spook

and my verdict isnt at all that he isnt good enough.......... my verdict is that Olsen isnt good enough

tbh the best we should be hoping for anyway is to reach the final and for 2 or 3 of our youngsters to get some experience.... it would be silly to expect more

As it goes Barbs I thought his bike was running pretty well after his first heat....... but his gating was not good....... he managed to make what was probably only one of 2 or 3 clean passes on the night .......but bad gating on that track equalled a disaster

Wow that looks a great venue! Is anyone uploading any speedway torrents this season? I rarely caught the Polish matches live last season and tended to watch them in the wee hours during the week along with the swedish matches that were being put on torrents......

I'm saying ....exactly as I have posted recently...... that when the brown stuff hits the fan Ole starts washing his hands of it very quickly....... this is a time honoured tradition ... it is always someone elses fault..... even if the responsibility falls under his remit also as I have posted elsewhere......... if Ole isnt in charge of the tracks how is it that they are so regularly slick? I mean regular to the point where you could plot it on a graph!........... how is it that these tracks steeped in history and tradition end up often being prepared in a completely different way to normal? In a scenario where Ole wasnt involved in the track prep and it was purely down to the club's track staff would we not be seeing tracks how they are normally prepared? Wouldnt we be seeing all kinds of differing tracks being served up? as Gemini has said yes of course it does speedway fans hate the cliche they hear from non speedway fans of 'its all about the first out of the gate' .......... so why on some of the best tracks in the world is the guy responsible for the tracks trying his best to make it so?..... it is robbing the fans..... and its not attracting any new fans all we end up with is a narrow band of track to ride on which starts on the inside and gradually moves out with the riders playing follow my leader.....In the end we will lose the racers from the competition and end up with 16 gating tarts........... and i'll chuck in a grenade at the end here....... which national team are the best gaters?

He never does when it becomes a public issue

that season was a bit of a red herring........... Bomber really splashed the cash and not only had Brian Andersen preparing his engines but also fine tuning on race night........... for the vast majority of that season he was one of the fastest guys and yet in true Brit style was pants at the gate, suffered on the slick tracks, and of course discovered that overtaking at this level isnt quite as simple as at league level....along with of course making some novice errors as you would expect I'm expecting nothing other than for the difference in class between GB and the top countries to be demonstrated .......and to some degree i'll be disappointed if we dont see it as it will probably mean that like last season the manager has folded when it came to the decision of giving youngsters experience or putting out the same old team........................... and to have any chance of a decent showing in the final it is paramount that they make sure they qualify from the race off and not their qualifier...... team GB have failed to understand this over the last few years

Chris Harris should not have been given a wildcard this season...... it even broke BSI/FIMs unofficial rules (longstanding pattern) on who gets one and who doesnt based on the previous year's results However Chris Harris would have been good enough for a wildcard if the tracks had been of a racing standard overall last season............ subsequently whether it was right or wrong that he got a wild card this season he is also most likely not going to be good enough again because Prague was a clear indication of the track preparation that we can be expecting Give Chris a little dirt and he soon becomes 'good enough'

Actually guys there is an argument that the Aussies are a good example Currently our promoters are bending over backwards so far to accomodate them and gain them as assets that they are compromising the chances of our own youngsters at PL reserve and in the middle order .............. They ride over here because this annual migration kills any chance of them building any kind of credible league in their own country and also because the opportunities here are too good to turn down......... Scott Nicholls rides in Sweden and Poland in preference of GB because the opportunities are too good to turn down The people who are treating him almost like a Judas figure have double standards imo........ they have no issue in every man and his dog coming to ride in this country and ultimately over time strangling the quantity (and by proxy quality) of home riders coming through .....and yet when one of our top riders decides it would make his life more simple to not ride here there is moral outrage and bizarrely connections are made between this and his place in the national team

