Mylor

Entirely agree Brightonbob. He did more than enough to gain an entry for next year's series. I'm just glad we don't have to wait for guys like him to qualify through the GP Challenge anymore. On the crowd front, I reckon anyone who was there will not want to miss next year's and will really want to take their mates along too. To those who couldn't make it this year, you missed a real treat. To the organisers............thanks for putting dirt on the track. This was a GP for the racers. Well done the Brits!!

Good point Peter S. What's y'know in danish?

So I tells Mrs Mylor around heat 12 that this is gonna be a wierd GP. Watch all the racers go out early. The final's gonna be between riders who you would have expected to go out early, and will again at Cardiff. 'Why?', she says. 'Because this perfectly good racetrack has been stripped of all the dirt the racers need to race on', says I And one by one they all fell by the wayside leaving us with what we must all agree is the strangest podium we'll see all year. Now I like a few upsets like the rest of you, but when they all happen at the same time I reckon something's wrong. I can't remember the last time I saw TR hit a fence 'cos he couldn't find enough dirt to turn on. Let the racers race..............BRING ON THE DIRT !!

And my vote of thanks goes to the driver of the No 22 tram for rounding off a thoroughly soggy, cold night with a bizzare act. Would you believe a dozen or so Brits, Mrs Mylor and me jumped aboard at a quarter to twelve, grateful to be out of the rain (we'd been there since 4.00) and on our way back to the city became increasingly confused that we seemed to be taking a strange route back? Yes, believe it......... the guy stopped at every stop between the stadium and the tram depot at Vladivar Vladivostok or some such like, which turned out to be over half way between the city and the airport!! A woman collapsed in the front car causing him to stop and wait for an ambulance by which time we had 9 trams behind us. We took our map over to the adjacent Shell station to try to find out where we were..........they couldn't show us, probably 'cos we were off the map. Back outside I runs across to the group of 9 tram drivers to ask for directions back to the city. The No 51 will be along in 3 minutes says one of them. So........an hour later we're jumping off the 51 along with a bunch of mad Holta fans in Republican Square and walking the mile or so to our apartment. 0300ish.........time for bed, write of most of Sunday!! Wonder what I got on the video? Can't wait for next year................curled up in front of the telly!! My tip for next year??......... Do Not Book Tickets in the front rows of the start/finish straight. From the first few rows of B block you cannot see the run to the finish line.........Disgusting seeing as these were the second most expensive seats in the house. We stood on on turn 4 for the meeting with the rain and wind whistling round the corner of the main stand........for nearly 8 !!**%y hours.

Grief CHK..............I only remember the names. You remembered the results!!??

Russian touring side 1965.............ish Gabdrachman Kadirov with a Beatle haircut. Gennady Kurilenko Igor Plechanov Boris Samorodov No CH fans remember Jimmy Squibb???...........Shame on you!!

Ok, seems to be all sorted now. I'd delete the above but others are bound to have the same problem. Follow the E Ticket route. Ticketstream will give you an order number then start processing the order and debiting your credit card. You can track progress by returning to the site and entering your order number and email address. If all the relevant boxes are ticked in the resulting window you will see your E Ticket (valid for one person only). Scroll down, press print. By the print button you'll see page numbers (just like the forum's). Use those to print any other tickets. Exchange the 'tickets' for real ones outside the stadium. Fairly simple..............I just wish they'd tell you this on the site. I thought I was only getting one ticket. It took a while for me to spot the page numbers at the bottom. As you can choose your seats from the plan I suggest you consider ordering in small blocks to save you sending photocopies of both sides of your credit card and driving licence etc.

Ok. I've been to the Ticketstream site, chosen and booked me seats but now it says: Cut Off Date is the last item, which shows the date and time by which you need to pay for and receive your ticket(s) at your nearest Sales Agent to ensure your ticket choice is not cancelled automatically by the system and the tickets returned to free sale. So how do I pay for them by 12th Feb??

Take up some turf ?? Can't be anywhere near Dudley Wood then eh?

No need to rush out of the stadium then..............thanks. I've got an appartment near the Stare Mesto (the Old Town) and quite close to the bars and cash machines apparently !! Thanks everyone........have a good time if you're going. I'll be thinking of you if you're not.

