Steve Shovlar

http://www.theargus.co.uk/sport/argusgener...ms_gp_track.php

In these times of political corretness, is it time for Chris Harris to drop his nickname? The final GP this year is in Germany, and I am sure many Germans still have memories of the tactics used by Bomber Harris in the second world war. Carpet bombing of cities, causing fire storms and the deaths of thousands of women and children. Whilst in this country Bomber Harris is a popular wartime figure, using the same strategy oday would surely see him up for war crimes. Imagine if there was a German rider called Herman "SS" Himmler?

Sunday papers go to print much earlier than dailies. They would have been printed way before Harris crossed the line in the final. Wait for tomorrow buut don't hold your breath on seeing many coloum inches. England are playing cricket, Wimbledon is still on and boring F1 has Hamilton scoring a few points. Might be lucky and see a few paragraphs. Anything more than that would be a bonus.

I have been to all 7 Cardiff GPs and last nights was the best. Funny how the organisers fill the back straight top tier before the home straight top tier. I was up on the top tier last night and the viewing is good but too far away from the action. Perhaps flog thos seats for a tenner, or better still, run some comps in the nationals where they say ten pairs of tickets are available to win, when really everyone who enters and gets the question right ( who won the 2007 GP etc) gets a pair of tickets for the upper tier.

Well now I have been fed and watered after a short nights sleep I will give my thoughts. First of all what a nightmare leaving the stadium in a cloud burst. Got absolutely soaked walking the 20 mnutes back to the car. We parked in the long thin car park as you come into Cardiff along the side of the road, and it took over an hour to get out the bloody carpark!! (Not that we wer too bothered!) Got in at 2.20 am, a good hour later than usual. Still damp, knackered byt buzzing (especially the poor old ears! ) During the day the atmosphere was flatter than usual because of the rotten weather, and the pubs seemed much quieter. Very easy to get served and it boded for a smaller crowd in the stadium. Wrong! On entering the stadium at 5 pm we enjoyed the youngsters having a ride. Must have been great for them. The 8 lads only had one ride each but here I think was a missed opportunity. Rather than suffer Chas and Dave, and the probably ten grand it cost to have them there, why not have had the first and second placed riders from the two heats have a race in front of the 50,000 during the interval, rather than race in front of the few tousand at 5.20 pm? Would THAT have been somethig special for the yongsters and they would probably have been on Sky TV as well. Would have given them a massive taste. Perhaps that could be considered in the future? Onto the meeting itself and the first few heats were a bit boring, but about heat 5-6 it started to get better and better, until the briliant finale which brought the whole house down. Best British GP by the proverbial mile, best final, best winner. Stand up Chris Harris. Absolutely marvellous performance and I never thought he had it in him to do it. Before the final I said that if he could make the rostrum it would be a huge filip on his behalf, but to do what he did was just stunning. Still wiping the egg off my face after stating he was out of his depth before the GP series started. And happy to do so. His gating is just about as atrocious as it can get, which is a shame as it will cost him at times. But last night was his night and he fully deserved all the plaudits coming his way. Well done Chris Harris. Brilliant.

Well when we found our seats they were bad. Middle of the 3rd/4th bend, upper tier, 10 rows back. Too far from the track. So we waited for the meeting to start, saw where there were some good emptey seats and moved. Ended up on the front row of the second tier, in comfortable padded seats, directly opposite the starting gate! Very nice and probably very expensive!

Agree with you for once TNT. The attendance was well up on last year. The only empty seats were third tier home sraight and on the 3rd/4th bend middle section. The whole of the back straight was full as well as the first and second tiers. We all estimated 48-50,000. Certainly more than 41,000. If this continues, two years from now it will be a sellout 60,000, meaning ordering early to get our tickets and the arrival of the dreaded tout.

Biggest crowd ever at Cardiff tonight. Certainly well up again on last year. Suprised considering the dreadful weather we had.

PM seb the snail. he has a couple spare. Or check the poole forum. Someone has a spare one on there they need to get rid of.

You could always ring the coach organiser and see if anyone has dropped out.

Don't want to ruin my beautiful golden locks.

Can't believe you are not going Rabs. I have maged to get a lift rather than drive. Being picked up by Shaleshifter around 9.30 am, with 4 Poles, one of which came over in the back of Jugus' van. The other is a friend of KK. They all speak good english so should get a few good stories! Going to try and drink a bit less than last year, when I got pretty wrecked and abusive when Crump won the replay. Lemonade until 4 pm!

