J_D

I believe Lonigo will be in September. Subject to the normal rectifications.

Its got to be Slovenia its a great, cheap, clean, friendly. It is my favourite place in Europe. So happy the GP has returned there.

I was always led to believe (certainly in the early years of SGP) that all the riders who were eligible for the following seasons series, had to return some sort of signed letter of intent by a certain date (Beginning of December i seem to remember) this was to allow time to source replacements and carry out marketing tasks well ahead of the following year. Also allowed the invited riders to decide if they can commit to SGP i.e. Darcy Ward. Therefore all riders who have not signed up still have the ability to pull out of 2012 SGP. If a rider has not signed up for 2012 by that given date, then i believe they can be replaced. Given Protasiewicz massive sponsorship pull, i would say that IMG would have liked him in the series, but ultimately he will be unlikely to be fighting of a top 3 finish so i can understand if he did pull out due to the silly Polish rules.

Hi Tomaz, How is Jernej Kolenko these days, there has been very little written about him since his bad crash a few years ago. Regards JD

Maybe he will win the u21 round there next year 3 in a row anyone?

I agree but unless he does a 'Holta' and becomes British then i highly doubt he will be offered a place. He needs to win Byd otherwise he will have to make do with 1st reserve.

Yep as much as i do not think UK deserves 2 places in the GP there are strong noises this will still happen. If BSI are consistent then AJ should get the nod over Hans as current Swedish Champion. For me if the top 8 do not change: Tai, AJ, Nicki & Emil.

Hampel as capt please.

Former World Champ, never missed a GP or finished outside top 8, he will be nailed on getting a spot. Also very good with the sponsors and media.

Yeah he could be a real dark horse i put him to finish on 10 after a last in heat 11 but agree he could easily win it.

My predictions would be Lindgren 14 Iversen 12 after run off Zetterstrom 12 Kolodziej 12 Harris 11 after run off Lindback 11 I have a sneaky feeling heat 11 could be the key to the whole meeting. I would not be surprised to see Lukas or Mieszinski replacing one of the Russian riders If the top 3 do qualify as above then the only change i can see is Tai dropping out as the 4 wildcards must be Nicki, Emil, Greg and Harris.

I think the Gollob haters are trying to make a big deal out of the crash with Emil, yes he was at fault, yes he should have been excluded, but to say throw him out of the meeting is just plain silly. He made a minor misjudgment which yes caused major carnage and Emil got injured but it certainly was not intentional. He went narrow off of bend 2 and picked up grip as Janusz K did in Leszno and unfortunately Emil took the low line into bend 3 and not the high line which other riders had been taking. Gollob tried his best to avoid contact but could not. It was a racing incident.

I noticed that Michael Hertrich appeared in the German results section in the speedway star the other week. I remember him having practices over in the UK around 2002/2003 time when he was about 15. What has he been up to, did he retire or suffer a long term injury or been doing just Longtrack like many other German riders? I believe he was touted for greatness but like many German riders never seem to progress on the short tracks.

Format is just fine, reduce it to 6 teams and soon you will be losing team GB Like someone mentioned earlier Russia were making up the numbers a few years ago, teams need to ride against the best to improve and sometimes it is the odd point the likes of Finland will steal tomorrow will make all the difference in the meeting. I enjoy the format and the whole SWC week.

I actually thought it was quite a good meeting, plenty of passing in most heats. Just the Poles were fanastic simple as that really. JK was class as ever. He would light up the Gp's if he gets the chance.

According to our hotel in Cardiff it is the 25th in 2011. If you check on laterooms all hotels are already block booked for that weekend.

