Wildcards 2022

[HenryW 1,178]

2 hours ago, SPEEDY69 said:

Agreed.  Wildcards to me should be exactly that, not the same old faces.  No other sport fills their events only with the 'considered by some' the best in the world from last year.  As I said before Radecanu winning the US Open got huge media coverage, as did Joe Johnson in snooker back in the 80s or Boris Becker at Wimbledon, Jerzy S in 73, - anyone remember Eddie the Eagle . Sport should be unpredictable and trying to generate media interest from a story that the favourite won again is unlikely to be welcomed with enthusiasm.

It's a bit easier to find places for qualifiers and wild cards when you are talking about a tournament with 128 players compared to 16.

If the US Open only had 16 places available, do you think that Radecanu would have got a place?

The best years for introducing new riders to the SGP series were the years when there were 24 riders per event. 16 is just too restrictive.

[chunky 6,095]

1 hour ago, Grand Central said:

Year in year out NP/KT as well as those in the studio bang on endlessly towards the end of the season about the importance in finishing in the top 6, or 8 as was..

Utter bullsh!t when every year the top 10 are pretty much nailed on.

No jeopardy. No reason to do the qualifiers. 

To be honest, I have no idea why they reduced it to top 6, as we knew what would happen. If course, it happened because we have limited suitable choices...

The one thing that gets me is that people whine about the top however many getting their spots for the following year. What they forget is not only that it IS qualification, but they are having to qualify against the world's best, which is not the case with the GP Challenge.

[chunky 6,095]

4 minutes ago, HenryW said:

It's a bit easier to find places for qualifiers and wild cards when you are talking about a tournament with 128 players compared to 16.

If the US Open only had 16 places available, do you think that Radecanu would have got a place?

The best years for introducing new riders to the SGP series were the years when there were 24 riders per event. 16 is just too restrictive.

Unfortunately, upping it to 24 would mean 8 more also-rans... There just isn't the strength in depth these days.

[Fromafar 10,368]

Kubera for Thomson or Vaculik would have been my choice.The 3 coming in from the challenge are decent compared to the last couple of seasons though.

[Fromafar 10,368]

Maybe if they made the qualifiers  different with their 16 nominated riders over say 3 rounds with the Top 3-5 getting in Gp they may get the top men with a better chance of actually qualifying.To many lose out on the day with the present system IMO

[chunky 6,095]

1 hour ago, Fromafar said:

Kubera for Thomson or Vaculik would have been my choice.The 3 coming in from the challenge are decent compared to the last couple of seasons though.

Agree...

[SPEEDY69 1,260]

1 hour ago, HenryW said:

It's a bit easier to find places for qualifiers and wild cards when you are talking about a tournament with 128 players compared to 16.

If the US Open only had 16 places available, do you think that Radecanu would have got a place?

The best years for introducing new riders to the SGP series were the years when there were 24 riders per event. 16 is just too restrictive.

That may be so and therefore the obvious next step would be to widen the qualifying.  Those sports with a closed-shop for competitors such as F1 for example, the competitors get in by virtue of the amount of sponsorship they bring with them, nothing to do with being the best and to me it makes it all the duller as I am enthused by things being unpredictable, at least to a degree.  In speedway it's the federations who nominate the 'wild'cards so there's unlikely to be any of that.

[auntie doris 2,342]

Good line-up look forward to next year, and Cardiff.

Edited October 5, 2021 by auntie doris

[OveFundinFan 4,143]

I am ok with those 15, looks more reasonable then last couple of years.  What we need to remember is that some riders have to finish 15, 14, 13 12 etc, whoever you chose as your top 15.

[False dawn 2,298]

1 hour ago, Ghostwalker said:

As I said a few days ago, top 8 safe for next season, rest will have to qualify with one wild card reserved if one of the regular happens to get injured.
If a rider doesn't manage top 8 and doesn't manage to qualify or don't bother to enter qualifiers then that one have to sit out a year.

For me, that makes sense if the latter stages of the GP qualification system took place after the GP series had finished.

