iris123

Read on the DMU page that there is to be a film released at the end of the year where speedway plays the central role Filmed at tracks in Tarnow,Rzeszow and Czestochowa from award winning Dorota Kedzierzawska and Arthur Reinhardt and the lead role played by Tomasz Zietek No real idea on how this all pans out.Rags to riches or crime or soppy love story etc https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomasz_Zi%C4%99tek

So Norway give up a place to Chris Harris What was i saying?

As i said,as far as i know the original news is wrong.The fire is near the stadium,but not the stadium

Posted that earlier,but then thought it was all a mistake and the fire was near the stadium.Not the stadium itself

I for one am not suggesting major changes,just minor.Like moving the meeting back one or two GPs Not only the racing was a problem for me.Even if the racing was brilliant it still wouldn't have totally given the big start to the season i think is needed.It is the stadium/crowd.It all looked a bit like a Swedish league meeting with the people spread out and just too relaxed.No excitement at all. I mean even when they put the spotlight on the photographers,it looked like Dutchgrasstrack and my friend Bernd who was standing next to him were bored to tears As has been stated many times before about speedway in general,a packed stadium looks great and gives the impression this is something you should attend.A half empty stadium gives the impression this is not something that important.This is the world title race and should project the impression this is very very important.This was a damp squib

You can bank on it.So many lessons have been learnt over the years to get the opening GP to this level.As the saying goes,.....ain't no stopping us now

Wasn't there a speedway/ice hockey magazine?

Same as you.At least Gary was the first rider i had seen and even met and got his autograph and then died.Was a shock as you say.Possibly the first person i sort of knew that had died,although my great Grandmother had died before,but i was young at the time and she just sort of disappeared more than died......

Maybe if someone had explained it in old Saxon he might have understood?Just saying like

Buggered his maximum,but he can still get 12 points!!!! Main thing for national pride is he doesn't finish behind the Bulgarians Boy done well.Finished ahead of one of the Bulgarians.Obviously robbed and the track was a nightmare.Well done

Bet it won't be Aarnio whatever the track turns out like

Of course he could Sid.One of the greats.Hofmeister in the 50s won 3 European titles and finished behind Hveem for silver on another occasion Then you had Poschenreider who also won 3 titles on the trot.He also finished behind Ivan twice Then came what was really the great era for Longtrack Egon,Maier,Wiggy,Tatum and Barth all winning multiple titles.Even recently Joonas Kylmäkorpi doing what no other rider has ever managed and winning 4 titles in a row.But i think any fair commentator would say the scene nowadays isn't any where near as strong as it used to be But all in all can we say that Gerd Riss winning an amazing 8 titles from 1991 to 2009 puts him at the very top?He was also quite a decent speedway rider

Maybe Orlov means Wroclaw? Or Walsall?Can't recall a single good meeting in Walsall myself

Someone has got a bad case of "whataboutism".We are on the topic of polish speedway,not english football or italian restaurants or any other thing you might come up with that you think is corrupt http://www.business-anti-corruption.com/country-profiles/poland Polish sports minister jailed http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-17739880

All i will say is corruption is rife in Poland.One of the worst countries in the EU if not the no.1.There was a report done by a polish journalist that stated there was a lot of corruption in polish football and though not to that level it should be assumed the same would apply to speedway. Nuff said

Only tuned in in time heat 12 and was a terrible meeting.You want to start off the GP season with a bang and that certainly had nothing in common with a great start last night.Looked a poor crowd who often seemed like they had turned up just to see a firework display and the bike riding was just delaying that.Great line up,but deserve much much better than that track and crowd.

I know in the end Kevin said he didn't want to be considered for such meetings because he always got sent way out east and others like Smoli always had the home or nearby draw

You'll upset someone by taking this thread off topic,so i won't answer that

The editor once gave me a bottle of Koskenkorva as a gift.Now that is something to be fondly remembered And i have to say,he has my utmost admiration because over the past year or more he has been heavily involved in building a new speedway track in Finland.Now that has to be worth a little love-in

Also must give a mention to the excellent Finnish mag,speedwaysanomat,to which i made many very good contributions to over the years for speedway and ice speedway.The guy that runs it does an excellent job in keeping the sport publicised in what is one of the back waters,not only of track sport,but of the world http://www.speedwaysanomat.fi/ I also made a few contributions to the Australian mag http://www.peterwhitesspeedwayworld.com/ Not only bikes in this though,but a lot of car stuff

The Swiss Motorsport mag,Speedweek which deals with motorsports in general,though had quite a good speedway-longtrack section started out as a newspaper style mag in 2008,then went to a glossy mag the year after.But has been an online only magazine since 2012.Currently has the good news for us in Germany that all the GPs can be seen live on youtube :t:I did make one or two contributions to Speedweek.A photo of Arthur Sissis doing a wheelie in Denmark springs to mind http://www.speedweek.com/bahnsport/ Then there is the long running Bahnsport Aktuell,which i think gustix had dealings with way back http://www.bahnsport-aktuell.de/

I think Finland has fallen foul to that one and had to pay out?

Bit of sidecar action on the Mariendorf Sand track in Berlin,1950 https://www.filmothek.bundesarchiv.de/video/585911?q=&xf%5B0%5D=Keywords&xo%5B0%5D=EQUALS&xv%5B0%5D=Motorsport

Just to show how ridiculous those allocations were/are Austria got 2 places.Now i see Wallner is injured.Even at his best he isn't great,but just what standard of rider would come in for him? Or will they hand a place back if he can't make it.......... A lot of that seems to have been going on over the past decade or so with countries giving back allocations because they don't have a rider to fill the sport.Recall one meeting in Rusia where it ended up being mostly Russian riders with a few east Europeans as no-one else wanted to go there.Though that was probably a European Championship quali Austria are just one case.There are a number of countries who would struggle to send a decent rider if one of their top guys get injured with those allocations

A bit of history from 1947 Erich Bertram winning a meeting at the 1,600m sand track in Berlin-Karlshorst https://www.filmothek.bundesarchiv.de/video/583546?q=&xf%5B0%5D=Keywords&xo%5B0%5D=EQUALS&xv%5B0%5D=Motorsport If you don't want to see all the other stuff go direct to 7:45 mins A little piece about the career of the Berlin rider and how when he finally reached retirement in 1987 formed the "Erich Bertram Motor Racing Team" that included Gerd Riss http://www.bahnsporttechnik.de/Jawa/Blijham/Triumph/bertram.html Also from 1947 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen,the famous winter sports town Sand track meeting in front of 30,000 people.The pace looks massive!!And afterwards a couple of children have their own race in what could be midget cars https://www.filmothek.bundesarchiv.de/video/583552?q=&xf%5B0%5D=Keywords&xo%5B0%5D=EQUALS&xv%5B0%5D=Motorsport Go to 3:42 mins Another nice piece this time from Austria in 1950.Showing Fritz Dirtl winning the meeting at Baden,near Vienna with 12,000 interested people watching and sidecars as well https://www.filmothek.bundesarchiv.de/video/585907?q=&xf%5B0%5D=Keywords&xo%5B0%5D=EQUALS&xv%5B0%5D=Motorsport Come in at 8:40 mins Back to Berlin(1950) and this time the track in Mariendorf.Hans Zierk was fastest rider,but not sure of the name of the rider who won.Sidecars again also in the meeting https://www.filmothek.bundesarchiv.de/video/585911?q=&xf%5B0%5D=Keywords&xo%5B0%5D=EQUALS&xv%5B0%5D=Motorsport In at 9:31