HenryW

It's going a bit off topic, but... Areas of what now makes up Latvia have been part of Poland, Lithuania, Sweden, Russia, Germany (and possibly others that I don't remember) over the years, but in the speedway era, it has never been part of Russia. I guess that Australian's maybe have a different definition of "close" given the expanse of their Nation, but Prague is about 1,200KM from Russia and there are a couple of not insignificant Countries between them. As for a "type of Russia"...What do you mean by that?

Firstly, assuming my quick mental arithmetic is correct, Australia and New Zealand combined have provided 8 riders who have lifted the World title for a total of 19 times, while Sweden and Denmark combined have provided 10 riders who have lifted the World title for a total of 28 times....So, yeah, Australia and New Zealand combined are "2nd to none" as long as you don't let any other near neighbours combine as well... Secondly, when did you become such a lover of New Zealanders? Did you just throw them into the mix to get some extra world titles? Did you miss the fact that they haven't had a rider worthy of World championship status in the last 25 years? Thirdly, how did you drag Russia into this? There have been more FIM Speedway World Finals held in Australia than Russia. In case you aren't sure, there has been 1 in Australia, which obviously means that there have been NONE...EVER, in Russia...So where did Russia come into the equation of "taking over World speedway"? WTF? Do you think that the leagues in Europe would die without Australian riders coming over to race here? Do you really think the rest of the speedway World owes you something because you have some riders at the top level? Flip the switch in your head, mate...Australians get a career in the sport BECAUSE of the leagues in Europe....and BECAUSE they pay them good money! As soon as Aussie speedway offers good money to the European guys, they'll be over racing on your tracks... I think you have lost me here....Are you suggesting that Australian speedway riders should hold the European Leagues to ransom by refusing to race in them?. Hahahahaha!!! Good luck to them with that move. I think you may be right with this statement, but who is to blame for that other than Australians? If your promoters don't want to pony up the cash to advertise or attract the top riders over to your Country, what do you expect? Again...No chance of BSI or the FIM saying "no" if the cash was handed over...But don't expect the rest of the speedway world to give you gifts "just because".... Again....WTF? You blame the World governing bodies for the failure of the sport in your Nation? No offence, but look a bit closer to home for the problems. If Australia can't even get it's top riders to race in the National Championship, why would you expect the rest of the World to send their top guys over to race? Yep, Australia...A true production line of World Speedway Champions...Good on ya's for that...You've got Jason Crump (ironically, born in Britain) and, erm....who was the last one before him? Oh, that's right....Jack Young, back in 1952!!! Let's forget the GP's. You could have one every year if anyone in Australia was willing to put up the cash, but it's been proved that they aren't. Similarly, you could have some great individual meetings with the World's best, but no-one is willing to pay for those guys to head over to Australia to race... What's this???....You have "no league possible"? Is there some law against "sports leagues" in Australia? I'm pretty sure I have seen Rugby, "Football" and Soccer leagues from Australia on TV here in the UK....Do you actually mean that a league isn't financially viable for speedway in Australia, cos that would be an entirely different thing! Prague saw 145,000 fans attend the first Czechoslovakia v Soviet Union test match in 1960...Does that prove anything other than speedway was more popular in the older days? Don't get me wrong, I love your passion for the sport and your discontent at the lack of big meetings in Australia...but I think you are turning your anger at the wrong target when complaining about the FIM or IMG not running big events in Australia. Those guys will run their events where-ever the money is... It's surely up to Aussie promoters to show that they can run professional speedway...Recent years have surely suggested that Australia can train the kids well, but if they want to see big events, they also need to show that they can attract big crowds and make the sport pay at a professional level...

I guess it depends where you are wanting to fly FROM. The nearest airport to Torun with direct flights from the UK is Bydgoszcz, with Ryanair being the airline providing these. However, Ryanair haven't released their schedule for Summer 2011 yet, so you would probably be as well to hang on until they have announced what flights they are going to be doing before making any definite plans.

