T.N.T.

They need the money SKY put in.

The Tai article in the Speedway Star is not unlike other articles in the past from other riders and for a few years many riders have found the British schedule too hectic being on more than one race night in the Elite League and over the years we have seen many a rider drop the Elite League due mainly to the race nights like Pedersen, Hampel, Jonsson, Holder, Lindgren and many many more. For some they see British Speedway as a way of riding different tracks and earning extra money and if they can fit it in then they will. Some however want to ride here but it simply doesn't work out working in one place for half the money they can get in another place and have to rush through the night waiting and taking flights and sleeping in vans that is no real life for anyone, especially a professional sportsman riding a machine. Tai like many others want to ride here but if it means they are going to be drained mentality and physically through travelling across Europe and back in 48 hours for three different meetings then riding on different nights has to be dropped and stick with a reliable agenda of Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday racing with the odd Saturday night meeting has to be easier for travelling and for health. For years I have posted my ideas about how the leagues should have switched direction and in the past few years it has become more and more relevant that with a few changes over time these ideas need to be adapted more and more if British Speedway wants to see the top riders like Woffinden, Ward, Holder etc racing here and maybe even appearances from riders like Hancock, Sayfutdinov, Pedersen, Laguta etc. Basically you have an Elite League with about 8 teams on Mondays only which is what Sky insist on, a Premier League with the rest but these are split into two groups, North and South. Then you have a British League which is the center of the plan and rules in this league will determine most things as every track in the EL and PL builds a team to the same standard and these teams are split into two groups which are selected accordinjgly. The teams that with to enter the EL then have s Star Squad list which consists of 4 riders of which they can use any two along with 5 of their British League riders to compete in the Elite League. This means that all tracks have roughly the same amount of meetings at home and away but tracks competiting in the EL will have two teams of different standards to firld. Some may only want to watch the EL while some may want to watch both but with the chances of Woffinden v Hancock or Pedersen v Ward on the bill, I'm sure it would attract a decent crowd and in the British League the racing could be better as riders are of a more equal standing. The details I'm not going into here but I have this all done out and will be passing it on to a few people for their views and opinions and one will be Tai Woffinden.

As it turned out we had a £68 ticket spare on the day but eventually sold it for £30 at 4.30pm and we decided to put any money we got back of it on a single bet for a race. As we already had a few bets on, we had to pick a new bet. At first we thought about putting it on Freddie but then though Greg would be the better bet. Sadly the one person that was a bit the worse for wear and now dressed as a daffodill did the random pick and chose Heat 7 and the Blue helmet colour Sadly that turned out to be Kenneth Bjerre ........ who finished last by a distance !!

If it is July 14th I will be taking my second eldest son who will be 15 that day. Shame however if it is that date as it may clash with Bomber's holiday !!!

Went last year to see Tai lift the title and look to be going again this year and see the same. Last year we had the 550zl tickets (£110 roughly) but will settle for cheaper tickets this time as like Cardiff the viewing is pretty good anywhere May try and do Lonigo or Gorzow before then but depends if I am going to the GP Challenge Final or not ...... may be helping a rider get bikes to the track in a 12 hour plus drive !!

There are many different views on Cardiff over the years, some wont go because the track doesnt help good racing. Well some years have been better than others and it would be nice if the corners wern't so perfect so gaps could be left out of the turn or force riders to lock up a bit and help those in the dirt. For me I really enjoy walking through the city seeing fans from all over the place all enjoying the day and possibly ever rider has a few pounds put on him by some. Then of course you get those that have come from abroad to watch and the numerous hoards of red and white coloured gangs singing down the streets. I won't be down there til about 1pm this year but in the three hours prior to the meeting I will be loving every minute of it and hope everyone else has a great time ....... ps I am having Hancock 7/1 and an each way on Lindgren at 25/1 BRITISH GP - ENGLISH GP For me with some of the rubbish tracks that are dished up each season I can't see why we cant have one at Peterborough, Coventry or even see if its possible to hold one somewhere like the NEC or even the Olympic Stadium

11 ... Greg Hancock 11 ... Niels K Iversen 7 .... Krzysztof Kasprzak 5 .... Fredrik Lindgren 3 - Chris Harris to win a race ..... 50 points Only four of you got the bonus of 30 points but the top score was 105 points by Gray who never got the bonus. LEADERBOARD after Copenhagen 725 - 630 = Referee Rick 615 - 560 = Icescott 590 - 510 = Pantherman 575 - 530 = Rico 490 - 415 = Pyscho3a 480 - 460 = TNT 475 - 430 = INCOGNITO 470 - 420 = Hilly 465 - 360 = Gray 450 - 430 = PTW 420 - 420 = OmmerUm ** 400 - 315 = Waihekeaces 385 - 335 = JaimeE 375 - 290 = Gavan 320 - 310 = Screm 270 - 205 = CJ69 Hunty = mdmc82 .... score to be sorted

