Bavarian

How strange that the BSPA can refuse Scott Nicolls to ride for GB at Esbjerg, and employ a foreign guest to fill the vacany. This is nothing short of a scandal. Make no mistake, British speedway has presented itself exptremely poor in this SBPC meeting at Esbjerg, and thanks to the live tv coverage on EUROSPORT a lot of people all over the world became aware of this.

There were no problems for and with the other foreign riders, only the two Brits told us about the horror they experienced in Argentina. I believe there is a lot of truth in what Ariel writes.

Can Germany then also use a foreign guest in this SBPC next year, just like TeamGB did this time? I'd like to see Zagar or Vaculik, or some of the Polish aces riding together with Martin Smolinski for Germany.

It is taken serious on the Continent. It is regarded as the "unofficial" World Pairs Championship. Teams are true representative selectins of their respective countries, except the British pair last night, which has really spoilt the credibility of this event by including an Aussie in the British team. The USA had the dignity to withdraw from the Esbjerg round since there was no other American rider available to partner Greg Hancock on this occasion. They did not even think about employing a guest rider. Great Britain accepted to replace the Americans and arrived with a foreign rider. It's a disgrace, and if I were OneSport I wouldn't invite GB back next year. Let's rather have the Czechs, Latvia or Finland in the SBPC serie, but don't let the BSPA spoil the occasion again and make a mockery of this international pairs competition.

Landshut was rain affected, too. The start of this SWC qualifyer was delayed by one-and-a-half hours for track remedy work. Zagar and Sayfutdinov were not keen to ride on a very deep track, so the track workers scraped a lot of the wet top layer of the track surface off. Racing was eventually o.k, though not overly spectacular, but, yes, it was a better meeting than what I saw on tv of the pairs event in Denmark. Biggest talking point was the lack of a reserve rider in the SWC - both Germany and Slovenia were beaten by losing one of their riders to injury early on in this meeting.

I agree with the above 100% - I'd love to see this happen - these would be great competitions for future speedway

SWC is a 4-T-T, the World League should be Team vs Team Australia could use British tracks for their home meetings (isn't Poole their spiritual home from home in the UK anyway?) The "Rest of the World" team has plenty of options for their hoem meetings. They could very well rotate with one meeting each in Germany, Czech Republic, Latvia, Finland, Italy, etc

The FIM should make this World Speedway League a competition for national teams meeting each other in a round-robin-tournament (team vs team meetings à la league or test matches). No problems about who rides for which country then. The top six national teams (Poland, Denmark, Australia, Russia, Sweden, Great Britain) plus a Rest of the World team would give most of the top riders a team to ride for. Three home and three away meetigns for each team, plus an end-of-season Grand Final (or a home and away final over two legs). This would be what I'd regard as a real WORLD SPEEDWAY LEAGUE, not the current Mickey Mouse club competition !

Great match between Poland and Denmark - and a last heat decider - I love these international speedway test matches - please let's have more of the kind.

But don't forget that Poole Pirates (Matt Ford) were instrumental in getting this Mickey mouse competition invented. They, along with some guys in Sweden, were behind it from the start. Now they realise they can not run it at their own track, they can not win it with tehir own team, and all of a sudden they do not want it anymore.

Not so. They all WANT to ride for Russia and for the MFR (Russian Motorsports Federation), but they don't want to ride for peanuts. OneSport pays more money in the 'unofficial' SBPC, than what the riders can earn from riding in the BSI/IMG organized official SWC. Laguta only tried to get a Latvian passpart a few years ago, as it would have made it easier for him to travel across Europe. I think Emil got a Polish passport for that purpose. None of them want to give up their Russian citizenship.

why would that be?

Thanks for this info, Jacek

Where can I find the final offical league table of the 2014-15 New Zealand League? I think that in the New Zealand League they have bonus points for losing a match with six (or less) points difference, and also for the winning team for scoring six or more maximum heat wins (5-1s) in a match, is that right? One other question - I wonder why Sean Mason was missing most of the meetings this season? Was he injured?

What is the situation with Bradley Wilson-Dean? I thought he rides for the Eagles this year. Why isn't he mentioned?

