HenryW

Totally shocked that both of the previous posters leave Grigory Laguta off their list for a potential nomination. Impartial One even suggested Rory Schlein as an option, but left out Grigory. I'll have my money on Grigory to beat Rory every time they meet on a proper racers track...Oh, maybe that's why Grigory was left out

Oh come on. Is that how we decide it now? Artem Laguta outscored them both...Best give him a place in 2012 too. Tomek has been having a mare since his big crash with Zagar in the Polish league. Matching his poor return last night isn't exactly something to be proud of.

I wouldn't be sure that Freddie has guaranteed himself a place just yet. His battling performance last night in Denmark did his chances a lot of good, but I suspect that he needs to follow that up with good results in the last 2 rounds to ensure his place. THJ is nipping his heels as a Swedish contender for a pick. I agree that Darcy is sure to be offered a place...The only question is whether he feels he is ready to take it. Despite the utterly pathetic efforts of Chris Harris this season, it's hard to see who could replace him if they want a Brit in the series. Tai has already said that he doesn't want the place. Scott Nicholls and Lee Richardson surely would need to make their way through the qualifiers in the style of Bjarne and PePe if they ever want to see SGP action again. Ben Barker? I seriously hope not! Other than Darcy, the best rider outside the series is Grigory Laguta in my opinion. Sadly, I suspect that his chances of getting a nomination are pretty slim, which is a shame as he is a fantastically exciting rider to watch and would enhance the spectacle of the series greatly.

Well, Poland might not have qualified, but they finished a long, long way ahead of both Ukraine and Czech Republic in their semi final, and those other two nations raced in the final... I agree that there should be some punishment for the Swedish and Australian failure to take part in this Final, but it is yet again another confirmation of how badly this sport is run...The Danes made an effort to send a full team to the Final, but had their chances ruined at the border when some of their bikes were refused entry to Russia... This incident, combined with the refusal to allow several top Russian riders into the UK for the World Cup match at Kings Lynn (and also Vadim Tarasenko's failure to get in for the U21 match in Poole) shows what a farce the sport is becoming. The FIM seriously need to get involved and sort things out with the respective Governments, or refuse to allow their events to take place in either the UK or Russia....

The stadium is about 3 miles from the main square. Plenty of bars around the square. I guess it would depend on what you like as to which would be recommended. It might be worth pointing out that for pre-match, there were lots of beer stalls outside the stadium last year. I guess it will probably be the same this year.

I am sure Royno would thank you for that, but he wouldn't qualify for under 22 these days as he turned 22 almost a year ago (his 23rd birthday is just 8 days away!) Tyson also isn't even close to being under 22. I think he is 27 now but given what Steve has said about Eddie racing, I guess Tyson should be good to fit into the USA age requirements Also, if Eddie is coming back again for this tour, surely the legendary Flyin Mike Faria should be dragged over as well

Whilst I agree that Rune has it tougher than some others, I think he made his bed when he decided that he didn't want to race as a Norwegian any more. If I remember rightly, he was happy enough to take a permanent wild card for 2002 and 2003 as a Norwegian when Norway had a GP round. His later switch to being "Polish" when Norway no longer had a GP has put him in an awkward position. If he had sat out the series this year due to the injuries he has suffered, I doubt he would have got much support from the Polish authorities for a place next year. I am sure they have enough of their "own" that they would rather push for instead of a Norwegian Pole. I like Rune, but I am not sure he is any more deserving of a place next year than riders like Grigory Laguta, Thomas Jonasson or Darcy Ward...and they all have their home federation to fight their corner...Well, I think Grigory still does. I am slightly confused about how much he wants to become Latvian

If the standings stay as they are, which I doubt they will, IMHO Freddie should NOT get a place next year. Freddie needs to make the top 8 this year or spend a season on the sidelines. I also wouldn't give Harris a place for next year if he doesn't make the top 8. It's time the SGP riders were given a lesson by IMG. If you don't make the top 8 and don't do the qualifiers, you should expect some harsh treatment. I find it pretty pathetic that these guys just ignore the qualifiers and expect a place if they fail to make the cut in the series. Having said that, the best option for me would be to return to the old system where the SGP failures took on the best of the rest in the GP Challenge. Unfortunately, the series has got so big that it runs right into October and that isn't viable now.

He'll be kicking himself over that earlier tapes exclusion. Nice to see PePe making it back to the big show. Hopefully this time he'll show us his true capabilities in the SGP.

Oops. Toninho just made his job a bit more tricky.

Can't offer much. 26 year old. Races for Rawicz in the Polish lower division and Salavat in the Russian league. Nothing in his background suggests that he should be a contender in this match, but you never know...

Where are you seeing that? Artem Laguta is number 9 and THJ is racing at number 13 according to the SGP website.

After his decent showing to take 7th place at Poole, Joe Haines has been rewarded with one of the wildcard slots for the second round of the series in Holsted. Rene Bach is the other wildcard.

