Bavarian

not sure about the dates, but I think they want to start the four round series sometime in June. Selected venues (still unconfirmed though) for the SEC Finals are Czestochowa in Poland, Togliatti in Russia, Gustrow in Germany and Holsted in Denmark.

Taken from the Mildura website, here is a report of the grand finale of this inaugural Oceania sidecar championship. Mick Headland (& Paul Waters) had first choice and interestingly chose the blue, gate two position, even though there had only been three wins from the second gate in the twenty heats. Mark Plaisted (& Brian Anthony) had been looking at the gate two spot, but immediately chose the inside position once it became available. Warren Monson (& Matt Morgan) selected the outside gate position which left Darrin Treloar (& Blake Cox) to take gate three. Plaisted got a wonderful start, while Mick Headland dug in from the second gate, wheelstanding and lost immediate ground to Treloar and Monson, who had moved away quite well from the start. Headland got quite crossed up in turn one and from then was never a chance of winning. Plaisted had four laps to complete to take his biggest prize ever in Sidecar speedway and he, along with his new season’s passenger, Brian Anthony, did not make any mistakes while the three teams behind them all worked overtime but none could catch the SA star, who went on the take the chequered flag and the first Oceania Sidecar title. Monson lost some control after the third lap and went infield and Headland moved by him, although having to go infield to stay safe. The win was a popular one for Plaisted and Anthony as the team had strong support among the large crowd. Chairman of Motorcycling Australia’s Speedway Commission, Mr. Ivan Golding made the presentation of trophies to the four finalists, along with Mildura Club President, Gavin Sedgmen. The Club was delighted to have Mr. Golding in attendance as he had been virtually totally responsible for initiating the Oceania Sidecar Championship concept to replace the failed FIM World Sidecar Championship which was deleted just over two years ago.

Europsport is available in all of Russia, and Eurosport shows the SEC speedway live - and it is free tv, not pay-tv, which means huge viewing figures - that's the big difference and the big advantange the SEC series has over the SGP in most countries.

Here is the complete 2014 fixtures list for all of the F.I.M. speedway and long-track events SPEEDWAY WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP SPEEDWAY GRAND PRIX SERIE 2014 (SGP) Saturday, 05 April 2014 Auckland, New Zealand Saturday, 26 April 2014 Bydgoszcz, Poland Saturday, 17 May 2014 Tampere, Finland Saturday, 31 May 2014 Prague, Czech Republic Saturday, 14 June 2014 Malilla, Sweden Saturday, 28 June 2014 Copenhagen, Denmark Saturday, 12 July 2014 Cardiff, Great Britain Saturday, 16 August 2014 Riga, Latvia Saturday, 30 August 2014 Gorzow, Poland Saturday, 13 September 2014 Vojens, Denmark Saturday, 27 September 2014 Stockholm, Sweden Saturday, 11 October 2014 Torun, Poland Qualification for Speedway Grand Prix Series 2015 Qualifying Round 1 Saturday, 7 June 2014 Saint Johann in Pongau, Austria Qualifying Round 2 Saturday, 7 June 2014 Ljubljana, Slovenia Qualifying Round 3 Monday, 9 June 2014 Abensberg, Germany Race-Off 1 Saturday, 21 June 2014 Gorican, Croatia Race-Off 2 Saturday, 21 June 2014 Czestochowa, Poland Challenge Saturday, 20 September 2014 Lonigo, Italy SPEEDWAY WORLD CUP (SWC) SWC Qualifying Round Saturday, 5 July 2014 Terenazno, Italy (ITA v RUS v SLO v GER) SWC Event 1 Saturday, 26 July 2014 Kings Lynn, Great Britain (GBR v USA v AUS v winner of QR) SWC Event 2 Tuesday, 29 July 2014 Västervik, Sweden (SWE v LAT v CZE v DEN) SWC Race-Off Thursday, 31 July 2014 Bydgoszcz, Poland SWC Final Saturday, 2 August 2014 Bydgoszcz, Poland (POL v ... v ... v ...) LONG-TRACK WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP LONG-TRACK GRAND PRIX SERIES 2014 Thursday, 29 May 2014 Herxheim, Germany Sunday, 13 July 2014 Marmande, France Sunday, 17 August 2014 Eenrum, Netherlands Saturday, 13 September 2014 Morizes, France Sunday, 28 September 2014 Mühldorf, Germany Qualificaton for World Long-Track Grand Prix Series 2015 Qualifying Round 1 Sunday, 1 June 2014 Bielefeld, Germany Qualifying Round 2 Saturday, 5 July 2014 Tayac, France Challenge Sunday, 10 August 2014 Marianske Laszne, Czech Republic LONG-TRACK WORLD TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP Final Saturday, 23 August 2014 Forssa, Finland F.I.M. JUNIOR (Under-21) SPEEDWAY JUNIOR (U-21) SPEEDWAY WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP Qualifying Round 1 Sunday, 27 April 2014 Neustadt/Donau, Germany Qualifying Round 2 Saturday, 3 May 2014 Terenzano, Italy Qualifying Round 3 Saturday, 10 Mai 2014 Leicester, Great Britain Final Round 1 Saturday, 19 July 2014 Lonigo, Italy Final Round 2 Sunday, 17 August 2014 Ostrow, Poland Final Round 3 Saturday, 4 October 2014 Pardubice, Czech Republic JUNIOR (U-21) SPEEDWAY WORLD TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP Semi-Final 1 Saturday, 7 June 2014 Teterow, Germany (GER v CZE v AUS v GBR) Semi-Final 2 Saturday, 5 July 2014 Motala, Sweden (SWE v RUS v FIN v POL) Final Saturday, 23 August 2014 Slangerup, Denmark (DEN v ... v ... v ...) F.I.M. YOUTH - SPEEDWAY, LONG-TRACK and GRASS-TRACK SPEEDWAY YOUTH 250cc INDIVIDUAL WORLD CUP Final Round 1 Saturday, 9 August 2014 Badia Calavena, Italy Final Round 2 Sunday, 10 August 2014 Badia Calavena, Italy SPEEDWAY YOUTH 80cc INDIVIDUAL GOLD TROPHY Qualifying Rounds - Thursday & Friday, 3 & 4 July 2014 - Czestochowa, Poland Semi-finals - Saturday, 5 July 2014 - Czestochowa, Poland Final Sunday, 6 July 2014 Czestochowa, Poland LONG-TRACK YOUTH 250cc INDIVIDUAL WORLD CUP Final Saturday, 13 September 2014 Morizes, France GRASS-TRACK YOUTH 125cc INDIVIDUAL GOLD TROPHY Final Saturday, 23 August 2014 Bad Hersfeld, Germany

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.