Bavarian

Manzares' win comes as no surprise. At just 142m length the Pinjar Park track is home from home for an American speedway rider.

Only one more meeting, a 4-team interantional at Lelystad in September. Other than that only amateur club meetings at Lelystad, and unfortunately no national or open Dutch Championship this year.

Germany misses out as they finished behind Hungary (10th), Italy (11th) and Slovenia (12th) in the 2013 SWC qualifiers. Germany (13th) was next in line, then came the Ukraine (14th) and France (15th). Top 9 nations in the 2013 SWC were Poland (1st), Denmark (2nd), Australia (3rd), Czech Republic (4th), USA (5th), Latvia (6th), Great Britain (7th), Sweden (8th) and Russia (9th)

Results of the Grand Final: 1st. M.Plaisted (South Australia) 2nd. D.Treloar (New South Wales) 3rd. M.Headland (South Australia) 4th. W.Monson (Victoria)

This is the line-up for tomorrow's inaugural Oceania Championship Dylan Blain (& Robert Gottardi) QLD Grant Bond (& Glenn Cox) NSW Andrew Buchanan (& Phillipa Burns) NZ Trent Headland (& Jesse Headland) SA Joe Jones (& John Glover) USA Mark Mitchell (& Tom Golding) SA Brodie Cohen (& Josh Sinnott) QLD Hayden Bond (& Brady Cox) NSW Darrin Treloar (& Blake Cox) NSW Jason Hardy (& Geoff Langdon) SA Mark Plaisted (& Brian Anthony) SA Byren Gates (& Mick O'Loughlin) NSW Mark Cossar (& Daz Whetstone) UK Mick Cave (& Ben Goddard) UK Warren Monson (& Matt Morgan) VIC Mick Headland (& Paul Waters) SA

Absolutely right, Phil, it's not the Speedway GPs, but the Sunday afternoon Polish league that has done all the damage to the long-track scene.

This is a link to the Mildura MCC website http://www.milduramotorcycleclub.org.au/2013-2014-competition-calander

League speedway returns to New Zealand this season with three provincial teams meeting each other on a home-and-away basis between November 2013 and early January 2014. The teams are AUCKLAND (Rosebank Domain), CANTERBURY (Moore Park, Christchurch) and SOUTHLAND (Oreti Park, Invercargill).

We will have to wait a little longer for the 2014 German fixtures to be decided, there is nothing definite yet. But as DutchGrasstrack wrote, it will be interesting where the long-track GPs will be held next year. Vechta has already declined and there are currently no other German tracks interested. The venue in Finland hosts the team event and won't stage a long-track GP, and Norway seems to be off the calendar as well. That leaves France, possibly the Netherlands and maybe Marianske Laszne in the Czech Republic, plus of course any of the big speedway tracks such as Rzeszow in Poland.

They should play something like March of the Gladiators

Injustice. The team manager gets fined and banned, and the owner, who was the cause of all this bullsh.. walks away untouched. Torun want to buy Emil Sayfutdinov and Nicki Pedersen for next season. Hats off to Woffy whom they had also targeted, but has said no to their offer and remains with Wroclaw in 2014.

Strange situation at Karlstad. By the way, wasn't there talk a couple of years ago about Bysarna getting a new track on the island of Gotland. What is the situation with Bysarna? Any news?

Yes, it is indeed true that Gerrit Kops won a Dutch Championship in 1938. In that year the titles (350cc and 500cc) were decided in a meeting on a 650m track at Utrecht. But there have definitely been earlier championships prior to this 1938 event, and possibly even before 1935. I know of the 1935 championship, because it was staged at promoter Jimmy Baxter's track at Rotterdam, and this was the first time that the Dutch Championship was run on a cinder track (on a sintelbaan, as the Dutch call it). In other years It was contested on sand- or grass-tracks of various lengths.

Sorry gustix, the 1963 Speedway Digest list of national championship winners is not reliable. It contains many, many mistakes. For example, the first time that the Netherlands (K.N.M.V.) staged a national championship for motorcycle track racing was in 1935, not 1938. This inaugural Dutch National Championship was held at Rotterdam, and, as in later years, the championships of the Netherlands were split into two classes, the senior 500cc title and the senior 350cc title.

