spook

congrats to those involved..... no mean feat with supercross on there

spot on about Frampton SCB he should definitely have been included......... I cant really fault the other choices though........ It is a nice balance of Youth and experience and no matter who is finally picked I hope the whole group are involved from start to finish..... along with Mear, Tully and Roynon for the ride tbh I'm pleasantly suprised with the look of the squad ..... as things stand we have 5 riders 8+ standard...... even if the standard of the EL isnt what is used to be this still hasnt happened for a long long time........... and after all those years of Loram, Nicholls, Richardson, Screen etc we now have some youngsters starting to challenge them personally if I was manager I would write off all chances of gaining success right now and build for the future..... no matter how much that would go down like a lead balloon with the paymasters....... team Great Britain has to start getting realistic and miracles are not performed overnight 3 of the guys would be automatic choices Nicholls Harris Kennett the rest would be evaluated, with current form, track expertise (over all SWC tracks involved), machinery, mentality all coming under the microscope based on current form now and an eye on the future the final 2 spots would go to two of Bridger, Woffinden or King............ that would put Rico's nose out of joint but so be it

spot on as ever andy... although I dont think allocated machinery would work..... what if a rider was allocated two badly setup bikes? what if there was one obviously superior bike? if the truth be known a major rethink involving machinery should have happened donkeys years ago........ costs need to be brought down and the margins of extra performance gained between one tuner to another need to be slimmed............. the issue I fear is political and administerial...... if cost was a factor then it would need to apply worldwide and I just cant see the national governing bodies all agreeing at the same time along with FIM, BSI and the riders etc

flippin heck Snyper how on earth does everything boil down to a william wallace argument? in speedway terms I couldnt care less about Scotland or England because they ride with a nationality of BRITISH........... and if I feel the need to obsess about such things i'll find a suitable site with like minded 'opponents' to argue with the issue here is that you are both professional Scott Nichols knockers...... we dont have a world championship we have a GP system.... and within that GP system are certain givens.......top 8 come back, major hosting nations are represented, at least 2 of finishing positions 9-12 are given permanent wildcards I used to go to world finals when there were at least 4 eastern europeans included who before the meeting were a safe bet to score 10 points between them but they were included because they had come through the qualifying round that ensured that eastern europe were involved in the final.......... utimately they had little chance of winning and nothing has changed on that score for at least 2 thirds of the gp field.... and certainly annually for the wild cards Scotty knocking really is an ashamedly easy sport....... we know the guy's historical deficiencies and he fits in too well to the tragic habit we have in Britain of knocking our stars down............. the simple fact of the matter is that he has shown year after year, GP after GP that he is about 9th best in the world............ this is amongst a whole host of other wildcards and qualifiers who have come and gone and not managed to crack the top 8..... but they also havent managed to crack the top 9! So there are some basic facts that do not look like changing....... Scott is Britain's best rider overall worldwide until someone changes that........ BSI/FIM will make sure that Britain is involved........ He does make it easy for them to pick him due to only just missing out on the top 8 ......... and there is no one who is ready to take his place without potentially hurting their careers the only successful end for those who have seen enough of Scott is for at least a couple of Harris, Kennett, Woffinden, Bridger to raise the bar and justify their place and not just in the short term meanwhile Scott will no doubt keep plugging away but as ive posted before this is a major season for him and comes on the back of a succession of changes to his approach down the years.... hopefully he has got it right

Well being British I am prone to being blinded by things like that with Scotty because for 3 hours every fortnight I am put through a roller coaster of emotions with him. However......... Can we really say Scotty isnt an exciting rider when the first things that people would say about him are: awful gater physical fast bikes just the fact he is less than average in terms of gating must mean that he gives us passing for him to even be in the series aside from his nationality I think he has been one of the riders to give us the best races in the GP's........and I truly dont think that he gives up because he is nearly always on the cusp of making the semis

tick tock

but hang on guys .. first of all who said that these are the standards being set? I'm certainly not the one setting standards for Scotty..... im sure him and kelvin have their own........... and secondly do the Swedes feel the same about AJ?...... lets face it he has only ever been one step ahead of Scott and is unlikely to win a GP series judging by his career so far and ability to implode....... There is absolutely nothing wrong with having our best riders included until we have other riders coming through and riding better We should NOT be allowing our youngsters to get in the GP series too soon and hopefully we have the FIM and BSI making sure of that.......... if a youngster is dropped in too soon it is as likely to set him back/destroy him as much as he is likely to swim/excel

everything is possible and I am 100% sure that Denmark's population doesnt even come close to Britain's

I can understand why they have done this but I cant help feeling that they would have been better off allowing people to watch it live and then charging those who want to watch the archived stuff...... its like they've been fishing for us but pulled too hard at the line once they had us hooked

go on then this looks like fun reckon my team (still trying to work out why we pick a team for individual events ) will look similar to most 2) Jason Crump 50k 5) Hans Andersen 45k 7) Andreas Jonsson 35k 10) Freddie Lindgren 30k 15) Emil Sajfutdinov 25k =185k Crumpy will be captain for Prague thx ballinger

I was a huge F1 fan from the days of Alan Jones and Keke Rosberg through to the Mansell, Senna and Hill days......... and then the sport became based on the wrong things...... as well as quite obviously being bent I'm now looking forward to every grand prix ... not only because it is about real driving again but also because of how tightly grouped relatively all the teams are The best thing speedway could do is to finally take an interest in the machinery......... standardising would not only be good for the racing but also for costs......... the savings would go all the way to the promoters and consequently the fans

