Bavarian

That's 30 points required from the 20 heats for the runners-up at the Abensberg meeting to reach the final.

Torún have sacked their team manager Gajewski

Not so, they get along well with each other. Money was the only reason that prevented the Russians to track both Lagutas along with Emil in the SWC. None of their three stars rides for peanuts, and the budget of the Russian SWC Team was hardly enough to finace two of them, along with three inexpensive young guns. TM Andrey Savin decided to go for Emil and Grigorij, and left Artem out, who then spent the World Cup week on holidays in Abu Dhabi.

Not neccessarily each year, but instead of only having test matches, Speedway should have a proper International Team tournament. Something similar to the Rugby Six Nations Tournament, with teams meeting each other in a round-robin-tournament once either at home or away. With possible tv coverage, a Speedway Five Nations with the "Big Five" of Great Britain, Poland, Sweden, Australia, and Denmark, could be a big thing. Australia's home meetings could be staged at UK tracks.

can we agree that the referee was brilliant last night? he did not stop the heats, when the riders that obviously moved did not gain an advantage. He gave them their deserved warnings after the race had finshed. This saved us all a tremendous amount of time and the meeting ran smoothly and finished in less than 2 hours. Perfect!

Andrei Kudriashov to replace the suspended Grigorij Laguta and Mikkel Bech comes in for Nicki Pedersen

If Laguta is banned for some time, it will be a tough season for his club Rybnik, who are fighting to stay in the Ekstarliga. Very fortunate this for Torún who are currently below Rybnik in the league standings.

Tonight, Saturday, July 8, 2017, four (plus one reserve) British Sidecars compete for the European 500cc title at Tayac in the South West of France 1 - Kevin HÜBSCH (& Michael Burger) - GERMANY 2 - William MATTHIJSEN (& Sandra Mollema) - NETHERLANDS 3 - Mitch GODDEN (& Paul Smith) - GREAT BRITAIN 4 - David CHAMINADE (& Stephanie Vedelago) - FRANCE 5 - Martin BRANDL (& Hermann Brandl) - GERMANY 6 - Christophe GRENIER (& Vincent Bertoneche) - FRANCE 7 - Dave CARVILL (& Cameron Gooden) - GREAT BRITAIN 8 - Markus VENUS (& Markus Heiß) - GERMANY 9 - Shaun HARVEY (& Danny Hogg) - GREAT BRITAIN 10- Guillaume COMBLON (& Chloe Agez) - FRANCE 11- Josh GOODWIN (& Liam Brown) - GREAT BRITAIN 12- Markus BRANDHOFER (& Tim Scheunemann) - GERMANY 13- Barrie BENNETT (& Eifion Hughes) - GREAT BRITAIN 14- Joel SUDNIKEVITS (& Johan Paabstel) - ESTONIA

I wonder if this meloduium can actually do him any good to perfom better in a motor sports disciplin. And I wonder if it is appropriate for this sport to promote performance enhancing substances in form of energy drinks such as Red Bull and Monster Energy, which the riders drink at every given opportunity during live TV interviews.

Very true. Of the current Latvian SWC team, only Puodzuks is an ethnic Latvian. The other three - Lebedevs, Bogdanovs, and Kostygovs - all have Russian forefathers, as has their Team Manager Rybnikovs. But of course the riders are all Latvian citizens, born and raised in Latvia. Nothing wrong here.

The Polish PZM has reported Laguta for having failed a drugs test at a Polish league meeting. Great ! The timing to have him suspended just hours before todays' SWC race-off is perfect. The Russians have no time to react, can't call-up one of their other riders, and have to use Gleb Chugunov. Congratulations to the PZM, for eliminating one of the Polish team's biggest rivals for Gold, and spoiling the excitment of the SWC race-off and final.

this was (technically) a long-tack event

... and then there was Fay Taylour https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fay_Taylour ... and another great rider of the pioneer years of 1928/29, Larry Coffey, from Belfast in Northern Ireland, who lost his life at the London White City Stadium.

There was a Long-track speedway meeting in Sweden last week, at the Axevalla trotting track at Skara, with riders from Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark. This revival for motorcycle racing at this venue attracted nearly 3,000 spectators. The last time a long-track motorcycle race meeting was held at Skara was more than 30 years ago in the year 1983. Here is a short video to give an impression of the venue and the racing https://hallpressen-tv.solidtango.com/video/syntolkad-longtrack-speedway-pa-axevalla?html5=0

4,000 spectators but many were disappointed with the quality of this pairs Meeting. Not sure if Landshut will stage another one next year.

Some experience on the Contient would do the British youngster good, too. See how much Robert Lambert has benefitted from his time in Germany. Send a Young England Team on tour to Germany, Czech, or Poland. This would be great !

