SCB

Nicki title now? Emil, Tai and Gollob all injured. Even Vaculik the next in line. Leaves Laguta 8 down but he'd need a max and Nicki to only score 7 and frankly in the field thats now left, Nicki should waltz to 8+ points. Shame really that the title is possibly ruined by injury.

More down to time. And always going to beat the other 2. Amazes me how the commentators know about Tais pain!

Tracks looking good ATM.

Watching again he just sort of did nothing. Neither around Gollob or sitting behind him. Not something you expect in a GP.

Trying to be too sensible? Edit> maybe not. Just weird, little too much grip maybe?

What I've read so far suggests this might not be a bad idea at all. It could be used to attarct a few motor-xers across to give the sport a go, if they become any good at this they could find themselves taking up standard speedway. Anything that makes breaking into speedway cheaper is a good thing.

I would imagine that Sheffield is one of the last clubs to disappear. I obviously there going to be some sorry, it's natural but Id be amazed if Sheffield are not around next season. They must be one of the best/few viable business/clubs in speedway.

And Plymouth said a few months back they wanted to sign him. Plymouth currently have his brother and a close friend (Rasmus Jensen) in their team.

Swindon in July this year.

You don't explain it as they're unlikely to know about it.

Just looked into this on Wikipedia and it looks like when I looked at the play-offs I just looks at the finals (should have notice Braehead were not there) hence my confusion about teams not qualifying. But surely it's utter madness that a team in 8th place gets a good seeding in the play-offs? And 8 of 10 teams in the play-offs? Yikes. I understand the need for play-offs in a commercial era but 8 teams? I don't mind watching a bit of ice hockey from a naïve, it's a game POV but it's rules do seem to be pretty barmy, just like speedway. In fact most sports have some sort of quirk, F1 has the "slower car boost" (DRS to give it it's F1 name) that was being used on computer games in the 90s (oh how I loved passing people off the last bend on Sega Rally and Daytona USA)!

Exactly, Ive never got this. People are saying you could have the best 15 rider I the World in the GP series but because of the arbitrary top 8 rule, they'd kick 7 of them out and bring in 7 other riders. Barmy. A rider could arguably be the 9th best rider in the World for 15 seasons and need 15 wildcards but if he's the 9th best rider in the World he should get them. I want the top 15 riders in the World, not the top 8, plus 3 who fluked a qualifier and then 4 who get picked based on the fact they have qualified in the past or never had a wildcard before. It's screwed up logic but then humans are good at screwed up logic.

The Elite League (the top one in the UK). Braehead finished 8th(ish, I may be a position or two out) in the league yet made the play-offs. Yet at the time despite looking online and asking on facebook I could see no explanation as to why, just left me thinking the sport was more stupid than anything speedway can come up with - and probably the way many people think about speedway.

You can't beat ice hockey. Last season the 8th placed team got to pick their opponents for the play-offs while 3rd and 4th we're not even in tbe play-offs!

Its not a huge thing but why should the best team in the league be 4th or 5th due to meetings (not) run? That clubs promoter should be allowed to promote his club as league leaders without the smoke and mirrors stuff. Ordinary people should be able to look at the league table and see who is best. 90% of people don't care about guests or r/r and even less care about who can/can't guest and why/why not. People don't want rules, they don't go as it's £15-17 to stand on crumbling terracing (or a grassy/muddy mound), use toilets that have floors covered in urine after being charge £1 to park in a field full of animal excrement (and their being little or no alternative) to have to spend the night listening to smashy and nicey on the PA.

None. Changing rules will make bugger all difference. The sport needs to sort out its image, it needs to realise it's now 2013 and we're about to get a pretty cool, young World Champion - who is British. Out with hits of the 80s and cheap tat in the track shops. Out with presenters in their 50s and 60s. Get meetings over in 90ish minutes. Have whatever rules they like but most importantly make site they're stuck to. Why a few months into the season do we have some teams on 10 meetings and others on 20? It should be 1 home and 1 away meeting a week +/-1 to allow for northern/southern tours. The sport needs dragging into 2013/2014 kicking and screaming.

So you wont be celebrating Tais win on Saturday? Being a wildcard and all that.

Andrew Appleton always looked like a rider who wasn't fazed, very relaxed in the Leigh Adams sort of way.

Good to see that someone is trying to hype this up a bit. Hopefully it pays off. Tai, his story, just him, he's highly marketable IMO. Speedway (be that BSI/IMG or British Speedway) needs to market him and push him to the public as much as possible if/when he wins the title.

Ah but was gate 1 always that much better? Or was it made better because the better riders had it? Sort of chicken and egg. Bit of both no doubt. I wish I'd backed him at 150/1! In fact I'd be happy right now with 100/1 or 50/1

Really? Interesting idea of, "slowish start" :/

Take that Nicki

That was study race thought. Gotta love Nicki and Tomek!

Poor speedway is better than most tele but speedway us always better when it's your rider or your team or it's a meeting that matters. Frankly watching 4 non-descript riders in a testimonial will never be as good as watching Chris Harris helping Coventry to a okay-off meeting as I care about Coventry, Bomber Abd the EL. Most of the riders in this meeting I have no affinity to, I neither like nor dislike them do just don't care really.

Like a few others, 2.5 meetings in and I'm just bot getting it. Pretty naff racing and a championship that doesn't really mean much. It's almost watching speedway for speedways sake for me. I can't get into Swedish/Polish/Danish speedway either.