engineman

F1 -- any nation's team as long as it can pay the entry fee, any driever if he can bring in sponsors.

SO what are the qualifying rounds for? The riders earn very little from them, and if they're not the route to GP, of no value at all. Incidentally, Chris Harris got into the GP's in the first place after failing to actually qualify. I'd go along with the "no British rider unless they qualify" argument if it actually applies to everyone, but not if it is selectively applied. Part of the attraction of having a GP is having local competitors in it. And I wonder what the attraction of the GP series would be should it lead to being without a British GP - Cardiff = 40,000 spectators, Gorican = 4000? . What would the TV audience be like without a British rider (and half of the EL teams without a GP rider - let's not forget the 8 point rule ) and no British GP? Or would everyone then be arguing for a different system?

Ward' s had a good season, but didn't he go through the qualifying rounds and fail to make the cut? Why should he be the exception?

Harris did well.... top scorer from heats, 2nd place and 19 points.

Holder looked a bit off tonight.

Great 2 x World Champion.

Really???

I seem to remember Doug Dearden - a Norwich rider?

Congratulations to greg - top scorer from 5 rides....fully deserves to be Champion this year and I hope he makes it.

You can't do it without the engines working for you. Mistakes made early in the season... compare to Ward, Holder, Richardson, Woffinden, Lindgren (all same tuner)

Although not really a Darcy fan, he did do very well, and outshone his mate. He's plenty good enough to compete at this level and would add excitement to the GPs. Nice to see AJ and Hampel scoring well- they've both had their difficult years in the past, but sad to see Harris have his worst GP ever. It looks like the end of the GP road for him, and with no other credible Brit at present, a bleak few years ahead for British speedway. Unfortunately it has been like this before many times, it's not really a new thing for British speedway but the GP system highlights the problem. In the old one-off final, there were many times the sole Brit scored just 5 or 6 points. It used to be compensation that we had the strongest league in the World, but we can't say that now , can we?

I think it's more of a bike problem - serious engine/mechanic issues - in that heat (12) he couldn't keep up with them. Sadly he is nowhere near getting these issues sorted.

You really believe that of Chris Harris?

I almost bought a grasstrack bike off him once. Definitely English - lived in Warwickshire-Oxfordshire area.

Definitely Holder was at least partly responsible - ES took the preferred option of being the rider on the inside of the clash (with Lindback) than being on the outside of the clash with Holder where he's more likely to go over the top. Holder actually does charge up the inside quite often and looked desperate last night. If he is suffering from fatigue, it could make matters worse.

The starting tapes incident may well have disadvantaged Chris Holder - he certainly was claiming it did - but if so surely it must have disadvanted Chris Harris even more given that he was on gate 4? He clearly (from replays) had to re-clutch as the tapes hadn't moved when he first dropped the clutch. I didn't notice Holder doing the same but he would be more relying on seeing the tapes move than just watching the solenoids..Not sure what the rules say, but I believe the ref's dilemma would be that the result had been declared, and could not be altered without FIM stewards' ruling so it became their problem, not his.

Yeah...riders just jump off at 70mph all the time.......I wonder if we should all give it a try????

Pardubice is quite good, and no farther from Prague than Cardiff is from London.