Subedei

Gollob to Torun? Surely that would be the betrayal to end all betrayals? I understand that current sponsors Poldim are likely to take an equity stake in Tarnow and re-establish the club on a financial basis. However, it's unclear whether Marta Poltorak and Marma, who provide the financial wherewithall for Rzeszow, will remain with the club next season. It all depends on the local authorities funding work to the stadium. If Poltorak, who had a major fall out with Rune Holta, and Marma pull out, Nicki Pedersen should remain at Rzeszow, with Marma switching their backing to his GP ambitions.

Well, here's a thread for anyone interested in rumours, innuendo and facts about team building for the Polish Ekstraliga, where the early news is that Antonio Lindback has finally taken the plunge and signed in Poland. I guess that must place doubts over his continued participation in Britain. It looks almost certain that Jaroslaw Hampel will be forced out of Wroclaw, since Polish rules limit sides to two GP riders in their starting line-up and Wroclaw already have Messrs Crump and Andersen. Leszno is thought to be a likely destination for Hampel. Australian sensation Chris Holder is rumoured to be attracting interest from Wroclaw.

Sparta WROCLAW Foreigners Jason Crump (Australia) Hans Andersen (Denmark) Kenneth Bjerre (Denmark) Nikolai Klindt (Denmark) Filip Sitera (Czech Republic) Chris Holder (Australia) Seniors Piotr Swiderski Tomasz Gapinski Krzysztof Slabon Dariusz Sledz Juniors Marek Czerwinski Mateusz Jaworski In: Krzysztof Slabon (Torun), Alan Marcinkowski (Zielona Gora) Out: Jaroslaw Hampel (Leszno), Ronnie Jamrozy (Grudziadz) ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- Wlokniarz CZESTOCHOWA Foreigners Greg Hancock (United States) Lee Richardson (Great Britain) Christian Hefenbrock (Germany) Antonio Lindback (Sweden) Lukas Dryml (Czech Republic) Edward Kennett (Great Britain) Lewis Bridger (Great Britain) Seniors Sebastian Ulamek Slawomir Drabik Juniors Mateusz Szczepaniak Marcin Piekarski Damian Romanczuk Borys Miturski Sebastian Pydzik Mateusz Kowalczyk Kamil Mistygacz In: Antonio Lindback (None), Lukas Dryml (Tarnow), Edward Kennett (None), Lewis Bridger (None) Out: Ryan Sullivan (Torun), Peter Ljung (Tarnow), Matej Zagar (Torun) ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- Polonia BYDGOSZCZ Foreigners Andreas Jonsson (Sweden) Emil Sajfutdinov (Russia) Jonas Davidsson (Sweden) Seniors Krystian Klecha Mariusz Staszewski Rafal Okoniewski Michal Szczepaniak Juniors Krzysztof Buczkowksi Marcin Jedrzejewski In: Mariusz Staszewski (Zielona Gora), Rafal Okoniewski (Zielona Gora), Jonas Davidsson (Zielona Gora), Michal Szczepaniak (Ostrow) Out: Piotr Protasiewicz (Zielona Gora), Robert Kosciecha (Torun), Michal Lopaczewski (Lodz), Marcin Mazur (Lodz) ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- Unia TARNOW Foreigners Peter Ljung (Sweden) Danil Ivanov (Russia) Hynik Stichauer (Czech Republic) Seniors Tomasz Gollob Jacek Gollob Rune Holta Janusz Kolodziej Marcin Rempala Jacek Rempala Grzegorz Rempala Stanislaw Burza Robert Wardzala Pawel Baran Juniors Kamil Zielinski