waiheke1

More speedway available to watch now than ever before. More info available than ever before. A lot of things wrong with speedway, but available viewing/info certainly not one of them.

Hope lions do well, but cant see any lions rider averaging over 8 this season. That said I can see ljung averaging over 8 as a second string if heat formst is expected - but as soon as he rides as a heat leader his average will go straight back under

Have they reinststed the play offs between bottom el and top pl sides?

As a rider or a manager?

Is lambert allowed to race, as he will still only be 15?

Thought thst could be the case - pretty similar to how feel about smudger

BecauseA - not sll tesms are in the same ginancial position B - there are not 20 riders of that quality wikling to race in the uk C - insufficient quality riders on averages around three (kl in the fortunatr position of recruiting lambert) to allow all teams to build in such a top heavy manner and still hsve decent second strings - plus all the five point riders would be out of worj.

Dullicate post

Only one there I would query is cox. Surely tai, or even the likes of Doncaster, cross les and phil collins, harris etc. Rank ahead of him? I understand if he's included due to being a personsl favourite.

Hasnt been trailing miles behind (perhaps in the odd race), made the gate in a few races, and has beaten kenny bjerre snd martin vaculik, and had a decent battle with harris in 2012 if I remember correctly. Clearly he is not a gp standard rider, but I think he has performed pretty well. Got the biggest cheer of the night in 2012 when he picked up his point. Would any top riders even be willing to make the trek out here to tske the wild card if offerred?

Not tac subs, but tac rides I.e double points, is I believe what was meant. Would make more sense to allow this in these heats than in the heats where secind strings meet reserves.

Tbh you only need to go back to 2010 and Carpanese at the italian gp.

As someone who will be attending and purchasing three tickets for the third consecutive year (not just whingeing from 12000km away )I have no issue with the selection. The last two years, on each occasion I was hoping for someone like batch to get the spot. However bunyan hasnt been disgraced - far more competitive than say starostin in 82 - and has done a lot of mediawork in the build up. Id also imagine that more kiwis could tell you who jason bunyan is than say tai woffinden. With it looking increasingly like this will be the last nz gp, and indeed that yhere will be no motorsport at the Springs after 2017, I can totally understand the decision to go with sn adopted kiwi and multi nz champ winner.

Kings lynn Poole Belle vue Coventry East borne Swindon Wolves Lakeside Birmingham Leicester

Can u name a bookie that would take a 10k bet on speedway? Or even a grand? The impression ivr got from the betting thread is that a tenner is about the most u can get accepted as a bet on the el.I think your post is alarmist in the extreme.

I certainly dont believe Carter lay down his bike, just that he ran out of track. Possibily he was still hampered by the injury, though ivan seems to think it was kenny's - or rather malcolm carters- choice of tyres that cost him the title

Except I said "I yhink it was pretty clear cut", which indicates it is an opinion not a statement of fact.There is a rear view shot thst wasnt originally shown, which clearly demonstrates daylight between Carter and penhall at the time carter loses control. It must be on youtube somewhere

I was there too sid. A poor final in terms of racing (morton v shirra th e only good race) but egon was superb. Need to ride hard to win the world final, look at the way lee moved penhall in 80, penhall moved nielsen in 81. Tbh though, no matter how hard sanders had ridden muller had the speed to pass anyone

83 was a year where there seemed no real stand out rider, with penhall gone and carter not matching the heights of the previous season. Nielsen gundersen and lee arguably a notch ahead of sigalos sanders and carter with the likes of olsen morton also world class. A different world final venue and arguably any of those could hsve won it.

From memory andy smith quslified for the following sesson as first reserve, but got a full time slot due to someone withdrawing? How does that tie to your earlier comment about being given placed due to nationality? Smith seemed to scrape in through the challenge yesr after year, which is seemingly thr opposite of the point u were making?

Bollocks.. he would have practiced harder than anyone and mastered the starts under whatever rules.I remember erik gundersen dropped over a point and a half off his average the yesr the tspe touching rule csme in. The following seadon he had adapted and aversged 11.

Of course if the british gp was run by say the bspa, there is no guarantee the profits would go back into the sport either...

Andy campbell - replaced larry ross, my all time favourite rider, as aces number one in 1985 and promptly dropped about two and a half points off his average, finishing the season at reserve. Richard knight - no idea why. Possibly due to him being in the 85 wtc squad indtesd of mort pc or sndy smith. Steve gresham - I think he had a punch up in the pits the first time I saw him. Along with schwartz one of the few americans I didn't like.

