

 

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5 hours ago, bill94d said:

You only have to look at old films of the way speedway used to be. Even forgetting the 30000 crowds, it was very pedestrian compared to todays bikes and tracks and even the top riders (Craven in particular) seemed to stop on the apex of some turns. Well done Tai, and let's hope the BBC do the decent thing and let us vote for you.

I don't know which videos you've been watching but that certainly wasn't how Peter normally rode. Peter could ride the outside if necessary but he predominantly rode the white line or the inside half of the track on the bends. In the 50's and 60's the normal style was to stand up through the bends. Peter's style was more akin to the modern sit down style moving on the bike and using his body to keep the bike as upright as possible to gain grip. He rarely put his foot down. That is why he was known as the Wizard of balance. There were riders, just as there are today, who would on occasion cut under an opponent by going faster into the bends, head for the apex and then get their wheels in line to make a longer straight but it wasn't a common tactic used by Craven.

I am not one of those who think that the racing of yesteryear was better than now but I don't think the mainly poor quality, black and white films of that era do justice to the quality of the racing. Videos of any era can be too clinical because you miss out on the atmosphere, emotion and drama when watching years later at home.  However, if by pedestrian you mean slower, it was but that was down to the bikes and the tracks. Having said that Peter's track record at Hyde Road of 69.8 stood for about 10 years,  eventually broken by Ivan Mauger, if I remember correctly. 

Edited by Aces51

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8 hours ago, Aces51 said:

Tai was brilliant and a deserved winner. He is without doubt the best rider of the current era and I think he will add to his 3 titles but you really can't compare him with  riders of different eras. I have seen the best since the mid 50's and there is no way you can realistically say how someone like Fundin would fare today on completely different machinery, different racing surfaces and against different opposition.

I would say that Mauger is the best I have seen. Not only because of his 6 titles but because of the way he dominated the sport week in and week out both domestically and at international level for so many years but it's an opinion not a fact. The is no-one today who dominates as he did but that doesn't guarantee that he would have shone so brightly with the changes that have occurred since he retired. I think he would but the truth is nobody knows for certain. It's the same in reverse. We don't know with certainty how Tai would have done in the 50/60's when riders had more or less the same standard equipment, tracks were deeper and the best in the world rode in the UK on the many and varied tracks that were different shapes and sizes. I think he would have done well but good enough to match the like of Fundin, Briggs, Craven and Moore, I don't know and neither does anyone else.

In the 80s and 90s if you saw a top rider like nielsen gundersen rickardsson  get beat it would be a topic of conversation throughout speedway for a week ,Woffinden loses a race and it's not even noteworthy .

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1 hour ago, adonis said:

In the 80s and 90s if you saw a top rider like nielsen gundersen rickardsson  get beat it would be a topic of conversation throughout speedway for a week ,Woffinden loses a race and it's not even noteworthy .

Not noteworthy if it was to a top rider...

Steve

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4 hours ago, adonis said:

In the 80s and 90s if you saw a top rider like nielsen gundersen rickardsson  get beat it would be a topic of conversation throughout speedway for a week ,Woffinden loses a race and it's not even noteworthy .

Correct. Because Woffy races the world's best multiple times a week (Actually per meeting, so often half a dozen times per week, or more than a dozen in gp week).

Nielsen and Gundersen would face a world top ten rider maybe once or twice a week at most. 

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7 hours ago, adonis said:

In the 80s and 90s if you saw a top rider like nielsen gundersen rickardsson  get beat it would be a topic of conversation throughout speedway for a week ,Woffinden loses a race and it's not even noteworthy .

That's because of the GP mindset, second place is good enough. How to take an extreme, winner takes all sport and turn it in to something so dull. 

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