Bavarian

Good to have Nicki Pedersen back. He is just great !

absolutely so, and it wasn't his fault at all.

Pedersen's brillant so far, unbeaten after two rides, but Fricke's bike failure in Heat 7 may prove costly for the GKM team.

Yes, I know the reasoning behind it, but I am not so sure about it. Would not the World Cup final draw a big crowd anyway, regardless of the home team taking part or not? It's the other events and the race-off that suffers from the non-participation of the home team. WIth the SWC only ever being held in one of the big speedway nations, there would be a good chance, that they would reach the final anyway. The home team would have to ride in at least two out of four SWC meetings, possibly even three if they had to enter in one of the events and go via the race-off, instead of as it is now when they are seeded straight into the final and will only have that one meeting. Realistically in the foreseeable future this SWC will only ever be held in Poland, GB, or Denmark, but even if it would come to Germany or the Czech Republic, which is unlikely anyway, this would be no reason to grant the home team free entry into the final. They should be seeded to participate in the tournament, of course, as the home team helps to draw a crowd for any of the meetings, but they should not go straight into the final. I'd go for 8 Teams in the SWC tournament, contesting the two events with four teams each. The Event's winners go to the final, the 2nd and 3rd palced teams go to the Race-Off, and the fourth placed teams are eliminated. If the home team is so weak that they finish last in one of the Events, they deserve no better and are certainly not woth to be seed to the final.

Martin Smolinski now back in the Landshut team on Sunday to replace Erik Riss !

Laura Manciet ? Totally unknown to me! Who is she ?

I still don't understand the logic of why the host nation of the SWC tournament is seeded straight to the final. They should at least enter at the run-off stage, or better even in one of the opening two events, so that the home fans get a chance to see their team more often during the tournament. Just once in the final is not enough and just does not seem right.

Now live, the International Open Speedway Championship of the Slowak Republic, featuring 25 riders (incl. Tai Woffinden) ! http://kergel.ucoz.lv/index/live_stream_2/0-12?fbclid=IwAR2eL0VtZngKO7mWxtVxD6VmjVlUNOdM89lON8Sy-AcWVpETDr4TLLAnh68

Will Nicki Pedersen be able to ride after his crash at Peterborough?

DISCOVERY SPORTS EVENTS is apparently still without a director since the departure of Francois Ribeiro. There is no official statement. Where does this leave the SGP and SWC ?

That's a shocker. This speedway track has only been built a few years ago and has come along quite nicely. If it is closed down it leaves the sport in Hungary really shaken, with Debrecen remaining as the country's last one standing. Very worrying indeed. Do You know why it has to close ?

[...] Foreign motorcycle racers visited Japan for the first time in 1934, with the initial dirt track race being held at Inogashira in Tokyo. The five-man American team, headed by famed Putt Mossman, had been invited to Japan by the Yokohama Port Festival Exhibition and raced before capacity crowds at several locations in the country during their stay. They put on demonstrations of the first short track racing ever seen in Japan, and the team members became idols, mobbed by fans wherever they went, much like the Beatles of today. The Americans rode Martin racing motorcycles powered by 500cc JAP engines. This was the first time Japanese riders had seen real racing machines, and they soon began experimenting with building racers of their own. Prior to this time, motorcycles used for races in Japan were merely standard street machines which had been modified to the extent of pulling off the lamps, etc., by the riders and their mechanics. [...] This excerpt comes from a 1967 Cycleworld Magazine article "The History of Japanese Motorcycles" written by W. B. Swim. The complete article can be found here https://magazine.cycleworld.com/article/1967/11/01/the-history-of-japanese-motorcycles

OLD BIKE AUSTRALASIA featured an interesting article about Nanae Okamoto, the female Japanese speedway rider of the 1960s, who rode in Australia. https://www.oldbikemag.com.au/nanae-okamoto-cinder-lady/

and another Argentinean with dual nationality, Nicolas Covatti will surely again be nominated by the Italian federation.

Niedermaier, not Neidermaier (in both cases for Max and Maximilian)

It is still a mystery where in Germany this GRAND FINAL is supposed to be held

There was an an article under the heading "Ribeiro puzzle", written by Peter Oakes, in last week's Speedway Star, but we are still waiting for an official statement about the unexplained sudden departure of Discovery Sports Events boss Francois Ribeiro.

I see now that Ace has had a crash and Theo then withdrew from the rest of the meeting. Does anybody know about Ace's injuries?

What went wrong with the Pijpers ???

The French League meeting today starts at 1:30 pm GMT https://ligue-nationale-speedway.fr/match/lns-motul-2023-morizes It will be live on FANSEAT https://www.fanseat.com/speedway/ligue-national

it is not on YouTube anymore

Today, Saturday, February 25, is Day 1 of the EUROPEAN ICE SPEEDWAY CHAMPIONSHIP at Sanok in Poland. The meeting starts at 1 p.m. this afternoon and can be watched live online for £ 12.00 https://www.tapesup.tv/pages/2023-european-ice-speedway-championship Live results updates here https://live.baansportfansite.nl/event/605/european-individual-ice-speedway-championship-final-1-sanok.html

This recently taken picture illustrates how breathtakingly beautiful that historic speedway venue still is. Since 2003 the Brisbane Exhibition Grounds is a registrated Queensland heritage site.

A Speedway Grand Prix at the EKKA would be just awesome. The Brisbane Exhibition Ground is an iconic venue for the sport, running there since nearly a Century ago, for the first speedway meeting at the EKKA was held in 1926 !!! I found this video on YouTube, it's the final round of the 1997 International Speedway Masters Series at the EKKA. This probably is as close at it gets to a Speedway Grand Prix. If DISCOVERY really want to get the SGP going again in Australia, the Brisbane Exhibition Ground Stadium would be a phantastic venue. Sadly DISCOVERY seems to lack such vision.

Live on YouTube this morning since 9 a.m. round two of the Russian Team Cup at Saransk