against my better judgement I'll have Emil Sajfutdinov as my captain please

Unless things return to the normal pattern of things in terms of who makes the semis then there will be more 'bad nights' from the old guard...... If we consider Pedersen, Crump, Gollob, Andersen, Adams, Hancock, AJ as being the closed shop of recent years.... and if Freddie and Emil are the real mcCoy and will be joining them then that straight away is 9 riders to go into 8 semi spots add others capable of reaching semi's and it increases those 'bad nights'.....Bjerre, Nicholls, Holta and the Wild Card who should know the track well...... in fact Harris, Walasek and Ulamek are probably more capable than im giving credit for In terms of points scoring this could be the most evenly split season we have seen...... at the very least I dont think we will see a whipping boy like the Dryml, Rico, Chrzanowski, Pepe's of the past

since when? If practice is the issue then doesnt that go back to Olsen as well? If we are talking about nothing more than a tradition then Ole was the guy who set it all up........ if we are talking about a cutting edge organisation (FIM) and company (IMG) who reassess things annually then shouldnt this have changed by now? Wouldnt the guy responsible for the track have said something by now if he was unhappy? Tbh though i'm with you on this as you dont see teams getting practice on tracks before league matches..... and if they get practice for the purposes of setting the bike up correctly then quite clearly this is now pointless

Over the years ive found it interesting how when the brown stuff hits the fan Ole washes his hands of it straight away..... its always someone elses fault If he really wasnt in charge (and we know he is at the very least in charge of temporary tracks) then how do we explain the inexplicable slick tracks that are served up time after time... arent they just a little consistent?............... If one guy (or indeed a pair) werent in charge then wouldnt we expect for a range of surfaces to be served up? Ones where the riders who ride for that league team didnt feel like they were riding on a completely different track? Why has Bydgocscz been so very slick for so many years when it hasnt been for the league racing? It doesnt strike me that the track staff have been preparing the track how it would normally be and then we get the occasional stories on here from people who were on the track staff at a GP ... stories of how they were asked to grade the opposite way around the track at a crucial moment in the GP and before riders x and Y were due to shift to the gates that hadnt been working.... of the inexplicable changes made between practice and the GP etc etc

I'm suprised you are saying this as the first time we met was in Prague following an extremely exciting GP that saw an early downpour force blades out to cut off mounds of dirt that was left piled inside the white line on the centre green.......... admittedly it was a few years ago now and the racing hasnt been great since.... but we know the track can be good ........... if anything for me it is one of the biggest examples of Ole's obsession with speedway being a slick gating bore fest I reserve the right to have seen this night through rose tinted glasses as I was more than a little p1sh3d correct.... please name me another sport that buys into what you are saying......... I understand the politics and feelings on this at British League level but it really has diddly squat to do with the national team I'd agree that an ethos has developed over the years and the riders have started to buy into it now in the interest of earning money and staying fit......... the comparitive lack of injuries suffered in the GP's over recent years tells its only story.................... while obviously that is great ...every single one of the riders and officials knows what the sport is actually about and what turns the fans on .... and it isnt this If you watch the GP again you will notice that the majority of the passing was due to mistakes.......... and the ones who passed as of right had the set up at the optimal levels and were passing guys who werent.... and even then they had to force the issue and struggled to make clean passes It makes no sense for the FIM to dominate IMG over this..... IMG has a vested financial interest and I should imagine are after the most exciting product......... and tbh it makes no sense for the FIM not to have the same goals................. this is why I cannot believe that Olsen still has so much control...... and also why the appointment of Tony Olssen is an interesting one Is it not just a little too early to be coming out with stuff like this? I agree that Hans will finish somewhere at the top of the points scorings come the end of the season... Gollob? I'm not so sure......... how long can he defy the ageing process? Lets not forget that this was a gating track...... therefore the Brits were stuffed and Gollob should have shined If the preparation of this track tells the story for the whole season then yes i'd agree that Scott and Chris will be struggling...... but lets be completely honest here as speedway fans does that mean that they are actually poor/mediocre? Or does it mean that unbelievably we are having tracks prepared to find out who the best gater is? If they arent good enough for a competition that focusses on gating then yes they arent good enough and ultimately were born in the wrong era

