Italian Grand Prix - Lonigo

[Mr. Clemens 646]

You are our very own Stuart Hall Mr Clemens.

 

Superb!

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Cheers Pete glad you liked it

[Mr. Clemens 646]

Reading Mr Clemens' report was a hell of a lot more entertaining than the tripe that was served up at Lonigo. Mr Clemens it didn't deserve such a sterling report. It was awful.

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I understand what you are saying Sub.

It’s the sense the passing came about in the way it did, more by chance of an accident, on an unpredictable greasy track, than it did because of prepared pre-meeting intent by riders to make certain passing moves, during each of their races against a particular opposing rider.

In your opinion I believe, therefore, a debacle despite the arguments that it was the ‘same for all the riders’.

Greasy wet tracks!!! I think that most tracks could do with a couple of hundred tons of shale on them, but that’s just me with my slick jive talk

 

What I look for in a meeting is the deeper essence of what motivates the riders to perform in the way they do. To reach out and touch the heart and soul of the matters in hand, be they displayed either in a positive or negative manner.

 

(‘Seeing as there is bugg*r all else to watch’ chuckled wicked old senile Uncle Mr. Clemens)!!!

 

If you have ever felt the heartbeat of a piece of stone you will know what I mean. There is life in everything and everything has its heartbeat. Speedway has its heartbeat and I felt it beating on Saturday night when speedway riders bared their souls to the Speedway supporting world in the GP at Lonigo.

 

T/R displayed his deep joy at fulfilling himself as a speedway rider and achieving the penultimate goal open to all speedway riders. The coat of ‘World Championships of Many Different Colours’ fits him perfectly. T/R long ago understood that you become the world champion and not that the world championship becomes you.

 

Jason Crump displayed a sense of deep contentment having realised he has achieved the rank of world champion and come to terms with what it means to him personally.

He tried to be what a world champion should be and thus allowed the world championship to rule his life and make him the depressed unhappy champion he was.

 

Crump has now understood all this during his first term as world champion. It has been a hard road for him to walk. But Crump is now better fitted to take on the role of a world champion, and remake the world championship in his image, has T/R has done before him, Ivan Mauger before him and Ove Fundin before him.

 

Crump’s unhappiness was made self evident, to me, in the moment at Coventry when my nephew was waiting to get Crump’s autograph.

Self evident when Crump was being pressed by someone in a manner suggesting he was expected to perform certain roles in a certain manner without question.

Self evident in the look of ‘pain’ on his face has he turned away from the person who was talking to him.

Self evident in the ‘pain’ appearing on his face has he turns sharply away from television interviewers at the end of the interview.

Self evident in the two-fingered salute he gave to the cameras as he walked to the podium after his second GP win in Sweden.

Self evident in the ‘pain’ on his face expressed in the midst of his joyful celebrations, in this same GP, when Mike Patrick ‘accosted’ him presumably to pose for pictures.

People often ask me how I know these things about them. I always tell them,

‘It’s written all over your face’.

And the face is the window of the soul.

 

Leigh Adams displayed a quiet self-understanding with achieving third place on the World Championship rostrum. Realising finally that he has the character and mental capacity to achieve the ultimate goal of being world champion.

Taking that step onto the podium has revealed to him that there are two more steps to be taken to that goal. If he makes those two steps is down to him and remains to be seen. But he has grasped the nettle of what it takes to achieve that end. Implicit in grasping that nettle is the inference that he will take those two steps.

 

Scott Nicholls displayed ‘self disgust’ at his failure to take the step from also ran to true contender. Implicit in this ‘self disgust’ is the inference that he has realised what he has to do to make the ‘great leap forward’ and will return to do so and perhaps surprise himself and everyone else with what he can achieve.

 

Lee Richardson displayed his sense of realisation that he wants to take that ‘great leap forward’ too. That he wants to be up there with the ‘big boys’ and not be remembered has just someone else who once rode speedway. He knows he has the ability to achieve success on the world stage and he has to find that professional set up that translates his ‘dreams’ into reality.

 

Tomasz Gollob displayed his desire to remain on the world stage when he discovered that he was only a couple of points away from eliminating himself from the next GP series. Realising that he would no longer be in the position to display to the world his racing abilities, and his ‘Godlike’ magical speedway riding powers, he proved to himself he still had the desire to be one of the ‘big boys’, by gaining the points he needed.

 

Reflective Nicki Pedersen displayed the realisation that he was going backwards not forwards in his quest to win another world championship. The exhausted look on his face and his refusal to blame anyone or anything but himself for his predicament suggested that finally he has come to the conclusion that ‘I am doing something wrong here, I don’t know what it is yet but I am going to find out and put it right’.

Implying that we are, perhaps, going to see a new improved Nick Pedersen not as tricky as we have known him up to now.

 

This is what I saw in the Lonigo GP written on the faces of these Speedway riders. And it was a grand thing to see. The reason it was a grand thing to see is because it revealed the true heart and soul of what speedway is, is still intact, that the heartbeat of Speedway is strong and healthy.

 

All these things were displayed for everyone who was watching to see on Saturday night. But what was on display most of all was the realisation that all these speedway riders had achieved their liberation of the self and understood the can translate it into the freedom to be what they want to be.

 

All this occurred in spite of not because of those who believe they are in control of the destiny of speedway. The people who assume they know how the heart of speedway beats because they provide the stage upon which Speedway riders perform. All this occurred because these riders wanted it to happen and made it happen.

 

This was the beauty of the Grand Prix. This is why it was a Grand Experience.