Scores from last round will be updated this weekend ...... but here are the predictions for CARDIFF !!! CARDIFF PREDICTIONS 11 ... Tai Woffinden 11 ... Darcy Ward 11 ... Greg Hancock 11 ... Niels K Iversen 10 .... Nicki Pedersen 9 .... Jarek Hampel 9 .... Chris Holder 7 .... Krzysztof Kasprzak 7 .... Matej Zagar 6 .... Kenneth Bjerre 5 .... Fredrik Lindgren 5 .... Andreas Jonsson 5 .... Troy Batchelor 5 .... Martin Smolinski 4 .... Craig Cook 4 .... Chris Harris BONUS POINTS ....... As this is the Battle of Britain this time we have points up for grabs if you correctly guess which of the following will be correct ..... you pick just one option 1 - Tai Woffinden to score more than Cook and Harris combined ..... 30 points 2 - Craig Cook to be the top Brit ..... 70 points 3 - Chris Harris to win a race ..... 50 points 4 - A British rider to reach the final ..... 20 points 5 - Chris Harris to reach the final ...... 150 points NOTE; ..... If Tai scores the same as Cook/Harris you get 15 points ..... If Craig Cook equal scores with Tai or Bomber as top Brit, you get 35 points ..... If Bomber wins a race you get to witness a miracle !!! ..... If two or three Brits reach the final you are pissed !! ..... If Bomber reaches the final you and he will need drug testing !!!

12 ... Tai Woffinden 11 ... Darcy Ward 9 .... Matej Zagar 4 .... Martin Smolinski 1 Dane ...... (Iversen)

Tai Woffinden, Chris Harris, Craig Cook and Ben Barker with Daniel King reserve and Richie Worrall / Simon Stead on standby. Australia winning at Kings Lynn with Team GB a safe second and USA battling for the other play off place with Greg Hancock no doubt with tactical points ..... but will it be enough to beat Russia if they are at full strength ?

COPENHAGEN PREDICTIONS 12 ... Tai Woffinden 11 ... Nicki Pedersen DK 11 ... Niels K Iversen DK 11 ... Darcy Ward ........ 2013 Winner 10 ... Greg Hancock 10 ... Jarek Hampel 9 .... Matej Zagar ......... 2013 Runner Up 7 .... Kenneth Bjerre DK 7 .... Peter Kildemand DK 7 .... Michael Jepsen Jensen DK ..... replacing Chris Holder 6 .... Krzysztof Kasprzak 5 .... Fredrik Lindgren 4 .... Martin Smolinski 4 .... Troy Batchelor 4 .... Andreas Jonsson 3 .... Chris Harris BONUS POINTS .... as there are FIVE Danes in this GP How many Danish riders will be in the Final ? 4 = 100 points 3 = 70 points 2 = 30 points 1 = 30 points 0 = 50 points

TOTAL - Round Score - PRAGUE PANTHERMAN took the top honours in Prague with +25 giving him 125 points and another 50 for posting = 175 points. Other big scores were TNT 140, INCOGNITO 135 and SCREM 120 Nights to forget for WAIHEKEACES and CJ69 both getting -6 giving them just 20 points and MDMC82 just 30 points TOTAL - Round Score - SWEDEN REFEREERICK +17 and PYSCHO3A +16 were the top two here and pick up 135 / 130 points but with the only person to get the bonus correct of TEAMGB scoring the most, PANTHERMAN picks up 50 for being +10, 50 for posting and 30 for TEAM GB giving him a total of 130. Night to forget (again) for MDMC82 with -5 giving a final total of just 25 points but sadly the worst score picking up just 20 points is TNT Gray failed to post in Prague while Gavan and OmmerUm both failed to post for Sweden. ..... I understand your request Gavan, but no post is no post and therefore NO SCORE ..... you would have got 65 with those selections LEADERBOARD 630 = 115 - 135 = Referee Rick 560 = 105 - 110 = Icescott 530 = 75 - 70 = rico 510 = 175 - 135 = Pantherman 460 = 140 - 20 = TNT 430 = 115 - 110 = INCOGNITO 430 = 90 - 50 = PTW 420 = 45 - xxx = OmmerUm 420 = 80 - 45 = Hilly 415 = 65 - 130 = Pyscho3a 360 = xxx - 30 = Gray 335 = 60 - 65 = JaimeE 315 = 20 - 90 = Waihekeaces 310 = 120 - 70 = Screm 290 = 70 - xxx = Gavan 205 = 20 - 110 = CJ69

