Bavarian

Good post.

I'm a bit fed up with this qualifying system. The winners of the semis qualify, that's all right, and then the highest scoring runner-up also qualifies, and this is no good. With the Abensberg semi so strong there is no chance for the runner-up in that meeting to score anywhere near as many points as the runner-up in the other semi. This means with Sweden and Denmark qualifying as semi-final winners, the Czechs will also get through as the highest scoring runners-up while the potentially much stronger Aussies and Brits, who would easily beat the Czechs will not have a chance because they will take points away from each other, while the Czechs have no opposition with the weakened Finns and that make-shift Team Adria as opponents! What a farce! P.S.: I wonder why Jurica Pavlic bothers to ride in this???

Yes Abensberg is a big, flat and fast 400m oval. It is the best of our tracks here in the south and usually hosts the most prestigeous meetings. Abensberg is a former Grand Prix venue. But it does not stage more than a couple of meetings each year. This doesn't give the German riders much of an home advantage, though most of them have ridden the track at least once or twice before. Still I can't see them beating any of the othere three teams. The second qualifyer in Czecho seems an easier route.

But why can't they change that track at Wroclaw. They don't need to built a new stadium, teh one they have is great, but they should do something to the race track. I remeber Bydgoszcz used to have a much longer track in their stadium, then decided to change the shape and shorten it to a 300m track. Now it is one of the best race tracks in teh world. Can't they do this at Wroclaw, too? No wonder they don't have more fans, when the racing is usually not as exciting as elsewhere.

I may be wrong, but isn't Mauro Ferraccioli the lad who was badly injured and confined to a wheelchair sometime in the mid 1980's? Italy had some very good riders in those years, I remember Francesco Biginato, the one with the glasses. Other great little riders were Gianni Famari and who could ever forget that guy Ottaviano Righetto! Looking forward to visiting Your site!

How many qualify for the semi-finals?

Wroclaw has never been know to be a good race track, hence the low attendance figures there compared to other Ekstraliga tracks.

Well, now I am able to answer my own question. Info comes from a team manager and he tells me they will NOT race at Ullevi and he does not know where the story comes from. Lotsarna intend to race their home meetings at Västervik this year. But it would have made sense to have such a test run for the Ullevi track a week before the SGP.

Can someone please either confirm or deny the rumour that there will be spedway meeting held to test the new track in the Ullevi Stadium in Goteborg prior to the Grand Prix? I hear that local club Lotsarna are to ride there in a three team meeting originally planned to be held at Vastervik? True or false?

1960's New Zealand rider Rims Malskaitis was of Lithuanian origins, as is current Australian rider Karlis Ezergailis.

Look here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fergana this is where Sergey Darkin comes from. They did have speedway in this town in Uzbekistan in the the days of the old USSR. By the way Latvian International Andrey Korolevs was born in Baku, Azerbajzan.

@Tomaz German clubs are afraid of the costs for such an air-fence. Can You say how much it cost the Slovenian clubs (in Euros) and how did they finance this?

The "Unknown, looks like a German" is Manfred Poschenrieder, decorated with the winner's laurels in a late 1960's (guess, or very early 70's) meeting at Kempten (the visible writing on the ribbon is "Kempten/Allgau").

It IS Christopher Fink! (Wrong Christian name in the results!)

Just think, who was pushing the FIM for introducing a 250cc world ch'ship/Gold trophy? Answer: Vaclav Verner! Who produces 250cc speedway machines? Answer: Jawa/JRM! Good thing for the Czechs, isn't it? By the way, wouldn't it be neccessary for a certain number of nations to already have this kind of racing class of 250cc speedway before even thinking about introducing a world championship? A bit strange this, isn't it?

How about inviting Romania, they need some more international competition and they do have a nice speedway stadium at Braila.

@tomaz can You please explain what kind of teams will take part. Is this for club teams or for national teams, thats Croatia v Slovenia? How many teams take part in this 'league'?

Yes, it is supposed to be WORLD championship, not an entirely European affair. The FIM have the duty to take the sport overseas. This is long overdue. And yes, it will be an effort to get most of the finalists from Europe to South America, but why not? The young riders from overseas are always expected to come to Europe to race in the world championship events. Why not the other way round? It is time that the sport gets out of Europe. The FIM proposal is to run the final of the world under21's as a series of three meetings, with a couple of European countries hosting round 1 in September and round 2 in October, with the third round being held in an overseas country such as Argentina in November. South America will just be the start, Australia, New Zealand and the USA (California) may host this final round in future years. The FIM hope to be able to finance this project by selling the TV rights. After all, the under 21 world championship serves some of the best racing with often unpredictable results and would be a treat for TV. If they can sell this product to Sky Sports or some Polish or other TV stations, it could really work. It should certainly be possible to raise enough money to take the 15 riders, plus mechanics and equipment overseas. Only 15 riders it would be, with the sixteenth place (a wildcard entry) as well as the two reserves coming from the host nation, just as it's already done in the SGP series. I guess (if neccessary due to financial restrictments) it may even be possible to cut down on that number of 15 riders. After the first two rounds held in Europe it could be ruled that only the top ten or 12 go forward to contest the final round, with the remainig spots filled by local riders as wildcard entries. After all, any rider not placed among the top ten or twelve after two of the three rounds, will not have a chance to win a medal. It would not be necccessary to send the backmarkers overseas. The top riders would go and fight out the medal positions, while a lot of money could be saved by letting the host nation nominate their local favorites as wildcards to complete the sixteen riders line-up. Please remember that this (the reduction of riders) is not what the FIM proposes, these are only my personal thoughts. But I guess it would help to cut costs while it would not harm the credibility of the series in its status as a true world championship. Of course, if the money is there such a cut won't be neccessary at all and all fifteen qualifiers could be sent overseas.

Why was Andrew Bargh a non-starter? (and David Bargh as well?)

The more often I hear this song, the more I like it. Great little speedway song by John McNeil (Much better than anything Egon ever sang).

yes public holiday only in the predominantly catholic states of Germany, that's mostly the southern states such as Bavaria where Steingaden is. Weather forecast is plenty of sunshine and below zero temperatures even at day, though we could do with a little bit more snow. It was raining a lot before xmas and it was above zero so that was not so nice. But now it looks good for the January iceracing in the Alpine regions.

In Romania even today speedway is officially known as dirt track.

I thought the U21 EC final was postponed until 2010 ?

It's a bit ridiculus really. All they have to do is cut the wages. There is no other league the superstars can go to from Poland, so they have to accept.

Get fit with Arthur Dunger, then! See how it goes here mate http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tED12irUKEg