Bavarian

They should pick three young Poles to help fill the Gorzow grandstands. Not that it will be a repeat of the Bydgoszcz GP in front of empty terraces.

Very sad news, indeed. 58 is no age. R.I.P. Mike

Keep it simple. No extra points/ bonus points etc, please. It is near perfect like is is now. We never had a better system for the SGP. No changes needed. It would only be changes for the worse.

No, the points averages have no meaning in the Bundesliga. Any German rider can replace any other German rider as a guest. All German riders are regarded as Grade B. The only excepetion this year is Smolinski, as he is a SGP rider. Therefore he has the status of a foreign rider, Grade A. That is why Landshut this year can only track one foreigner alongside Smolinski in their team. The other teams can track two foreigners. Bundesliga team line-ups numbers 1 to 6 consist of the following types of rider: 1 - Grade A rider (a foreigner or a German Grand Prix rider) 2 - Grade A rider (a foreigner or a German Grand Prix rider) 3 - Grade B (German rider) 4 - Grade B (German rider) 5 - Junior (German U23 rider) 6 - Junior (German U21 rider) Number 6 is optional, and has no programmed rides.

I'd say that the Bundsliga is a very good competition, even with only three teams left. Five teams in the Bundesliga would be the ideal number, to make it a round-robin-tournament with two home and two away meetings for each team, followed by the top two play-off finals. What I am not happy about is the introduction of guest riders. But I will be at Landshut to-night for the re-match with Wolfslake Berlin. It's a must win situation for the Devils in their last meeting of the regular season. I guess they will win to-night, and if Brokstedt wins at Wolfslake, Landshut will be in the finals versus the Vikings ( I only hope that no guest rides will be used in the finals).

Bad blood already, and the competition has not even begun yet. I am only waiting for someone suggesting to allow a "guest rider" in circumstances like with Holder either riding for Poole or Piraterna.

Yes, bizzare rules. Deddens was ruled unfit to continue riding by the track doctor. He apparently had high blood pressure. Very handy for Wolfslake, as they were now able to replace their worst rider (Deddens) with any other one of their remaining four, and chose Ulamek. The Bundesliga has introduced "guest riders" this year, and Landshut used German champion Kai Huckenbeck as a guest for their injured junior Michael Härtel at Wolfslake. Yet, Härtel had already made his comeback from that injury when he turned out for Landshut's junior team at Olching a week ago on Sunday, and had scored a fifteen point max. Härtel rides for the Devils in to-night's return match against Wolfslake at Landshut. Tonight at Landshut, the Wolfslake team have a guest rider, Tobias Kroner (a former Landshut rider), replacing Mathias Schultz, who was "injured" (burns to his leg) last Sunday at Wolfslake, but had completed the whole meeting with his "injury", apparently showing no ill effects then. I hate the guest rider scheme, because it opens the door for cheating (allowing a horses-for-courses strategy, by replacing out-of form riders with guests who go particularly good a certain tracks). This makes a mockery of what should be a fair and square sporting contest. It should be abolished immediately.

nice logo, but how can they seriously call this entirely European competiton for the league champions of Poland, Sweden, Denmark and Britain a WORLD LEAGUE ?

Worthless event - this proposed champions league of Speedway, strangely to be named "the World League", is well and truely a mickey mouse competition that nobody wants, and will never work. How come British promoters constantly complain about too many of these competitons on the continent and then help create this one?

Slovenia and Italy on 28 points tied for first place after 16 of 20 heats. Germany on 25 and the three Russians have 22. All except Germany have played the joker.

It is first of all the duty of the FIM to pay the teams and riders better. Where is all the money (a million per year from BSI for the SGP and SWC) going to? 071b.11 SCALE OF EXPENSE REIMBURSEMENT Travel expenses, as well as long distance and ferry costs, are included in the scale of expense reimbursement of each Championship meeting. All amounts indicated in the scale of expense reimbursement are shown in Euros and are net amounts. All amounts can only be paid to the riders in Euros. This is how much the teams get paid fro riding in tonights SWC qualifier in Italy. Preliminary Round 4 teams Placings 1st = 2,725 Euros (per team) 2nd = 2,000 Euros (per team) 3rd = 1,575 Euros (per team) 4th = 1,300 Euros (per team) total = 7,600 Euros No wonder the Russians came with only three riders, it is better to devide it by three than by four. The money on offer is ridiculous, and I am amazed that Russia, or the USA in recent years, does sent a team to participate in the SWC qualifying rounds.