The United Kingdom is the only country were the Laguta brothers had these visa problems. Don't know about NZ, though, could be a similar case there, too, but since his younger brother has already done a full season of Grand Prx racing two years ago, he knows all about it.

Does anyone know, Gray or Gorka, is speedway finished for good in the Ukraine ? Just a handfull of meetings all year long, and no Ukrainian individual, team or junior championships ? There is no more speedway at L'viv and now next to no racing at Rivne and Chervonograd as well. Tsukanov has already gone home to Russia, and Loktaev is now also set to return to Russia, which leaves Andriy Karpov as the lone top rider in the Ukraine. What can we expect from Ukrainian speedway in 2014 ? Will there be any speedway at all in the Ukraine next year ?

It's Matej Kus. Unfortunetely neiter Casatgnia junior nor Kus are very spectaluar types of riders. The Young British Lions would have made a much bigger impact. Perhaps some of the young Brits, having already paid for their flight tickets, could still come over and stay as free lancers for a few meetings in WA.

I thought the racing at the World Cup race off and final in Prague this year was exceptionally good (for Prague). It is not a great track, but it isn't that bad either.

Dates: Round 1 - Kurri Kurri, NSW - November 16th Round 2 - Murray Bridge, SA - January 4th Round 3 - Albury, NSW - January 18th Round 4 - Renmark, SA - February 1st Round 5 - Gillman, SA - February 8th (t.b.c.) Round 6 - Alice Springs, NT - March 1st Round 7 - Gillman, SA - March 22 Grand Final

The inaugural F.I.M. Ocenania Sidecar Championship takes place at MIldura (Victoria) on Saturday 23rd November; 2013.

Torun surely could have used r/r for Gollob and have Sullivan ride for Holder. The team would not have been too weak then. It is a shame what happened and Torun should be severely penalised for their actions. Torun should be relegated to the next lower level of the Polish League (1st Division) for next season. How could their riders celebreate their silver medals after this shambles? It's a disgrace, and PZM should strip them of the silver and give it to Tarnow, and the bronze to Czestochowa.

Not much worse than the SGP series. And they have the most spectacular rider Griory Laguta in the SEC, that's a bonus. I enjoy watching the SEC just as much as the SGP.

Does Robert Lambert hold a British ACU license this year, or does he still ride with a German DMSB license? I ask this, because he rode in the German U-21 national championship today, which seems a bit strange since he is not German and I thought does not hold a German racing license anymore. Would he have been eligible to ride for K.L.Young Stars in the National League with a German license?

Yes, he was behind the idea of double points. Indeed, that's correct. It was Simon Wigg who first suggested this as a way to make meetings more entertaining. He got the idea from riding in a Sunday afternon grass track event in northern Germany, where the organisers came up with this funny idea to combine the racing with the then popular tv show of the spinning wheel of luck (in German: Glücksrad). If I remember correctly, they had a huge spinnign wheel on teh centre green next to teh starting gate. The helmet colours where indicated on the spinning wheel, and the rider, who's colour came up, rode for double points in the next race. They spun the wheel before each race. Don't ask me what the organisers, spectators, and riders thought about it, but it was intended to add the element of luck to the racing. For same strange and unknown reason Simon Wigg thought it was a good idea, and suggested this to someone at the BSPA to try it in British speedway. By the way, the spinning wheel and double points at this particular German grass track event soon went into oblivion, never to be tried again. Everyone thought it was just a joke and not worth keeping. But in the UK, thanks to Mr. Wigg, the double points joker rule was introduced to British speedway and continues to be a pain in the neck for every serious speedway follower to this day. Oh, those bloody Germans!

Speedway at the Olympics is cetainly a no-go, but it reminds me of another topic. Speedway to be held at former Olympic venues, such as the London Olympic hockey stadium. Wasn't there an intention to use this stadium in the years after the Olympic Games for big speedway meetings in London?