Harsh, but I agree with some of it. He would have been better off sitting out a few weeks, getting himself right and proving what he could do on his return. As it was, he carried on racing, and did little for himself or the fans entertainment. If it wasn't for his final round win, I don't think AJ would have been included ahead of Hans, but the actions of AJ and Hans combined to virtually force the hand of the selectors. Could they really leave out a multi-GP winner who finished ahead of a guy in the points that has never won a GP and claimed his poor form was caused by injury?

As a fan of his, I might a little biased, but I think Nicki should be left out of that kind of discussion. Despite him suffering a bad season for him, Nicki made 8 semi-finals in 11 GPs, and in one of the others he was injured in his first race and then was obviously still injured in the next round. Only 2 riders made more semi-finals than Nicki this year, and they were Tomek and Jarek. If you discount the 2 injury GPs, Nicki was averaging over 9 points per GP yet finished just 5 points outside of the top 8... Given that, and his SGP record over the years, I think it's perfectly acceptable for Nicki to have sat out the qualifiers to give other Danes a chance. After all, failure to qualify due to injuries to star performers was one of the primary reasons for BSI retaining the right to select riders for the series. Anyway....If Nicki had done the qualifiers, what good would it have done him? He would have been out injured and missed out in them too...Would that have made him more or less deserving of a place next year? As for the other 2, AJ has had a shocker of a season by his own standards. The jeers of the locals in Bydgoszcz when he stepped onto the podium in the final SGP said all you needed to know... Having said that, injury or not, AJ was still better than Hans this year, and I don't think Hans has a case against either AJ or Koldi. Nicki, Emil and Koldi have to be picked if the SGP has any credibility....After them, AJ has probably made himself the best choice for 4th pick with his win in Bydgoszcz.

I have never been to Gothenburg, so I can't comment on that, but I would hope that Prague wasn't dropped from the series. The City of Prague is a fantastic place to visit, and the ease of access to the track from the City Centre has to be one of the best in the SGP calendar. I have seen some good racing on the Prague track, but it doesn't happen often. To me, that seems to be one track that the locals need to be kicked aside and some proper track experts brought in to set the track for the SGP event. Prague is one of the "Big City" jewels left in the SGP series...It just needs the track to be given a little shake up.

Once again, I am late into a topic, so there are a few things to cover. In some ways I like the idea of a 2nd tier for the SGP series, but I think I agree with Humphrey that the sport just doesn't have the media interest or finances to carry it off just now. Despite how much I love the SGP series, it isn't exactly awash with major sponsors just now, so I am not sure if there would be the backing for a new series below it... Whilst you can complain about the "fairness" of the way riders get into the SGP series, looking back over the season just past, the only genuine complaint I would have is the inclusion of Tai and, with the benefit of hindsight, Janusz Kolodziej would have been the man that was most deserving of that place....yet he failed in the SGP qualifiers at the first round last year behind rider like Pavlic, Zagar, Davidsson, Ferjan, Karpov and Kasprzak....So how DO you make a fair and representative qualifying system? If you were to make an SGP2 series with a "fair" qualifying system, would it not look something like the SGP qualifying system without the invites? If you DID go for something like that, then 2010's SGP2 series would be comprised of the following riders: Protasiewicz, Watt, Smolinski, Miedzinski, Walasek, L.Dryml, Davidsson, Pavlic, Bogdanovs, Nieminen, Kroner, Lindback, Gafurov, A.Dryml, Risager and B.Pedersen. A 2011 series would have these guys: Zetterstrom, Jonasson, Iversen, Karpov, Povazhny, G.Laguta, Stead, Madsen, Ulamek, Gapinski, Walasek, L.Dryml, Miedzinski, Dobrucki, Pavlic and Gizatullin. With all due respect to them, I'm not sure a series that had those riders involved would have the fans fighting each other for tickets....and that is the biggest problem that I can see for a proposal like this...The guys just outside the SGP series just aren't actually as "box office" as you might hope. I attended the SGP qualifier Final in Zielona Gora in 2008...This was a meeting that had 16 riders fighting for 3 places in the 2009 SGP series, and at best estimate the stadium was more than half empty. This is a stadium that is packed out with the best and noisiest fans for every league match that Zielona Gora race in....If a meeting like that can't bring out the fans in one of the most fanatical speedway towns in Europe, what chance that the same riders could get enough people interested in an SGP2 series? I think you could put together a series that does have some "box office", but it probably wouldn't be with the riders that were just outside the SGP level...It's more likely to be at U21 level, and I think that is what the FIM are trying to work towards. This year it was a 3 match series. Next year I believe it's scheduled to be a 4 match series....I suspect that the FIM are looking for someone to take on the U21 series and market it to the international TV companies like BSI have done with the senior series.

