James Carter

Just caught up with all the action. 142 pages of comments so far... that's my day at work sorted ! Woffinden was just incredible over two days. People should just relax with how good he is in the grander scheme of things and just enjoy watching a sensational rider. It reminds me a lot of Loram back in 2000 when he was in a rich vein of form and you just knew that even if he was last out of the gate he would still come through for the win. Incredible stuff I just dont get 4320 scoring. Surely riders going for the win creates much better racing and just feels like it should be the correct way to run race off. Bitter.. maybe a little but the Russians rode great as well (apart from when they had some sort of brain fade and through Gleb in?!) Wroclaw should be giving a big F.O tablet from hosting as the crowd was pathetic.

I quite like the qualifying format this year. What I don't understand is how the 4 SGP Challenge wildcards get picked. Zagar chose to ride the challenge and qualified through his semi so does that mean that current SGP riders wont get a pick for the final as they could have rode in the semi? Can anyone shed any light on this. Seems really weird

Pardubice is superb. Check this out if you have a spare 5 hours. (Or just watch a couple of races)

Another quick one, and it may be buried within this thread but Denmark team - why no Leon Madsen? I understand MJJ selection as he's been doing really well but I would have though Madsen would be the number 1 pick. I assume Pedersen is resting up after his injuries?

Agree 100% Loved the old SWC format. Don't really keep up with the off track stuff but I just don't get why they would change it. In 2017 the semi finals were a bit unbalanced (GB very easy) but if anyone who saw the Sweden semi with Australia, Latvia, Denmark could watch that match and think the format needed changing must be crazy. Possibly the best match if 2017. Also why choose Wroclaw for the final? It's not a great track (although better in 2018 than 2017) when they could give it to Leszno, Czestochowa etc and guarantee better racing Obviously will still watch it. Russia I think will edge it !

The organisers need to understand that the quality of the racing is the most important aspect of any SGP. If you were new to speedway you would have turned off the TV as the first 12 heats or so were so boring. Surely a change of venue needs to be threatened to these tracks that seem to consistently produce bad race tracks. Imagine that same SGP at Pardubice? Would have been amazing My take on the Emil / Magic coming together is that the ref probably got it right but I feel a bit for Janowski. The problem as I see it is that if you exclude the rider making the pass when there is a minor rear wheel / front wheel clash you run the risk of the riders just turning back in and purposely clipping back wheels to earn a rerun and get the opposing rider excluded.

I think people are giving Cook a bit of a hard time. No doubt he wasnt good. He hasn't been good all year and has been getting well beaten up in the Polish 2nd tier However he qualufied the hard way in 2017 and that deserves some respect and some patience. The challenge at Togliatti he showed some grit after a terrible first race he came through where others - Zagar, Madsen, Kildeman, Milik, MJJ failed. The pass on Kildeman in awful conditions was absolutely immense in that match I'm sure if he can get his bike working better he will improve this season and whilst I doubt he'll be challenging for many finals I think he will get better

Think I best swap Zagar and Pedersen

I really hope so. He seems to be getting out of the gate really well at the moment and no one can relish trying to get past Nicki!!

Add Piotr Pawlicki to that list.

Hope FF can go all the way in the GP's, but like other have said he has been on fire before but not taking it through to GP's. Really surprised by NP. I really thought the jig was up after all the injuries but he's looked superb. I think Tai has looked good as well. Not quite as consistent as FF or NP but he has looked fast against some quality opposition

Agreed. Looked like an amazing atmosphere until Lublin did everything they could to blow it!!

Fair point. Jan Kolodskiej seemed to be struggling though (perhaps he did have the hand-break on)

For a training match I thought that it was pretty decent. I don't think Leszno will walk away with much confidence though Amazing how quick crashed riders were getting back on their feet!!

Agreed I think generally he is very, very good. (just checked and he was 4th in the Polish Averages last year) but then he has meetings like the SGP challenge and you start to think that to make the SGP's he is going to need a pick

I thought given the circumstances it was a pretty decent match. Madsen looked very good which is encouraging for Czestochowa

I think Laguta is going to do a lot better than people expect particular on the Polish rounds. Doyle just to edge it again though but this time from Zmarslik 1 Doyle 2 Zmarzlik 3 Woffinden 4 Zagar 5 Dudek 6 Janowski 7 Satfutidnov 8 Laguta 9 Hancock 10 Lindgren 11 Vaculik 12 Pawlicki 13 Cook 14 Holder 15 Pedersen

The organisers need to select wherever possible track with a proven record of providing good racing surfaces. The only way to sell SGP is making the product as exciting as possible. we've al watched SGP's where you know after the first heat that the match will be painful to watch. Cardiff and Warsaw seem to have the temporary tracks nailed and they need to be on every year. My preference would be to prioritise say 8 GPs on proven good tracks - Mallila, Vojens, Torun etc and then hawk 3 or 4 rounds to Slovakia, Italy, Finland, Latvia etc. Also as a shout (but perhaps not in 2018) why not Togliatti in Russia? They've held SEC and draw a decent crowd on a well prepared track. Sure they must've been offered a round