Right................didn't mess it up this year!! Thanks to all those who posted on last year's Prague thread. The information has proved very useful. I've booked me leave, flights and hotel in the centre by the river but I'm just wondering what transport is available to get back after the GP. Can I assume there'll be plenty of coaches/buses/trams/taxis etc? Also, my accomodation wants paying in cash...........not a problem if there are cash machines about but are there any?

Wouldn't happen at televised matches Kevin but should work otherwise.

Item 2) looks a winner Kevin, especially if as mentioned elswhere, the junior races are interleaved with the league match to give the youngsters experience of changing track conditions. I love watching the kids have a go. Hopefully the juniors would be of sufficient quality to make this a competition of sorts. If this proved successful and was adopted at all tracks we could consider taking it one step further............, if the juniors 'belonged' to the league clubs they may, with a minor change to the rules, be able to compete for a place in, say heat 15 of a 16 heat league match. Sorry if this kills your thread Kevin. Seems as if I only have to read one to kill it this winter.

Methinks you misread me post Kevin!! '..if and when the sport takes off on the world stage, by which I mean in 20-30 countries,' Just as F1 is seen in 100 or so countries Kev although they only hold 17 or so F1GPs..............more growth, more venues!!

Right, where were we? Oh yes, discussing how speedway is promoted. Longtrack........now what's that and how would you go about introducing that to punters outside Germany? Ok we do know what it is but I've only seen one longtrack meeting on the tele and that was 30 years ago. And how would you fit that in prestigeous venues with a view to expanding into non-longtrack countries. Nonstarter methinks. Clubs and training tracks already put a lot of effort into riders they know will leave. It's common practice in the CL and PL. Good riders, especially respected ex-GP riders will always find a welcome at British tracks when they've finished their GP careers. Look at Sam Ermolenko and Billy Hamill. They may be looked down on as deserters from the American scene but if you don't want 'em, and they don't seem too keen to return, then we'll continue to welcome them. Got any more??

BSI are, of course, copying the model of the Formula One Administration who many would agree are probably the most successful sports promotors of them all. The whole of motorsport benefits either directly or indirectly from their success. They don't own any teams, they are not the ruling body, they just own and successfully exploit the rights making a lot of people rich in the process. One of the downsides is that it costs a fortune to go to a Grand Prix, especially at Silverstone, but the place still gets packed. Now the participants, unlike in speedway, don't drive for anyone else. They, like speedway riders, 'volunteer' to show their skills at the highest level yet no-one accuses F1 of skimming off the cream. All BSI have done is to take a series that already existed and placed it on a bigger stage and have been instrumental getting the sport televised in places we didn't know existed. It all helps the sport to grow. Growth is painful, especially when it's your club that suffers. Taken to it's logical conclusion, if and when the sport takes off on the world stage, by which I mean in 20-30 countries, GP riders will be just that. No league riding for them, well not till they fail anyway. Of course this means the EL clubs will suffer the same pain as the PL ones when riders move up but just as it doesn't in the end affect the competitiveness of the PL it shouldn't affect the EL either.

Can't say I'm losing too much sleep over this. For the EL teams to cut costs, of course they need to 'lose' top riders, initially to the teams moving up. The promoters may have gone too far for a first step but a side effect of there being a surplus of better quality riders is that the laws of supply and demand will prevail. In other words the riders may realise they need to cut their demands if they want to ride in the UK. We may consider that squeezing out the greediest of them (in each grade) could be good for those interested in keeping costs (and admission prices?) down and encouraging more PL sides to move up. If this is the intention of the changes it's not surprising that the promoters would keep tight lipped about it. Let's hope they've done it with the best of intentions and that the EGM will tidy up some of the ragged edges highlighted here.

At club/promoter level I agree Sullizbabe. That’s why the visionary leadership should come from the top. Instead of stumbling from year to year any credible organisation would know where it's headed and plan accordingly. I also agree about the points limit or some practical alternative with one exception. If the Panthers signed a promising youngster and put the effort into his training and development I don't see why any points limit should force you to part with him except by agreement. If he averaged above 6 say, Peterborough should have the option of excluding him from the calculation when team building. It wouldn't happen of course, but it could be possible to train an exceptional squad, but having seen the effort you put in to get them to that level, no-one should have cause to complain. I say it wouldn't happen 'cos some riders will think the grass is greener elsewhere and leave by agreement. Loans exceeding 2 years would also be deemed to indicate the end of the agreement. Sorry about that. It was supposed to be a single sentence but when I read it through I saw it needed explaining somewhat. Re-branding………….said like that Mr Bean could sound sexy!! I think you’ve just put another piece in the jigsaw Sullizbabe. The promo’s that I saw were excellent. The British SGP posters in the Cardiff shop windows were little short of stunning. Anyone know which company did them and are they available as desktop wallpaper? Keep posting SB.

