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Yes the majority of the meetings have been in Poland but as a result we got racing. The rest of the speedway word take note; crappy little tracks with one line and no dirt kills the sport. Bartosz, not unlike last year, would have won this year whatever tracks the meetings were on. He is, as the moment, the best rider in the world.

Zmarzlik the greatest rider ever.

Apart from Prague I think we have been treated to some good GP races, If you don't like it then spend some money and buy a TV with an ON/OFF button and use it.

Deserved World Champion, congrats. Now the greatest Polish rider of all time?

Who the hell was that in yellow, and why did Lindback not ride???

Heat 2 doesn't really have that much significance if the main contenders all accrue enough points to get to the semi finals. This is one of the weaknesses of the new scoring system. A speedway Grand Prix should evolve like a story, the points gained in the meeting and the World Championship table should evolve side by side as the meeting progresses. Every point scored should count . Last year at Torun the World Championship table evolved after every heat, win for Madsen had to be matched by wins for Bartosz and Emil, every heat had something on it particularly when the main men met each other, beating your main rival was huge. Now realistically we have no idea how many points each rider will score until heat 20. The people that represent speedway at the F.I.M need insist to the top powers that speedway has a unique heat formula unlike other motorsports under their umbrella, we don't have one race per fortnight we have 23 individual heats, they all need to mean something. The GP has searched endlessly for a scoring system over the years, which is the fairest and rewards the best rider over the whole meeting, it found it and then had it ditched by people who do not understand the sport, get last years scoring system reintroduced for next year as a priority. I dare say the F.I.M will know better and carry on as they are as they normally do. Doing the math's, last years scoring system would have Bartosz 111, Freddie 103, Tai 102 , game on , pressure on in Torun tonight !

I think Scotty has done a good job in the studio this year. Upped his content, using the big screen and explaining technicalities.

8 rounds, no matter the scoring system, he deserves to be World Champion

The right result.. No mickey mouse scoring system beat him.. Well done lad... Box office...

Traditional race sheet for Rnd 8 https://www.keepandshare.com/doc16/25103/gp-2020-8-pdf-849k?da=y

I would suggest that in 2021 at least six rounds of the SGP should be staged by Poole's Pirates Perhaps then Steve Shovlar would have his way...and began commenting here with some sense .

Dreams came true for this little fella

Zmarzlik third to first in the final when he had nothing to gain.. A truly 'winning is all' mentality... The rest of the GP riders must be a bit concerned that they face someone who will put truly "everything" on the line.. Maybe being a Dad will take a little edge off him? I hope not, the kid is great to watch..

Not sure home advantage was all that, Bart won 4 GPs including the only 2 outside Poland. He only won 2 of 6 in Poland. This kid is going to be around for many a year.

You surprise me. You hadn't mentioned that before, Steve!

They are not holding back, my heart has been in my mouth several times, more guts in their throttle hand than i have in my whole body.

My money was always on Zmarlik from the moment the GPS were announced and six of them were in Poland

It is what it is but, poor Jan Kvech scorers 13pts and will go down in the record books as finishing 5th!! I hate the fact that a rider (Petr Chlupac) Can score 7pts and still have as much chance of winning the meeting as ( Jaimon Lidsey 14pts ) I know it's all about keeping in line with other sports, but personally I will never accept it as a fair system. Just like the senior GP's series. Bartosz Zmarzlik has been head and shoulders above the rest of the riders, yet one bad meeting tonight and it will mean nothing. If thats a fair system I'll eat my hat.

100% disagree. It’s not the same Emil of say 2013, but he is IMO a racer, not just a gater like Laguta.

That's the point 'Let's face he would never get a better chance and yet he was still a poor second'' I think he realised belatedly that he missed a golden opportunity and I do believe he will drift further away from it as time goes by And by the same token I think that Bartoz, and the people around him, understand the situation with the opposition and realise he could win 4 or 5 titles on the trot thereby adding credence to the plaudit of 'greatest rider of all time.' It's easy done as old Brucie used to say 'if you play your cards right'. I think he will make the great attempt to do so.

We are still the world leaders when it comes to whining and bitterness...

Nice cheese graters for trophy’s

I think Tai just realised if he'd pulled his finger out from the word go he could have won it That's another title that's slipped away from him

I said before the series started that I didn’t agree with 75% of the rounds being in one country, even taking into account the circumstances of the world and that all the riders ride there anyway as I keep getting told. No surprise that a rider from that country has won it. As deserved as it was the whole thing has a bit of a hollow feel to it for me.

Er, Poland haven’t gotten twit Johnson helping make COVID rampant like in the U.K.

Well done Bartoz, well deserved winner, also like to say not just tonight but well done to polish speedway for showing the rest of the world it’s needs to man up and get on with life

I think it's time to up Nigel's medication!