Maciej Ciesielski Mateusz Trytko Szymon Kielbasa In: Peter Ljung (Czestochowa), Rune Holta (Rzeszow), Jacek Rempala (Lublin), Robert Wardzala (Krosno), Pawel Baran (Gdansk), Hynik Stichauer (Rawicz) Out: Lukas Dryml (Czestochowa), Pawel Hlib (Gorzow), Scott Nicholls (Rzeszow), Grzegorz Dzik (Gdansk) ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- Unia LESZNO Foreigners Leigh Adams Jurica Pavlic (Croatia) Troy Batchelor (Australia) Travis McGowan (Australia) Patrick Hougaard (Denmark) Seniors Jaroslaw Hampel Krzysztof Kasprzak Damian Balinski Snr Robert Miskowiak Juniors Robert Kasprzak Adam Kajoch Slawomir Musielak Damian Perz Mateusz Jurga In: Jaroslaw Hampel (Wroclaw), Jurica Pavlic (Lublin), Troy Batchelor (None), Travis McGowan (None) Out: David Howe (Gniezno), Norbert Kosciuch (Poznan), Rafal Dobrucki (Rzeszow), Mark Loram (Ostrow), Damian Balinski Jnr (Rawicz) ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- Stal RZESZOW Foreigners Nicki Pedersen (Denmark) Scott Nicholls (Great Britain) Davey Watt (Australia) Andreas Messing (Sweden) Seniors Rafal Dobrucki Maciej Kuciapa Pawel Miesiac Piotr Winiarz Dawid Stachyra Rafal Trojanowski Janusz Slaczka Juniors Marcin Les Dawid Lampart Mateusz Szostek In: Rafal Dobrucki (Leszno), Davey Watt (Grudziadz), Andreas Messing (Lublin), Scott Nicholls (Tarnow), Rafal Trojanowski (Krosno), Janusz Slaczka (Krosno) Out: Tomasz Chrzanowski (Gdansk), Rune Holta (Tarnow), Andriej Karpov (Gdansk), Tomasz Rempala (Gniezno), Karol Baran (Czestochowa) ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- Unibax TORUN Foreigners Ryan Sullivan (Australia) Ales Dryml (Czech Republic) Matej Zagar (Slovenia) Robin Tornqvist (Sweden) Simon Gustafsson (Sweden) Seniors Wieslaw Jagus Adrian Miedzinski Robert Koschiecha Juniors Karol Zabik Adam Wisniewski Damian Stachowiak Damian Celmer Tomasz Wisniewski Alan Marcinkowski In: Ryan Sullivan (Czestochowa), Robert Kosciecha (Bydgoszcz), Matej Zagar (Czestochowa), Robin Tornqvist (None), Simon Gustafsson (None), Alan Marcinkowski (Zielona Gora) Out:Niels-Kristian Iversen (Zielona Gora), Bjarne Pedersen (Gdansk), Simon Stead (Gniezno), Mariusz Puszakowski (Grudziadz), Krzysztof Slabon (Wroclaw), Tomasz Bajerski (Daugavpils) ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ZKZ ZIELONA GORA Foreigners Niels-Kristian Iversen (Denmark) Fredrik Lindgren (Sweden) Kevin Wolbert (Germany) Billy Hamill (United States) Sebastian Alden (Sweden) Ricky Kling (Sweden) Linus Ekloef (Sweden) Seniors Piotr Protasiewicz Grzegorz Walasek Zbigniew Suchecki Juniors Adam Kulczynski Grzegorz Zengota Pawel Gwozdz Przemyslaw Zarzycki Janusz Baniak In: Piotr Protasiewicz (Bydgoszcz), Niels-Kristian Iversen (Torun), Ricky Kling (Ostrow), Sebastian Alden (Gniezno) Out: Kai Laukkanen (Gniezno), Marcin Nowaczyk (Poznan), Rafal Okoniewski (Bydgoszcz), Mariusz Staszewski (Bydgoszcz), Alan Marcinkowski (Torun), Jonas Davidsson (Bydgoszcz) ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- Note: GP riders are highlighted in red. A maximum two GP riders in the starting line-up of a team. All details from: http://www.sportowefakty.pl