Was the sport credible when they decided to sponsor the EL first time round Steve? Perhaps they thought, or were promised, that things would change but I shouldn't think they expected the sort of changes we've seen since the deal was signed!! I suppose things could be worse. When the team building starts in earnest the promoters may decide they've made a dogs dinner of the rulebook and dispel any doubts about the sport's credibility.

Well, it seems the BSPA didn’t succeed in putting many smiles on peoples faces. Not even on the faces of some of their members. What has disappointed me most about their statement is the lack of vision. Now I’m no fan of mission statements, but if ever a body needed one it’s the BSPA for at least two reasons: 1) Drawing one up would make them think about their role in the sport as a whole and 2) The paying customer would know what they’re trying to achieve We are now entering a year of golden opportunities, a crossroads if you like. I believe next year the Sky Sports Elite League deal runs out. It will also be the year new BSPA Chairman will be elected. Moves have been made to expand the Elite League. A couple of Conference League sides are showing signs of wanting to move up, probably the year after next. Terry Russell and Arena Essex have made the renewal of the deal a little more attractive to Sky, and their viewers however, the sport is still creaking along. It doesn’t know where it wants to be and the lack of vision at the top is providing no form of leadership. What was in the statement to encourage training and development? Won’t we need these guys (and girls!?) to allow the leagues to grow? What’s being done to encourage and help new, and existing promoters to open new tracks and/or use existing tracks for more than one team? What is being done to market the sport more effectively. It may even need re-branding. The purists will probably hate this but the word ‘speedway’ is hardly the sexiest of names is it? We know the promoters are busy guys but they always have the option of setting up a working party of willing helpers to come up with a practical way forward. The expertise is already there. It just needs focusing on the needs of the sport. The sport can move forward, and quickly if it wants to. Promoters, you have a year to decide on a new Chairman. The next couple of years may well decide whether the sport grows again or re-enters one of it’s regular dwindling phases. You may wish to use this year to encourage one or more of the visionaries amongst you to stand for election. This would surely show your paying customers, present and future, broadcasters and beyond that we mean business. We want the sport to take it’s rightful place among the most popular in the country, and indeed in Europe and beyond. We need to wait a little while to see what effect the rule changes will really make, however it is apparent that some ‘top heavy’ clubs will not be pleased at losing more than one of their top riders It also seems likely that some of these riders will not be riding in Britain next year. The net effect, of course, is that the cost of running in the Elite League will come down which must, in itself, be a step in the right direction as it will encourage more variety for the fans, and, you would hope (don’t hold your breath on this one though), hold down admission prices encouraging more support. It’s all about growth and vision……………anybody disagree??

Tend to agree about the public transport point Hammer but I think there are now an awful lot of tracks with no public transport to speak of. Trelawney was in the middle of a quarrying district in a county where public transport all but finishes at about 8.00pm We'd all love to see speedway in the inner cities too with excellent public transport links but, sadly, it looks like that era has now passed.

For those who want a quiet life...............don't go there!! The airhorn free zones are small and scattered............have a look. http://www.speedwaygp.com/newhome/cardiff2...r_horn_free.htm Got my tickets there. SCB..........40,000+(?) of us cant be all mad..can we?? :roll: :twisted:

Stunning stuff.............everythin but the smell eh?? Shame they charge over £20 for the hi res clips though. Well spotted newxranger.

For others following this thread and as this has been mentioned several times now, at no point have I mentioned forcing any club to accept promotion and relegation. As I said above:- ..............but I'm slowly coming round to the idea that it would only come about when teams in the 'lower' division(s) start hammering at the door of the 'higher' division to be let in. This ties in quite nicely with your first point Kevin. Have you considered the effect of one rider, one club on the size of the EL and the willingness of PL teams to move up? I'm sure you've read my other posts on this. I don't think I suggested they did. They could represent Scotland in the ECC in the same way that Poole could represent Dorset.

No 5 man races........Bet Mark Loram's relieved. I certainly am. More choice of venues for future finals too.......gotta be a good thing.