HenryW

Iversen and Kildemand both picked up injuries in Polish league matches today. It'll be interesting to see who gets invited to race in Gorzow if they aren't able to race. Laguta surely has to be in with a good shout

Do you mean that the engine doesn't perform like it did before the service or they are literally sent a different engine back?

Which part of SCBs post do you have an issue with? It seems like a reasonable summary of the riders if you ask me.

I'm intrigued...I guess it's too much to hope that you might be able to fill in some details?

Not the top league, but Craig Cook did 2 15 point maximums in an away double header at Workington in 2013 for Edinburgh. Edinburgh lost both meetings despite Craig's maximums.

Thanks for that detailed response. Maybe you could clarify which part is bollocks? The part where I said I was a big Cookie fan...Lifelong Monarchs fan and Cookie is an absolute legend at the club, joining us as an unwanted second string and quickly becoming probably our best rider ever. Or maybe the part where I said I'd wait to celebrate when it's certain? The sad fact is that Dudek could have a season ending injury at any time and then Cookie would not be a qualifier. I'd hope that if that happened he would still be offered a wildcard for the series based on his performance in this meeting, but with some big names and big Nations likely to need a place that isn't guaranteed.

I should maybe point out that I am a huge Cookie fan and I'm absolutely delighted that he has been able to put a tough few weeks behind him and deliver such a good result today. I'm just not wanting to get ahead of things and celebrate his inclusion in 2018 until it's certain... stranger things have happened in speedway in the past.

Erm...Chris Harris was in the series last year after qualifying. He finished 3rd in the GP challenge in 2015. Also maybe worth holding back on the celebrations until after the end of the series. Cook hasn't qualified but will do if Dudek maintains his top 8 in the GP series. There's no guarantee of that.

Woryna has gone from a 5.28 average to 8.23 in the Polish league between last year and this. That's quite a significant improvement. I'm not saying he should get reassessed, but he definitely has made significant improvement in the last year.

It's 2 leagues in addition to the Polish Extraliga this year. The original plan was to reduce this to 1 other league from 2018. I've not seen whether this has been confirmed yet.

The speedway star article about this makes for hilarious reading. I recommend everyone read it and enjoy some of the whoppers Toni has been telling

Aussies aren't doing that great, are they? The only one that is performing consistently at World level is Doyle and he took a long time to get there.

He had a specific incident to back that up... when he took a wine making course and forgot how to drive

I see that Patryk Dudek is taking a single engine with him to Togliatti and just borrowing a frame out there from a local...You have to think this will compromise his chances in the meeting. The article that mentions this also has his flight plans detailed....they don't sound very appealing https://sportowefakty.wp.pl/zuzel/704920/tak-patryk-dudek-bedzie-podrozowal-na-grand-prix-challenge-do-togliatii-bierze-t

Lebedevs raced in the Zarnovica round but failed to qualify. He finished 8th with only 7 riders going in to the semi finals.

Madsen has been hopeless in the SEC so far this year. Hard to imagine him doing much in the SGP series if he can't cope with the riders in the SEC.

Everything I have seen has said one league in addition to the Polish league... Not one league in total. There was also a proposal put to the FIM where each of the main leagues had fixed race nights and had priority on those. Presumably they were willing to be more flexible with league numbers for riders if this was introduced.

Semi finals were held. Britain didn't take part in these. Latvia, Sweden, Russia and Ukraine in one. Denmark, Germany, Norway and Czechia in the other.

If it's the same Franchiti that was involved with Edinburgh speedway, he was/is a delusional narcissist. On the day after the Heysel tragedy he claimed to the local media that he was there... he wasn't.

Yeah, the FIM seem to be happy for riders to walk out their events whenever they want and for whatever reason, without handing down any punishment... reference Mr Hancock in Melbourne for more details on this.

I believe Max lives in Andorra these days as well.

If you are going to ask for a season long commitment you surely have to make it a 2 way thing... give a commitment to the riders as well, something that isn't done at present. Every rider knows they are just 1 meeting away from being dropped if another rider with an attractive average becomes available. Often the rider being dropped hasn't done anything wrong, their average just fits for the changes wanted elsewhere in the team. With that attitude from promoters, it's not hard to see why riders look out for themselves!

Freddie Lindgren.He was using a GM in the Polish league at the weekend.

They do develop riders from other Countries and seem quite happy to do that. Riders from the likes of Russia and Ukraine in particular are regularly brought into Polish squads at a very young age and given every assistance to develop. For example, Sayfutdinov, Vaculik and Lebedevs along with many others all started in the Polish league as soon as they turned 16. Unlike most British clubs, most of the Polish teams can offer regular training and coaching sessions on track. The surprise packet of the Speedway World Cup, Gleb Chugunov, has been signed to Polish league clubs since he was 16 and regularly trained with his club. I have doubts that he would have made such an impression without the development work put in by his Polish team. Australians tend to prefer to come to the UK and get regular meetings to prove themselves rather than going to Poland and working their way through the way that Russians do. If the Aussies wanted to take that route I'm sure there would be clubs willing to sign them. It's also worth mentioning that developing a rider doesn't start and end in their first season of league racing. Just because riders have made it to a certain level before they join a Polish team, it doesn't mean that they don't help to develop them further. Many young riders get opportunities in Poland well before they have "made it".

That was my thinking as well. If we look at the example of Jacob Thorsell recently, Zielona Gora could have offered Andrei Karpov (who couldn't race as he doesn't qualify for a visa in the UK) or one of their junior riders who doesn't make it into their already weak reserve positions. It's hard to imagine any of the ones outside their team scoring anything over here. Then you would have the problem that presumably anyone from ZG would have to race in the same team in the UK. Assuming Swindon already had a partnership with ZG for Doyle, when ZG signed Thorsell at the start of this season, would he have to have left Wolves to sign for Swindon? If not you could have the situation where Doyle was unavailable as ZG were racing, but because they were using Karpov in the meeting they could offer Thorsell to Swindon as a replacement despite the fact that he's a Wolves rider... not much better than the current guest mess.