Bavarian

yes Long breaks between the heats, though, but that's long-track racing. not much of a crowd there

It is gone because the synthetic oil that is used today has no "smell" It is sad that this "smell" has gone, it was so very typical for speedway. The clueless younger generation of speedway fans may not even know what we are talking about.

True, I believe the Americans thought they had found a cheap solution with Greg Hancock and Luke Becker being based in Poland, and willing to ride. Problem arose when Becker was injured and a substitute was needed. Donators and sponsors from America never really warmed for the Speedway of Nations, no in the same way as for the Speedway World Cup.

True Last year for the World Games Best Pairs at Wroclaw they had a sell-out crowd simply because the organisers did not charge unreasonably high entrance fees. And it is the same reason (money) that they can not find tracks outside of Poland willing to pay for the right to host the SWC.

Are the Swedish Eliteserien attendances up this season? Seems to me that most clubs do generaly get good crowds, maybe because of the fine weather so far this year?

Mike's mother married an Austrian some time ago and she moved from Germany to Styria in Austria, and has taken her son Mike with her of course. The Jacopetti's lives in Austria since several years now and Mike rides speedway with an Austrian Motorcycle Federation license, even though his nationality is still German.

It would be the same with Rory Schlein being listed with ACU (Federation) and Australia (Nationality)

AMF is his Federation (Austria) and Germany is his Nationality.

Slovakia

... and Edward Kennett has broken his arm in this meeting.

True ! But what a stupid rule anyway ! Martin Smolinski is prevented from riding in a German 2nd Division meeting at Landshut today ! The local fans expecting to see him here are not happy !

The European Ice Racing Champion Igor Kononov has return to speedway racign this year, re-satrtign hsi summer career with STK Oktyabrsky, the club were he started out as a junior speedway rider. Interview with Kononov in Russian with English subtitles

Riders schould not be excluded for a tapes offence, especially in this pairs event. Imagine this happening in any of the semi-finals or final heats, when one rider on his own can't beat the other pair, even if he wins the race! Any offending rider should be penalised with a 15m handicap for the re-start, but no exclusion.

Tomorrow's encounter in Poznan will be the 54th Poland v Sweden speedway test match. It is nearly 27 years since their last meeting, when the Swedes defeated the Poles by 67 points to 41 at Linköping, on 29 August 1991 The Overall Test Match record (since 1949) between these two nations reads: Test Matches: 53 Sweden wins: 28 Poland wins: 25 See all the matches raced in Poland here http://www.internationalspeedway.co.uk/polvswe.htm and all the matches raced in Sweden here http://www.internationalspeedway.co.uk/swevpol.htm

Erik Riss is not picked either. And it was Riss and Huckenbeck who finished fourth in last year's World Games Best Pairs Event in Wroclaw. The dilema for the TM is that You only have two SoN spots to fill now instead of four in the SWC. He could never leave out Smolinski, who is the most experienced of all the German riders and has been the top and only reliable point scorer in most of the Germans' SWC appearances. So it was a straight choice between Wölbert and Huckenbeck, and the Team Manager has decided against Wölbert. I can see nothing wrong with that desicion.

Apparently the Poles are selling two-days tickets only for the SoN Finals on Friday and Saturday. They need to, otherwise the stadium would be half empty on the Friday.

Best Swedish line-up possible - I am looking forward to their performance against the mighty Poles !

The current formula in the SGP with sixteen riders, twenty heats, two semis, and the final, and all points scored counting for the world cahmpionship is simply the best they ever had.

Torun is a club rumoured to be run by the so-called "Polish Speedway Mafia". Some very unpleasant peole involved there, but they seem to have a lot of influence in Polish speedway. Lots of money on offer for the riders. Each year they can buy the very best of riders, but no wonder the riders don't feel happy riding for this club and often perfom below expectations when riding in the Torun colours. Last year they were nearly relegated, but escaped under suspicious circumstances. There was a bribery scandal when Torun were riding in the relegation matches with Gdansk and someone (said to be a sponsor of the Torun club) offered one of the Gdansk riders (Kacper Gomolski) lots of money if he doesn't perfom so well, has just been swept under the carpet. Gomolski went to his Team Manager and they informed the PZM. But nothign much happend. The Torun Club escaped without punishment ! It's a scandal ! By the way, the Torun team loses more an more of their supporters. Friday night's crowd at Torun for their home match against the league's number one Team Unia Leszno was disappointing to say the least (less than 5,000).

Germany has Michael Härtel and Lukas Finhage still under 21 years old

Holder didn't have a Crash in the Torun meeting last night. Did something happen to him in the pits?

Could a new (fourth) rider come in on the secdon day (Saturday) of the final to replace a rider who was injured on the first day (Friday) of the final and is unable to ride on Day Two?

An Overseas Final as an regional qualifying round before teh SGP Challenge would be a very attractive meeting in itself. As it would carry a title of its own (Overseas Champion) it is certainly more attractive than the current annonymous SGP Qualifying rounds. that we again have spread out across the continent, taking place in Slovakia, Germany, Denmark and Italy over this weekend. Imagine an annual Overseas Final with 6 British, 6 Australian, 2 USA, 1 New Zealand, and 1 Argentinean rider. (No places needed for Canada or South Africa at the moment) Top 5 from the Overseas Final to go through to the SGP Challenge. Add the top 5 from a Nordic Final with 6 Danes, 6 Swedes, 2 Finns, and 2 Norwegians, and with the top 5 from a highly competitive Continental Final with the top Poles, Russians, Czechs, Germans, and all the other European nations, who should probably contest some preliminatry roudns first, to give each nation a fair number of representatives. That makes 15 qualified riders for the SGP Challnege, plus one seeded rider of the host nation. Top 3 from the Challenge to qualify for the SGP as we have it.

Agree, it would be better as some riders seem to have only one really outstanding good season, and are unable to replicate this in the following years. For the European Championship (SEC) they do the qualifying rounds at the beginning of the season April / May, before the finals series begins. There is no reason why it couldn't be done in the same way for the SGP World Championship series. I'd like to see something else changed. Why not return to regionalised qualifyiers ? Would spare many a rider much unneccessary traveling. Lets have three zones like we used to have many years ago, with a Continental Final, a Nordic Final, and an Overseas Final (in the UK), from where the top five riders qualify for the SGP Challenge.