mark cox

You would have to be a fickle character if it did! The GP series has produced some of the best racing ever seen, but the format hasn't dictated this just tremendous riding ability etc. A world championship series based on qualifying rounds from the olden days (yes!), with the resultant champions & run-offs to determine next round qualifiers would provide even better viewing than currently on offer. Every meeting would actually mean something leading to the grand finale at the end of the season when any of the 16 riders could win it & be decided in the very last race... just imagine... not like between 2 riders by heat 6 or whatever it was the other night. The GP format is seen as fairer & is obviously what every other motor sport does, but any sport as one of its primary purposes should aim to engage & entertain. In athletics for example, there is a grand prix series & there are also what are essentially one-off events the World Championships & the olympics... One format is seen as fairer whilst the other is the pinnacle of sport & is remembered forever. One off events will always punish the unlucky, but they also give opportunity to the great ones who have the ability to perform at their best when it really matters. Tai Woffinden is one of those who would win at any format & long may he continue. Obviously these are the crazed ramblings of a black country caveman from the last century & the GP series is er, a great product & everything & there were many boring one off finals in the olden days, but ... I'll get me coat...

The Belle Vue lads are probably still scratching their heads on how they lost this. From Heat One where Armo was clenching his fist in celebration before he'd crossed the line, you could tell he wasn't going to let this one go without a fight. Whilst the rest of the Heathens gated like the Almighty Jan O in his prime, every point was fought for & proved vital in the final result. The best meeting of the year... well a last heat decider that Capt Fantastic nicked on the finishing line... it couldn't be anything else really. Whatever happens in the league, a great meeting with a cracking finish & the crowd went home like we were on drugs!

Well its always dis-spiriting to get a tonking, but I'm sure the lads are giving it all & will want to do their best for the most popular team in the NL. For travelling supporters, you always want to see your team have a competitive chance of a good result otherwise you may not always travel away in the future. Its inevitable that riders will lose form/confidence at some stage of the season due to bad luck, injury or machine problems, with the key being to find solutions to these issues. At this level it probably isn't easily practical for e.g. to improve gating as there probably isn't the time & money to get extra track practice. What the management has done is to give riders a chance & then replaced them if necessary, which is as much as they can do and doesn't show a lack of ambition. Lets hope its another good crowd tomorrow & we get back to winning ways... but if not, thats sport... its the taking part that counts & thank god we're taking part once again! Ommer'um!

First trip for a few years for myself to Cardiff... not since Tony R's epic 'wall of death' ride around one of the fences. The programme seemed to have doubled in price and was only half complete as they had forgot to put in which riders were in what race... A fantastic view & atmosphere was to be found as you entered the main arena & luckily I had packed some mountaineering gear enabling me to get to my seat on U6. Stacey off the tele sung well and the opening ceremony was impressive & set the scene for a fantastic meeting... I bet the track will have a great surface as they've been doing this job for a few years... & its indoors so they haven't got to worry about rain... oh bugger that looks a bit dry... I'll bet they'll water it soon... Well no they bloody didn't! There probably is a very good technical reason why the only track maintenance allowed was to re-spread some dust over the track every 4 races, which maybe some speedway white coated scientists could tell us about. Despite this the racing did improve and was great & everything... but I don't see why a track, especially indoors can't have a grippy surface. Just because one off world finals in the past & previous GP's have had processional racing, doesn't mean that a better surface shouldn't be strived for. Despite this, Cardiff is still the year's highlight & for us Heathen fans our old boy Greg kept going the fine tradition of winning world championship events.

The GP's will continue as long as they generate enough money for Ole & his mates to continue to run them. We will continue to watch them on Sky/travel to watch first hand, because we love speedway in what ever form we are allowed to watch. Some people love them because in its ideal form we see the top riders in the world, 11 times a year on great race tracks, with the best rider being crowned World Champion. What could be better or fairer than that?! Well in a weeks time there is the final GP of the year, & apart from fans of the brilliant Pedersen & the riders gunning for £50,000, does anyone else give a stuff? Whereas if 16 riders were lined up next week, all with a chance of becoming Champion, I would guess there would be a bit more interest & anticipation... I know such talk is dismissed by some as living in the past, you've got to move with the times, etc, but one of the main reasons people watch sport is the chance of the unpredictable actually happening. It adds to the entertainment value & therefore keeps people interested & engaged in the sport. The Olympic Games, the World Cups in football, rugby etc; these are all events that are massively popular, that are decided ultimately in 'one off' finals. The athletes etc know that firstly they have to be good to actually progess through stages, before giving their very best on the day required. In the past in speedway, the greats still became World Champion in one off finals, & if next Saturday was the same, Pedersen would be the favourite & the most deserving winner, but the interest would be that he might not win. The old system did give a natural progression to the speedway year, giving a chance to any new British young prospect to progress through British, Overseas & intercontinental finals, where every meeting held an interest, not just for the glory of winning, but to see the mad scramble to qualify. It might not be fair to the most consistent rider, but who gives one about that?! We want entertaining! Anyway enough of the ramlings of an old man, I'm off back to my cave. What times the GP on next week?

The World Team Cup Final should be the pinnacle of team speedway, featuring the world's best riders battling against each other for the highest prize on a track that allows racing. The dusty procession we saw the other night in front of a less than full stadium could've been any old run of the mill EL meeting in terms of the spectacle. Obviously a well prepared track with enough shale that is regularly watered is a totally unrealistic propostion for the huge brains that run this event, what with all that heat & everything. Maybe we are being harsh, & that the lads really worked hard on the track, but it clearly didn't work if they thought it would produce great speedway. There doesn't seem to be any best practice involved in track prep, which considers how much dirt/the amount of watering in response to different weather conditions which obviously does affect things. This aspect of speedway never seems to have enough importance, & as long as the meeting goes ahead then it is deemed a success. Ole Olsen was one of the greatest racers never relying on his gating, so it beggars belief that he likes these dusty slick tracks.

