THE DEAN MACHINE

Great ride from lambert

Hope so simply because they have tried to buy the league and by the restart of heat 2 the ref aswell

Just watching the polish playoffs, noticed one of the mechanics had a Riga wrist band on from last night, I bet he hasn’t been to bed yet, it’s roughly a 10 hour drive from riga to Toruń and he got to clean and prep the bikes then before turning up at the track, it’s tough at the top but even tougher for the spannermen

Successful riders have a certain stubbornness about them and this can clash when another rider as successful joins his team,I can remember being in the changing room before a meeting for wolves, Pete adams was there doing his thing with Sam Ermolenko as captain and Neil Evitts was there at the end of his career and wasn’t scoring very well, Pete and Sam were trying to help Neil but it felt like Neil was” I don’t need you 2 telling me how to ride I was British champion” he didn’t say it but that’s how it felt, you could sense the stubbornness in the room and that can be how it is with some riders especially if they are head strong, I also believe this is why some riders thrive in England but don’t in Poland, the mentality is more imposing in Poland

I believe there is a similarity between some ex riders helping and dads helping sons, the rider was successful as was the dad and they both want the best for the rider but they are trying to impose their personality and success on the rider but the rider is a different person and it creates differences between the two

I think lambert will be a better rider once he has his first GP win but you can’t say he has picked the wrong gate, nobody would of or wanted gate 2 in the final and yet it won,if lambert would of picked gate 2 the internet would of exploded, gate picks are a lottery and as I was alluding to in an earlier post without having to make a choice can be an advantage, imo too much emphasis is placed on gate picks in qualifying and semi and final races

Employing that logic, you have Greg Hancock in Wozniak’s corner, advising his every move and yet, too many riders have too many distractions,yes it’s good to have an ex rider in your corner but the final say has to be you, if you ship that decision out you’re not in control of you’re own destiny and it won’t work, I’ve never been at that level obviously but I’ve seen high level mechanics(some ex riders) who are good at the job and are head strong but are try to impose what worked for them on someone else and it won’t work, self belief is everything and the less distractions the better, what is going on in madsen’s world at the moment is tragic and he is not helping himself either, you get with the zmarzlik’s that when Bartoz wins the family wins and he has no ex riders helping him

Yes it is time to end it, it was never time to start the ban but the FIM is as woke as they come and by god do they love their virtue signalling but laguta has said he isn’t interested in coming back in and wants to focus on polish racing and seemed more concerned about missing his family back in Russia

While driving the other day I was thinking about the GPs and how much speedway is a psychology game,a good head on your shoulders is as important as a good head on the engine and it got me thinking about gate picks etc, first we have the timed practice to pick a number, in reality you are just picking for 1 race as every number goes off all 4 gates, so you pick a number and it gives you gate 1 twice, then come the meeting despite the feeling in practice the races before you gate 1 runs 3 lasts so your mindset is I’ve made the wrong choice and with the small measures at play psychologically you’re already on the back foot, then on to the semi final and final gate picks, you get first pick and pick gate 1 in the semi and miss the start but scrape into final with a second, what do you pick in final ? You’re head is not sure and you’re 100% focus is divided 4 ways, on the other hand the last pick has no choice to make, his 100% focus is going to be on what he is left just like last night for zmarzlik, doesn’t get a choice and gets left the least favourable gate but 100% knows he has the right choice because he didn’t get one and on he goes to be the winner,as the difference in speedway from winning and losing is so small maybe there is something in this

Interesting to note zmarzlik has swapped to JHR back ends recently like most others but was it the back end in Wrocław that made him loose a chain, anyway back on normal Jawa/Stuha backend for his first ride

Crashed was caused by Michellsen’s arm lifts and catches zmarzlik’ hand on throttle and causes zmarzlik to loose control, on reflection I would of excluded zmarzlik but not really anybody’s fault

Where is Douglas ? When was he injured ?

loktajew is wild

They have one, gusts

Ben Powell at Newcastle

Not so much the riders as their family’s, the garrity family had a few moments in the pits after races and I had Eddie Kenneth’s old man Dave threatening me and my mechanic after a British final qualifying round at Wimbledon in 2003 which carried on to a league match at rye house a week after, to this day I have no idea what his beef with me was

Right there is the single biggest problem with British speedway, a sport run by the riders for the riders

Wow, well done Birmingham

Ronnie was far worse

In general I’ve had riders who have knocked me off or shut the door or have been ruthless but it’s the nature of the game, I can’t say anyone was dangerous, there are some who ride above their talent levels and tend to crash a lot but they are not intentionally dangerous

I might of posted this before but my first and only encounter with Roman was at Sheffield, I was at no7 I think for Oxford ? in as a guest and it was at the start of my career,I remember him staring at me over the pits, I was a nobody but I guess at that point he doesn’t know that,he just sees me a new threat,he just kept looking which was intimidating as I knew exactly who he was and his reputation,think it was in my second ride I was off gate one and him off gate 2, as soon as the tapes went up he just turned left putting me on the grass, I guess looking back he was just stamping his mark on me so as not to go near him not that I was at that level, when I heard of his mysterious death I imagined in my head that he was in some sort of fight on his own against 300 men in some foreign war and giving a good account of himself too, certainly a character and not too bad on a bike either

Shocking camera work again

Strangely sometimes I do watch polish coverage over English, like if both show GPs I will often watch polish

I do enjoy the polish commentary even though I don’t understand it and on the extraleague coverage you get a fair few interviews in English as a lot of the riders speak it, as I’ve polish tv I find myself watching a lot of speedway documentaries which they show even though I don’t understand what they are saying, I should really learn the language I would probably enjoy it more lol

Some decent racing and meeting but I just can’t seem to buy into the euro championship