Agree 100% that carter is a notch down from the all time great british riders such as peter collins and lee.However I certainly think he ranks in the same category as the likes of Simmons Louis morton etc - great British riders, but not all time greats.

sidney, on 17 Jan 2014 - 10:08 PM, said: When Bruce retired the sport seemed to be in reasonable shape, but once he retired the sport seemed to go into a downward spiral.The sport then lost alot of its superstars all within the same time span which did not help.Alot of people have there view on Bruce, i thought he was awesome for the sport and it was a massive loss when he quit.I often wonder would Hans and Erik have ever of won 7 titles between them with Bruce still about.? Maybe the sport was already being dragged down before he quit, but this is the point i believe the decline really set in. Speedway was in decline arguably ever since the boom post war years, but agree the 80s saw a decline from the 70s. A range of factors – the main one increased leisure alternatves (especially TV?), and Speedway’s failure to adapt to meet competition for the leisure dollar and changing consumer expectations. The 80s was obviously tough economically, and also saw the premature losses to the sport of star attractions such as Lee, Carter, Penhall, Sanders, Sigalos. England lost their two world title hopes, as well as PC who was never a contender again after his 1980 injury. The loss of major London venues in Wembley and white city, and then iconic tracks such as Hyde Rd and the Shay didn’t help either, neither surely did the match fixing scandal. Having consecutive world champs in penhall and muller not riding in the uk, at the same time, you’d have thought having a hollywood “star” and then a “popstar” as world champs should have made the sport quite marketable? In term of british speeday decline, the fall of commujism, and revival of the sport in Poland is obviously a turning point. A polish league with lower overheads, bigger crowds meant able to offer riders more money, and british speedway again slo to react. Speedway just seems to have consistently missed the boat when opportunities have arisen. The failure to purchase stadiums in the boom years when land was still cheap, the failure to captialise on the launch of Sky (Speedway should have been ideal for this – meetings fitting an hour and a half slot, with high action,, and also able to be condensed easily into 30 or 60 minutes highlights packages), failure to launch pay per view internet streaming services etc. The White Knight, on 18 Jan 2014 - 06:54 AM, said: The Grand Prix Series did NOTHING at all to help British Speedway. The 'one off' World Final (at Wembley) did at least put some money in to Speedway's coffers. I do believe though that Speedway's decline had started long before the Grand Prix Series. The Grand Prix Series has, to my mind, hastened that decline. GP series may not help British speedway, but i don’t think it hinders it. I think the GP series shows ho speedway can be presented in a modern manner – perhaps the standard league speeday should aspire too? cityrebel, on 19 Jan 2014 - 03:01 AM, said: Penhall's antics at the white city tarnished his reputation in a lot of peoples eyes. sidney, on 19 Jan 2014 - 07:36 AM, said: I was there i liked all of the Americans so i never took alot of notice but it was a disgraceful act you would not believe that a PC or Lee would let anybody through. Lots of riders did it, just perhaps not as blatantly. Gundersen and Olsen did something similar in the 82 inter-contitental final to help Bo Petersen, Ermolenko let Hanock through in an early 90s overseas final, , but no one seems to consider them tarnished. PC of course team rode with Les to keep Shaun out in the run off in that 82 meeting – motrally any better than what Penhall did? ColinMills, on 19 Jan 2014 - 3:00 PM, said: i also think the play off system stops fans travelling,,if your laying comfy in the top 3, away losses are no big deal as you only need a top 4 finish whereas under the old system, a couple of months into the season only about three teams would have any chance of taking the title, for the rest of the teams meetings were essentially meaningless. It’s a fact that there are far more meaningful meetings under the play off system than the old system. sidney, on 22 Jan 2014 - 10:02 AM, said: Carter was so unlucky and who knows thing's could of turned out so differently for him. It was 50/50 but Penhall was very lucky he got the call no doubt about that, that incident was on a par with the Nielsen/Knudsen incident in 86. Penhall was lucky that night, but not in terms of that decision which i think was pretyt clear cut as the correct decision. He was lucky that Carter fell off, as otherwise he would have faced a run off against either Les Collins or Carter for the title. Also lucky that Les dropped points in his easiest ride. Nielsen/Knudsen in 86 I agree as very much a 50/50 call, but hard to begrudge Nielsen, especially when he got arguably the rough end of the deal ion a similar clash with ermolenko in 93.