Patryk Dudek already has #69

Absolutely agree with that. For team events points should only be awarded for beating opposition riders, not your own team mates. Heat results would be 4-0, 3-1 or 2-2, and it would not matter at all if a rider finishes ahead or behind his team mate, and bonus points are not needed anymore.

I remember those England v Germany test matches at u16 level. I attended a couple of them, at Landshut and Abensberg. They were of great benefit for the English and German lads, and they were quite entertaining and competitive matches. Why can't we have them once more?

The Argentinean speedway season went well, but the attendances for the meetings at Bahia Blanca were not quite as good as it should have been. No doubt, the two British lads have spoilt the party for the Argentinean promoters. They had advertised the two British riders, and the fans were looking forward to see tehm in action, and were of course disappointed when Barker and Worrall did not show.

The track at St.Johann was in much worse condition than the one at Almaty. Racing on the second day at Almaty was not as bad as on the first day. There were some overtaking manoevres and close battles for positions, and some spectacular crashes, too. The racing, though, I admit, was not as good as it should have been. But except for the problems with the ice surface of the racetrack, the organisation of the two-day event in Kazakhstan was first class. The Ice Speedway Grand Prix Series will be back in Kazahkstan next year, and the year after. Almaty has a 3-year contract with the FIM. Next season the ice racing world Championship may even visit another Asian country. Accordng to the F.I.M., a Grand Prix in China is still on the cards. And then, why shouldn't they be thinking about a revival of the sport in Mongolia as well? Let's hope that Ice Speedway can be established in Asia. It would be a much needed boost for a Sport that seems to vanish more and more in Central and Western Europe.

Darrin Treloar and passenger Blake Cox have made it two from two in the Oceania Sidecar Championship with another victory at Mildura’s Olympic Park on Wednesday night. Meeting report here http://www.ma.org.au/index.php?id=12&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=14609&tx_ttnews[backPid]=6&cHash=f80dd69e29 The final round 3 is tomorrow Saturday night at Loxford Park in Kurri Kurri, NSW.

F.I.M. Oceania Sidecar Speedway Championship 2014/15: Round 1 - 07.02.2015 - Gillman Speedway, Adelaide, S.A. Round 2 - 11.02.2015 - Olympic Park Speedway, Mildura, Vic. Round 3 - 14.02.2015 - Loxford Park Speedway, Kurri Kurri, N.S.W. Report of round 1 at Gillman, here http://www.gillmanspeedway.com/news/treloarcox-the-leaders-after-round-one-of-the-oceania-sidecar-championship/ Results, here http://www.gillmanspeedway.com/results/results-gillman-speedway-meeting-number-9-saturday-7-february-2015/

Here is hope that one day soon, other continental federations, such as F.I.M. North America and F.I.M. Oceania organise their own continental speedway championships, just the same as the FIM Europe already does. For a start, the F.I.M. Oceania already run their own 1,000cc sidecar speedway championship in Australia. The next step is an F.I.M. Oceania Solo Speedway Championship.

British sidecar speedway pilots Mark Cossar and Michael Stace are competing in Australia in the 1,000cc sidecar speedway Continental Championship of F.I.M. Oceania. The opening round was last night (Saturday, 7 February) at Gillman Speedway in South Australia. Two World Champions, the Oceania Champion, and National Champions from four countries are amongst the riders who will contest the three round series this year, with meetings at Gillman, Mildura and Kurri Kurri. Former world champions Darrin Treloar (NSW) and Mick Headland (SA), and the reigning Oceania Champion, Mark Plaisted (SA), will lead the Australian riders against the British (Mark Cossar), New Zealand (Paul Humphrey) and USA (Joe Jones) champions. The multiple British Champion Cossar will be more than a match for them if he can repeat last season’s form when he became the first overseas rider to win a round of the national grand slam series. Other multiple championship winning riders taking part include former Australian and South Australian Champion Mark Mitchell who finished third behind Treloar and Headland in last weekend’s Grand Slam round; multiple New South Wales Champion Grant Bond; and Victorian Champions Warren Monson and Byren Gates.