TwoMinuteWarning

According to the superb Complete A-Z of Post-War British League Riders CD-R, Ern's greatest moment came in 1950 when he had an emergency call-up by New Cross for the Spring Cup Final against West Ham - and ended up on the winning side.

It was typical of attitiudes at that time - if he didn't show good form in the UK, then he was obviously a rubbish rider! Thank goodness attitudes have changed these days , well, a little, anyway.

The sports first magazine in May 1928 was called "Speedway News", but no one called the sport speedway, it was still dirt-track racing, or "dracing" The word speedway referred to the stadium or track, and had been so in the USA for many years. It was late 1929 before the sport was started to be referrred to as speedway racing, though I've seen provincial newspapers as late as 1938 still calling it Dirt-Track Racing! Certainly couldn't call it that today, they'd be prosecuted under the Trades Description Act ...

I think that if you accept that the GP is the best method of determing the World Champion, then you also have to accept that it can be won by someone who reaches all the finals, but dosen't actually win any. In the case of Mark, I had no problem with that as he was/is one of the most exciting riders ever to take part in a speedway race, in my opinion. True "racers" like him rely on tracks where he can come from behind, and many tracks don't allow that to happen. Ironically, he became World Champion as a result of the GP system, but would NOT have done so under the old one-off system, as he failed to win a single GP. To me, that is an argument in support of the GP system. But I also liked the old one-off system, because every round was exciting, and sometimes top riders would get eliminated in the qualifiers, or just scrape through to the next round. Pity there isn't room for both systems - a one-off competition to determine the World Champion, and a GP competition to determine the Grand Prix Champion. Yeah, I know, cloud cuckoo land ...

But surely that was one of the attractions of the old World Final, i.e that the World's Best Rider of that year didn't neccessarily become World Champ? No danger of that happening now, unfortunately (apart from injury), though personally I do still enjoy the GP's.

Yes, f-s-p, but some of the crowds are very low in the KHL, and despite government support it all comes down to whether the sponsors will be able to sustain their investment. The NHL is far more stable, I think.

There were only 5 teams in the Russian League this year, and each team rode just 4 home and 4 away matches - so the entire league programme comprised just 20 matches! Of the riders based in Western Europe, only 8 rode in the Russian League this year - 1 Denmark (Nicki Pedersen - 3 matches) 3 Sweden (Peter Karlsson - 4; Magnus Zetterstrom - 4; Andreas Jonsson - 1) 2 Great Britain (Scott Nicholls - 1; Lee Richardson - 1) 2 Australia (Leigh Adams - 2; Ryan Sullivan-6 - and yes, I know he's based in Poland) And most of the above probably won't be riding in the EL next year, anyway. In Eastern Europe, outside of the former Soviet Union countries, 10 Polish riders competed (inc Gollob - 1 match) - most of whom weren't riding in the EL. Oh, and no Czechs rode! Frankly, there is no Russian problem.

Eastbourne have confirmed that they will have Appe Mustonen as their number 7 in 2009

How do you mean? What (allegedly) happened??

The following is re-posted from the American speedway group. I believe Lee Complin, Kyle Legault, and Manuel Hauzinger are making the trip. From: "santiagomartinez_68" <santiagomartinez_68@yahoo.com.ar> Hi ! I`m the president of Automoto Club Bahia Blanca, club that organize the speedway`s season in Argentina since 50 years, and we are very interested in that some good pilots come to our country to compete next summer. Riders like John Davis, Gerd Riss, Armando Castagna, Giussepe Marzzoto, Zoltan Adorjan, Marcel Gerard, Antonin Svab, Tim Korneliussen, Henry Schatzer , Stefan Deser, Hans Brander, Chris Hesmer and some others came to Argentina to run. It will a pleasure if you can come here. Our championship will be audited by the Argentine Federation of Motorcycling (FAM). The championship will be star the 30th of November (Sunday) of the current year, and will finished the last days of February, with a totally of eighteen (18) races, twelve (12) in Bahia Blanca, and the other six (6) in the different cities, in a perimeter of 250 km. The meetings are held every Sunday, and some days Friday. But you can return to your country whenever you want, for work or for whatever reason. We can offer you home, food, transportation to all the meetings, methanol , oil (castrol) and a sum of money for each meeting. I hope your answer, well tell you more details My sincere regards. Sergio Martinez Automoto Club Bahía Blanca.

