spanner47

Josh Auty got injured on Wednesday night, then Graham Reeve tried to get a replacement, but it was too late. I assume his place can only be taken by another brit or one of the meetings reserves, as no brit was available, the reserve took his place.

Forgive my ignorance, it said Ukraine in the programme and that was good enough for me. As always with these meetings, you never know if it's the country of birth or just a licence. Maybe they should asterisk the licence, then folk like me would look into where they actually come from.

Jerran told us it took 22 hours from Ipswich. But understandably no British rider could get out there at such short notice. Cracking meeting. Bogdanovs was a class apart, and once that ukrainian got going, the 330 strong crowd were treated to some great stuff.

A friend of mine, a.k.a. "the Duchess of Wombourne", got an email from Poland 2 weeks ago stating it was to be held in Gniezno, she then got another one last friday saying " dont hold you breath, we haven't heard anything from the Australians". This is also confirmed when Leigh Adams told her the other day "we haven't heard anything for ages, i wouldn't book a flight yet". I first saw this fixture in January, but as i couldn't find out anything, i decided against going and have just booked flight to go to Krosno on the Sunday.

At least those that chose grudziadz got a meeting, just recieved a text that read "60-31, ****** freezing, meeting took ages, Olly Allen kept falling off on the 1st bend"

Totally agree. We were at bydgoszcz for a league meeting against Gorzow earlier in the season and the racing was fantastic, Tomasz was all over the track and it was a real treat. Thank god <hopefully> we'll never have to watch such rubbish again.

Easy to get to from the station, went there in may. Out of the station, turn left, up to the main road <macdonalds opposite>, turn left, through the park, when you see a cemetary your getting close, entrance to pits is next to the edge of the cemetary. You can continue down the main road in the first place, but it's a nicer walk through the park. Hotel/bar on 3rd/4th bend, where <if times dont clash> you'll be able to have a meal and watch the final on the box.

Message sent, i hope you got it ok.

Flights now free, out sat morning, back sat night, good enough for me. Just hoping meeting is over in 3 hours, so i can get back to airport for the 21-50

Dont expect to go to any old pub and it will be on. This channel is very hard to find in poland, hardly anybodies got it. Do your homework before the meeting or you could be disappointed.

Fancy St Petersburg, been there for a long weekend and really enjoyed it. I suppose the logistics of getting the bikes etc to togliatti is too difficult, but all the russian speedway fans are a damn long way from St Petersburg, they'll have to rely on visitors to make up the numbers. Stumbling block will be, can fans be bothered with getting a visa. Good point, is that it's far cheaper to get to than moscow or anywhere further east.

I know of 2 going to this meeting, but they do things <like me> on the cheap. Stansted-skavsta £37 return <with electron card>, they've hired a car, and they'll go to the meeting, and sleep at the airport and get home in morning. If you wanted a bed for the night, the hotel at the airport is reasonable. Send me email or pm and i'll put you in contact with them, they're friendly and they dont bite.

Dont know how much they paid to stage it, but they must have lost money with that crowd. Reckon the biggest problem was lack of locals, obviously put off by the price. There's no way they'll stage another one, from my experience, most of the brits like to go to a new gp venue once, so based on that, the crowd would be even smaller next year. Of the 15 brits i know off that were there, only one would go back again. And allthough it was entertaining to a degree, it was hardly top class speedway that makes others want to book up and go next year.

Surprisingly in his last meeting at gorican he did get beat for a change. After watching his woeful performance at cov last friday, i hope he doesn't win it. But we'll still have a damn good weekend out there whatever happens. I know most will say Darcy is too young, but he's the only one of this lot that i've seen fly past Hancock and leave him for dead, if he gets his set-up right, he'll take some beating.

Dont hold your breath about Terenzano. Only seen one meeting there, U21 final a few years ago. All night it was just inside line, if you tried to go wide you went backwards. I've heard from others it can be good sometimes, but once Ole has got his claws into it? Surely it can only get worse.

