Bavarian

And Switzerland,who are said to have 11 active ice racers, were again denied a place in the world team championship. What a joke!

No, Dale Finch is a New Zealander. But there is an American rider by the name of Jesse Finch.

If the GP series goes to Australia, it should be held at the best available stadia, which Gillman or Mildura certainly are not ! Most importantly they should not just hold one GP, maybe two in Aussie and one in NZ. That makes sense, when tehy get all teh GP riders and stuff over there. If Poland can have three GPs, and two each in Sweden and Denmark, there is every justification to stage a couple (or even more) in Australia as well. How about the Ekka in Brisbane, the new Sydney Showground, Melbourne Showground or Kwinana Beach in Perth? That woud be great tourist destinations.

Didn't he lose his life in a racing accident in America in the 1980's? I am not quite sure but seem to remember something like that. Perhaps anyone on here knows for sure?

Didn't he ride for Halifax?

This stadium You refer to is not in Cape Town, but in Durban. And You may be surprised to know that the old stadium which had to make way for the brand new one, has staged speedway in the past, in fact as recently as the 1980's and early 1990's! That stadium was the old King's Park aka Kingsmead Raceway, where Buddy Fuller & Co ran sprintcars stock cars and solo speedway! Durban has some tradtion with Speedway. It is a great holiday resort. If SA does get a SGP, it should go there! But I agree, it is not likely to happen in the next five years! And it would be quite a risk for the promoter!

He enjoyed it! No doubt about it!

Yes it was great entertainment. Let me tell You it wasn't their team manager whom the riders threw into the mud. This was even better, because it was the multi-millionaire president of the club, Mr. Dowhan! I am pretty sure he hasn't had such treatment since his kindergarden days! Great celebrations in the mud and the rain! What a finale!

I guess Holder isn't like that, because I never saw him throw a Zielona Gora scarf into the mud of the track, but that's exactly what that brat Darcy Ward did, and in front of the fans and the tv cameras. Some say he is just a kid, but I say that's bad behaviour, and if he doesn't change and fast he will make himself very unpopular with many people.

Good decision by the Polish authorizies. Fair play should alsways win against the rule benders. Ostrow lost fair and square on the track. Tha result shoud always stand. Schlein's early removal of the bike should be fined but to change the outcome of this crucial meeting result would have been a shame.

Disappointing meeting in my oppinion. Varagana lacked any fighting spirit, except Miedznski and Woffie. Man, this was a final for the Championship, You got to give it Your all, especially when You hold a 12 point lead after the first day. This was a poor show by Vargarna, but of course I know it is a big achievment by them to get into the final at all. Nobody would have expeceted this from them at the start of the season. Congrats to Lejonen, they deserved the win. But the meeting, which dragged on with very long and boring gaps between the heat, was not exciting to watch. Racing wasn't really exciting, mostly decided after the first bend.

then the brand new FIM Under 21 Grand Prix series is the right thing for You guys. Starting next year with plenty of new blood in it!

Pepe will most likely not be back on a bike again this season. Nothing too serious with his injury, but it takes time to heal, and there is not much left of this season.

This is correct. The 1968 event was always intended as a trial run for this newly invented competition to see how it goes. It was followed by an "official" championship in the following year of 1969. It is a mystery as to why and when the FIM decided this 1969 event not to be regarded as official any more. The riders still have their gold, silver and bronze medals from this event to show. There was a similar FIM test meeting the year before the first official world team cup, which was inaugurated in 1960. The 1959 "European" Team Cup Final, intended as a trial before the world team cup was given official blessing, was run in West Germany at Oberhausen, and if memory serves me correct, the four teams competing in this final were Germany, Great Britain, Poland and Norway (not sure)!

Poland would have won this anywhere in the world. I am disappointed about the poor showing of the Danes, and even more so about the Swedes, and mostly about the Swedish team wearing those uggly Wülfsport shirts. Can't they afford proper team kevlars???

Well it is of course Your decision and if You see it that way, so be it, no problem.

Each to his own of course, but in my mind when You are a speedway fan and have the chance to see such a really important qualifying meeting for the new SGP season right at Your doorstep and decide not to go there ist a strange decision, to put it mildly. What do You think where will You see the more hard fought racing action? At Your Somerset friendly event or at Coventry's world championship eliminator. Come on, get real !

Yes Gorzow went out after losing 47-43 at Zielona Gora. All they need was a draw and tehy had it after heat 14 it was 42-all, but Dobrucki and Lindgren killed them off with a merciless 5-1 in the last heat. Cruel world, now Tomek's Polish League season is over.

Yes, of course, as always in Norway just a one-off final over the classic 20 heat race scheme. Can anybody tell me how often Sola has now won this title? Seems to me he wins it every year!

Is it true that a brand new speedway track and club is set up in the Polish town of Przemysl ?

But why would he rather ride in a long-track meeting (I think it was actually a grass track) instead of in his country's national speedway championship final? Does anyone know how often Kylmäkorpi has contested the Finnish National Championship in the past? Did he ever win the Finnish title?

Why did Kylmäkorpi not ride in this Finnish final? Money???

hey iris, this is very strange to hear about the changing helmet colours at Brokstedt. Are they idiots or what? I know that some people want to keep the colours indicating the starting positions, but this is total nonsense in a team versus team match. All they do is confuse everyone who is watching. Can't they see that they are doing the sport no good at all with this stupid behaviour? I was at Landshut the other week for the Bundesliga match between the Devils and the Wolves, big crowd of nearly 3,000 and great atmosphere, and the helmet colour thing was done the right way there without any hickups as the home team riders wore red and blue and the visitors white and yellow/black for the whole meeting. No wonder that some clubs are more able than others to convince their paying public of the team versus team idea for the league. At Landshut the fans are all behind this, while it seems Brokstedt and Gustrow struggle to get the product across in a proper form. No wonder the people there are confused and don't like it, if the organisers keep making mistakes such as this helmet colours chaos.

No, BEL meetings this season are much better to watch than they were last year. Don't know why, but this season I enjoy the Elite League more then ever. Maybe it's just me or perhaps it's the presence of Charlie Webster????

The same mysterious bike problems that Tommy Stange had at Diedenbergen in the other semi-final round, which spares him a trip to Russia.