J_D

I for one love it. Still a great read. It would be missed if it was not here. Like Richard Watson said, cut back on the black background with white type set, I think I have commented on that before!

Agree about Zagar and Lambert. If IMG do what they have done to justify there Wild Card selections in previous years then they will include the Swedish and British Champion!

Agree about only best available option and some poor auto selection given the time to log in. Tickets brought, not as good location as last year but happy. However my only slight criticism is the timing of the sale of the tickets. Why put them on sale the day before Stockholm GP when many die hard GP fans are either in Sweden or travelling there today? The FA used to do this with England tickets and that was heavy criticised and they stopped doing it.

Decent crowd strange sloping track layout meant in many parts unable to see whole track. Really needed back straight open for best viewing especially due to direction of dust and the lack of distance between parked vehicles and the track on bend 1&2. Lots of good food and drink stalls available and easy exit from car parks. Credit to Swindon Speedway and Max Perry with their stands great talking with them and all the other stands. Presentation was up there with the worst. The amount of people frustrated with the poor and incorrect result announcements was a big let down and joke amongst the crowd, as was the unnecessary delay before the semi finals. 1h20mins to do four heats before another delay before the finals was amateurish as was the inability of the commentator to give out the line ups of the semi and finals in a slow and consistent manner. He was slow giving race results and fast when he should have been slow! Why give out line ups in non programme number order so you have to flit all over the place while he announces at double quick speed? Needed a Phil Morris type Race Director to keep things moving long nicely. Racing was decent enough the Bristol Club should be commended for their efforts.

Yeah looking at the list Zdenek Holub born 19/02/2019 is one for the future!

For the floating supporter living around the Exeter area that still works out about 45 miles for speedway in either direction, you are forcing them to directly choose between meetings which does not on the face of it seem a sensible business plan. I believe when the Elite league finally goes one night there will be an initial dip in attendances as I know of plenty of fans who do multiple meetings in a week. Reduce that income and the tight margins speedway operates by will have an affect.

What I have never understood is why they run so often in direct competition to Somerset. Friday for example it was always going to be a struggle to attract a decent crowd. Somerset had Swindon in town and Peter Kildermand. For a neutral like me on a cold March evening driving to the South West Somerset was always the first choice. However if Plymouth was the Saturday it was have given me the option to stay overnight and attend both meetings. Only hardcore fans would have bothered to attend a meaningless Open meeting over seeing the Elite League stars at Somerset. Too many times last year they were in direct competition with Somerset. It would be interesting to see the attendance figures from last season for when they were not.

Thanks SCB, so he did! I had not realised he returned from his bad shoulder injury for the end of season play offs. Come to think of it he looked off the pace and unfit at the OTA in October. Still I would not discount him based on those meetings. Do those meetings count towards his rolling average if so even better ?!?!

Really? I would like to see how you came to that conclusion as he only rode 1 meeting last year before being injured! I would suspect he may end up at Leicester as they are lacking riders but he is a steal on a sub 7 PL average.

I think Holder maybe in the team as I would have thought he would have already been announced in the Plymouth line up if he was returning as he had a 3 year work permit. I can see him on loan from Poole with Josh returning on a full transfer as part of the Brady deal. I think the team could well be as RebelRebel posted a few pages back: 1. Josh Grajczonek 8.50 2. Paul Starke 6.00 3. Charles Wright 6.89 4. Jack Holder 7.10 5. Rohan Tungate 7.74 6. Ollie Greenwood 3.00 7. Zach Wajtknecht 3.00 However I would personally prefer a more experienced reserve to take the pressure off the 3 pointer I do not think it is in the riders long term interests to put so much pressure on two 3 point riders together. Not sure if these riders have retired or not riding next year but I would swap one of the 3 point reserves for Richie Hawkins on I think 3.34 and replace Holder to come under the limit with Kauko Nieminen on 6.6 (if correct from Glasgow 2015 thread) as he is a more experienced than the touted Kyle Howarth on 6.98. If they are going with two 3 point reserves and Holder is not in the team then Matei Kus on 7.13 is a classy rider to have but it is probably more cost effective having Kyle Howarth.

http://www.bonhams.com/auctions/19768/lot/318/ Another lovely example.