Bartosz Pasquale..

Well done to Bartosz Zmarzlik.

Say what you will, but with three heats to go in a 184 race season, and there are still three possible World Champions. Lot to be said for that...

While i hope they revert to old scoring too, there's more chance of Zmarzlik missing out this year under this system

MESSED up the track

Not many become the best in the world without being ruthless to the point of reckless..

Had the E-mail telling is was Off.Have E-mailed them for refund as instructed Quoting my ticket reference No..Not heard anything but it stated it could be between 30-45 days before refund,so just have to wait and see.Strange they can take your cash at touch of a button, but take them 6 weeks to press the same button to give you a refund.!!

If Fricke reproduces last night’s form tonight it would be hard to ignore him for next year.

Indeed, and this season is Lidsey’s swallow thus far. I think he will go on to be a GP rider but Fricke is the better rider for now and has improved a lot across the GP campaign in terms of mixing it wheel to wheel. There seems to be an obsession with countries having to have a certain number of representatives in the GP. Why Australia seemingly have to have two riders is beyond me but if they do get two spots it’s Fricke to join Doyle in my opinion and it would be a well deserved spot.

Getting Philippe to do the GP programmes...

That would be my 5. But for the first ride crash in one of the SEC meetings Nicki would have been fighting for that title..2nd best Dane currently, and he's still box office.

Had a bet on fricke tonight at 33-1 unfortunately not put on as much as normal but a win is a win

Of course it mattered, I backed Max at 33s.

Terrible commentary by Pearson in that final, never even acknowledged Fricke for 2 laps. Well done Max, brilliant night for him.

Nice opening ride from Max, I've backed him e/w @33/1, small stakes.

And do away with the semi and grand final. The old World Pairs Final worked perfectly well. What is this obsession with every meeting having to finish with a grand final?

I'm Polish, but the Polish domination of the sport doesn't really seem healthy. Unfortunately, there are a lot of selfish "patriots" amongst those managing Polish speedway on organisational level that some ideas promoting foreign riders can't really pass with them steering it. They didn't let Latvians into Extraleague. They won't agree for one U21 rider to be a foreigner. Polish clubs like Sparta Wroclaw act really selfish marrying Chugunow to a Polish wife so he can get nationalized. That rid Russians of probable medal at U21 World Championship yesterday. This year is kinda weird, because Poland was actually one of the few stable European countries during post-lockdown phase of the pandemic, where you could host events comfortably on the regular with crowd attending (with some minor exceptions). But I'm really afraid that it's a step towards shrinking of the sport. Not sure what the future brings. Something really needs to be done before speedway becomes a travelling circus like F1. Also, I saw Speedway in Britain doesn't really attract younger crowds, why is that?

FIRST question from Kiri whatshername ... Bartosz, you are World Champion. I will take a wild guess that he knew that.

Good price on Berntzon under 11 too

Well done to Max Fricke, always good to see another rider come to the dance

Sometimes the camera work lets us down!

1 meeting paying less than normal wages which would of run at a loss, possibly a big one at that ,unless speedway finds a major sponsor it can’t run with limited fans or riders ride for next to nowt and if this isn’t sorted soon will there be any riders left to ride ? Even top football is getting uneasy about the situation and we will go to the wall a long time before they do

Not posted on Speedway-forum for a few years (apart from a couple in the last half hour re British Final 2020.) but saw the subject about Michael Lee and 40 years on for him being world champion in 1980. Holy Moly I happened to be at the meeting in Ullevi, Sweden on that FRIDAY night. Me and my Coventry teenage mates had booked a Tee-Mill tours trip ( a coach journey from Birmingham And back) essentially to watch our Ole Olsen bring another world championship - alas we also SAW Ole fail to make the world finals - albeit was just a reserve - in his demise at the inter-continental final at White City. en-route to the final we had heard that Finn Thomsen (Wolverhampton) had crashed in practice, broken a leg, and Ole was in. Total bullsh**. So our support had to be moved elsewhere and the next best was to watch Michael win the evening. I so remember walking out of the stadium towards the ‘town’ and hearing Lee-o, Lee-o, Lee-o being sung by the Other English contingent. A spectacular evening with thousands in attendance - beaten I must add to the 2 finals I attended at Wembley By Olsen and Penhall (the Penhall win not the best for a Coventry supporter !) This era was fantastic for a fan of the sport, so many GREATS with many being English - Kenny Carter, Peter Collins, Malcolm Simmons, Dave Jessup, John Louis, of course Michael Lee, Sorry to bore the living daylights out of your all with my memories, but tonight I have enjoyed reliving the good times, this rather than enduring the grief we all encountering with the never ending COVID episode. Stay strong all and stay safe.