Who will replace Kylmäkorpi? The SGP Quali meeting at Abensberg features 2 Swedes, 2 Germans, 2 Austrians, 2 Poles, 2 Danes, 2 Czechs, 1 American, 1 New Zealander, 1 Italian, and 1 Belgian !

With three of the four match now off, what is the situation in regard of the clash with the Best Pairs on the re-staging date on May 2nd?

I see from these results of the Italian Championship round, that Italian Speedway is down to ten active riders (inclusive of the Argentinean Nico Covatti). Some have switched codes and are now racing in the Italian Flat Track Championships. And the speedway riders situation is even worse in the other southeastern European nations, such as Austria, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, and Bulgaria. There were only four Slovenian riders in the opening round of their national championship, and there is now only one rider in Croatia (Jurica Pavlic). Teh Alarm bells must ring! How long can it continue like that?

Yes, in speedway team events, all the riders have to be of that nationality they represent. In other sports it may be different. I guess it is not so strict in Rugby Union, but that's another thing. Anyway, in sidecar speedway it is just the drivers, but not their passengers, it seems. I can live with that. Anyway, it is not me who makes up these rules, it is the F.I.M., and You will know we once had a "Team Europe" in a World Ice Racing Final in Russia, and a "Team Adria" in a Speedway World Cup qualifying round. This makes the mixed nationalities of sidecar passengers easily acceptable to me.

It does not really matter what nationality the sidecar passenger has. The nationality of the passenger is not officially regarded in sidecar racing. It is only the driver whose nationality is officially represented in these FIM sidecar championship meetings. This is a litte bit like the Manager(Coach/Trainer in international Football (World Cup / Euro), for example at the EURO 2016 Iceland had a Swedish coach, and Scotland once had the German Berti Vogts. That does not matter.

Today at Gillman Speedway, Adelaide, South Australia, is the 1000cc Sidecar Speedway F.I.M. World Cup Final http://www.gillmanspeedway.com/news/speedway-riders-chase-sidecars-world-cup-in-adelaide-this-saturday-night/ These are the riders/passengers for today's F.I.M. World Sidecar Speedway meeting (8 AUS, 5 NZ, 2 USA, 1 GB): Grant Bond / Glenn Cox (Australia) Hayden Bond / Brady Cox (Australia) Andrew Buchanan / Denny Cox (New Zealand/Aust) James Douglas / Harley Biddle (New Zealand) Byren Gates / Michael O’Loughlin (Australia) Arron Hartwig / Teagan Hartwig (Australia) Trent Headland / Darryl Whetstone (Australia) Joe Jones / Dave German (United States of America) Mark Mitchell / Sam Harrison (Australia) Warren Monson / Andrew Summerhayes (Australia) Jamie Moohan / Bayley Ogilvie (New Zealand) Bryan Motis / Nathan McFadden (United States of America/Aust) Derek Ramsay / Matthew Ramsay (New Zealand) Aiden Thwaites / Shane Twiss (New Zealand) Darrin Treloar / Blake Cox (Australia) Paul Whitelam / Damian Egan (Great Britain/Aust) Reserves: Mark Plaisted / Ben Pitt (Australia), Clint Mayes / Sean Coleby (Australia)

But there aren't really any riders doubling up in ice speedway and Polish League Speedway, are there? Tobi Busch maybe, but his absence would hardly bother the Polish league. I can't see a Problem here, but spectator interest my just not be the same for ice racing in April or even later in the year (there are now some all-year-round ice Arenas available) when lots of other motorsports is going on again.

A 2015 picture from a pre-season practice event at Wagenfeld, Germany. The 500cc sidecar driver is Britain's Natasha Bartlett, with her passenger Ciara Southgate (back), along with Holland's Sandra Molema (sitting in front).

Flat Track Racing is an interesting topic, about which I did not know much about until it was brought up here as a topic on the BSF. It seems there is currently something like a revival for flat track racing in the USA. And it is catching on world wide, at least in countries where there is no other form of Motorcycle dirt track oval racing (Speedway, long-track and grass-track etc) established, and is already quite popular in Spain, or Italy. I can see the potential in Flat Track racing. It may ultimately replace our Grass-track / Long-track racing. It has the advantage of all the big international motorcycle producers being involved. And I can see that these bikes and the livestyle that goes with dirt track / flat track racing is appealing to the younger generation, certainly more than grass-track or long-track. However, I can't see it ever replacing Speedway, because Speedway is such a unique form of motor sport as a team sport with leagues and internationals etc, and to me speedway is much more exciting to watch than flat-track racing. Here is a "dash for cash" flat track race at Santa Rosa (1 mile track) featuring six riders over four laps, just like at a long-track race. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fQmKWK0Z1o