Bavarian

Poland did not produce a world champion in the past decade, and that was their high time. Gollob is still the best, but he's not good enough. At the moment there is not the same quality of young riders coming though in Poland than in the past ten or fifteen years. Just look how many (few) Poles are in this year's world U-21 final. I'm sorry but the chances for a Polish world champion are not improving. Seems there could be a Danish dominance just around the corner, something we had in the mid to late 1980's.

Is there any chance that Sullivan may ride this time?

F.I.M. should have something like a developement plan for overseas territories to establish the sport there, help with logistics, track building, getting bikes, spare parts and trainers over etc. Other sports like football or rugby union do it and these sports are now established all over the world.

@Niklos do You know why Konstantin Kornev is not riding this season?

... but the Germans don't !

I don't think that this track is set up for the International star riders. Seems this track is just for the locals to race on and it looks o.k. to me. If You know that they plan to have speedway with the international stars in one of their big stadia (National Stadium in Kuala Lumpur is a 100,000 all seater venue) it makes anything we have here in Europe look small. Give them some time, they have to start somehow. Even those 115cc bikes they will use at first are o.k. for them to learn on. You couldn't put them learners all on a 500cc speedway bike. The best riders will eventually move up to the 250cc and finally to the proper 500cc speedway bikes, and will then race against the best of Europe, Australia and America.

Does anyone know who is behind this venture ? It isn't Avtar Sandhu, is it ? Did they purchase a stable of bikes, spare parts etc - and what track do they ride on ? Can't wait to learn more about it ! Probably the worldwide SGP coverage on TV bears fruit in parts of the world that had not been infected by the speedway bug before. Seems mighty good ! Just imagine what chances for the sport will arise if Speedway Malaysia is a success. It won't stop there - what a perspective ! Speedway to conquer the world !

Like the ref in an ice hockey match - it is always announced what kind of penalty and for what kind of offence. Would be good in speedway too.

Where was Kylmäkorpi ?

Emil yes, but Roman I doubt as GP class, but they do have another one to watch in Grigorij Laguta. Wonder why he wasn't in their SWC team.

Laguta is a Russian !

In individual competition it does not matter what nationality he is. The nominations are from the respective federation that he holds a racing licence. In Glanz's case the ACU - he could be of Chinese or any other nationality, no problem. If the ACU has applied for one spot in this event and got it, they can decide which of their ACU licensed riders to send. It is a different matter in an international team event suchas the World Cup. Here it is the nationality (that's the passport he holds) to decide for which team he can ride, regardless of which federation's license he has.

@f-s-p while You was there did You hear anything whether the Estonians intend to re-start real speedway racing in their country again ?

You may ask him about his second home South Africa and his experiences with speedway in SA.

Reading it, I can hardly believe it. Surely You guys must have had some kind of agreement to got as far as announce and promote this opening meeting. Now when the authorities refuse permission at such a late stage, and with such an obscure reason given, they should be held reponsible to make a financial compensation to cover Your already spent money. Surely if they had originally given You the go-ahead, they should ! (Of course, this may cause bad blood and only harm any hopes that You can get Your track going in the future)

The Wroclaw GP was live on German Eurosport this evening ! First time ever that a speedway GP was shown live and in full on German free TV. Robert Barth was a co-commentator and did a very good job. Seems this was an attempt to promote the awareness of the speedway GP here in Germany with an aim to push ticket sales for the German GP auf Schalke. This live broadcast of the Wroclaw GP was certainly the best possible advertisement for the sport. Hope there will be some more to come this year.

That's business sense - a full house at both Bydgoszcz AND Ostrow - great for the traveling fans.

Bogdanovs was a revelation, Karpov was unlucky and Martinec is one to watch. Any news about Polyuhovich. Is he injured?

King lost out in a 3 rider runoff for 9th place, beaten by Karpov.

Singapore and/or Malaysia

To be honest - speedway is non existant in Germany's mainstream media coverage. The Tv-coverage iris123 mentions is barely worth watching - just a few glimpses of the bikes and a few shots of the racing in a 2 minute bulletin. When was the last time a speedway meeting has been covered live on any of the main TV stations here in Germany. Sometimes in the early or mid 80's. There was live coverage on a special sports channel (DSF) on satelite TV in the 90's, even some of the Superliga was shown (not live though) but then this station demanded money from the speedway to show the racing !!!! Weird, isn't it ? That was the end of it - ask anyone on the street here in Germany about speedway and I am sure 1 in a hundred, perhaps one in a 1000 does not have a clue ! It is that bad, really - and Gelsenkirchen happens to be in a part of Germany were there is no speedway racing at all - and has not been for decades. It will be just as hard for BSI to attract a decent crowd to the GP auf Schalke, as it would be f.e. in Paris or Dublin or Barcelona - places were there is no speedway in their regions. Of course, Gelsenkirchen is not that remote, so there will be a lot of travelling fans from other parts of Germany and neighbouring countries. If it is a success, BSI can really be proud of their act. I wish them well

Don't think there is any evidence of this. Only a myth. Galloway had his bike with him on board of an ocean liner on his way to America (or UK?), and he worked on board as a hairdresser ! During a stop in the Fiji Islands, Galloway "gave the locals a demonstration of broadsiding on his dirt track bike". That's all ! There is no prove that any dirt track or speedway racing was ever done in Fiji, but there was a touring party from NZ in 1970 in New Caledonia ! If I remember correctly Mike Fullerton was one of the touring riders there. Would be interesting to know more about this unusual venture. Also still a great mystery is the pre-war speedway history of Singapore - something to research for our speedway historians out there.

Good pictures, thanks. But has anyone noticed the concrete safety wall on the outisde of this track. Seems to be no problem for the riders - no air fence needed ! Amazing - this has really been a wonderful Aussie Championship series ! Seems for once everyone has pulled together without moaning - where there's a will there'S always a way !

It is interesting to compare the average attendance figures for some of the major Polish League clubs in the last three years from 2004 til 2006. Here are the actual figures (club/2004/2005/2006): Tarnow - 12,700 - 11,500 - 10,500 Bydgoszcz - 7,500 - 11,111 - 7,900 Leszno - 7,900 - 10,278 - 9,770 Zielona Gora - 8,200 - 9,438 - 7,778 Czestochowa - 11,600 - 9,150 - 8,900 Torun - 9,350 - 8,833 - 6,235 Gdansk - 8,111 - 8,625 - 4,750 Wroclaw - 6,750 - 4,778 - 7,450 Rzeszow - 6,166 - 6,600 - 7,350 Rybnik - 5,950 - 5,200 - 4,500

Do they know that as newcomers the Brits will proabably have to enter at the Preliminary round stage - which presents them with a trip to ROMANIA in April of 2007 ! Nice one for the yougsters ! If they are among the qualifiers, there are three semi-finals - they may choose from going to either Finland, Latvia or Hungary ! Who really wants to go there for a little bit of continental experience ?!