Thankfully for the legend that is PePe, 2006 only had 10 rounds... However, if I remember rightly, he was a BSI pick for 2006, which sadly would probably make him the worst pick in the history of SGP.

Lovely link.....but "The Damned" were still better

I haven't tried to make sense of these figures....are they the riders that were "the worst" or was there more to it than that? If it was just down to "the worst", I appreciate you making an obvious omission from 2006, despite naming Rico who scored 8 more in the same season

Billy and Bjarne dropped out? I think you need to check your facts. Both failed to qualify when they left the series. Billy was offered a place but chose not to take it, so you can have that one. He had a disaster with sponsors that failed to put up the cash promised. Bjarne you can certainly NOT have. He was kicked after his failure. If he wasn't interested he wouldn't have done the qualifiers after losing his place. Take a look at the income difference for Walasek and Ulamek from 2008 to 2009 and tell me the SGP doesn't pay... The payment from the FIM might not be a big deal, but the additional sponsorship from the TV coverage for those that can get it certainly makes a huge difference...

In case any one else would also like to see Darcy's races that day in Latvia, YouTube now has a video with them all.

Definitely the 2nd round that Darcy won in a run off with Max. Maybe I am being harsh on the track. It wasn't wet, but seemed to be causing some of the riders a bit of trouble. Of course, that could also have been the well documented problems with the new silencers on grippy tracks...

Round two was covered by local TV and the full match was uploaded to rapidshare. Links were given by S.B. on the original U21 World Championship thread. Just to make it easier, I have copied it here. Russian Forum Download Links I haven't checked whether they are still active. If they aren't, let me know and I'll sort something out as I have a copy of the match here (although the track is in a terrible state for most of the match, so not the best entertainment).

