SGP of Europe - Chorzow Poland 17th May

[London Witch 57]

In this case I don't think Andreas should get his point as he had declared himself unfit and a replacement had been brought in. But its certainly going to open a can of worms for future gps.

[KevH 257]

By declaring himself unfit he gave the opportunity for his place to be filled by someone else - why should he be punished for that? Food for thought :?:

[Addy 1]

The difference is Mark didn't declare himself unfit - he presented himself for the GP, as per regulations, - as did Sully -

However Sully was allowed to compete and Mark was not.

 

Lets face it Mark would have saved alot of money had he stayed at home.

 

I do think he intended to ride if at all possible.

Lots of riders ride whilst injured (probably not advisable - but they do).

For example Stoney rode with a broken Scaphoid, Jason Lyons rode with the skin of his had hanging off - etc, etc.

 

The FIM stopped him - and awaded him the minimum points - which he most likely would have exceeded had he been able to ride.

[Guest Andy123]

What an awful meeting!

 

For god sake Olsen put some f***in dirt down. We might actually get some decent racing if you do.

 

Sorry to swear but i found the meeting so boring and struggled to watch it and im a speedway fan. Think of how the non speedway fans would have felt watching that. They would have turned off after a couple of heats.

 

What were they riding on? To me it looked like some kind of powder not shale!

 

If that track would have had a bit if dirt on it would have been a top meeting. The shape of the track is superb and the surface had bedded down from last season so for it to be so slick was very annoying.

 

a majority of the tracks for gp's, lets face it, are sh***. I only ask to go to cardiff cos its an enjoyable weekend.

[KevH 257]

Addy - I'm not questioning Mark's intentions for one minute, and I too believe he had every intention of riding and no doubt, as you rightly say, scoring more points than five.

 

Are you saying Andreas should have turned up at the GP if he wanted to be awarded his point, because as far as I can see that's the only difference, or am I missing something?

 

One thing is for sure as LW says, that the can of worms is now well and truely open with the FIM seemingly bringing in a new rule for Mark. :roll:

[shazzybird 10]

What an awful meeting!

 

Think of how the non speedway fans would have felt watching that. They would have turned off after a couple of heats.

 

Honestly.... I was sat in the pub watching the GP with another speedway fan and about 12 non fans and too be honest I was hoping to win a few of them over for the sake of the sport, alas not, they still think it's boring, in their words "first out the trap wins" which as I watched each race that was exactly how it looked, Holte, Pedersen...well done... Tony Rickardsson .... hurts me to say it but he was pure class! Every inch a World Champ again!

[stevehone 3,430]

will be very interesting come the end of the GP....

think of a possible scenario... Loram beats Jonsson by 4 points to grab the 10th qualifying place for next year. What will they do?

 

yes i know they will probably give a wild card but that's not the point

[KevH 257]

My point exactly Steve.

[Addy 1]

Just going by what Mark said in this week's Speedway Star when he said the injury has "a long way to go yet" so it didn't seem to me very likely he would be fit enough to ride.

 

What if i said that the recent info I have is from a similar source

[Addy 1]

Addy - I'm not questioning Mark's intentions for one minute, and I too believe he had every intention of riding and no doubt, as you rightly say, scoring more points than five.

 

Are you saying Andreas should have turned up at the GP if he wanted to be awarded his point, because as far as I can see that's the only difference, or am I missing something?

 

One thing is for sure as LW says, that the can of worms is now well and truely open with the FIM seemingly bringing in a new rule for Mark. :roll:

 

AJ had the choice of turning up - he chose not to.

See ICQ

[norbold 7,126]

On the evidence of the first Grand Prix it certainly seems as though this year's championship has already been decided. TR is in a class of his own.

 

It seems to me that the problem is that his once greatest rivals - Crump, Sullivan, Loram, Hancock, Adams - have had their day and are not going to get back to a challenging position. This may be a bit unfair because of injuries, track condition etc., but, I did say this is on the evidence of the first Grand Prix. When you consider how long Rickardsson himself has been around it is no mean feat that he is still out on his own amongst his contemporaries.

 

On the other hand the next generation - Pedersen, Dryml, Richardson, Nicholls - are not quite ready yet to challenge for the master's crown. Next year, the year after maybe, but not just yet.

 

It all leaves Rickardsson far and away the world's best rider and on course to equal and then beat Mauger's record number of championship wins. There is no doubt he is an all time great and a rider to be spoken of as at least the equal of the likes of Duggan, Fundin, Mauger, Neilsen and all those other usual candidates for the 'greatest rider ever'.

[fatface 2,557]

will be very interesting come the end of the GP....

think of a possible scenario... Loram beats Jonsson by 4 points to grab the 10th qualifying place for next year. What will they do?

 

yes i know they will probably give a wild card but that's not the point

 

Agree Steve. I think Loramski is great and I doubt this would have been part of his plan. But, (not for the first time in speedway) the rules have been bent here.

 

Even if it did all happen a bit last-minute, I'm sure another wild card could have been put in at the bottom end, with another GP rider being pushed upwards to the main event.

[21st century heathen 220]

Back to the action if I may. I thought the track was dreadful. There was a blue grooves after about 4 races which tell it's own story. There was very little dirt, and as far as I could see no watering. One thing nobody else has picked up on but what the hell was going on with the tapes :?: :? No rider touched them all night but they had to be mended after virtually every race, very strange :!:

 

Tony was pure class.

 

Pedersen recovered from a bad start when, as he admitted himself, he may have lost the plot a couple of years ago.

 

Dryml and Holta produced the majority if the passing, and were the riders of the night for me.

 

I was a little disappointed with the Brits. Both are better than that, and I'd like to think they can make the semis more often than not. It should have suited Lees fast gating. He could have cleared off if he could have got out the gate. To be fair I suppose it's not Scotts fave kind of track but he needs to find a way around the slick tracks if he's to do well in the GPs.

 

I thought Gollob and Crump would go very close to win it but neither were a genuine threat to Tony.

 

Pepe and Krys C. were both good value so well done to them for their best showing to date.

 

Ryan did OK after the injury. Good points in the bag. Rescued the night really because it would have been a disaster not to get anything.

 

Wiltshire was a disappiontment going out very early.

 

The rest did more or less what you might expect.

 

[Storming Norman 23]

Why did the Ref keep bringing races back when someone tried to jump the start but was left at the back?

 

Surely it can't be fair on the other 3 riders who got away ok?

 

For once, Pedersen didn't unfairly knock someone off but Ref Steele also got that wrong despite the video replays.

[shazzybird 10]

I thought that of Pedersen too SN :!: Ref was unfair to ex him.