Grachan

It was the 1971 World Pairs final. He scored 15 paid 18 - a paid maximum -to take the title along with Andrzej Wyglenda. That win included a Polish 5-1 over Mauger and Briggs - which would probably explain why Ivan said he saw Jerzy as a threat before the 1973 World final.

Tennis.

Well, you don't have to, but if they can't understand it then it might be helpful I guess. Heats are, technically, qualifiers by definition.

It's easy. Look up what the word "heats" means. When I was at school, heats were always qualifying races and at first, when taken to speedway as a kid, I couldn't work out why speedway races in matches were called "heats" as they weren't qualifying for anything. To check this wasn't just my own imagination, I googled the word "heat" : It means: "a preliminary round in a race or contest" So I looked up Preliminary and it means: "preceding or done in preparation for something fuller or more important". So there you go. If you need to explain it to a non-speedway fan tell them that.

The stadium looked less than half-full on Friday, which was the maximum capacity. Was the selling option, perhaps, one ticket for both nights and a lot of people bought a two-night ticket even though they were only going on Saturday?

I guess I'm just a three-quarters empty kind of guy.

I think the main problem with it was that it was in Amsterdam in a three-quarters empty stadium.

Didn't they once do just that. I remember Leigh Adams used to regularly refer to the final as the 'A' final in interviews long after they had changed it.

That had actually crossed my mind. Do 10, 8, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. I guess it might discourage the lower riders too much, though.

Fair play to Laguta. He had to fight for that one. The speed he has in that bike ridiculous though. It's like watching Muller in 83.

Laguta not so hot when he doesn't gate!

Just been said on tv that they had to pre-order all their tyres for this year's GP because of... da da daaaaa... Covid.

Homologated. The word of 2020.

Laguta and Janowski seemed to have so much extra speed in those heats. Can that really be down to a tyre?

I actually think the points are easier for non fans now. The heats are qualifiers. Simple. The same as heats in the olympic athletics. Qualifiers. The fastest athletes don't even extert themselves if they are safely through. Qualifiers. Semi finals. Final. Surely that is easier for the layman, who won't be filling out detailed scorecards and counting every point. I never follow the heat scores in detail in the GPs, so the final points were easier for me to follow.

So, does a last place beat an ef while leading?

How has that changed? The final block of races are just as significant to the semis now as they were last year. The main problem last night was that 7 riders were streets ahead of the others so most of the qualifiers were obvious after 4 races apiece.

A valid point regarding the race fixing, but the old points scoring was always open to the same thing in World Championship qualifiers. Penhall in 82 being a prime example. There is a lot of talk from people complaining that the heats are just qualifiers, but, in the days of one off finals, entire meetings were qualifiers. Nobody complained then. Also, in old World finals, you had 5 scoring heats to decide the winner. Here, you have 8 finals. I liked the old system better, but to me this isn't as bad as people are saying.

And, while they are at it, we don't want to watch the start from behind either.

I had reservations about the new scoring, but I thought it worked fine. The Lindgren situation added to the drama rather than take anything away. It may not work so well in the later rounds with two riders fighting for the title, but on the basis of this one I had less problem with it than I thought I would. I didn't think it really needed changing from last year, but for this entire topic to just be people complaining about it seems a bit excessive. I enjoyed the meeting. Not sure if Laguta can keep this up for the entire series, but a great start for him.

Yeah, it seems to be that kind of sport where is doesn't attract widespread coverage even at its most popular.

I would imagine that Speedway's popularity in Poland is similar to how it was in England in the 1970's. Nationwide coverage on World of Sport, second most popular spectator sport in the country, front page of the Daily Mirror when Peter Collins won the World title. But still you would find many people who had no idea what it was.

I mentioned to a Polish friend of mine that I'd been to speedway the previous evening and she said: "Really? Speedway is really popular in Poland. Where was that? I didn't know they had it here."

Because 2nd place would have been enough to make KK the winner of the meeting. It used to happen in one-off World finals. Many riders (eg Mauger, Collins, Penhall) settled for a second in their final ride to ensure winning the meeting and not take any unneccesary risk. Even a third would have guaranteed a GP place. Instead he found himself excluded and at risk of not qualifying. That's why he could have settled for second.

Zagar gets KK through.