Bavarian

Uzbekistan even had another speedway track in the late 1960's at Almalyk. Their teams rode in the USSR leagues of 1967 and 1968-1970. The Uzbekistan speedway clubs in the Soviet Union leagues were: "Uzbekistan" Almalyk (1967), "Metallurg" Almalyk (1968-1970), "Luch" Fergana (1977-1990).

Now that the Laguta bros. have left to ride for Czetochowa next year, who will replace them at Daugavpils?

Are there no AUssie solo meetings on this weekend, except the cancelled 5-team event at North Brisbane?

Not so, the problem last year was that there was not enough time (just a couple of weeks) between the previous round and the next one in Russia, and that made it difficult for many of the western Europe riders to get their visas in time. This problem has been looked at this year and between the semi-finals and the final of the U21 World Cup there are more than two months which is easily enough time for the teams/riders to apply and sort out the visas. It simply is a poor decision by the British authorities not to take part this year, when even the USA does organise a team to go all the way from a preliminary round in the Ukraine, something the British team would not have had to bother with. As finalists last year Great Britain would have been seeded for one of the semi-finals in Poland or Germany. As I see it, all teh other major and many of the minor nations take part, only the British are missing.

Australia, and more so New Zealand, don't have any great speedway venues and promoters to hold the big meetings You talk about! Gone are the days of the Sydney Showground, the Ekka or Claremont, all that is left for solo speedway are some obscure bush tracks like Mildura, Gillman, Kurri Kurri or Brandon. How on earth would the FIM select such places to stage world championship speedway. Rest asure, the SGP desperately wants to spread into AUSSIE/NZ but it is the lack of decent venues to stage a GP down under, that makes it a mission impossible. Tell me who is the greatest solo speedway promoter these days? Are there any promoters for solo speedway at all? Is it still a way to earn some dollar in Oz, or is it left to clubs that run the sport, more or less just for the fun of it? Compare this to Poland, Sweden, or even Britain, and You must admit that Australia is way behind them. It does not matter if the clubs still produce some great junior talent, as long as there isn't any senior solo speedway in Australia worth to take notice of. If there was, surely the top star Aussie riders and top level overseas riders would return and ride there, just as it was in the good old days. No promoters, no top class venues and no money, simply means no top class solo speedway for You Aussie and Kiwi fans. Forget about any FIM events, they would be too expensive and too difficult to organize. But there is another way forward for Australian solo speedway. Invite a touring team and stage Test Matches! It would be great to see an OFFICIAL solo test series between Australia and England once more. Official, because anything less would devalue the product. Get it right from the start! This would be much more appealing for the general public, and possibly TV in Aussie AND Britain, than a five round Aussie Championship, that does not have much appeal for the fans and the riders, and where the best of Australia's riders don't bother to show up anyway. Stage a five match test series instead, and a one-off Aussie Final. If YOu considder England as too weak, bring over an other nation (Poland, Sweden, Russia,etc) or a combined team (Europe, Overseas, Rest of the World). Raise funds and sign the best available Australian riders to do the test series and the Aussie final and try to get some decent tracks/venues for these big six events, that You could sell as a package to a TV producer. That would be a decent start to get things right.

Nygren was a Pretoria Eagles favorite.

No chance! It is Poland, not England!

Amazing to see Slovakia take part in the team cup. Three additional home meetings at Zarnovica is great. This track never ran more than just a couple of meetings per year in the past. Good to see that expand in 2011. But I wonder if Slovakia has enough rider to raise a full team or will they rely on guests? And isn't it sad that the Austrians show no interest in this competition, when all the nations around them take part!

Very good if it comes so. 10 teams in the Ekstraliga is fine. The top clubs in Div.1 are strong enough to hold their own in the EL. 4 Poles, incl two u21s, in the team is fantastic news. It is good for Polish Speedway and will please the Polish speedway public! You can still have three (r or isit four with eight man teams) foreigner in teh team, but those will again only be top class foreign riders, not mediocre ones. Hey, British promoters, are You listening!!!! And only one GP rider per team with ten teams and fifteen permanent GP riders it is obviously making sense for the clubs to bring the financial demands of those GP stars back to a more affordable level. With a surplus of GP riders, if one asks for too much money, another may get the job.

