ballinger

Whilst agreeing that Wroclaw is a beautiful city to visit, Czestochowa would certainly be on my 'to go to' list. Their new stadium looks superb. If Togliatti joins the show for 2007, which GP from this year do you think would be dropped ? Assuming Cardiff 2008 is to be the 100th GP, it would mean only 10 GPs in 2007, as Bydgoszcz this year will be the 89th GP. I'm sure Gorican would host a super GP if it was to ever be awarded one, although hotels would be interesting as it's a bit out in the sticks. The desire to stage GPs ought in my opinion be served, as I've said before, by the re-introduction of a GP Challenge, as it would act as a juicy carrott for tracks to bid for SGP status.

Wishing everyone a good day out in Cardiff, missing it this year as I will be filming F1 Stock Cars at Brandon

We fly tomorrow, where my wife and I will be celebrating our honeymoon !! Looking forward to a good weekend

How many of us are planning to go to Gorican ? It'd make good sense if we could save on the gas, and car share ? I'm staying at Terme Catez with the wife & kids, yet they are unlikely to want to go to Gorican. I was planning to allow a couple of hours to get there, leaving about midday. Drop me a PM if anyone is interested.

Yes, PKP is the Polish Railway System, and I've always asked to be taken to "the PKP", and the taxi driver has known what I mean. In all of our travels in Poland, taking a taxi has always been cheap enough not to worry about, although they do like to think they're Fernando Alonso ! The most I've ever had to pay was from Warsaw Train Station to Warsaw Airport (about 15kms) and that was about 70 Zloty (£12)

The train station is literally a 10 minute cab ride (although when we did it in 2004 they were rebuilding the road and it took a fair while longer) Just ask the taxi driver to take you to "the PKP" and you'll be fine. Hope this helps

The CiMS TV boys will be there, in celebration of my stag weekend. Staying in Roden, would be good to meet up at the stadium

There will be myself, my good lady wife, the rest of the CiMSTV crew, Hackett & Mrs Hackett, a total of 15 of us (inc Papa Bazarou) Cant wait !

I must be paying you too much Papa !

Ryan Air have charged you the extra between the original cost of your Saturday tickets and the current cost of the Friday tickets ? Thanks to their total lack of consideration for their customers ? I've got them to move us onto the Stansted to Poznan flight which are (currently) at much more acceptable times. We'll then take the train up to Byd, which is cheap and easy, if not that fast (2.5 hrs). At least it means, fingers crossed, that we'll be in town for the Friday night drinking session

but concerningly the flight times appear to have changed from 10am to half 6 in the evening, meaning now late into Byd on the Friday. Let's hope the bar at the Brda stays open late and expects a late evening rush ! Not too chuffed at a 2315 back into Stansted on the Sunday night !

and I'm bringing 12 along as in previous years, inc the erstwhile Papa Bazarou Also in the Brda, so not far to wander for a 'Kebap' or two

Can anyone send me a weblink with these dates on ? I cant see anything on the FIM site Cheers Pete

Hey Steve, your memory must be failing. I'm currently working on the Bees 2005 season review DVD (available Dec 10) and one of the best races of the season is when Jonsson stalked and took Kasprzak from the back at Brandon in the ELB match from June. It's an absolute sweet move, bettered in Heat 13 when AJ did Sullivan the same. This was in addition to Nicholls passing Sullivan in Heat 11. Thanks to Papa Bazarou all of these superb passing moves were expertly filmed and are all featured on the 6 hour 3 disc DVD. As for the World Cup Final, I'm sure Brandon would be happy to hold it providing it generates more cash to the Stadium than a Saturday night greyhound meeting.

I have this GP currently on my PC for dubbing to DVD. If anyone wants a copy, recorded on two DVDs to keep the quality up, then please send me a PM. The first 3 hours were originally recorded on high quality SVHS, with the final recorded in VHS after Sky switched it over to Sky Sports Extra. Happy to provide for £8 including postage.

I have a ticket available for Sektor A at Bydgoszcz this Saturday. Face value is 250zl, and can be collected from me or one of my party from the City Hotel, Bydgoszcz on Saturday afternoon. If interested, then please send me a private message.

I'm in too. Come you the Brits !