SWEDISH GP 12 Darcy Ward 11 Neils K Iversen 9 Nicki Pedersen 7 Fredrik Lindgren DK = Nicki Pedersen / Kenneth Bjerre

I was planning to fly out on the Wednesday night and fly back Sunday night but if the tickets are going to be that price I may well just keep the money for something else and watch it on TV

Will update last results this weekend but for now ...... SWEDISH GP 12 Tai Woffinden 12 Darcy Ward 11 Neils K Iversen 10 Greg Hancock 9 Nicki Pedersen 9 Krzysztof Kasprzak 8 Chris Holder 8 Jarek Hampel 7 Matej Zagar 7 Fredrik Lindgren 6 Andreas Jonsson 6 Martin Smolinski 5 Kenneth Bjerre 4 Troy Batchelor 3 Peter Ljung 3 Chris Harris BONUS; 30 points up for grabs if you can pick the highest scoring pair ... if tied, points split SWE = Fredrik Lindgren / Andreas Jonsson AUS = Chris Holder / Troy Batchelor GB = Tai Woffinden / Chris Harris DK = Nicki Pedersen / Kenneth Bjerre ROW = Matej Zagar / Martin Smolinski XEL = Jarek Hampel / Peter Ljung

I think being a motor sport then an appearance by some freestyle moto cross boys like those on Britain's Got Talent would be good especially with the right music blasting out to add to the atmosphere.

PRAGUE PREDICTIONS 11 Tai Woffinden 10 Jarek Hampel 10 Nicki Pedersen 10 Chris Holder 10 Darcy Ward 9 Neils K Iversen 9 Greg Hancock 8 Krzysztof Kasprzak 7 Matej Zagar 7 Fredrik Lindgren 7 Martin Smolinski 6 Andreas Jonsson 5 Kenneth Bjerre 5 Troy Batchelor 3 Chris Harris 3 Vaclav Milik My picks for this one are .... Tai Woffinden Greg Hancock Fredrik Lindgren Martin Smolinski Matej Zagar Watched last years meeting and Zagar was fast so had to drop Freddie as the inside line seems to work well which should suit Smolinski

ROUND 3 - FINLAND - SCORES The best four riders you could have selected were Matej Zagar +8, Tai Woffinden +8, Troy Batchelor +7 and Fredrik Lindgren +5 which would have netted you 140 points plus 50 for posting and another 40 had you picked Lindgren to reach the final or 10 if you picked Tai for the semi's. So 230 was the best possible return. Highest score however was 175 from ICESCOT while TNT was close behind on 170 and NCOGNITO on 165. ...... As you can see below, CJ69 posted twice for this event. Therefore the decision is to count the lowest scoring post which was the second post gaining just 5 points while the first post scored 105. So there is 100 points lost there buddy ..... sorry. TOTAL - Round Score LEADERBOARD 385 - 115 rico 380 - 125 Referee Rick 375 - 105 OmmerUm 345 - 175 Icescott 330 - 60 Gray 300 - 170 TNT 295 - 70 Hilly 290 - 145 PTW 220 - 110 Gavan 220 - 120 Pyscho3a 210 - 95 JaimeE 205 - 120 Waihekeaces 205 - 165 INCOGNITO 200 - 135 Pantherman 120 - 85 Screm 75 - 5 CJ69 NOTE; The lowest score was used because otherwise someone could post numerous predictions and hope the first post was strongest. PRAGUE PREDICTIONS 11 Tai Woffinden 10 Jarek Hampel 10 Nicki Pedersen 10 Chris Holder 10 Darcy Ward 9 Neils K Iversen 9 Greg Hancock 8 Krzysztof Kasprzak 7 Matej Zagar 7 Fredrik Lindgren 7 Martin Smolinski 6 Andreas Jonsson 5 Kenneth Bjerre 5 Troy Batchelor 3 Chris Harris 3 Vaclav Milik NOTE; Tai Woffinden was the winner here last season beating KK and Nicki Pedersen in the final after Emil touched the tapes. Tai broke the track record last season. Hampel, AJ, Zagar and Lindgren were the other semi finalists. Previous Prague winner, Greg Hancock failed to make the cut along with Chris Holder and Neils K Iversen.

