Subedei

And here's Ryan Sullivan putting pen to paper for Torun: http://www.espeedway.pl/index.php?co=newsy&id=12901 Torun's saviour, the billionaire Roman Krzyzstof Karkosik is represented by his brother (?) Miroslaw, the gentleman on the left.

From what I understand Wieslaw Jagus has already overcome a few hurdles during his career and I don't think he's the type to get demoralised. I think the "Blueberry" will do okay in the leagues and surprise a few people in the GPs next season.

BP was with Gdansk during their Ekstraliga season in 2005. I was under the impression that GP riders were limited to Ekstraliga teams, but obviously with BP at Gdansk and Chris Harris at Rybnik, this is not the case. I had heard that Ryan Sullivan had signed with Adriana Torun.

Among others, Mr Karkosik is heavily involved with: http://www.boryszew.com.pl/

Roman Karkosik, apparently somewhere between the 2nd and 5th richest man in Poland and the 49th richest in the world, has taken a 51% interest in Torun. Torun will, it seems, be riding in the Ekstraliga, with Tomasz Gollob top of Karkosik's wish list.

While £4,000 certainly isn't to be sniffed at, it's probably about the amount Roman Abramovich spends in a few seconds at Chelsea. There's a lot of petro-roubles floating around Russia at the minute and a lot of very wealthy people. The speedway world is changing and pretty soon not only will the foreign leagues be creaming off the best of the talent, the foreign riders will soon be knocking on the door of the GPs. The likes of Gafurov, Sajfutdinov, Pavlic and Hefenbrock will soon be pushing for places in the circus. And where will that leave poor, talent bankrupt Britain?

I wasn't suggesting there was anything wrong with it. In many respects it is a good thing, with, as you say, the logistical costs being the main problem.

I see that a team from Prague has entered Liga II in Poland, where they'll join teams from Latvia, Ukraine and Hungary. The third tier of Polish speedway looks ever more like a European, rather than national, league.

BSI would be wise to be wary about entering the Russian fray, known in business circles as the "Wild East". There's big money to be made in Russia, but the risks are very high, just ask BP or Shell.

I'm sure young Dowhan knows what he's doing. Sadly, for you young kitten, he's at Czestochowa.

I'd be very surprised if Holta ended up with the Lions of Czestochowa after the acrimonious way he left around a year ago. I'd say Holta burnt his bridges with Czestochowa just as effectively as he seems to have burnt his bridges with Marta Poltorak at Rzeszow. I'd have been surprised if Nicholls had remained with Tarnow. He really didn't pull up any trees last season on the rare occasions Tarnow utilised him.

And therein lies the tale of deceit and betrayal by the FIM and BSI that's made a nonsense of the world championship. We have non-qualified riders in the GPs (Nicholls, Harris, Lindback and B Pedersen), but "qualified" reserves. You couldn't make it up.

It seems that this will be the great man's final season in the GPs (but let us hope he sees out the full series and doesn't bow out after Bydgoszcz) and certainly Kolodziej, probably not least because he's a BSI asset at Reading will take a place in the GPs. But there's other Poles coming up fast. Certainly the Russians, Germans and Croatia's Pavlic will soon be knocking on the door, but that shouldn't worry a nation with riders who constantly qualify for the GPs, should it? And, like it or not, the Poles, Danes, Swedes and Australians all seem capable of providing qualifiers. Where does that leave a second rate speedway nation with second rate riders like Nicholls and Stead?

I'd have preferred a reply in English, but there you go. Janusz Kolodziej missed the GP qualification final, as far as I recall, through injury. Now, turning our attention to other Poles. How many Poles have qualified for 2007? I make it at least 3 and 4 if Holta finally makes his mind up what nationality he is. How many British riders qualified? I make it a big fat zero, for the second successive, possibly third successive season. When he was in the GPs, although he did nothing much, Chrzanowski at least had the satisfaction of being there on merit and not the charity of others. Perhaps Nicholls would've "qullified" (whatever that is) had he not been injured, but there's huge doubts as to whether he'd have qualified. You can't just take Nicholls in isolation, the whole field around him would've changed had he not missed Prague. Perhaps riders like Gollob and Hampel would've raised their games and still beaten him to qualification. There's just no way of knowing. And many would say that Protasiewicz was in the GPs in 2006 because Pental coughed up the readies.

While we're remembering the first Cardiff GP, should we not also remember the last one, where Stead scored, if memory serves, a meagre 3 points. And I agree, let's give youngsters a go. But why should Stead have a go instead of, for example, Janusz Kolodziej, a former Polish champion and infinitely superior to either Stead or Harris. And while we're giving youngsters a go, how about getting rid of a serial failure like Nicholls to make way? Harris and Nicholls are in the GPs solely because of their nationality and if Stead ever makes the GPs, my guess is he'll be there because of his nationality. It's shameful.

I struggle to conjure with a sensible person posting "form is temporary and class is permanent" regarding Simon Stead. Come on, let's all try a little realism. Stead is closer to being a Premier League standard rider than a GP standard rider. He lingered far too long in that league and squandered his opportunities.

And you'll hear it all again and again and again and again and again.

Cast aside your Belle Vue bias and try and be impartial for a moment young M.

http://www.speedwayworld.tv/en/news/a7093?...db6728363ea5e65 Simon Stead is not ready and never will be ready to be a GP rider. He may claim a place on the basis of nationality, but that doesn't mean a thing.

I certainly won't be purchasing anything that puts even so much, or has the potential to put even so much, as a single penny into the coffers of BSI.

It could be even worse than that. Having more or less liquidated their interests in UK speedway, the Russells may have secretly taken over in Poland.

Can't argue with that. No longer can I argue that we should look to Poland to see how to run the sport. Terrible decisions. No doubt, hindsight shows that Wroclaw had a superior team. But most thought, at the start of the season, that Tarnow would be the team to beat once again. And at the start of the season Tarnow were steaming away with wins at Leszno (subsequently overturned after Jacek Gollob and Lukas Dryml had their points deducted) and Bydgoszcz. What really let Wroclaw run riot was Tarnow's mid-season collapse into anarchy. What may have had an impact was the sudden removal of foreigner restrictions, which happened after the likes of Bydgoszcz and Tarnow had more or less completed their squads, while late starters to team building, such as Wroclaw and Czestochowa took full advantage.

http://www.speedway-forum.co.uk/forums/ind...opic=14472&st=0

My guess would be that tarabanko is disappointed that Sajfutdinov won't be riding for Smerderna Eskilstuna instead.

As expected, Nicki Pedersen signs for another season at Rzeszow.