Nicki has some very good form around Bydgoszcz in the SGP, so it is possible that he might yet make the cut, but I agree that it's pretty unlikely he'll get into the top 8. Even if he does sneak into the top 8, it can only realistically be at the expense of Holder or Harris, and both of them would get the pick if they missed out. I'm not sure that Emil's selection was just based on his 2 U21 titles. With all due respect to Darcy, Emil's performances in all matches during those 2 years was excellent, and far superior to what Darcy has been delivering. Having said that, Darcy clearly has the temperament for the big occasion, and could probably do a good job in the SGP. It sounds like he is happy to rule himself out for another year, a bit like Chris Holder did, and that is probably a sensible decision. Another year to consolidate on what he has already achieved and start to gain more consistency week in week out, not to mention another year to make sure that his organisation and support system is ready for SGP makes sense. Once again, I agree here. I don't think either one has done enough to warrant a pick. Out of the two, Hans would be the one with the best case. He actually had a fairly solid start to the SGP season and was looking good for a top 8 place, if not really a serious contender, before the crash with Nicki in Sweden, and he has constantly been racing injured since then. With the season that Janusz has had, combined with his poor luck in the SGP Qualifier, where he looked the class of the field before his bike failed, it is really hard to overlook him for a place. If I was involved in the selection process, I would give Janusz a place but on the condition that the Polish rounds next year don't necessarily have Polish wildcards in them...4 Poles is more than enough for the local, fans, so give the wildcard to someone like Darcy when the SGP visits Poland. Hmmmm.....One semi final appearance so far with a lowly 7 point score in that round really doesn't suggest that he is worthy of inclusion again. The already dismissed Hans and AJ both have 5 semi final appearances to their name this season, so it would be outrageous if Tai was given a place ahead of them.... Outside of those that you have mentioned, there really aren't any strong contenders. Lee Richardson could have a case, as yet again he has been the best Brit after Chris Harris. The next few that spring to mind as worthy are Poles; Kasprzak, Miedzinski and Balinski, and none of them have any hope of a pick. Then you have guys like Matej Zagar, Bjarne Pedersen, Greg Laguta, Niels Iversen, etc, who again, have little chance of a selection due to their nationality, if nothing else. Of course, this is assuming that none of the riders who make the top 8 retire from the SGP. Rune has suggested he might walk away a couple of times, so it's not inconceivable that this could be his year to give it up. Similarly, Greg might decide that he has had enough of the SGP despite his improvement towards the end of this year. Just mentioning those guys as potential retirees, it made me think....Has any rider other than Hans Nielsen gained a qualifying place and not taken it up in the following season?

Sadly it doesn't look good for live coverage of the final round of the U21s. The Czech TV site has nothing listed for Saturday that I can see The cameras are going to be there to provide live coverage of the Gold Helmet the next day, so it's a shame they aren't doing the big match the day day before as well...

The rules currently state that the first qualified substitute who is available gets the place. PePe has declared himself unavailable for each round since Torun, but has made himself available for the final round in Bydgoszcz. I don't believe he ever formally advised the FIM that he would be taking no further part in the SGP series this year, just advised them he was unavailable when invited for each round. With his ongoing injury problems, it would appear that he has chosen to put his clubs first in recent months. Now that the league seasons are wrapped up he has accepted the place offered.

I don't think he was interested in doing Cardiff, and obviously Emil was due back for the round after that. The appeal of doing one last GP round Bydgoszcz is obviously too much for him to refuse.

I believe that if there is a tie in the Polish play-offs, the team that finished higher in the table during the regular season gets the win...but not 100% sure about that

Another fantastic performance by Sully to clinch the 3rd place. Torun's manager was clearly vindicated in going with LiGlad today. I wonder what they might have done this season if they had used him more often rather than sticking with Darcy for so long... Not one of the greatest matches for racing, but the scores certainly kept it interesting.

Wikipedia has the scores from the first couple of matches on the page for this years title : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Individual_Speedway_Junior_World_Championship Last time the U21 Final was in Pardubice, Czech TV showed it and streamed it on their website. They still have a good selection of matches that they have previously streamed on there, the most recent being the Longtrack from Marianske Lazne on the 20th. So possibly worth checking their site nearer the time http://www.ceskatelevize.cz/ivysilani/podle-data-vysilani/ EDIT - Just checked and their archive of matches goes back a few years, so if anyone wants to marvel at little Emil winning his 2nd World U21 crown in 2008, you can still do it http://www.ceskatelevize.cz/ivysilani/20847129221-motocyklove-zavody/

Don't let Mateusz, or probably any Bydgoszcz fan, hear you saying that...

Well, if he was doing a bit of MotoX, I guess that some on the BSF would call him an idiot, if the Doyle thread is anything to go by....One can only be thankful that he felt sickly before falling off his bike and busting a shoulder

Not at all. I was surprised he was still being listed earlier this week. I completely expected him to step aside and ensure his fitness for Italy.

And it has now been confirmed that Tomek has succumbed to this flu (or some other unspecified disease) and will not be racing at Zielona Gora tomorrow...Not really the biggest shock of the season Home rider Rafal Dobrucki will replace him in the match.