How about this. The primary qualification could take place alongside the GP series with no current GP riders involved. This could result in the top 9 going through to be joined by the bottom 7 from the current series after the last GP. These 16 would then compete in the GP Challenge (what a meeting!). The top 6 from this go through to be joined by 1 wildcard.

You can argue about the numbers but the philosophy of how riders would qualify, for me, would be very fair. The also rans from this year get a last chance and a significant number of new riders get an opportunity as well.

And as a real bonus you don't get any current GP riders, qualifying for next year half way through this year's series (with the possible exception of the SEC champion).

[Fromafar 10,368]

6 minutes ago, False dawn said:

For me, that makes sense if the latter stages of the GP qualification system took place after the GP series had finished.

How about this. The primary qualification could take place alongside the GP series with no current GP riders involved. This could result in the top 9 going through to be joined by the bottom 7 from the current series after the last GP. These 16 would then compete in the GP Challenge (what a meeting!). The top 6 from this go through to be joined by 1 wildcard.

You can argue about the numbers but the philosophy of how riders would qualify, for me, would be very fair. The also rans from this year get a last chance and a significant number of new riders get an opportunity as well.

And as a real bonus you don't get any current GP riders, qualifying for next year half way through this year's series (with the possible exception of the SEC champion).

Sounds reasonable,when they decide how many go through automatically the rest should have to have be involved in a meeting to decide if they can stay in ,Wildcards should be riders who were not in the last series IMO.

[iris123 20,990]

10 minutes ago, Fromafar said:

Sounds reasonable,when they decide how many go through automatically the rest should have to have be involved in a meeting to decide if they can stay in ,Wildcards should be riders who were not in the last series IMO.

Isort of like False Dawn's idea in theory. Trouble is, in practice speedway is often down to the track the meeting is held at, as to who might qualify. And I fear we would have a few real bummers getting through and moaning about that instead......

As for the Wildcard, I think you are wrong on that, as it should be used for one of the top riders who was injured, for instance

[Gambo95 91]

5 hours ago, SPEEDY69 said:

Agreed.  Wildcards to me should be exactly that, not the same old faces.  No other sport fills their events only with the 'considered by some' the best in the world from last year.  As I said before Radecanu winning the US Open got huge media coverage, as did Joe Johnson in snooker back in the 80s or Boris Becker at Wimbledon, Jerzy S in 73, - anyone remember Eddie the Eagle . Sport should be unpredictable and trying to generate media interest from a story that the favourite won again is unlikely to be welcomed with enthusiasm.

I don't get your point about Raducanu?

Emma played 3 qualifying rounds to qualify for the US Open (like the qualifiers for the GP).

She didn't get a wildcard?

[SPEEDY69 1,260]

1 hour ago, Gambo95 said:

I don't get your point about Raducanu?

Emma played 3 qualifying rounds to qualify for the US Open (like the qualifiers for the GP).

She didn't get a wildcard?

No she didn't but the point was she is not in the top 15 in the world and maybe not even the top 50-75.  Other posters want the speedway world title decided by limiting it to the top 15 in the world the previous year.  So, with other sports someone can breakthrough and capture the imagination of both the public and media but this is not possible with speedway because it's based on last year and little change in competitors. 

[chunky 6,095]

4 minutes ago, SPEEDY69 said:

No she didn't but the point was she is not in the top 15 in the world and maybe not even the top 50-75.  Other posters want the speedway world title decided by limiting it to the top 15 in the world the previous year.  So, with other sports someone can breakthrough and capture the imagination of both the public and media but this is not possible with speedway because it's based on last year and little change in competitors. 

A World Championship SHOULD feature the best competitors in the World. The US Open is just that - an "open event".

As with many other sports (like darts, the World Cup, and many others), the speedway World Championship is a much smaller field, supposedly featuring the elite. As long as there are opportunities to qualify for the World Championship, that's fine. If the same names keep qualifying (and qualify on merit) then the others have to work harder and up their game.

The World Championship is not - and should not be - a line-up chosen by the fans.