Is Scotty good enough to be world champion? I'd suggest that there is room for improvement...... but not that much room Is Scotty good enough to be there? Yes of course because he consistently finishes within the top 10 riders Has watching Scotty been a frustrating experience for British fans? *cries and nods* Will Scotty do better than last season? I suspect he will

http://www.speedway-forum.co.uk/forums/ind...=47060&st=0

yep its understandable why he made his decision Snyper but I cant help feeling that he already became one of the world's best last season.......... this cannot be a decision based on skill and capability and more one based on gathering the machinery and personnel required...........

still a whole two weeks to go tick tock

lol I'm so excited about Emil being in the GP's this season..... he is everything that makes a rider good to watch ........... i'm just suprised Noddy isnt there with him this season

But there is a very good reason why he was appointed....... for me it makes sense that it was: a) BSI/FIM starting to wrestle control away from Ole b.) Ole flagging up that he will need to be replaced c) two pairs of eyes are better than one pair If this statement has anything to do with the appointment then i'd suggest it was a) Ole has taken a fair amount of verbal whacking from the fans and riders over the years not only for farces like in Germany but also for over slick tracks which were always going to result in a lack of passing....... but also for 'interesting' track prep and grading which has been of benefit to certain riders at a certain point in a meeting..................... add his influence over refs and when you weigh it all up the guy has had too much power and there have been question marks over how it has been abused.......................for a company like BSI (or whatever they are calling themselves now) they cannot afford tracks with no passing and they cannot afford for the sport to be seen as bent

It looks like TVP are charging this year

Sitera and Balinski could upset the apple cart

that all depends on your outlook...... any money earnt can go back into filming equipment and the fact that it is on British TV could lead to it being shown on American TV ... Rome was not built in one day.... and if you cast your mind back to the early Sky coverage in this country you might remember that with regards to the polo..... welcome to American speedway..... and it was no different in the days of Penhall, Sigalos etc

Is it Sky speedway? no... but is it more speedway on the box? yes Well done to all concerned in bringing this to our TV's........ It certainly isnt the polished product but its a good start and i'm sure that some of the feedback is being listened to. The commentary is recorded but Unk is doing a good job....... I wince at some of the commentary for pre recorded stuff on channels like motors and eurosport It would be good to see American Speedway get back to the glory days of Penhall, Sigalos, the Morans, Cook and erm ...Schwartz ...... any exposure can only be good for them

I think Kelvin could be a masterstroke for Scott........... the guy has been there seen it and done it with the exception of being world champion ... and he wasnt far away from that! He has the family equipment and know how to get the best out of Scott's machinery..... and if the rumour that I heard is true and that Scott had so many engines that he never knew what was good and what was the best to use for x circuit .... then Kelvin will definitely iron that issue out Scott used to have one of the fastest bikes in the gp field and that all changed for a good couple of seasons....... the 2nd half of last season saw glimpses of him having a fast bike once again which for someone who will never be the fastest gater is all important Personally despite feeling like ive been tortured by Scott for all these years I still hold out hope that he can improve but I think his likeliest chance is battling with AJ for the rights to take over Gollob/Adams/Hancock's positions

I was thinking about this the other night and I think that although it feels like every year is crucial for Scott ... this one really is........... he'll never have a better year to break through with some of the older guys above him perhaps finally reaching the end of the road? Scott actually has an amazing record at either just missing out on the semi or just making it...... if he can manage to improve that to either just making it or making it comfortably he would start having a chance of winning a GP

but they do dont they? The Poles have 4 in the competition and that meant no other pole would have got in ........ Hampel had about as much chance of being offered a wild card as Ben Powell lets remind ourselves of positions 9-14: 8. Scott Nicholls (GB) 77 15. Fredrik Lindgren (Swe) 73 11. Bjarne Pedersen (Den) 69 12. Niels Kristian Iversen (Den) 59 9. Chris Harris (GB) 58 14. Krzyzstof Kasprzak (Pol) 57 so on the basis of what has just happened Kasprzak should have been a consideration as well...... but more telling is that Bjarne and Niels finished above bomber ............. so Bjarne made his statement about dropping out although thereafter kelvin and co disputed that................ NKI most certainly wanted to be in it.... the danes have 3 riders in already so he would have fitted based on past WC pick behaviour

I know what you are saying Iris and the short term damage wont be much........ however the long term damage is a different matter I believe that British speedway has got itself in such a state partially because of all the nonsense short term, back scratching, self serving decisions............... it has had such a history of this both distant and recent that even the most hardcore fan can no longer have full respect for the way it is run..... so what has that meant for the 'floating' fans? So they got away with not including Hans a few years ago but they wont get away with this one and have managed to undo some of their hard work over the years by undermining the fact that it is speedways pinnacle ...... this is after all what replaced the world final The danger for me is if they are doing this what else will they feel they can do in the future? What have they already been doing that we dont know about or have suspected? ............. and financial affairs should be able to be massaged by those round blocks in round holes but the square blocks shouldnt even come into it As much as I like Bomber he paid the penalty for drastically reducing his costs from 07 to 08....... and as hacket points out just like with Loramski...Olsen will always be his Kryptonite