I have always enjoyed the John Chaplin interviews in the Speedway Star, when he interviewed old riders about their careers. They are always so honest about what went on in the pits/clashes of personalities etc, which is what you don't get in usual reports. So why not do a behind the scenes feature on old World Finals, finding out what really went on. The 1972 one at Wembley would be a good start, with my first Cradley hero, the Black Country Swede Bernie Persson.

From memory I think Wiggy rode for Weymouth in 1982, before stepping up into the big league a year later, when he joined Cradley and became a heat leader in the greatest league side ever! In a brilliant year, he started at reserve & finished on a 9 point average, second only to Erik G. It wasn't only his brilliant riding ability, but his capacity to want to entertain the fans. I remember he went on the local Beacon Radio show during that year on the Pat Foley show to promote the sport, and didn't mind all the mickey taking. The bloke always had a smile on his face. He was only sold at the end of '83 because of the points limit & to pay some bills probably. A brilliant & funny bloke/rider, who is sadly missed.

As entertaining as it is, this thread wasn't about who is the best, but whether or not the sports most famous and greatest rider (as defined by number of World titles) had given an opinion on Rickardsson, the man who is about to join him on 'the greatest throne'. In the last month, one of tennis's all time greats Rod Laver was reported as being honoured to be compared to Roger Federer, whilst this week Jack Nicklaus the greatest in golf, has acknowledged Tiger Woods as one of the greats. I'm sure when Rickardsson officially gets number six, that Mauger who never shies away from giving his honest opinion, will give say the right thing. As for it being easier to win a world title these days because you don't have to qualify, I wander what the likes of Leigh Adams think of this. It is a fair point though about the invitation aspect, as riders after the first eight qualifiers will now be chosen by committee, rather than doing it on their own merits. All in all, a good debate.

His Majesty Ivan (who never has been or never will be an old buffer) is Speedways Millenium Man, with the most titles, points, highest average, the shiniest bike, the best leathers etc, and he was the best at a time when the sport's popularity was at its peak. He will always be the most famous rider. BUT, when Rickardsson's closest rivals freely admit that Tony has 'raised the bar' in his approach, and is simply outstanding, it is interesting to see if Ivan acknowledges it. I guess we'll have to get the latest issue of Backtrack to find out. Yes it is impossible to say who's the best, but each generation of riders can only ride on the available technology then, and compete in whatever race format has been chosen. This year Tony has just got better, with fast bikes on all kinds of tracks, and winning many races from the back, showing unsurpassed confidence and ability, with his Cardiff 'wall of death' being the highlight.

Well obviously this will never happen, as Ivan would have won 29 GP titles if it had been around in his day. I haven't read his recent interview in the Sun, so I don't if he was gushing in his praise of Tony, but the last time I read his comments, was about 3 years ago, when all he could do was talk up poor 'ol Ryan Sullivan, with not one word about the current giant of the sport! Personally I think Tony's performances this year would've spurred the old buffer to say a few words of praise, along the lines of '' that bloke who keeps winning, he's quite good isn't he''.... but no, not a word! So come on Ivan, a bit of respect is over due.

This was a GP that started off being tame and incident free, on a seemingly slick track, and built up to a brilliant climax, with some awesome racing, and ended up one the best GP's of recent years. Adams rode well, but didn't have the luck of the last GP, whilst Crumpy wasn't dominant, but saved his best till last, and Trick was his usual brilliant self. It really is great to have these brilliant racers really putting in total effort for our entertainment. If Scotty is ''hopeless'' then lets have more of his hopeless hanging on for dear life as he nearly beat Crumpy. Possibly the race of the night.

I agree and have said before a number of times,one of the biggest problems is the fans.To see a bunch of speedway fans is like looking at society's mis-fits.It hardly helps that speedway is staged at places like Mildenhall,Peterborough,Arena-Essex.....It's all set up not to be attractive to a large and young audience.It is well made for the camper van,deck-chair,jacket covered in badges with year bar brigade <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Christ on a bike!! There we were thinking that speedways ills were down to a lack of consistent and professional management/rule changes/slick tracks/dodgy stadium facilities/poor marketing..... when all along it was staring at us in the face... the young and beautiful people don't watch speedway shock!! Hopefully the good people of Peterborough, Essex and Mildenhall continue to watch our great sport, despite being severely handicapped in not having the correct jacket, trainers, age and socio-economic group profile.

In the early to mid 1970's Cradley were the traditional wooden spoonists, so when this charismatic big-mouthed bloke turned up, telling us we had the best track around, it was about time we had a team and a stadium to match, it was a startling breath of fresh air. Despite chucking down a couple of concrete slabs down on the first bend and repainting some old shacks, we didn't get the stadium, but 'Dan the Man' certainly had the ambition, ruthlessness and drive to get the riders he thought would bring his side success. Which they didn't do too bad at... A big pity he tried to run Birmingham as well, which resulted in his leaving Cradley, but he definetly was the main architect of the gravy train years at Cradley, and gets my vote as one of the greatest promoters.

We're still here, knocking around, reading all the nonsense.... Its just opinions at the end of the day so read 'em and weep!