False dawn

Yeh, but apart from them, who else has made an impact as an unproven newcomer? [Paraphrasing from the Life of Brian ]

I guess this is a binary opinion. I would say exactly the same about last year's point system. But we're civilised folks, aren't we? We'll agree to disagree

Thanks R&R. Doesn't sound very likely that he will be riding, to say the least. Mind you, I still vivedly carry the memory of Kenny Carter being lifted onto his bike with his leg in the longest cast I've ever seen.

Has he said that? I know it has to be a real outside chance, especially as he has called an end to his Polish season. But he knows, as we do, that even an underpar Tai is better than no Tai at all.

Lovers of the new points system, think on. Had BZ slipped up on Saturday and just missed out on the semis, Tai or Freddie could well have gone on to be WC. However, BZ would still have been the top race points scorer and would still have had the highest race average, by far. Can you imagine the outcry there would have been, not least from the Poles, about such an outcome. The new points system would already, by now, be an historic experiment.

He won 1 race in 8 rounds. And ironically that wasn't when he made his one semi final.

Happiness is...

Funny you should say that. I was looking up some details on Oliver Berntzon. The SpeedwayGP website has his date of birth as 1970-01-02. I know he has been knocking on the door for a while but....

I believe he's riding on a Polish licence this year to allow him into the league as a reserve. Does his licence status determine which country he can ride for rather than how many passports he has?

I did my own ongoing analysis of the old vs new points system. However, such a comparison is not entirely valid. It has been pointed out several times that riders, particularly towards the top of the scoreschart, could afford to drop the odd point along the way and would therefore maybe settle for a second place rather than push hard for a win. It has even been suggested that riders could try out different settings with little or no risk to their semi final qualification. So, if the points system had been the same as last year, would riders scores have been the same? The argument that riders will push hard to get the best gate pick only returns me to the argument that it should be possible to make the gates more even. I listened carefully to Tai's interview last night and the stats don't really support his argument. The "best" gate can change radically at the same track from one meeting to another and suggests that the track surface/preparation is more critical than track geometry. To return to the points system, much of the debate, both on here and in commentry reinforces the idea that no one could predict with any certainty what the overall twists and turns of the scoring system might lead to last night. The top 6 qualification and the potential run offs for the top spots were hard to predict until quite late on. I know. I do fill in a programme and it's on my laptop and it not only keeps the ongoing scores up to date, it projects forward to the see what the likely meeting end scores will be. I sat in Torun last year with the same software on my tablet and I could tell with absolute certainty what each race score meant. I certainly didn't have to worry about whether a tape exclusion from a 3 rider race counted more than finishing 4th as we saw in an earlier round. A trivial example you might say, but the 6th qualifying spot did get quite tight. Imagine if it had come down to that at the end of the day? We really might have been debating the maths for some hours. And why did we change the scoring system? Because some "unnamed" folks disliked the fact that the winner of the final might not score the most points on the night. A spurious objection in my view and hey, it only happened once in 8 rounds this year.

Not sure if there would be too many toes involved. Elbows, front wheels, rear wheels, air fences and fists even, yes.

Nerd alert.... The top 5 are in the same order on this year's points system as they would have been on last year's system. The all important 6th place could be different however. Jason Doyle, Martin Vackulik, Emil and Artem Laguta are all in there. And even Leon Madsen in the current 5th place can't feel too comfortable.

Think the confusion came from them showing the positions in the final rather than the points scored

https://rs.dmusport.dk/loeb/5114 Shows Birkemose 1st

I think we need a reality check. If we ban all riders, riding on a Russian licence, what do you think will happen next? [hint: Gleb Chugunov]

There seems to be a growing "conflict" between those that "deserve" to be in the GP series and those that are chosen to be in it. Those that deserve a place via their finishing position in the series has been reduced from 8 to 6. Thus, those that can "qualify" via other means has therefore increased. The winner of the European Championship is one way most would support (maybe?). We, in the UK, might be a little biased just now. The timing and allowable entries into the Challenge has been widely criticised and I for one find it a little bemusing watching a competitor in the current championship who could score zero races points in all 8 GPs but still knows that he quaifies for next year's championship. And at the same time, we rip up a perfectly good scoring system because we dislike the fact that a GP winner may not be the top championship scorer on the night. A strange set of inconsistent standards in my view. And then we have the national political view. I'm not talking about politics in the normal sense. Rather I refer to the "need" to have a balanced set of different nationalities in the series. This is admiral in one sense, in that the governing body wish to make this a world series. But we've seen how wildcards have been awarded in the past which are hardly justified from a sporting standpoint but seemily based on ensuring a good attendance at certain GPs. We have to take stock. The GP series has completely supplanted the old one off World Final. The purists can continue to debate the point, but that ship has sailed. There is a political element to who participates in the championship. Some countries (actually one) dominates the sporting panorama just now [temporary]. TV is a big influence. But surely, the concept of fairness has to ultimately rule? We, as fans, many of us for a lot of years, can see a sporting unfairness when we see it. Surely, what we want, without necessarily know how to get it, is to have the best in the World competing for the ultimate goal?

The cancellation of this meeting is due to the rise in COVID cases and the quarantine / transport restrictions. We might get to the end of the week but there is a good chance there won't be any more speedway this year after the British Final.

The email clearly says, "Once we’ve announced the new date for 2021 a further 30 day refund period will be provided with details to follow".

A slightly nerdy aside..... We were reminded on Saturday that the FIM rules don't allow dead heats. If two riders finish on the exact same time, to 3 decimal places, is the ref expected to judge the relative finishing positions to a greater degree of accuracy? Not sure what distance a thousandth of second represents, but it can't be much more than a fag paper! These refs can't be blind after all.

I think this has been done to death before but can I ask (sorry if it's repeat) a question regarding transponders? All bikes at the GPs are fitted with transponders, which measure lap times and race times to a thousandth of a second. Can these same devices be used to measure start time response times? Thus, as in athetics, we could have a scientific measure of starts.

Absolutely. I can remeber but a few riders in the past 50 years that are so exciting to watch. Particularly his all action style. I'm sure I can think of a few but Bobby Ott springs to mind.

Good point. But bottom line, is there anyone out there who can deny BZ the no.1 ranking in the world? Today, anyway?

I'd go further. Your total race points would count towards the world championship and your finishing position in each GP final would only determine your finishing position in that GP. Does anyone have a sense of déjà vu?

And all this discussion about who got what championship points, way after the end of the meeting as per last night, I find slightly amusing. Wouldn't it be easier to just award points according to where you finish in a race? 3 for first, 2 for second and 1 for third might work.