Thanks, Ghostwalker. Couldn't imagine team events without the riders getting paid for team riding.

If British promoters read this, at their annual conference in Spain at the moment, calculators will be working overtime to see how much money they can save ... In the Elite League alone, there were over 1,500 bonus points in 2008, at an average of say 80 UK pounds per point = A LOT OF MONEY!! But then no doubt the riders - especially second-strings - would expect a pay rise. I believe that Poland does not pay for a bonus point if the opposition rider fails to finish the race?

Kevin, Speedway Star in late 1958 gave Ted's age as 21, if that's any help. Rode on the French (grass) speedways 1958; 1960 at non-league Aldershot; 1964 he popped up riding for Weymouth in the Metropolitan League. Seem to remember he rode grass track too.

Somebody needs to get their act together. In different countries, juniors (under-16) are riding 80cc, 125cc, 250cc, and 500cc. Can't we have some standardisation? Shouldn't the FIM be define which age groups should be riding which cc?

Peter John Moy born 10 Apr 58 Brisbane

Yep - he's 41 years old! Details at http://www.speedwaybikes.com/rw/ubart_b.htm (which hasn't been updated for a while)

Result (from the American speedway discussion group, Gary Roberts): USA 56 Bart Bast (3 0 3 1 2 1) 10 Tommy Hedden (2 2 1 2 1 2) 10 Mike Faria (1 1 1 - 2 3) 8 Charlie Venegas (0 3 3 2 1 2) 11 Kenny Ingalls (2 0 2 1 0 0) 5 Ricky Wells (1 3 0 2 3 3) 12 Bobby Hedden (0) 0 The World 52 Mariusz Puszakowski (Pol) (0 1 0 0 1 0) 2 Lubos Tomicek (Cz) (1 2 2 3 2 1) 11 Maciej Janowski (Pol) (2 3 3 3 0 2) 13 Janusz Kolodziej (3 1 1 1 3 1) 10 Phil Collins (0 0 - 0 - 0) 0 Martin Smolinski (3 2 0 3 3 3 ) 14 Bobby Hedden, res (2 0) 2

Seem to remember Australia letting Sweden win a SWC round a few years ago, which stopped GB winning. It happens, no problem. Seems to me that Americans are no worse than any other nation in terms of "nasty attitudes", and probably better than most! In general they are good value, strong personalities, and usually very popular, so they are a great asset to the sport I think.

What's wrong with rewarding consistency? On more than one occasion this season the 2nd place rider has scored more points than the winner, yet you all seem happy with that. But coming second all the time is wrong? I must be missing something here

It's the former rider Phil Collins, ex-Cradley Heath, now 48 years old, and has been living in California for many years. Has ridden 4 or 5 meetings in the USA this season.

These are the teams, as posted by the Auburn promoter on the American speedway group list: USA Bart Bast Tommy Hedden Mike Faria Charlie Venegas Kenny Ingalls Ricky Wells The World Mariusz Puszakowski (Pol) Lubos Tomicek (Cz) Maciej Janowski (Pol) Janusz Kolodziej (Pol) Phil Collins (GB) Martin Smolinski (Ger) Reserve for both teams: Bobby Hedden (USA)

Congratulations to Hans! I know a lot of people dont like him. but he's a very entertaining rider

That was when the track was at the racecourse, it was a longtrack then.

Yes, the first PLAY button (left hand side) is working superbly, TV quality, though the pic is a bit small. No buffering problems. Maybe its reached its limit of users

Live feed at http://soccer-live.pl/transmisje.php?id=motorsport scroll down to 15:00 Zlata Prilba hit PLAY