Wally Lloyd had made his test debut for England much earlier, but this of course in a non-official test on his tour of South Africa on December 12 of 1930 at the Ellis Park Cindrena in Johannesburg. He scored five points from three rides in England's 37-17 win over South Africa. Wally Lloyd was one of the most promient figures in pre-war South African speedway, as he was one of the first overseas riders to race there in the 1929/30 season, then came back with the first English touring team in the 1930/31 season and again rode in South Africa in 1935/36, when he and a very young Phil Bishop had plans to move there permanently and join a consortium of speedway promoters. Wally Lloyd returned to ride speedway in S.Africa shortley after the war in 1946, this time accompanied by his younger brother Jeff.

Which really is a scandal in my eyes. Even the Ukraine have got 2 places this year, who have no real background as an ice racing nation, no meetings in their country and to the best of my knowledge there is only one rider, Oleg Dozaev. Why the Swiss are treated like that I don't understand. They do stage ice racing each year and have a number of riders (more than the Netherlands for example), but are not given a fair chance to compete.

I often wonder why it is that no Aussies come over to race in New zealand? Last year there was sidecars tour of some Australian outfits in NZ, which wa a great success. But apart from Queenslander Tyson Nelson, who was riding in NZ last season, I don't recall any Aussie solo riders in NZ for ages. What stops You from inviting an Australian Solo team on a tour of NZ?

Isn't there a qualifying round or semi-final this year? I am told that Poland wants to enter a team in the Ice racing world cup and are prepared to stage the qualifying round. The idea was that seven teams wouuld contest this qualifyer and five progress to the world cup finals in Berlin, where the hosts Germany and cup holders Russia are seeded. The two extra nations needed to do the qualifyer are obviously Poland and Switzerland, who have applied for participation in this competition for several years now.

@Gorka I hear there is a problem at Lviv with the avaialbility of the speedway stadium. They did not ride their final home league meeting against Turbina, and have cancelled the final round meeting of the MACEC Cup? What is the problem at Lviv?

Just want to let You guys know that perhaps it is wise to buy entry tickets in advance. I'm not an ice racing fan, so it does not concern me at all, but if You go there You should be aware that the stadium capacity has been more than halved because of converting the stadium into an indoor facility. I am told that only about 5,500 will make it a sell-out crowd! Should be full on both days! And I could imagine that with theimproved facilities and teh much reduced capacity, Inzell ticket prices may be on the rise quite dramatically!

Not much hope for speedway at this track. There won't be a meeting there this year as far as I know, but maybe someone knows better?

After a year off due to the construction work, this winter's ice racing at Inzell will be the first in the brand new Inzell Indoor Ice Arena! One can expect the Arena to be similar to how it was at Hamar in Norway, but hopefuly with a lot more atmosphere!

Good, at least two young hopefulls. I will keep a watching eye on their performances from now on. I'd love to see Wales and Scotland back in international speedway!

Let me ask something. It's nice to see meetings staged at that tiny little Pinjar Park oval, but don't You WA guys long for riding on a bigger track? Are there any other tracks for solos to ride in WA, because the only track I read about is Pinjar Park and at 142m length this is even smaller than Coast Mesa in USA, the most famous of those mini speedways. What is this other track were they hold the WA State title this year? We never hear anything about it!

Fly into Slazburg, its much closer to Inzell than Munich Airport. No problems to buy tickets on the gate. The vast majority of people do so. Inzell is not a big town, rather a village, and distances are not problematic, but it is about 2 or 3 km from the town center to the Ice Arena. Depends where Your hotel is. For more info take a look here: Inzell

I wonder if IMG still have Malaysia / or Singapore on the SGP radar. And what about the USA, a couple of years ago there was talk about a brand new speedway stadium (for the American Dirt-Track motorcycle racing) of some 400m length to be opened at Daytona Beach, right next to the Daytona Superspeedway they use for the Daytona 500 NASCAR race. That would be a great loaction for a Speedway Grand Prix!

Any Welsh riders left in the game? Tony Atkin, I know, but are there some others for the future?

What the hell is going on in Holland? Speedway is down on its knees, even though there are three or four speedway tracks and more than enough riders willing to have a go! How bad can the administration of the sport be? What would be the solution?

So the great Norwegian Speedway Mystery remains unsolved! Anyway, thanks for the kind reply, mothorsen!

Ah, yes, I remember. So has only the Drammen track made the use of the new silencers compulsory? I wonder what will happen next year then???