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Rickard Hellsen did indeed try the DOHC engine in both the UK and Sweden, with moderate success. He also tried the SOHC as well, but stuck with the pushrod variant - including his trusty magneto driven pushrod wessie.

Iris123, I believe that you have hit the nail on the head exactly. I do have a bit of an opinion on one of the guys in the GB team who doesn't seem to be going about things in the right way (in my opinion). The first time I realised that he had an attitude problem was a few years ago when an U15 team went to Germany, but he didn't go, reportedly because they weren't paying enough. This year at least he has moved to a larger ( if not slicker) track than he had been on previously, and then elects not to do the SGP qualifiers - I really don't understand that. The British attitude was made very clear in the interviews in the press during the past week. All of the other teams were looking for a win. The interviews that I have seen with the GB boys suggested that they would be happy with a 'top 3' place. Were we beaten before we went ?

Should be lots of King's Lynn / Peterborough interest in this. Alex Davis, son of Stephen Davies & Taylor Poole, son of Mick

If you were a King's Lynn fan in the late 70's early 80's you would not agree with this statement. Being a Saturday night track, top line riders were quite often missing at Saddlebow road. If it wasn't a world championship qualifying round, World Team Cup round, Longtrack Championship round, lucrative Continental grasstrack, lucrative Continental Longtrack depriving the King's Lynn crowd, it was a very unusual Saturday. It was pretty much the same as today in that there were riders who would turn up regardless, and those who you knew would not

Notice that Henka & Simon are 6&7 for Kumla so will be riding as a pair. This will make Henka very happy I'm sure, I remember him telling me a few years ago that he would continue riding until he had spent some time riding with Simon.....I'm not suggesting that he will retire in anyway, just a passing comment he made

The bottom end is all wrong for a Bellini, that was what was confusing me at the time. Flemming has been doing engines for Rune Holta for many years now so it would be logical that he is using one. Flemming has a wealth of experience on the mechanical front and would I would suggest make a good job of any engine that he designs. It certainly looked quick enough last night !!

That will explain it then.....I couldn't work out what Motor Rune Holta was riding in last nights European GP. You have to say that was a pretty good debut for a new engine....well done Flemming

Not sure Jason was the first, maybe the first for that particular brand ? I'm sure that Tony Rickardsson had been using similar devices by one of his sponsors, Ohlins for sevaral years now. Whether they were as complex as Jason's I'm not sure

Thats right Elisabeth was sister to Anders. If I remember she had a florists in Stockholm. They both had some practice rides at King's Lynn in the late seventies, when there always used to be pre season training at Saddlebow for Swedish teams. I remember it quite well as it was the first time I had seen female riders, and Rickard Hellsen & Tommy Nilsson were talking to me about them at the session. I'm not 100% on Marie Wall. She was the only female name that I can remember from the time apart from one of Ove Fundins daughters who rode. I can't remember her name and I'm sure its not her, as she had quite long curly hair, and looked thinner in the face.

One particular picture Bernt Persson, dont know the name of the girls - can anyone help? Think the one on the left could be Elizabeth Michanek, and the one on the right Rosemary Wall

spanner47, you will not be dissapointed. It really is a scenic little island. It really is very different, and its easy to forget that you are 'half way to Russia'.Whilst you are on the ferry, try talking to the Destination Gotland crew about speedway. Many of them are big Bysarna fans, and are regular visitors to the track, when time permits. I'm sure you will enjoy your visit

Sorry Searley, but most people would not agree with you that he would have reached the final. As far as reserves go, thats exactly how Mr Kennett managed to get to the semi, as he was drafted into the 1/4 final when the Russian couldn't get a visa, and did well enough from that meeting to qualify. However he didn't do enough from the UK qualifying round to reach the 1/4 final.

This is at best, laughable Chris, we are comparing Leigh Lanham who apparently only ride one track (at the highest level in the UK, by the way), to Edward Kenett, who apparently can ride more than 1 track ( not at the highest level in the UK). There can be no doubt, that if he wanted it, Leigh Lanham should have been given this chance, as he fully deserved it by finishing in a higher position in the qualifying meeting.

Excellent coverage Anders, and with the updates on speedway.nu, just what we have come to expect from Sweden. Your work is much appreciated by those of us in the UK with an interest in the Swedish Leagues. Thank You

Have spoken to Niklas last week, and he has indeed signed for Brokstedt, and is looking forward to riding for them in the bundesliga. At this time he wasn't sure which meetings he was going to ride in. As an side, if you have Microsoft Map Point 2004 (or maybe Autoroute), and do a 'find' for Neuenknick one of the options it will come up with is Speedway-Club Neuenknick, complete with all details including phone number. Its the only speedway track that I have found on Map Point, so I say well done to the club.

