Wee Eck

Christmas Morton

On the topic of deflating tyres, I can only comment on what I have seen in the Premier Sports tv coverage and it was my guess that under inflation was the cause. I remember Sayfutdinov having a least one flat tyre, so it wasn’t restricted to juniors or inexperienced riders. As far as testing is concerned, I seem to recall reading that Greg Hancock has done plenty of testing in California at the track at Perris. I don’t have details of its size, but looking at videos it seems a decent size - not as big as the Polish tracks - or the NSS - but larger than Poole. Maybe Peterborough sized? He won’t have been changing tyres after each practice, and I’d expect he’d run them close to destruction. Speedway seems to be part of a brand awareness campaign promoting the name rather than a specific tyre. At the moment, if you were offered a choice of Anlas, Pirelli or Dunlop (to use your examples) tyres for your motorbike, you might prefer the brand you’ve heard of, which would be one of the second two. What Anlas want is for you to be confident about buying their brand. The last thing they’ll want is a perception that Anlas tyres don’t last or aren’t safe, so they’ll be carrying out plenty of testing. Although new to speedway, they’ve been making tyres for over 50 years so should know how to make good tyres.

I can’t find anything anywhere (other than here) on this. Nothing lodged as yet in Companies House. Can you post a link, please?

The GB team used Anlas tyres in the GB vs Denmark test last October at Kings Lynn. They also used Anlas tyres in the Team under 21 final this year. Certainly at KL, it was one tyre per rider. It was the 2020 tyre that caused the problem, but it wasn’t only used in the GPs - some of the Ekstraliga riders - Anders Thomsen for one - was using them. Judging by the number of flat (Mitas) tyres in the Ekstraliga this year, I suspect riders have been running Mitas tyres at very low pressures to try to match the grip that Anlas was giving. The soft nature of the Anlas tyre was the reason why the 2020 tyre was removed from homologation. British speedway have had a contract with Mitas for years which has been both for commercial and consistency reasons. This contract expires at the end of this year. The contract with Anlas follows the same reasoning. Anlas tyres are not in anyway dangerous and, as the pricing will be the same as with Mitas, and all riders will be on the same tyre, what’s the problem? Mitas have been threatening to withdraw from the speedway market for several years now, whereas Anlas (check them out - they are a huge company) are keen to use speedway to spread brand recognition. I don’t see a problem with what’s happening.

Wasn’t Cook invited to be part of the squad training before what should have been the start of the season - in Southampton with the Marines or something like that - but declined to attend?

I can’t see beyond top 10 - no one around to rival them. Too early for Lidsey, Kubera etc. For commercial reasons, the series needs a second Dane so Thomsen or Pedersen. It’s BSI’s last year so, will they go down the income maximising route and go with NP, or will they accept that he won’t be competitive at this level and go for Thomsen? Maybe Thomsen should get himself on the Monster gravy train because, regardless of what is said publicly, only a fool would think they won’t have an opportunity to give their view.

There seems to be so little about this that I’m wondering if “Bernie Persson” and “Brian Parsons” might have got mixed up? Was it not Persson - and certainly not Parsons - that Barry Briggs blamed for the accident that cost Briggs a finger?

Anders Rowe was selected but chose his Polish team ahead of GB. I think some people were disappointed with his decision but the days of riders having pride racing for their country seem to be passed. He’s earning decent money in Poland and decided that’s where his loyalties lay.

My first year watching speedway was 1966 when there was one league with 19 teams. Had speedway run in 2020, there would have been 7 Premiership and 12 Championship teams which I make, erm, 19. Add in IOM, Plymouth and Mildenhall, and that makes 22. Yes, we’ve lost many venues, and 10 of the 19 from 1966 have gone (and 3 of the remaining 9 have not only changed location, but changed it more than once) but supporters have greater choice now than they had over 50 years ago.

This is what I was referring to - no masks, no social distancing.

Looking at the lack of social distancing last weekend at Scunthorpe, I doubt they’ll be bothered about following any rules.

Was it ever publicised what the tyre problem was with Hellstrom Bangs in last night’s Masarna meeting?

For me, this was the first watchable match of the year after some pretty one sided and boring stuff - and the lights go pop. Grr! At least there was some excellent racing especially Zmarzlik who really attacks that track. I’ve sat on the exit of the second turn at Gorzow several times and always reckoned one big bump and he’d join me in the grandstand

I don’t know the Polish rules - I thought the reserves had to be Polish but didn’t realise there were other restrictions. And I’ve just read up about the new German lockdown - 1,500 new cases and 500,000 back in lockdown suggests that they have released lockdown, or certainly some of the lockdown rules, too early.

But still possible to make the top eight despite not having raced against all the other riders?

That’s an interesting one. The 20 race format is designed to ensure every rider races every other rider once only. Under that rule, a track reserve could complete 5 rides, never racing against the top riders, so inevitably racing more than once against several riders and, if they score enough points to qualify for heats 21 onwards, be allowed to do so

Not sure why you’re so grumpy. Or rude. As I said, I have my opinion, you have yours.

I think the worst is yet to come in many places, and Poland (and Sweden) are two of them. Germany has just discovered what happens if you release lockdown too early.

As I said, I am giving my opinion which has as much validity as anyone else’s. Citing two additional races and referring to one as “decent” isn’t going to change that, anymore than my responses to you will change your opinion. And, while I accept your point about decent juniors, is Wiktor Lampart, for example “decent” or just someone who gated quickly on a track not prepared for passing?

Obviously. Other than when I lived there. And when the standard was far better. Excluding the protected juniors, the Ekstraliga is now predominantly non-Polish. By the way, I don’t really count passes between the start and the entrance to the third bend as that’s just skirmishing, so I’ll need to look at the replay, if I have more time to waste, to see how many after that there were. As I said before, if you can only cite one decent race in 75, you make my point for me. Polish Ekstraliga is a shadow of its former self. You now need super fast bikes on super smooth circuits. Cojones rather than skill. How else do you account for the inexperienced guys holding off heat leaders repeatedly? Sweden, Denmark and U.K. provides far more close and exciting racing, in my opinion. Which, as ever, is all it is.

Each to their own! I watched the live meeting yesterday afternoon. Zmarzlik was in it but I didn’t see Pawlicki. If you are referring to the Gorzow/Lezno meeting a week ago, I think you make my point. It’s not “one decent race in 15” but 1 in 75. Yesterdays Lublin vs Gorzow meeting was dire. The track had no grip. We’re there any passes of any merit?

That’s because they’ve done much less testing. As Trump said on Saturday, the less testing you do, the fewer cases you find. They’re not treating it seriously so they might as well not bother doing anything. There was no social distancing in the crowds, the start girls were taking their masks off between heats and plenty of those in the pits had the mask only covering their nose or even just over their chin. And, let’s face it, since the Ekstraliga restarted, there’s not been a single decent meeting. In future, I think I’ll reverse Phil Rising’s advice and fast forward through the racing

Have there been any passes after the 2nd bend yet? It seems all FTG to me

Sky strictly controlled what could and what could not be advertised. One of the rules was that you couldn’t bring a new sponsor in just for a tv meeting. Or even plug an existing one too much. I seem to recall a discussions between the floor manager and the Poole promoter about the number and visibility of the A-frames on the centre green. Maybe Discovery/Eurosport will be less demanding.

What other forms of regular motor sport take place in Poland? In UK there are many bike and car racing circuits, large and small plus local moto-x, trials, grass track, karting, rallying activities, but I never see anything about Poland. There must be some activity because there have been a few top class drivers like Robert Kubica but maybe the success of speedway in Poland is partly down to the lack of alternatives?