The centre of Cardiff and outside when queuing up to get in?

I hope they allow umbrellas in the stadium, otherwise about 20,000 people are going to be well P'd off.

I reember the first cardiff GP and there were only a handful of Poles there. Now that there are so many of them over here is will be interesting to see just how many turn up tomorrow.

With the weather going to be dire, I have decided to head into the stadium when it first opens to watch the youngsters race. It's OK when the weather is fine, but being couped up in a packed out pub gets pretty boring.

Can't find much news on how many tickets have been sold for tomorrow, I have a feeling the attendance will be down on the last few years, especially with poor weather forecast. Thoughts?

Big well done to Eddie and Bridger, two Brits through. Also well done to Noddy Holder, Poole in waiting!

Any sites doing live scores of this meeting tonight?

Just read that Eddie Kennett has decided that he will not do the GP qualifying round he qualified for by finishing 4th in the British Final. A suprise decision but he wants to concentrate on his league form and the U21 qualifier. Todays Echo. TEAM Great Britain boss Neil Middleditch believes Edward Kennett is a "strong contender" to lift the World Under-21 title. Middleditch, who also team manages Pirates, has made his thoughts known during the build up to the Poole Castle Cover rider's semi-final appearance at Vojens, Denmark, tonight (8pm). Kennett is aiming for a top eight performance to book his place in the final at Ostrow, Poland, on September 9. He is also bidding to emulate Ron Preston (1979), Jason Crump (1995), Lee Richardson (1999) and Krzysztof Kasprzak (2005), who all won the crown while Poole riders. Middleditch said: "On current form, Ed would have to be one of the favourites to win it. "He has been riding extremely well in Britain, Poland and all over the place this year. He is really just improving as the weeks go on. "Ed is a great racer. He can trap but when he doesn't he just keeps trying and pulling off great passes. "I think he has made a lot of senior riders in the Elite League sit up and take notice of him. "That's why I think he can win the overall thing. He is the in-form rider at the moment and I don't see any reason why he can't. "There are other good riders out there but he will certainly be one of the favourites." Middleditch, however, has admitted he found it "a little bit surprising" that Kennett had decided not to take part in the 2008 Grand Prix qualifiers this year. Poole's team manager added: "It was every riders' dream to reach the old one-off World Final and these days I think it is to make the GP series. "But Ed just wants to concentrate on the Under-21s this year and if that is what he wants to do, I'll go along with that, although I did speak to him about it at Wolverhampton after the British Final. "He is young and has got plenty of time on his side." Looking ahead to the Speedway World Cup next month, Middleditch would not be drawn on where Kennett stood in his plans for a debut in the competition. However, the national team boss said: "He has put himself in a position to be in my top six. "I will leave my final decision as late as possible to make sure I pick the right riders." Team GB line up against Sweden, United States and Russia at Coventry in Event Two on July 16. Pirates captain Bjarne Pedersen has been named in Denmark's team who will defend the cup he helped them win last year. Denmark: B Pedersen, H Andersen, J B Jensen, K Bjerre, N Pedersen, N K Iversen. The Danes go up against Australia, Poland and Finland in Event One at Vojens on July 14. Poland's 12-man squad is T Gollob, R Holta, W Jagus, K Zabik, A Miedzinski, J Hampel, D Balinski, K Kasprzak, P Protasiewicz, G Walasek, T Chrzanowski, S Ulamek.

I went to the X factor tour show a year back when Shane Ward won it and we had a good laugh. Better than I imagined it would be. Brenda is a good singer, Ray Quinn does a bit of swing, not bad, but those two Mcdonalds, no thanks.

Well I normally buy tickets by the starting gate but this year we have gone for the cheapest possible tickets. The reason? Well once the event starts, spot some space ina good spot on the second tier, then move to it! They can't check everyone all the time and if stopped just say your ticket is in your jecket on your seat, "down there".

Will done to Team GB, through to the final.

Who would support Sclein at Cardiff? A few Cov fans and thats it. Who would support Stead or Kennett? 95% of the people there!

You have got to be joking, right? An Aussie gating tart in place of a yong up and coming Brit? Never in a million years. You think Schlein would be more popular than Kennet or Stead?