Jerzy didn't have to qualify for the 1973 Final. He was given a place in the final alongside 4 other Poles simply because they were Polish, not because anyone thought they were the best riders in the World. Let's be clear, Jerzy wouldn't have had a sniff of the World title if it was a GP series. Is your earlier shout about the death of the World Championship actually about nominating a Brit for commercial reasons when they possibly aren't in the top 15 or with the GP series as a whole? Actually...There probably is no need to ask as you probably answered it with your next post... How many times did we see a one off World Final without one of the top riders in the World because they dropped out due to bad luck during the qualifiers? How many times did we see riders missing out on the title due to an engine failure or harsh exclusion? How many times did we see riders going through the motions because their chance had gone in their first couple of races and there was nothing left to race for? You suggest that Mark's title was "anti-climactic". Were you in the Polonia Stadium in Bydgoszcz the night he sealed his title? If you were, I doubt you would be saying that it was anticlimactic. As far as I can see, the GP series does a better job of determining the best rider in the World than the old system did, but you can obviously retort with, "I don't care if it does show the most consistant Rider as World Champion." Apparently this doesn't sit well with you because there might be a GP held where the title is already decided, or there might be a rider making up the numbers in the series who might actually be a bit worse than the next rider down. Correct me if I am wrong, but neither of those objections is about deciding the eventual champion in a "sporting" way, unless you can offer some evidence of a rider who was beating everyone around the tracks of Europe but missed out on his title because he was left out of the GP series. Your complaints actually seem to be more about making it entertaining and appealing to fans in a "one off shoot-out scenario"....Is it more "sporting" to throw things into the crap-shoot of a one off final on one track, or hold a series of events on multiple tracks with varying preparation and weather conditions?

That's a bit of an extreme reaction. There have been very few years since the inception of the speedway world championship when there was a qualification system that allowed the top 16 in the World to make it to the Final. There have always been restrictions on the numbers from each country that had places in the qualifying rounds, so maybe the World Championship was never alive in the first place I don't think it's right that a rider is given a place for Commercial reasons when there are potentially better riders out there, but I honestly don't think it's a problem for finding the World Champion. Once you get past the top 10 in the World, the standard of the next 10 to 20 riders down are all fairly similar. None of them is realistically going to win the GP series. If there was a genuine title contender that was being left out to appease the Commercial desires that would be a different story, but that hasn't happened yet. In fact, BSI showed great sense in reducing the number of Brits in the series this year to accommodate Janusz Kolodziej, who did look like a genuine contender and had missed out.

That would probably depend on who qualified from the Final in Vetlanda. If a couple of Danes or a couple of Poles get through then Kolodziej and Bjerre would surely see their chances of a pick disappear, and that isn't entirely inconceivable given the meeting has 4 Danes and 5 Poles in it. (edited for accuracy as I previously said 4 from each, forgetting about poor Mr Ulamek) Also, Lindback is in the GP Qualification Final, so he could seal his place there and not rely on one of the handouts...Something that Bomber and Freddie should have been doing this year as well!

Agree about the TV coverage as it should be a great meeting. There are some amzingly exciting and very young propects in this meeting. Bartosz Zmarzlik and Piotr Pawlicki are both still just 16 years old, while Alex Loktaev, Dino Kovacic and Oskar Fajfer are 17. Surely every British promoter will be there checking out how these kids handle a British track.

Has it been confirmed who will be taking Vadim Tarasenko's place in this meeting, assuming that Vadim has indeed suffered the same indignity as his uncles?

The Laguta's have never been Latvian so can't revert to being Latvian. Grigory applied for Latvian Citizenship a few years ago but was refused due to his inability to speak Latvian. I believe his wife is Latvian, so that may change things for him now. As far as I understand from other reports, neither of the Lagutas have applied for a UK visa this season. The Russian management team DID apply for their visas for the SWC but were refused their normal, faster processing, and they obviously weren't in possession of visas at the time of the SWC.

Good call..That should easily make Great Britain the Nation with the most Individual Wins

Thinking about it, I guess it is possible that in the eyes of the FIM they were actually just Great Britain and Great Britain II. There were often years where the Continental rounds had 2 teams from one Nation as other Countries struggled to provide a team. I guess it wasn't too much of a worry as Scotland were never going to get out of the British based qualifying round

Are you sure about that? In 1973 and before, Great Britain raced in the World Cup. From 1974 until 1977, England and Scotland entered separately before the Scottish place was taken by the USA in 1978. Surely both teams weren't officially listed as Great Britain by the FIM during those years, were they?

And what a ride it was by Grigory. What more could you ask for as home fan there...Down to 1 rider in a last heat decider against Nicki Pedersen and the previously unbeaten Tomek Gollob, and he goes around the pair of them coming out the 2nd bend There is a clip taken from the crowd on YouTube...You might want to check your sound levels before playing it as they do get a bit excited

That might be the case...He DID have a stinker in 86 That was the only time he finished outside the top 4 in his World Final appearances, if I remember right. I think that he was 4th in 81, 83 and 89 and a medalist the other years.

I know exactly what you are meaning with the general sentiment of this post and agree with it. However, as a big fan of Erik, I would suggest that comment was a bit rough. He finished 4th, only 1 point behind 2nd despite having suffered an engine failure during the meeting, so hardly "no-where" and not really comparable to the others you listed. Basically, I don't think he really belongs in that list.