ImpartialOne

Why should it be made easier? It's the world championship. It's not meant to be easy. You have to prove you can be the best rider in the sport to be world champion, and that takes a hell of a lot of hard work, commitment, dedication and discipline to do that in any sport. Making it easier just devalues the whole thing.

Interesting to note that no Brits were in either of the semis (Hackett was only reserve) and Joe Screen was seeded to the final at Coventry. We talk about the lack of British talent these days and yet in 1991 it would seem they were thin on the ground too in a time when Britain (or rather England) had such a wealth of international riders in Wigg, Tatum, Dugard, Loram, Screen, Thorp, Wilson, Cox, Havelock, Doncaster, Silver, Knight, Louis, Smith, Cross, Evitts, etc.

That 2nd bend on lap 3 is a carbon copy of Olsen and Penhall in 1981 when they both lift at the same time. The amount of times Harris gets out of shape, I still think he's going to come off.

They wouldn't lose money if they took one bike on the back of a Citroën.

You've changed it already from World Champion to contender. So what was Emil? You've also decided to add new older riders to try and bolster your argument. Ok,I'll respond to your point about Louis. How many riders are taking up speedway in their mid to late 20s? Are there any? I think the last one was his son Chris! This might just be the reason none of them are getting into the GP series.

Much older? Every world champion in the last 30 years has been younger than Ivan Mauger was in 1979 except this year - by a few months! So what if a teenager never wins the world title again? when did that last happen anyway?

Some of Carter's injuries may have been a result of his style but the broken leg in 1984 was unfortunate as he was run over by his team mate at Cradley. His broken leg in 1985 was the result of first bend bunching on a wet track at Vetlanda. Not sure about his broken jaw and collapsed lung though. I just think the Carters were cursed when you look at everything that happened to them.

Could you quote some of these "majority" posts that are willing young riders to fail? I can't see them. I've already pointed out several examples of quality riders who have had to wait years to become world champion; Ermolenko, Nielsen, Crump, Loram. Many more have failed to even win it. Knudsen was third at 19 years of age but never made a podium again for one reason or other despite ending his career 15 years later. Adams is another. So it may be that Ward never wins it, he may win it next year or he may be 40 when he wins it. It's nothing to do with the GPs at all, it's just the way it goes.

According to ballinger's post above yours it's on 8th September. It must be an error on SGP site as there's no way it would be scheduled for a Tuesday.

I don't think even he knows.

Great. I didn't bother cranking the PC up after reading some of the comments about how boring it was. Thanks guys.

What was different about the last four heats?

So tell me what else needs to be done to benefit British speedway from a greater connection generally between the World Championship and the sport in this country. You must have had some ideas when you wrote that? To be honest, the "moving Cardiff" answer seemed like a makeshift afterthought.

Is that all they need to do to connect more with British speedway? Just move Cardiff to the end of the season? How will this help?

What do you think could be done to achieve that?

Chunky you are bang on there. When it comes down to say, the GP, the difference in speed between Greg Hancock and someone like Chris Harris or Freddie Lindgren is minuscule. I've always said it's 75% in the head and confidence plays a huge part in sport. It's kind of a placebo effect; Chris Harris spent £15,000 on engines in one go but did nothing. He knew all the boys are raving about Johnsy, he borrowed an 11 year old engine from a PL rider which was tuned by PJR and suddenly feels he has a chance because of those three little letters. Now, of course the motor was fast, but was it that much faster than his brand new engines or was it that he suddenly felt more capable because he knew he had a Johnsy motor under him? It does make a difference. Anyway, going back to the point, I think you could point to several riders who had so much talent that riding a bike came easy to them. Kelly Moran was another. I nearly said earlier that Ivan Mauger wasn't a natural but felt I'd get a barrage of people saying I am talking rubbish, so I'm glad you said that and I fully agree. Ivan was clever, determined and extremely focused and had a mental edge on his opponents. When I watch Briggs I see a rider with an awkward style which would never work today but it worked for him then and fair play to him. Carter could beat anyone on his day because he had an unshakeable belief in himself. He feared nobody and he wasn't afraid to make enemies to be the best. That was what carried him to what he did achieve and he had to work twice as hard as someone like Kelly Moran because his natural ability on the bike alone wasn't enough. Kelly used to go out the night before a big meeting, pass out and not remember it the next day and still rattle off a maximum. He relied on his talent to carry him through where as Carter couldn't.

Of course he had ability and talent, I'm not disputing that. But as an example, most riders when they lift mid corner, their bike naturally shoots them in a straight line towards the fence. I've seen Screeny on numerous occasions somehow continue to broadside on one wheel by pure balance and throttle control and not even move off his line. I've never seen any other rider do this and it defies centrifugal force. I once saw Screeny when he was about 18 come out of a bend, look behind, lift whilst still sideways, and remove a tear-off all at the same time! He didn't even have to think about it, it's that natural to him.

But the GPs are working. It's the British scene that's dying on it's arse and we know who to blame for that. It's certainly not IMG that is trying to kill the sport.

It's nothing to do with who would win a race, who's fastest or who has the best team around them. Why would I mention Lee? I'm not talking about him. Have a look at the previous few posts and you'll see that as far as natural raw talent and skill on a bike is concerned, people do agree with me. As I said, Jason Garrity has more natural ability on a bike than Carter. What's he won?

It's not about what they've won. But if you want to compare then they have both won two British titles and neither have won the world title. But I'm talking about natural skill and talent on a bike. Carter is not even in the same town, let alone the same ball park as Screen or Loram in that deparent.

Im not going on what they've won. They are/were simply better motorcyclists and had so much more natural ability. Carter was a fantastic rider but he wasn't a natural on a bike. Joe Screen probably hasn't achieved as much as Carter in all his 22 years but Screen is 20 times more gifted than Carter was.

Absolutely. I struggle to see the comparisons that people have made between him and Garrity, apart from the attitude. Whatever Garrity achieves he already looks better on a bike than Carter ever did,

It's nothing to do with IMG. Their business as far as speedway is concerned is running SGP and SWC events. FIM however, should have intervened.

Loram was far more naturally talented than Carter though. Carter, as good as he was, very much relied on his fighting spirit and determination and got awfully out of shape at times whilst doing so. Don't get me wrong, he was a great rider but he wasn't in harmony with the bike like Loram and Screen, who I still regard as two of the most naturally gifted riders of my time.

I don't know how you managed that, but it was almost as sweet as the 2007 Cardiff final itself.