I see from sportowefakty.pl that Poole's wandering star Antonio Lindback has signed for Czestochowa in Poland for 2007.

Indeed. And you could very well add Tony Rickardsson to that list. I suspect had TR been in the right frame of mind for the GPs, he'd have comfortably qualified. But we'll never know. TR bowed out at a time of his choosing and I suspect the likes of Adams, Hancock and Gollob will do likewise. And the GP circus has been built around the personalities of Adams, TR, Gollob and Hancock, together with Nicki P and Crump. I do sometimes ponder how it will survive their passing into history. This season saw just a single new GP winner (Andreas Jonsson) and last season saw none at all.

A couple of glaring errors, prominent among them having Hampel and Jonsson tangling at Cardiff when it was Hampel and Hancock. Anyway, some interesting comments pertaining to the riders. And here's mine: Jason Crump: Looked set to dominate in the same way as TR a year earlier, but while TR only took his foot off the gas at one GP (Bydgoszcz, when he claimed the title, before storming back to win at Lonigo), Crump took it easy for 3-4 GPs, which was a shame and maybe distorted the lower order of the table. Personally, I consider him head and shoulders above the rest at the minute and someone will have to produce something very special to prevent him winning again next season. Greg Hancock: Once again Hancock defies me and age to roll back the years and produce a wonderful effort in the GPs. I thought his 3rd place in 2004 was perhaps his final hurrah. But I was wrong. Nicki Pedersen: Won the 1st GP, won the last GP and sort of got lost in the middle, perhaps as a result of on-going wrist problems. Andreas Jonsson: Started poorly, but really grew at the series progressed. He never hides when the track is a little rough and ready (in fact, he seems to relish those tracks), but is often hampered by poor judgement at crucial moments. An example of this was poor gate selection in the semi-final at Bydgoszcz. Leigh Adams: A very disappointing series for Adams, although he did improve after a poor start. Adams is also prone to engine failures at the wrong time - whether you view that as poor luck or poor preparation is down to individual choice. It's somewhat amazing that a rider of the undoubted ability and class of Adams has only managed 3 GP wins. Or is there just, more often than not, someone out there who simply wants it more? Hans Andersen: Rightly excluded from the series, Andersen showed his mettle with a superb showing as "wild card" in Denmark. And when TR bowed out, Andersen proved his worth with another win and a couple of rostrum places, but then, with his place assured for next season, his form dipped. Complacency was his undoing before, it could be again. Matej Zagar: They said - the experts - that Zagar was just a PL heatleader with no business being in the GPs yet. They said he would only perform around Krsko. They were, as they so often are, wrong. Zagar had a splendid season and handily qualified for 2007. Tomasz Gollob: Remains the most compelling performer in world speedway and rolled back the years with a wonderful display at Bydgoszcz, but he disappears when a track isn't to his liking and things don't go his way. Hard to believe that going in to Cardiff he was around 3rd-4th in the standings. His decline after Eskilstuna was disastrous. It looks like 2007 will be his swansong in the GPs. And he'll be greatly missed. Jaroslaw Hampel: You keep expecting Hampel to make that step up and become a contender, but it never seems to come and you end up wondering if it ever will. He had his moments, might've won at Cardiff if Hancock hadn't bitten the shale, but didn't. Antonio Lindback: Had his moments, made a few finals, might've won a GP if lady luck had gone his way, but she didn't. And in the end Lindback again relied on his reputation and the charity of BSI to get another chance. Personally, I wouldn't have been so generous and I think Lindback would benefit from a season away from the circus. Scott Nicholls: They said - those experts again - that Nicholls would really make 2006 his own. But, what happened? Another failure, that's what happened. How many more GP lives does this serial failure get? With this second charity nomination, as far as I'm concerned, Nicholls has had two chances too many. Bjarne Pedersen: Really surprised me last season when he finished 6th. I thought I might have to revise my opinion of him, but this season saw the BP of my expectations. I expect him to struggle next season and possibly bow out before 2008. Niels-Kristian Iversen: Did better than I expected. But I didn't expect much. I really don't think Iversen disgraced himself in the GPs and it's awfully hard on the guy to throw him out on his ear after a single season, especially when you think of how many chances certain riders have had. Lee Richardson: The road to hell, so they say, is paved with good intentions and the case of Richardson may be proof that the saying has some merit. No doubt BSI thought they were doing him a favour. But instead it looked to me like getting humiliated every couple of weeks in the GPs destroyed his confidence. I hope to see the guy pick up the pieces next season. Piotr Protasiewicz: I really don't know why PePe bothers with the GPs. It must surely be obvious that he's just not cut out for them. A good rider, a very good rider, but it just doesn't happen for him in the GPs. He was awful in 2006. Tony Rickardsson: Not really sure what happened to TR. He started well enough, but faded horribly and bowed out with a whimper in the end. Was it an aggregate effect of injuries? Possibly, but they didn't tell against him in 2005. Was it the realisation that others had stepped up their games and that a 7th title wasn't going to materialise? Again, possibly. I got the feeling that both speedway and Rickardsson had moved on long before TR's final laps. A sad end to his career in many respects. But he will always be among the greats of the sport.

Can't see what's controversial about that? That's a good one.

If anything, the temporary tracks are getting worse. The high water mark for Cardiff was probably 2004, when the racing was quite good, but the last couple of years have been fairly anonymous, while the Parken track this season was dreadful. I suspect that eventually people will tire of shelling out a small fortune for little more than a social event where the primary attraction has become little more than a collection of speedway supporters meeting up for a once-a-season-shindig and the crowds will drift away.

This has to be BSI 's and the FIM's sickest joke yet. Qualified reserves but riders who haven't qualified in the series proper.

A historic and great tournament, to be sure. But I didn't accord any significance to Nicholls winning it in 2005, although, young fellow, I've a feeling you did, so I'm not about to attach undue significance to Ulamek making the final in 2006.