yes for sure Andy that is what it takes to be at the pinacle or a modern day world champion and Emil Sajfutdinov is going the right way about things................. it was rumoured that Trick was on 2m sponsorship in his final few seasons and that really should put it all in perspective However, I think the cards are stacked against Scott with the tracks consistently prepared the way they are.......... I dont think that it would matter how much sponsorship he gained ... he would still be suffering from his gating..... and his varying quality of machinery Nobody would deny the class of Loramski... or the fact that he was as average at gating... if not more!.... and yet he was able to win a world championship because of the difference in the way the tracks were prepared................ ultimately it is a discussion for another thread but the one thing that makes us as speedway fans wince is when someone says its all over by the first bend.......... so why at the highest level of the sport do we have someone making sure the tracks are slicker than a slick thing?......... I dont deny the class of Pedersen but due to Olsen the record books will tell a lie as to who the best riders from this era actually were anyway back on track..... the season is a long one and we'll see what happens.... I certainly wouldnt bet against Scott once again coming in 9th but with Emil and Freddie seemingly joining the usual gang the job has been made that bit more difficult

line abreast from the start but the worst of all every single race he does is the incessant repeating over and over and over and over again of the leader's name I was like a little kid today waiting for the GP ..... then I heard Arthur Muddlard's voice and Ole's track expertise

its almost a shame that Emil did what he did tonight as it saved one of the most dire GP's from becoming enough of an embarrasment as to blow up in the face of the genius who decided a slick track at Prague was a good idea when is someone finally going to do something about Ole Olsen? This guy has single handidly been trying to rob the highest level of the sport of all of its very best and exciting points.............. we've all seen tracks with too much grip and the potential ill effects of them but it was beyond a joke a very long time ago how many slick tracks are being served up on what are the world's finest tracks as a result i'm not sure we learned too much about the season ahead tonight other than Emil is not happy to take things slowly .... is very exciting... but is also going to come a cropper as a result................ and that Freddie could be joining the big boys at the head of the table.............. what was a closed shop in the top 7 looks to have been blown wide open

sorry but that is nonsense we had no issues in using Gazza, David Platt, Mcmanaman, Beckham, Hargreaves, Owen, Ince etc etc for the England football team........ if there some strange set of politics here that should make riders press ganged out of their freedom of choice?.......... I mean we arent talking about him taking a Swedish license or anything are we? As far as if his gating is too pants for the competition is a different matter entirely though

As Marvyn Cox did with England and then Germany no matter how much they will want to adopt him we will all know where he initially planted his flag i'm still speechless about Emil tonight........... and especially after his ragged start to the night

The keyword in GP series is 'series' though It was the same for all riders tonight so Scott has no excuse for being p1$$ poor......... but the fact that his gating is far from world class automatically stuffs him when we get a p1$$ poor ole olsen special track like tonight............ having said that his bikes werent fast either the Nicholls camp wont be a happy one tonight thats for sure

For those Excel lovers here is something that someone uploaded a few years ago and has been taken forward slightly to show gate behaviour................ it isnt anything special but it does the job http://www.megafileupload.com/en/file/9964...D-2009-xls.html scroll down ... wait for the countdown to end and then hit the 'download file now' button

Crumpy because he means business this year and he knows that he has to get off to a good start

as much as i'm pleased with their progress this season i'm not sure that they are tbh........ different riders take differing amounts of time to get there in the end......... some never had a chance .... and some should have and never did.... and some like Ed, Lewis and Danny take their eye off the ball briefly along the way Kennett, Bridger, Woffinden and King should all reach the goal............ however the only one at the moment who is looking top class quality against the competition we are talking about here is Ed ah don't get me started Andy..... we are currently helping to groom a stunning future Aussie team while some of the promoters who brought them over are rubbing their hands with glee over the potential worth of the assets and the gain on the falsely assessed averages they got them on..... hats off to the Aussies as they work hard but I am certain that if Australia had a league, we had nothing, and our guys went over and recieved the same opportunities... that they would be as successful without the distractions of British life and everything hanging on them doing well The moment the promoters stop playing the asset game and stick to a plan that benefits our youngsters for longer than 2 seconds is the moment we start a conveyor belt of talent to make any GB squad year on year stronger