moomin man 76

Przedpelski is first reserve - no surprises as he's a Pole and the series organisers are Polish (One Sport). I bet they didn't bother to ask Nike Lunna (2nd reserve) who outscored Przedpelski in qualifying at Belle Vue if he fancied a ride this time; nor the 3rd reserve, Kenny Wennerstam.

In my opinion, there in lies the problem with the series. IMG/BSI are happy to milk the sport for as much as they can in staging fees without actively looking at the wider picture, which would perhaps result in lower staging fees and a concerted strategy to get more spectators into a wider range of venues.

I wouldn't disagree that the action on track has been entertaining this year. This aspect of the GPs is not stale. In my earlier comment, I was really criticising the staleness of thought behind the whole series. There is little by way of innovation of thought, to promote the series above and beyond core speedway countries and core speedway fans. The same venues are being recycled. For instance, I cannot seriously believe that Teterow is the best venue that IMG/BSI could source in Germany to stage a GP.

If that list is to be taken as definitive, it seems that BSI/IMG have spent the past twelve months doing nothing other than renegotiating deals with existing venues, rather than looking at ways and means of growing the series. In all honesty does the sport really need three GPs in Poland and two in Sweden? In reality BSI/IMG are doing little to promote the sport in different market places and are content to do little more than collect their staging fees and sell television rights contracts. The organisation of the series is stale, with seemingly little new thought going into promotion and marketing.

If you were to include the micro and mini-speedway races at this year's Finnish Championship at Hyvinkaa, the meeting started at 11.30am and finished c.6.30pm. Even if you were to only include the qualifying races and the final a five hour marathon from 1.30pm-6.30pm takes some beating for around twenty five heats of speedway. Of course, the situation was not helped by a huge rain storm after heat eighteen, which resulted in the whole track having to be rebuilt with the wet dirt scraped off the the surface.

I suppose it keeps up spectator interest, but it does seem a strange format whereby a rider can be amongst the also-rans for most of the day, scrapes into the final with a second place finish in the B final and then wins the A-final. I'm happy for James Shanes, but the format just doesn't work for me.

The facilities and location of the stadium in Tampere were far better than the vast majority on the GP circuit. The promoters also managed to generate a decent crowd for the GP in 2014. Unfortunately, the track was awful. As far too many people observed, it was far too narrow and far too long down each of the straights, to generate any sort of passing lines. The sight of spectactors leaving en masse as the racing continued in 2014 from the poor fair served up was memorable for all of the wrong reasons. Equally, I would imagine that even if an alternative venue could be found in Finland to stage a GP, there would be unlikely to be any would be promoters willing to take a punt on staging an event. This would leave BSI/IMG themselves as the only potential promoters, but they are far happier milking the GP series for whatever they can generate as staging fees than taking a risk on running a GP in a less established speedway nation.

Jooa Partanen finished 12th, but is far less experienced internationally than the vast majority of the field. With the right support behind him (especially equipment), I suspect he will go a lot further in his career than many of the higher placed finishers will.

Sweden have a very weak set of U21 at the moment, so it shouldn't have come as any surprise that even with home advantage they finished last with 17pts. I would even argue that Finland has three riders - Nike Lunna, Jooa Partanen and Jesse Mustonen who are at present the equals, if not better, than those chosen to represent Sweden in the final.

Indeed, the right decision has been reached. Cradley shouldn't have been awarded the league points at the expense of other teams in the league and Mildenhall still have the chance to win back the points they have been deducted on the track. The only question that remains is whether Mildenhall will lose custom through the gate, as a result of Mr Jolly's actions. I can't imagine that many Heathens fans, for instance, will be likely to attend the re-staging.

Here's hoping that neither Freddie Lindgren or Martin Vaculik win one of the three available qualifying slots. I have absolutely nothing against either rider, but I dislike the notion of promoting riders into the GP Challenge when they have already been eliminated from the qualifiers. Indeed, I would personally get rid of the whole idea of 'Wild Cards' in all World Championship Qualifiers. I can't imagine that a local wild card e.g. Paco Castagna in Italy puts that many extra bums on seats for local organisers.

Indeed...anyone taking a casual look at results from either the World U21 Qualifiers or European U21 Qualifiers will see how weak the next generation of Swedish riders are.

