Italian Gp Saturday 3rd August

[Irk Deflector 130]

SPARE a thought for Nigel Pearson and Kelvin Tatum who were live on the world feed without a single break for over three and a half hours...

always enjoy their commentary and just love their enthuisasm.

[rob tatum 175]

AWFUL MEETING ????!! Really ? I must be very easy to please but I enjoyed it , ok its not bydgosz but then neither is swindon ,poole ,lakeside ,eastbourne etc. Well done all keep it up great GP deason.

[mikebv 10,328]

AWFUL MEETING ????!! Really ? I must be very easy to please but I enjoyed it , ok its not bydgosz but then neither is swindon ,poole ,lakeside ,eastbourne etc. Well done all keep it up great GP deason.

 

I think many equate 'great speedway' to just 'loads of passing'..

 

A fair few races last night, whilst not having too many passes, still had the first two close up to each other till the last bend..

 

Must admit I enjoy watching races where the rider in front has to change his lines from bend to bend, lap on lap, to second guess (and mess up) the attack from the one behind...

 

Plenty of races like that last night...

[salty 2,203]

I loved Emil's interview with Steve Brandon last night, showing his skill at using the words in the question to frame the answer.

"so is it pick up the points and make the semi final?"

"Yes, pick up points and make the semi final"

Reckon Latvia will suit Emil more than Italy, but it is refreshing to see two new combatants for the title who apparently get on well and show it.

[george.m 3,063]

Poor meeting or not, it was still speedway on the TV which I'll take any day!

[pandorum 1,259]

Couldn't believe it when Covatti got injured and was lying on the track, with Tattum saying: "Hope Darcy Ward is Okay" but no mention of Covatti at all, what a prat!!

 

Congratulations to Iversen on the win and Tai for another top performance.

 

Fingers crossed nothing broken for Nico!!

Were Nicholls and Day similar prats making stupid comments about the pronounciation of Vaculik as he lay flat out on the track during the Europeans?

These guys are LIVE and commentators do make silly comments in the heat of the moment. in ALL sports.

I don't like Day but don't make it a vendetta like some here.

 

Mr Shouty gets excited about our sport and has his favourites like Darcy and Woffy but his commentary is no different from other sports who have commentaors who shout excitedly during incidents.

Kel and Nige are trying to commentate on 60 seconds of action and do a bloody good job.

You should check out a Danish meeting if it's simple commentary you want albeit in Danish.

Day and Nicholls have their moment during the Europeans and come up wanting compared to kel and Nige.

They also shout a bit and make stupid comments. We will see next week if they can improve.

[keepturningleft 589]

I can't understand why Kelv and Nigel continue to express puzzlement and bewilderment about the poor performances recently by Gollob.

 

The man is 42 years old, and quite clearly he is losing his edge as age begins to take it's tole, and quite naturally he is now approaching the end of his career.

He is noticeably riding more carefully and very obviously at this stage of his life doesn't want to get badly injured.

 

There's no mystery at all.

 

Re the age thing, Greg Hancock must be some kind of a freak!

[Dornier 796]

Iversen was a deserved winner, Am not a Tai fan but gotta give him credit he`s doing good , Woffy or Emil will do for world champion for me, Ward would be my last choice for world champion only good thing about Ward is he doesn`t grin into the camera at every opportunity...( well not yet )

[MattK 3,447]

Terrible GP. I switched off half way through and watched X-Men.

 

I watched the second half this morning on fast forward and there was one decent heat, the second semi final.

 

Can't argue with the result though, Niels was a worthy winner. I bet Zagar is kicking himself that he didn't pick yellow in the final.

 

Good to see Tai close the gap at the top of the table. He seems to be riding with no limitations, whereas Emil seems to be feeling the pressure a little.

 

After a few poor GPs it will be good to see some action back on track in the coming weeks.

[rob tatum 175]

It was not a terrible GP have the people moaning ever attended a speedway meeting. Sometimes you get a blinder with tension passing and controversy but most meets are let's face it just ok. Everyone is entitled to an opinion but the moaning gits on this forum drive me nuts. If we had BBC1 show the gps live with des lynam presenting ,murray walker commentating and kelly brook wearing next to nothing in the pits and every race with 30 passes you would still complain. Maybe the reason speedway is becoming extinct is because of the old codger fan base. FFS the GPs are on tv ,it looks good ,it looks professional and it must be the way forward. If you don't like it don't watch.

[kelvinht 355]

Thought it was another good GP, improved as it went on. Congrats to Niels...cheered me up after we (Stars) were docked two points on Friday. After Woffy, he is my next choice for a winner - got to back Woffy as his is the only 'Brit' this year and would be good for the sport in this country to have a world champ.

[BWitcher 12,453]

Firstly, of course the racing wasn't brilliant last night, the track is not really conducive to that.. however, it's all part and parcel of becoming World Champion. Riders ability to adapt to different conditions and still get points on the board.

 

Last night Tai did that brilliantly. It seems this year that whatever the shape, size, condition of the track, he gets on with the job in hand. I must admit was a little concerned before last nights meet, since his injury he has slowed up just a tad in the last month or so and my concern was it would carry over into the GP's. Far from it. If it wasn't for his unfortunate crash at Cardiff he would very likely be leading the World Championship right now.

 

I echo SCB's comments from earlier.. I actually found the GP gripping, purely from supporting Tai throughout. I found myself not really giving a **** about the racing. When Tai was out, I was just wanted him to fly out the gate, hit the front and be gone. More often than not that is what he did. Just one miscalculation in the final cost him the win.

 

I think credit must also be given to the team that Tai has around him. He's dedicated himself to getting physically and mentally fit this season. From his fitness coach through to Jacko his mechanic who is doing a brilliant job of staying on top of the setup. Finally, I think the influence of Peter Adams should not be underestimated. He's been there and seen it before with riders such as Olsen, Penhall, Ermolenko. When it comes to making the right gate picks, keeping Tai calm and focused, monitoring lines ridden by riders I am sure his advice is invaluable. For those who may suggest Tai made the wrong pick in the final, I disagree.. he was well clear into the turn, he simply didn't move out to block Iversens run in time.

 

Too be honest, I kind of hope that the remaining GP's are gaters tracks as I'm quite sure Tai will be World Champion if they are! If they're not, he is still a racer and it's going to go down to the wire. Let's hope both he and Emil stay injury free to the end of the season so we get an epic finale.

Edited August 4, 2013 by BWitcher

[Daniel Smith 5,672]

I don't think it was a bad GP at all for the Italian round. OK, not much passing but that's not everything in speedway. The track had more than one line and having to watch the slower riders skilfully defend their lines was great. In term of hard riding Iversen was the best on show especially the 2 races against Pedersen.

 

Iversen & Woffinden were the fastest men on show and both deserved to be on the podium. Suyfutinov can count himself lucky but to be a World champion it's all about getting results when not fully on it

 

The series is about to get exciting with the top 2 battling it out and the fought for the top 8 is looking tough too

[Ghostwalker 1,859]

Definitely the worst GP so far this season, even worse then Prague.

 

The few good things were Iversen getting his well deserved first GP-win and that both Emil and Tai escaped without injuries.

[TheReturn 1,724]

SPARE a thought for Nigel Pearson and Kelvin Tatum who were live on the world feed without a single break for over three and a half hours...

 

Oh FFS, my heart bleeds for them.