 

And thus we write the ‘word’. In the process of writing the ‘word’ we discover how to ‘rhyme the tick of time’ and thus learn to sing the ‘Song of Solomon’.

And thus we sing the ‘Song of Solomon’ and understand the key to life.

 

‘All is vanity and you may as well try and catch the wind’.

 

(‘Or t’six times world champion Tony Rickardsson’ whoever’s bleedin fastest’ chuckled wicked old senile myopic Uncle Mr. Clemens to his silly sen)!!!!

[Subedei 0]

Tomasz Gollob displayed his desire to remain on the world stage when he discovered that he was only a couple of points away from eliminating himself from the next GP series. Realising that he would no longer be in the position to display to the world his racing abilities, and his ‘Godlike’ magical speedway riding powers, he proved to himself he still had the desire to be one of the ‘big boys’, by gaining the points he needed.

 

Much as I admire TG, I think you're giving him far too much credit here. TG will have known he was safe all along. Even outside of the top 8 he'd have been safe and sound.

[Cornishman 18]

Me too !!.

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that went a bit wrong

 

 

 

From where i stand it's been pretty action-packed to be honest. 

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but you we're sitting down

[ouch 1,203]

Reading Mr Clemens' report was a hell of a lot more entertaining than the tripe that was served up at Lonigo. Mr Clemens it didn't deserve such a sterling report. It was awful.

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Well I really enjoyed the last individual world championship we’ll be seeing for a while.

We move on next year to the GP open (?) series run on an invite only basis from 2006 onwards. It’ll be strange not having a World Champion to salute come next September.

 

Subedei you must surely be posting in jest. Exciting racing is exciting racing, however it is produced. If I had a pound for every time a rider returned to the pits and said “the guy in front didn’t make a mistake but I managed to pass him”, I’d have not much at all. If however a pound was give every time I heard, “I tried to force him into a mistake to allow me to pass”, or “he went off the line and I was able to get through” or “he didn’t make a mistake and I couldn’t get by”, then I’d make a good few bob out of it.

Try and put yourself in the position on someone new to speedway. Would they prefer riders dropping the clutch and riding flat out with space in between all four riders? Or would they prefer riders close together, jostling for position and being passed due to the mistakes they made?

It can only ever be the case that a rider doesn’t win a race because of the fact that he has made a mistake, on any track. If you don’t win you have made a mistake either with your gating, your first bend, the line you choose, etc, etc.

There were similar comments made on the “favourite tracks” thread, where tracks that caused rides into errors were somehow marked down, including my track Belle Vue. Well, give me close racing, riders passing and re passing and riders showing great skill to get the best out of the track and conditions they are presented with. Actually Subedei, typing this makes me understand you are not posting in jest, merely standing up for the kind of speedway you enjoy, which is just the opposite to mine as described above.

[Subedei 0]

I never subscribed to the "passing is everything" theory. Passing is very often nothing as far as I'm concerned. A good well-executed pass is all fine and dandy, but a rider losing control and being passed is just rubbish. Give me close racing. In fact, the best kind of racing is where a rider haunts the rider in front for 4 laps, rather than the rider in front going off-line and being passed on lap 1.

Now, look at the Bydgoszcz GP and Tomasz Gollob's overtake of Nicki P in Ht 6. That was better than all the racing at Lonigo combined. And the heat where he haunted Lee Richardson for 4 laps was excellent also. There wasn't a pass in that heat, but it was super stuff all the same.

And the SWC at Eskilstuna and Wroclaw was excellent also.

Lonigo was just dreadful.

And, yes, give me 4 riders going full-throttle on a 350 metre track with sweeping bends any day of the week.

Edited September 13, 2005 by Subedei

[crazysue 617]

I have to disagree Subedei....that has to be the best GP I have ever been to and that includes Cardiff. The atmosphere was electric, the racing was pretty damn good and the track was fast.

 

I would love to go back again next year.

[Subedei 0]

It was awful.

[Cornishman 18]

It was awful.

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i know you are a m*****n 'supporter' but surely you are taking your hate of all things italian a bit too far?

[Subedei 0]

i know you are a m*****n 'supporter' but surely you are taking your hate of all things italian a bit too far?

 

Couldn't private message me the missing letters, could you? I haven't the first clue what I'm supposed to be a supporter of.

[Cornishman 18]

that formula one team that cant work out how to make 2 cars cross the finish line

[Subedei 0]

And don't I feel stupid now.

They'd both have finished last Sunday but for a Sunday driver in a Williams.

[Cornishman 18]

And don't I feel stupid now.

They'd both have finished last Sunday but for a Sunday driver in a Williams.

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yes they would..... and it would have been behind a ferrari but for a muppet in a B.A.R

[Mr. Clemens 646]

Much as I admire TG, I think you're giving him far too much credit here. TG will have known he was safe all along. Even outside of the top 8 he'd have been safe and sound.

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My very point being that he wanted to do it on merit and not be a 'chosen one'.

Tomasz Gollob is and always has been the 'chosen one'. He doesn't want or need a FIM or BSI selection committee, or anyone to else, for that matter, to choose him.

 

This being the stance of one who would regard himself as a true Pole. One who I don't doubt will have his finger on the heartbeat of the Polish nation and its people. One who I don't doubt knows how he is expected to conduct himself by his nation and its people.

[Subedei 0]

Outside of the GPs, SWC and leaving aside Bydgoszcz and Tarnow, Gollob is a hugely controversial figure in Poland.

 

Edit:

 

http://www.speedway-forum.co.uk/forums/ind...opic=19396&st=0

 

http://www.speedway-forum.co.uk/forums/ind...pic=19593&st=20

Edited September 13, 2005 by Subedei