Are they from South Africa or Rhodesia (e.g. Salisbury, Gwelo, Bulawayo)? If they are the latter, they aren't quite as scare as you might imagine. The vast majority wouldn't go for much more than £1 on Ebay.

By the same margin, the Finnish SM-Liiga has been run using a 4TT format, but is a league in the truest sense of the word, as there are twelve meetings throughout the season. I would imagine this is rather more than were held in the likes of Romania and Bulgaria in the past and equally countries like Italy where the 'team' championship uses a best pairs format.

Perhaps one of the wildcards will go to Joonas Kylmakorpi given that he has been riding on a Swedish licence once more for several years and he was unable to take his place in the semi-final through injury. I don't think he would finish in the top three to qualify for the GP's next year, but wildcards have been handed out to far poorer riders over the years.

Many thanks for the links - it certainly helps fill in the 'gaps' about the development of the Soviet/Russian speedway leagues.

I wouldn't pretend to be an expert on what has happened with the Russian League, but in the relatively recent past the following teams have disappeared from it; St Petersburg - Initially to the Finnish League, but now no longer operating in League Racing. Lokomotiv Daugavpils (Latvia) - Now riding in the Polish League. Salavat + Oktyabrsky - Tracks still exist, but dropped out of the Russian League, as they couldn't compete financially with the remaining clubs. At some point, I'm fairly sure at least one of the Ukrainian clubs joined the competition, but dropped out quickly. I'm sure there are those in the forum, who have a more detailed knowledge of Russian speedway than I would be able to fill in the gaps. One thing is certain though; the league is far far smaller than in the days of the Soviet Union.

The Finnish League is still going strong. This season there are five clubs racing in the Finnish SM-Liiga namely; Sand Blowers - Hyvinkaa; Ankkurit - Varkaus; Haukat - Lahti; Porin Nopea Racing - Pori; Kotkat - Seinajoki. If in Finland, I would definitely recommend visiting a League Match. The SM- Liiga uses a four team tournament format, with a normal league fixture consisting of nineteen heats. Admission is a bargain 10 euros. In contrast to Finland, the league in Russia (as has been well documented elsewhere) is unfortunately left with only three teams standing - Turbina Balakovo, Lada Togliatti and Vostok Vladivostok.

An interesting topic of conversation. I'm not sure if there is any standard policy of allowing ex-players into rugby league matches, but my local rugby league club at Whitehaven do have a policy of allowing their ex-players in for free.

Given that Norway were essentially a one rider team (Glenn Moi), the scores recorded by the GB team with the exception of Robert Lambert were no more than par for the course. GB reached 32 points, with Lambert contributing 18 on his own and the rest 14. The experience may prove invaluable, but lets not fool ourselves. The result reveals more about the reliance on one rider and the weakness of one of the opposition teams, than anything about the ability of the rest.

Far too many weak links in Sheffield's line-up tonight. Aside from Garrity, who was always prepared to 'wind it on' and ride on the dirt line, the rest of Sheffield's line-up didn't ride to their potential. It was the first time for a while that I'd seen Kyle Howarth ride and I have to say that I am struggling to remember someone with a poorer gating technique. Nathan Greaves also needs to take a long hard look at himself. It isn't good enough to blame your lack of points on your machinery and mechanics, as occurred at the end of each heat he rode in. For Workington, it was a team effort, although Kenneth Hansen taking Stead and Berge from the back in Heat Five was a stand out moment.

Two of the teams are German 'financed' - 'City Team' and 'Trans MF Pro Race Team.' Unfortunately, as far as I am aware, both of German backers assumed that the series would be shown on Eurosport in Germany, but this proved not to be the case. I therefore can't see them wishing to be involved next year if the situation persists.

Thanks for pointing out the connection - I'd have had far less complaints if someone like Brady Kurtz had been given the first reserve place; Pawel Przedpelski was placed 10th at Belle Vue with 4pts. Even if the meeting had been run to conclusion, it would have been nearly impossible for him to have finished in the top four.

No surprises sadly - the bigger federations wield more influence and get what they want. I can understand why each of three wild cards were given places, but cannot understand why Pawel Przedpelski is the first reserve, when he was nowhere near the cut-off for qualification at Belle Vue.

As far as I am aware, the Heathens will be using rider replacement for Jack Kingston.