I missed the posting for the second round after gaining 450 in round one. Am I still in as I am in credit ....... If I am then I will go with Woffinden 8 - 10 .............. 30 More Lindgren 6 - 8 .............. 140 More Bjerre 4 - 6 ...............30 More Cheers

NOTE; With Kasprzak withdrawing through injury during the practice session, his place will be taken by Kauko Nieminen on the track and in this game. So if you select Kasprzak 11, you are really getting Nieminen 11 !!! IMPORTANT; All posts to be in or edited before 4.45pm as that is the start time of the TV Coverage

11 Krzysztof Kasprzak 11 Jarek Hampel 11 Darcy Ward 10 Greg Hancock 10 Neils K Iversen 10 Nicki Pedersen 9 Chris Holder 8 Tai Woffinden 7 Kenneth Bjerre 7 Martin Smolinski 7 Fredrik Lindgren 7 Matej Zagar 6 Andreas Jonsson 4 Troy Batchelor 2 Joonas Kylmakorpi 2 Chris Harris BONUS POINTS 60 POINTS = Chris Harris to reach the Semi Finals 40 POINTS = Fredrik Lindgren to reach the Final 25 POINTS = All three Danes to reach the Semi Finals 10 POINTS = Tai Woffinden to reach the Semi Finals =============================================== 11 Jarek Hampel 8 Tai Woffinden 7 Fredrik Lindgren 4 Troy Batchelor BONUS POINTS 40 POINTS = Fredrik Lindgren to reach the Final

Never moved him into the correct order FINNISH GP PREDICTIONS 11 Krzysztof Kasprzak 11 Jarek Hampel 11 Darcy Ward 10 Greg Hancock 10 Neils K Iversen 10 Nicki Pedersen 9 Chris Holder 8 Tai Woffinden 7 Kenneth Bjerre 7 Martin Smolinski 7 Fredrik Lindgren 7 Matej Zagar 6 Andreas Jonsson 4 Troy Batchelor 2 Joonas Kylmakorpi 2 Chris Harris BONUS POINTS 60 POINTS = Chris Harris to reach the Semi Finals 40 POINTS = Fredrik Lindgren to reach the Final 25 POINTS = All three Danes to reach the Semi Finals 10 POINTS = Tai Woffinden to reach the Semi Finals

Not a bad meeting but no way a classic but the racing improved as it went on and some very good hard passes along with a few spills where thankfully all walked back to the pits. KK is on fire at the moment and could be doing what Tai did last season, but still have a feeling it's too early and a few low scores are surely around the corner while Darcy is as expected full throttle all the way and is either unstoppable or on the floor while Nicki was the opposite with a poor showing and lacked power just like Tai who will turn things around and is only 12 points behind second place !! It looks to be an interesting season ahead and still think its going to be between Jarek and Darcy for the title while Batch and Bomber look out of their depth and no replacements for Tomasz and Emil

ROUND 2 SCORES 10 - Krzysztof Kasprzak 9 - Greg Hancock 6 - Darcy Ward 4 - Andreas Jonsson 3 - Jarek Hampel 1 - Niels K Iversen 1 - Chris Holder 1 - Martin Smolinski 0 - Troy Batchelor 0 - Chris Harris 0 - Matej Zagar -2 - Fredrik Lindgren -2 - Adrian Meidzinski -3 - Kenneth Bjerre -3 - Tai Woffinden -7 - Nicki Pedersen BEST SCORES Hilly was the top scorer in round 2 with an impressive 165 points while Icescot, OmmerUm and Gray all scored 150 ..... On the other side Waihekeaces scored 0 after getting -50 from the four selections but back to nothing as the post scored 50. LEADERBOARD 270 - 210 rico 255 - 135 Referee Rick 270 - 120 Gray 270 - 120 OmmerUm 225 - 60 Hilly 170 - 20 Icescott 145 - xxx - PTW 130 - 0 TNT 115 - xxx - JaimeE 110 - 55 Gavan 100 - 50 Pyscho3a 85 - 85 Waihekeaces 70 - 5 CJ69 65 - -10 Pantherman 40 - -20 INCOGNITO 35 - 30 Screm xx - 20 HasseHolmqist* All four bonus points failed so no extra's in this one

Bydgoszcz Predictions 12 Nicki Pedersen 11 Jarek Hampel 10 Darcy Ward 10 Chris Holder 9 Neils K Iversen 8 Krzysztof Kasprzak 8 Tai Woffinden 7 Fredrik Lindgren 7 Kenneth Bjerre 7 Greg Hancock 7 Adrian Meidzinski 6 Martin Smolinski 6 Matej Zagar 6 Andreas Jonsson 4 Troy Batchelor 2 Chris Harris BONUS - Pick just one 75 pts - Harris to reach the semi finals 50 pts - Smolinski to reach the Final 40 pts - Three Aussies to outscore three Poles 25 pts - All 3 Polish riders in the semi finals DARCY WARD NEILS K IVERSEN GREG HANCOCK MATEJ ZAGAR Aussies to outscore Poles