I'd love to see 6 riders try to get round this place, if more than 2 hit the 1st bend together, they dont come out of it. Unless of course they've widened the track since my last visit. Taking the wife and a couple of friends over this weekend. At least it should be a close meeting, cant see any obvious stars in the line-up who will walk away with the "coveted title".

In terms of stadia, bydgoszcz doesn't deserve a gp. The stadium needs a massive overhaul, the vile smelling portable toilets are a disgrace, all they've done is put plastic seats on allready dodgy benches around the first bend, and improved the ticket office and entry. But it's still the best track in the world as last night proved. The stadium at torun is certainly the best purpose built speedway stadium in europe, just a shame they didn't make it a bit bigger. Mama informed me that plans are afoot for major changes at bydgoszcz, they cant come soon enough.

It will be a travesty if Wojaczek wins this battle. 16 riders are adamant the track is unsafe, but one arrogant twit whose never ridden a bike says it's ok. You could tell by his demeanour he was determined to get the meeting on, and he wasn't prepared to listen. Not one rider got changed and we never even heard a bike rev. The track wasn't safe and all the riders were in full agreement by what i saw, and by what bomber told us at the airport the following morning. We've had incidents in this country <newcastle v redcar last year?>where some would have been prepared to give it a go, but didnt want to get on the wrong side of the local superstar, who had told them if they stick together they wouldn't get fined, suffice to say they did get fined. But this track didn't appear to be safe, it was frustrating for those of us there, but i dont blame the riders in this case, it did look far too soft to race on.

Allthough i'm sure most of us agree with your comments, lets give credit where credit is due. The new mods have certainly got rid of a few undesirables, and are trying their best to make this forum a good site to visit again.

Krzyzstof Cegielski told a friend of mine that this meeting is planned for the 23rd august. Lots of top poles will be on show, has anybody in poland heard anymore? Would love to go.

I was at the meeting, they tried for 2 hours to make the track rideable. The riders just were'nt interested, it did appear very soft and if a sensible ref was in charge it would have probably be called off a lot earlier. Wojaczek was his usual arrogant self, almost ignoring the riders, he told them they had to ride but they all refused, he then threatened them with £5000 fine and 12 month suspension, this is when some of the poles got worried, but they rang the PZM and were told that the ref has no power to do that. There were no prima-donnas out there, and bomber appeared to be the main spokesperson for the riders, i spoke to bomber at poznan airport this morning, and he said if it had been ok they would have given it a go, but it was just not raceable. At one time they had 9 cars, 3 vans, a pick-up and the water track trying to harden the track up, while the two graders tackled the heavy stuff. It had been dry and sunny for hours, but the damage was done a lot earlier, and when a taxi leaves grooves in a track, then you know it's too soft. But at least we didn't get wet.

Certainly bring in rico, but scott has been awful in poland this season. So might as well give one the lads a go.

It cant backfire big style unless we finish last, and thats just not going to happen. Can anybody see the other 4 slovenians getting more than a couple of points between them? As Lyon has said, it's all about giving the younger lads a chance, and then seeing how they get on thursday.

If we put out our strongest side and got through to the final we'd be hammered like 2 years ago. At least this way the team can have a go at the race off, and try to gain confidence for the future. The swedes and the russians are weakish at the bottom end, so at least our lads might get used to winning the odd race in poland. Last year some of the aussies were saying "we may have been better off going to the race off", i fully expect boyce to pick a weakened side too. Maybe leave ryan in poland and try a youngster. As for the slagging off for lyon, we cant come last at peterboro so why not give the lads a chance, i was surprised at first, but on reflection, the race off is the best bet for our 2nd rate nation of riders. We know we cant compete with the big boys yet, so lets just have a go at the others and get some experience.

There's a few of us who'll be at Torun on the 25th, i'm also hoping for Pila on the 23rd, if the flights on time.