Gafurov should have been their fourth rider, but is not there. Anyway, no use in the Russian trying to qualify for an SWC event in the UK (King's Lynn) when they know pretty well that their best riders wouldn't get a visa to compete. It's ridiculous, as is the FIM prize that is on offer for this qualifying round. How can they expect the Russian riders travelling thousands of miles to ride for peanuts.

Is this European 125cc Youth Cup a speedway or a long-track competition?

Having seen Kildemand and Jepsen Jensen ride for Czestochowa against Torun in the Polish League last Sunday, no one should question the decision to give Kildemand the wildcard for the Copenhagen GP. Jepsen Jensen is stuggling big time this season, not at all living up to his own high level of expectations. I wouldn't be surprised if Czestochowa releases him during the season. He should do much better. What's his problem?

Gafurov is out, he has to ride in the SGP Quali at Abensberg on Monday.

Smoli to win

Who is this Vegaard Starsveen? A newcomer? junior? Have never heard of him, but had quite good score in the first meeting. WHo is he? By the way, how can he ride for Mjosa in round 1 and for Oslo in round 2. Is there a guest rider scheme in the Norwegian league? Riska without Rune Sola and without Remi Ueland ? Elgane team looks unfamiliar without the Bjerk brothers. I see Inge Bjerk rode for Oslo in round 2. Where was Mikke? Has Mikke quit speedway, or why didn't he ride? On the other hand, where was the younger of the Gunnestad brothers, Thomas, who used to ride for Oslo ?

These ticket prices spell disaster for the SWC finals in Bydgoszcz. Much too expensive. Why don't they learn and make it cheaper for the fans, instead of heading for another disappointment with an empty stadium as it was at this year's SGP there. Stadium facilities there are crap, seats are a long way away from the track and viewing is not good from some of the cheaper places. Interest for speedway in this town is at an all time low. There may still be a half-decent crowd for the SWC final, I'd expect maybe about 5,000 or more, with the Polish team in this meeting, but there will be an empty stadium for the race off without the Polish team. I just can't understand the logic in seeding the hosts straight into the final, when the home team would be just as much needed in the race-off on Thursday to attract the spectators. If the home team is good enough, they will qualify from the race-off anyway, and will so be in both meetings. If not good enough, they will be eliminated, which is only fair play. The crowd for the final will still always be halfway decent, as it is a world cup final, which in itself is an attraction, regardless of with or without the home team. Ticket prices must come down to avoid empty stadia in the SWC, and the host nation for the race-off and final shall only get seeded for the race-off instead of for the final.

Martin Smolinski is a crowd puller here in Germany. He certainly polarizies, some love him, some hate him.

Andersen was quite relaxed just watching the action from the pits. He seemed to take it easy and did not seem to really expect getting a call-up to ride.

Not sure if the Eurosport commentators were actually at trackside or sitting back home in a studio, but I saw Kelvin Tatum strolling around in the pits at Landshut and watching the racing. Very good racing last night, the first big speedway meeting here in Germany for a long time. One Sport did a great job to organise this. Not much difference in the quality compared to the events organised by BSI/IMG.

BSI/IMG failed to bring a fresh face, that's a young Polish pretender, into the 2014 SGP series as a direct replacement for Gollob. Now there are only two Polish riders in it, Hampel and Kasprzak. A third Polish rider would have been desireable, with three GPs being staged in Poland. Harris replacing Gollob wasn't greeted with applause over there.

Seems that the live stream for Germany was looked at, as someone told me that the Bydgoszcz SGP was NOT blocked out in our land. I have not seen it myself but will give it a try next time with the Finnish SGP to confirm this. Thank You to Phil Rising, Paul Bellamy and all, who made this available here in Germany.

Who says that international test matches have no appeal to the public? If the BSPA would try a little bit harded these could be the gems of the British season. But sending Premier League teams (GB v AUS) out, isn't the same as having the best on track, isn't it? This was a very enjoyable meeting between Poland and Australia tonight. The Poles were handsome winners, always the favorites with Gollob and Hampel in the team, and the Aussies minus Darcy Ward. There was good competitive racing, and yet still a friendly atmosphere prevailed. And it was an excellent crowd in attendance at this second division track Ostrow. Every speedway nation should do one or two of these international tests each year. This would bring a little more colour into the rather dull and deserted international teams' speedway calendar. I'd love to see a Denmark v Poland test match next year.

What a shame that Ward is not riding. Makes it hard for the Australian team tonight. He isn't injuried, is he?