Bavarian

Sure, but they could and should have retained the SWC for the major nations (let's say the top 8 or 9 countries) every other year, alternating with the SoN pairs event, which could have included all of the other minor speedway nations (maybe 15 or even more). This would have addedd much more variety to teh international speedway calendar and would surely have been much more acceptable, compared to replacing the popular SWC with not quite as popular SoN.

Castagna is really really bad for the sport. He is misleading it in a totally wrong direction. Speedway is such a special sport - a team Sport first adn foremost - and as such is absolutey different to any other from of motorsport. That's why I am a speedway fan and couldn't care less about road racing or motocross. They ususally only have one long distance race and have to award championship points for that. Speedway has 20+ heat races, plus semi and final, were the riders EARN their points. Perfectly easy to understand. And the winner of the last race in a Gradn Prix (the final heat 23) is the winner of that particular SGP, regardless of the points total scored in all of his races during this meeting. By the way, the winner of that final race DOES actually get the most points (in that race, that is) - three points , compared to two points for second and one for the third. So what, if the rider who wins the final, has not scored the most points on aggregate from all of the races he has ridden that night, nothing wrong with that. It's perfectly fair that he does not automatically get the most points, when he has got beaten more often than another rider/riders. There is absolutely no need to award artificial points in Speedway. I hate this stupid stupid decision by the FIM. Castagna has to go. First they abandoned the hugely popular SWC and gave us a "Speedway of Nations" to fall in line with the "Motocross of Nations", "Flat Track of Nations" and "Enduro of Nations", and now they spoil the SGP by changing from a perfectly fair points scoring system to a totally unfair and unwanted artificial one. I'm fed up. What's Your next idea, Mr Castagna? Do us all a favour and please, please resign from Your position !!!

Is a British Lions team going to race in Western Australia early next year? I have found this on the 2019-20 calendar of the Pinjar Park Speedway in Perth. GREAT BRITAIN VS AUSTRALIA SOLO TEAMS TBC (see January 17 & 18) http://speedwaywa.net.au/?page_id=1519 Has Woffy anything to do with it?

all you want to know about speedway in Africa can be found here http://www.speedway-sa.com/

Has anyone ever seen this 1933 movie "Money For Speed" ? https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024346/

The real deal for official Speedway Test Matches has always been eighteen heats, with teams of six riders, plus one or two non-riding reserves. I welcome the return to Test Matches, but if they want to do it right, they should return to that traditional race formula.

This is what Wikipedia has to say about the origins of the name California https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origin_of_the_name_California (but there is no mention of the place in England)

I think this is a very good idea. No need to panic, that speedway would be all over and done with in just ten weeks a year. There would still be more speedway in the UK before and after the 10 week league season. Each club could decide for themselves on how many other meetings and how long a season they would want to run (individual, Pairs, Regional Teams comps, maybe a k.o.-cup, and of course the national Championships and international events). But the League would be an uninterrupted action packed 10 weeks in the summer time. I'd like it like that !

Never mind, the Polish Ekstraliga Finals were just as one-sided (=boring) this year, Leszno beating Wroclaw.

No need for change - every point scored on the track counts, and that's how it should be. The winner of the final is the GP winner regardless of the points scored on the night. Keep artificial points out of the game, because they can be quite unfair and will only complicate the matter unneccessarily.

Interesting

Probably more like what Emil Sayfutdinov did - who has got himself a Polish passport but is still representing Russia. An EU Passport makes traveling so much easier for the Russian riders.

Disregarding Argentina, which is not at the same level as others, but there will be an inaugural F.I.M. Oceania Solo Championship in Austarlia this or early next year. And there is also an F.I.M. North America Final to be held on December 7 at the Perris Speedway in California. SGP wild cards for the European champion, Oceania champion, and North America Champion doesn't seem such a bad idea !

Let's hope they get to face top class opposition, as I'd love to see them Poles beaten for once ! Come on, the Rest of the World ! Would be interesting to know, who chooses the riders for the Rest of the World team? Who is their team manager ?

They won't have much to do anyway. Why are there no International Test Matches anymore???

Don't think so, I'd rather have Dan Bewley and Broc Nicol in this year's world u21 series, instead of Rafal Karczmarz and Tim Sörensen. The meetings wouldn't neccessarily become weaker with a limit for each nation.

An International 4-Team meeting today in Lodz

The dominance of the young Poles and Danes is too much. Limiting them to no more than three finalists in the world under 21s would be benefitial for the rest of the speedway world.

Not a very good meeting in my opinion, not much passing at all. The dominance of the Polish riders is killing this year's u21 series. If You ain't a Polish fan, or maybe a Danish fan, it is not worth watching. There are five Poles and four Danes in this year's junior world series. Way too much! I want to see some more Brits and Aussies, and where are the Americans, and the Swedes? I'd like to see each nation limited to a amximum of three riders in the final series, that's enough.

France are red hot favorites. The track should suite them perfectly. Germany may win the silver, and Britain bronze, then the Czechs fourth, Holland fifth, and Sween sixth.

But then a guest rider was only allowed to cover for a missing number one / heat leader, but now there are guest riders for seemingly every rider, including the reserves, plus the doubling up and doubling down of riders which makes a total mockery of the team (loyalty) aspect of the game. This has simply become too much to be acceptable anymore.

Chris Slabon grew up and learned his speedway in Canada before he came over to Europe and rode in the Polish League (for Wroclaw I seem to remember). As far as I know, Chris has a Canadian passport, which entitles him to represent this country. He is the son of a speedway rider, the former world finalist Robert Slabon, who emigrated with his family from Poland to Canada.

Racing admittedly wasn't of the highest calibre last night, but it wasn't that bad either. But, hey, there was a massive 15,000+ crowd at Vojens last night. A packed stadium, just aweseome to see. Vojens is well and truely the heart of Danish speedway, and people love it there. Vojens, just like Prague, is an anchor venue for the SGP, even if the racing is not always as good as it should be.

Your points system in British League speedway is well and truely unique. I don't like it. No other speedway league in the rest of the world needs such a complex points system. I'd recommend You to adopt the Polish League system as much as is possible. It is simple and it works perfectly well.

We have Celina Liebmann riding in the 500cc class here in Germany. She looks and behaves more like a boy, though. She is currently the best of a number of young female speedway riders, the others are riding in the youth 250cc, 125cc, and 50cc classes.