The only other option would be Bent Rasmussen, but the rider in question looks 'too tall', and I don't remember him having a dark Bell Moto helmet, but he did have a white one.......Doesn't look like his bike either Does that make me 'anorak of the day' ?

206 John Smith in Baseball cap, John Eglese in the White jumper, ?? 210 Billy Sanders, John Louis (?), Lance King, Alan Grahame 213 Rickard Hellsen in White (on somebody elses bike, but I don't know whose), ??

133 Phil Collins, Steve Regling , Kevin Jolly 134 John Louis, Eric Monaghan 135 Jan Andersson 136 Jeremy Doncaster, Andy Grahame, Kenny Carter (or maybe Kelvin Tatum ?)

This is not something that will be unique to the UK. The various FMN's and their tecchnical teams having been talking about this for some time now, and it is an ongoing scenario. There are ongoing tests of these machines by the FNM's and their technical members. There are very real concerns, from various FMN's that 2 stroke engines may well be banned soon on environmental grounds, and that something had to be done - the 250 was the most appropriate solution. Obviously there had been concerns about potential accidents, and the possible ramifications of that, for juniors on 500's. As I understand it, this class is being taken up by the FIM, and my guess is that there will be a 250 championship of some description in the future. As for expensive rule changes at short (if any) notice, welcome to the world of speedway from the other side of the fence. As you are no doubt aware, there has been major issues regading carburation regulations, which would have made over 80% of the carburettors in use in the GP series illegal, at a moments notice. You may have noticed that the results of the recent ice semi final in Inzell were not made official for several days, for this very reason.

Another one from the seventies......King's Lynn had Adi Funk, Austrian champion riding for them. He had been having a rough time machinery wise, and his riding partner, Michael Lee lent him a bike for a meeting. The stars had recorded a 5-1 with Adi being superbly team riden by Michael. After the race Michael did a practice start on the back straight - just as Adi was turning round. End result was a big crash, and 2 completely totalled Weslake machines, and lots of shiny blue fibreglass all over the place....Shortly after this, I think Michael started to use the plastic Preston Petty mudguards that were to be come a bit of a trademark for him

I put it at 82 -83, but couldn't just remember which.......I can't remember where else we went, other than Lynn, but the Newcastle match was the one that stood out for me. There was also Tommy Nilssons immaculate Bertil Andersson tuned Twin Cam Jawa. He used to pull 'silly' gears compared to everybody else, but boy, did it go, and it sounded so good, especially on a big track like Lynn

Remember being at Newcastle in the very early eighties with Getingarna, in an early season challenge match (Getingarna being Anders Michanek, Tommy Nilsson, Rickard Hellsen, P.O. Gudmundsson, a very Young Jimmy Nilsen, a very young Per Jonsson amongst others, at that time). The match was going quite well, but it was a little cold, and then it started to snow. Needless to they stopped the racing whilst it was snowing. After a while it stopped, but there was now a fair covering of snow. There was a bit of a discussion, and Mich decided that the answer was to get a track rake (remember them anybody ? ) and scrape a line the width of the rake, around the white line, and at the bottom of the boards. This left a strip of snow in the middle of 2, 1M wide brown strips. Racing started again and the remaining heats were completed. The snow started coming down again shortly after the end, and the visitors had a real interesting drive back to their UK base in King's Lynn, and from what I remember the rest of their meetings went OK, as did all of their pre-(Swedish) season training at King's Lynn

Dekker...it wasn't just Swindon !! TR did second halves at every BL (don't think it was called elite then) track of the time, over a 2-3 week period. The only ones who spotted his potential, were Ipswich !! He was told in no uncertain terms by many promoters of the time that he would never make it !! Congratulations go to Tony on his achivements since then, not least, his achievement of getting his 6th title tonight. I for one, wouldn't be surprised if he got a 7th

I for one think that if BSI can give ice racing, the shot in the arm that they have given conventional speedway, it will be very good news ideed. Can you imagine what the crowd would be like at Assen, if they get the attendance boosts that conventional speedway seem to have done at the very highest level. You would like to think that BSI could get a TV deal, similar to the conventional GP's......How good would that be.

Not sure that the outside temperature needs to be too low, as those people who go to Assen on a regular basis can testify.