It could be the case of doing what is easy for BSI which is to select the 9th,10th, 11th finishing riders. That should tick sufficient boxes based on nationalities.

It could be the case of doing what is easy for BSI which is to select the 9th,10th, 11th finishing riders. That should tick sufficient boxes based on nationalities.

I think it is a decent business decision by Eastbourne. EL too expensive, PL not much cheaper with all the Northern tracks and too many tracks. NL allows them to develop and use local talent and gives Kelsey Dugard a team place, they will have local derbies with Kent so all in all, sensible.

Not a million miles from both Coventry and Peterborough who are both on borrowed time. Maybe a sensible move by someone :-)

There is going to be some disappointed riders it's going to be all dependent on the GP challenge result. Personally I would like. Janusz K, THJ and Kildemand qualify from the challenge and for the picks to be Iversen 100% banker, Smolinski for the variety and entertainment, he has brought much to the series off the track purely from being German and unconventional. He is not a plastic clone that some of the other riders are. Then the 3rd it's a difficult one with it being one of the 3 I mentioned as my challenge picks if they fail to qualify because someone like Andersen (my dark horse) who is great at Lonigo does. Personally I would be refreshing the line up by removing Lindgren / Jonsson and Bjerre if not top 8, Hampel and Harris. Although for commercial reasons I could see AJ being picked ahead of THJ.

Agreed it was obvious the Rebels were struggling to stick with the Bandits and they sensibly graded the advantage out of the track. Any sane promotor would have done the same thing. Bandits fault was not being able to change set ups to cope with it. There engines seemed too strong for the slicker conditions. Some of the moves by Morris were on the hard side but then it's not a game for whimps. Special mention to Wethers and Wright. It was a great race until the crash but Wethers did so well to scrub the speed off and not stuff Wright too much. Nice to see both riders checking each other were ok and both just got on with it. Shame some of the GP riders do not do the same. On the whole a decent meeting for the neutral like me.

I would not call it how to run a meeting. Complete con not running heat 15. Track was better than heat 1. Another case of ripping off the paying public. As someone mentioned why have a 10 mins interval after heat 12 just get on with it! Frank Ebdon would have completed that meeting.

I would have said Per Jonsson was the best rider in the World in 1990, 1992 and 1994. Rain robbed him of the title in 1992 and injury in 1994. He would have been a multi GP winner as the format would have suited him.

NKI 10 - 12 £100 more Kylmorkpi 4 - 6 £100 more

Yes all the BS they do not deliver anything. Cannot trust them to deliver milk let alone any new stadiums.

My SS delivery by subscription has been very reliable since they had all the issues with distribution a while back. New Year issue was a tad wet given the monsoon weather we are having! No complaints from me.

To me he has always come across very professional. Always willing to drop things for guest bookings and also not take the mick for things like expenses. Yes as riders get older they tend to moan more. Like all of us in all forms of life!?!? I for one would be happy to employ him unlike some mercenaries out there.

I think it is fairly easy for BSI to justify Holder, Gollob, Lindgren and Jonsson based on current standings. They did the same a few years ago to justify Harris inclusion. I feel they may do the same to keep in two Swedes. Holder if not fit will probably turn up in New Zealand ride and pull out then Harris replaces him until he is fit as next in line. No point giving up his place as Ward proves you can make top 8 despite missing multiple rounds. Bjerre replaces Lindback, Slominski replaces Vaculik as the only changes. Commercially Laguta does not offer BSI anything above the Swedes. Although he is a better rider.

Given the fact Chris Holder is still along way from being fit and despite all the noises about wanting to be fit for New Zealand he is likely to be far from race fit and even further from top 8 fit. It maybe worth him sitting out 2014 gp season and be fully race fit with high confidence for 2015 from just league racing. If his injuries do not heal quickly and he does not return until say July and Cardiff then he will need a wild card for 2015 anyway. He is still young and there is no point risking his long term health coming back too early.