And well done to Stanislaw Burza as well, I think.

I think Bydgoszcz's days will be numbered as soon as the great man hangs up his GP kevlars. And if rumours are true and 2007 will be Gollob's last hurrah as a GP rider, my guess is that Bydgoszcz will, once again, stage the closing GP of a discredited circus in 2007. As to 2008, yes, I can see Czestochowa, with their impressively upgraded stadia, hosting a Polish GP. But, long term, if BSI can find partners in Germany and Russia, Sweden and Poland could find themselves with just a single GP each.

Not to me it's not. As long as people are prepared to attempt to defend the indefensible and justify the unjustifiable, I'll be responding.

Well, how about this pearl of wisdom from your good self on 24 October 2005: Still, young Peasley, another of those wanting to watch the top fifteen in the world at the GPs, claimed, quite ridiculously, but probably through his Oxford eyes at the time, that PUK would finish around about eighth. I, of course, dismissed both notions as nonsense.

No, no, no, something is only right if I agree.

To be honest, I think it is possible to make a comparison between Sweden and Poland, but that it's much harder to factor in Britain. Indeed, given the way the Ekstraliga play-offs were configured this season, even a direct comparison between Sweden and Poland might be suspect, unless you take your figures from the pre-play-off stage. After all, in Poland, the play-offs comprised the top four teams racing against each other in a mini-league and the bottom four doing likewise - resulting in harder and easier meetings. As for Britain, obviously the league configuration, meeting twice home and away, places greater demands on men and machinery compared to the once a week gig in Poland and Sweden. My original comment was purely a question based on Hazzman's earlier comment.

you've been wrong since then. Or don't you remember such a memorable quote as:

As you will note RacerX, my comments were a response to Hazzman's weighting of the second tier in each country and my suggested weighting of the senior league followed the weightings Hazzman had allocated the second tier leagues. I made no comment as to which league I believed was stronger, other than to suggest a possible undue weighting of the Elite League.

Vindication was and is mine.

You have to go back to the last century for that. I guess, since only Loram and Dugard have won GPs, it would be Loram at some stage of the late-1990s.

I hope it will not come as too crushing a blow to discover it was more recent than Britain's last win. The great man won in Germany, according to my information, in 2001. Edit: But, of course, Hampel was heading for a nailed-on win in this season's British GP until Hancock took a tumble. Interestingly, Jason Crump was a GP winner before Tony Rickardsson.

Fifty-five and counting. What's that I hear you cry? That's the number of GPs that have passed since a British rider last won a GP. That was Martin Dugard, a wild card, in 2000. Makes you proud, doesn't it. With Nicholls and Harris about, who'd bet against that being sixty-five at the end of 2007?

Well, I've been to one Elite League meeting this season at Belle Vue. I wouldn't have a problem with that. I know Nicholls has a penchant for pushing around old men, but. old as I am, that doesn't concern me. I have - and have constantly posted that I have - the greatest respect for Avtar Sandhu. Nothing will deter me as I seek honour, justice and integrity in the GPs and British speedway as a whole, don't you worry about that. I've a psychiatrist and a professor of psychiatry willing to testify that I'm sane - can you say the same?

What and have our youngsters corrupted into the types who drink and ** about when they should be concentrating on the task in hand. Not on your life. Remember the wise words of Holy Genghis: "a task is not glorious until it is completed." Yes, Genghis enjoyed the occasional drink and the more than occasional company of females, but only when the task at hand had been gloriously completed, the enemy vanquished and slaughtered. And we are a people of great pride and won't accept charity, especially not from a corrupting influence like BSI.

Please furnish me with details of this "majority" of Poles who "don't honour the contracts they signed at the start of the season to ride each meeting for there [sic] English clubs." I'm guessing that few of the riders you come up with, maybe Hlib and Zabik prominent, hadn't signed contracts at the start of the season, but were picked up during the season in desperation by clubs in trouble of one form or another. On the flip side of this, did Arena Essex honour the contract they signed with the late Lukasz Romanek at the start of the season, or did they kick him out after a few poor performances. And did Peterborough honour their contract with Tomasz Bajerski and how many Poles did the Wagster sign and dump at Oxford in 2005? But this is a thread about the GPs and, since they've closed the other thread, about Nicholls shameful swallowing of his earlier brave words, his pride, his dignity and has honour and shamelessly accepting yet more charity from the corrupting influence of BSI. Once the great man wanders off into GP retirement, I doubt I'll bother watching what is little more than a grotesque circus sideshow rather than a proper world championship.