As requested: source: www.sportowefakty.pl via yahoohgroups posted by Roman Chyla Togliatti, Russia: semi-final results 1. Tomasz Gapinski (Poland) - 15 (3,3,3,3,3) 2. Grigorij Laguta (Russia) - 13 (2,3,2,3,3) 3. Andriej Karpow (Ukraine) - 12+3 (3,3,3,3,x) 4. Janusz Kolodziej (Poland) - 12+2 (1,2,3,3,3) 5. Artiom Laguta (Russia) - 11 (3,3,1,2,2) 6. Adrian Miedzinski (Poland) - 9 (2,1,3,1,2) - reserve 7. Denis Gizatullin (Russia) - 8 (3,ef,0,2,3) 8. Renat Gafurow (Russia) - 8 (2,2,1,1,2) 9. Siemen Wlasow (Russia) - 7 (1,2,2,1,1) 10. Siergiej Darkin (Russia) - 6 (x,0,2,2,2) 11. Oleg Biezczastnow (Russia) - 6 (1,1,1,2,1) 12. Roman Iwanow (Russia) - 5 (1,2,2,0,x) 13. Danil Iwanow (Russia) - 4 (2,1,0,ef,1) 14. Denis Sajfutdinow (Russia) - 1 (ef,1,x,-,-) 15. Jewgienij Karawackis (Latvia) - 0 (ef,-,-,-,-) Ostrow, Poland: semi-final results --------------------------------------------------- 1. Antonio Lindbaeck (Sweden) - 12+3 (3,0,3,3,3) 2. Thomas H. Jonasson (Sweden) - 12+2 (3,3,1,3,2) 3. Magnus Zetterstroem (Sweden) - 11+3 (1,2,2,3,3) 4. Grzegorz Walasek (Poland) - 11+2 (2,2,2,3,2) 5. Sebastian Ulamek (Poland) - 11+1 (1,3,3,1,3) 6. Roman Povazhny (Russia) - 10 (3,3,1,2,1) - reserve 7. Rafal Dobrucki (Polska) - 9 (3,2,2,2,0) 8. Troy Batchelor (Australia) - 9 (1,2,3,2,1) 9. Matej Zagar (Slovenia) - 8 (2,0,2,2,2) 10. Rory Schlein (Australia) - 6 (0,1,1,1,3) 11. Patrick Hougaard (Denmark) - 4 (0,0,3,0,1) 12. Daniel Nermark (Sweden) - 4 (1,3,0,f,-) 13. Darcy Ward (Australia) - 4 (2,1,0,1,0) 14. Tai Woffinden (Great Britain) - 4 (0,1,0,1,2) 15. Krzysztof Kasprzak (Poland) - 3 (2,0,1,0,x) 16. Lee Richardson (Great Britain) - 1 (0,1,0,-,-) R1. Matej Kus (Czech rep) - 0 (0,ef) ........... Lonigo, Italy: semi-final results ------------------------------------------ 1. Chris Harris (Great Britain) - 15 (3,3,3,3,3) 2. Fredrik Lindgren (Sweden) - 12 (2,3,3,2,2) 3. Leon Madsen (Denmark) - 11+3 (2,1,2,3,3) 4. Niels Kristian Iversen (Denmark) - 11+2 (2,2,3,1,3) 5. Simon Stead (Great Britain) - 9+3 (3,3,0,3,w) 6. Lukas Dryml (Czech Rep) - 9+2 (3,0,2,2,2) - reserve 7. Jurica Pavlic (Croatia) - 9+1 (0,2,1,3,3) 8. Grzegorz Zengota (Poland) - 8 (3,0,1,2,2) 9. Ales Dryml (Czech Rep) - 6 (1,3,1,0,1) 10. Tomasz Jedrzejak (Poland) - 6 (2,0,2,1,1) 11. Guglielmo Franchetti (Italy) - 5 (1,1,3,0,x) 12. Andriej Kudriaszow (Russia) - 5 (f,2,1,2,0) 13. Cory Gathercole (Australia) - 5 (1,2,x,1,1) 14. Christian Hefenbrock (Germany) - 5 (1,1,2,1,0) 15. Marco Gregnanin (Italy) - 3 (1,0,0,2) 16. Mattia Carpanese (Italy) - 0 (0,0,0,0,0) 17. David Ruud (Sweden) - 0 (x,-,-,-,-) source: www.sportowefakty.pl Roman Chyla

Yeah there was 6000 at Prague last year and this year it was more full. 7000 sounds about right. Looking at Ullevi i would say around 12000 this year, giving the issues with predicted rainfall and past problems i would expect it prevented a couple of thousand locals from attending. GP is in good health but i fear for the long term EL.

Completely agree with you, had plenty of room he knew Gollob was there, Gollob stuck to his line AJ took the option to bail. Correctly excluded for causing the stoppage. Riders need to stop taking a swan dive just because they are losing....Fair play to Jason who got up and cleared the track earlier in the meeting.

Thanks guys always great.

Hmmmm, Can i opt for Hampel.

No worries, he was justified in being excluded as he moved out off the line to head for the outside dirt line on bend 2 and clipped BP. However PH was slightly in front entering the bend so maybe he was entitled to move out? Again matter for opinion but Bjarne went down way too easily for my liking and make a meal of it. If the incident in the first running had not happened i doubt PH would have been excluded so maybe incorrectly excluded??

I agree with you as well. I thought the ref made the correct decisions. Artur correctly got thrown out after a warning. Jason tried the Sam Ermolenko cheats trick of staying down at the slightest touch hoping to get a rerun. You did not see Tai doing that in the GP to get a rerun, or Hans last night, fair play to the two of them. Jason rightly excluded for being the cause of the stoppage of the race. If anything the decision to exclude Hougaard was the incorrect one, but justified by Patrick moving out off line. Although i have seen Bjarne do much worse than that at Poole because you have to move out so much to get out the dirt line on the 2nd bend. If that was Nicki P getting excluded he would have been spitting feathers....

9. Freddie Lindgren

2. Gollob £50,000 6. Pedersen (capt) £45,000 9. Lindgren £35,000 10. Andersen £35,000 13. Hampel £25,000