Does anybody know if there's a greater reason about Bjerre's omission. I was surprised he wasn't included in the Copenhagen GP even as track reserve, now it appears he's not in the SWC team ? Bjerre's in better form than PUK surely at the moment ?

Pleased to report that faxing the Bydgoszcz club has met with success. I faxed my request for tickets to +48 52 583 00 30 yesterday and received an immediate confirmation. The confirmation states payment can either be by bank transfer or by cash on collection, so I think we'll pay for them upon arrival at the track on the Saturday.

I just wonder when BSI are going to advertise tickets for Bydgoszcz on www.speedwayworld.tv ? Emails to both them and the Bydgoszcz club have so far been unsucessful with regards to sourcing tickets for Sektor A

The GP Challenge ran from 1995 to 2001. It was replaced by the "Grand Final" which ran from 2002-2004. The GP Challenge acted as a "catch net" for those placed down the GP classification during the year, and was usually the most cut and thrust meeting of the year. It was made up of about the bottom 7 from that years GP, plus 8 from qualifiers, plus one other. The GP Challenge itself suffered when it adopted the GP 24 rider knock out formula, as it meant that riders from the GP started in the "Main Event" and so only needed 2 good rides to be back in the next years GP. From 2002 onwards BSI adopted the policy of seeding riders to the GP series, where they were joined by a number of "Grand Final" qualifiers. From 2006 onwards, it will be seeds only, with no "on track" qualification process at all, bar league(s) form or wild card performances. Additionally, I would also like to see a change to the current GP system, where the top 2 after 20 heats go straight to the final, the next 4 contesting a Semi, like has been done in ELRC/PLRCs in recent years.

With Trick looking set to make it title no.6, interest in the GP series will no doubt focus on the battle for the Top 8 over the remaining 4 rounds. What do other forum members think about re-introducing the GP Challenge to the calendar, as surely it would re-invigorate interest in the Speedway World Championship. The closed shop approach as will apply for 2006 onwards cannot in my opinion be right, as it relies too much on opinion and political positioning within the corridors of BSI and the CCP. Could BSI not recognise the financial benefits of using a GP Challenge meeting, a meeting that worked well in the past. A straight 16 rider 20 heat meeting made up of riders placed 9-12 from the GP series, plus the World U21 champ, plus the National Champions from GB, Swe, Den, Poland, along with a selction from other nations (determined however is best) would, in my opinion, be a welcome addition back on the calendar. Thoughts people?

To confirm, I wasn't suggesting for a moment that Jonsson had suffered whiplash, more drawing comparison from my own personal experience when I suffered physical injury, and that the true extent of the injuries only became apparent in the days after the crash

Question to all forum members : Have you ever been involved in a car accident from which you escaped relatively unhurt ? Allow me to tell you a story In May 03 we were involved in a smash just a mile from the speedway track at Terenzano in Italy, when a Porsche 924 decided to ram us on a busy intersection. An ambulance ride and a hospital visit later fortunately identified nothing but bruising, and we were infact able to go to the meeting at Terenzano that evening. Unfortunately it was a different story the next morning when the shock came out in our systems, and the full extent of the bruising began to show, that it neccessitated an immediate curtailment to our holiday and a flight back to Blighty as soon as we could. Subsequent check ups recognised whiplash injuries that required extensive physiotherapy and a sustantial time off work. Regarding Andreas Jonsson's crash on Tuesday night, there is no doubt that he was involved in a crash, and photographic evidence suggests it was quite a spectacular one, indeed it was bad enough for Jarek Hampel to break a thumb and to be forced out of the GP tomorrow. Fair enough, Jonsson went out next race and won that, but in these situations your body gets pumped with so much adrenaline that you are able to cope with the here and now. Its only subsequently that the true extent of any injury comes to the surface, and you realise what's happened to you. People are quick to criticise, and its sad inditement of folk who always look at the negative, or suggest that Speedway riders are "swinging the lead", when infact these guys are falling off motorcycles at 70mph with little protection, and are sometimes lucky to get away with relatively minor injuries given the extent of impact they put their bodies through. So, good luck tomorrow to all competitors at Eskilstuna, including Andreas Jonsson, let's hope a memorable Speedway occassion takes place befitting of the World Championship. PS ; Congratulations also to Mr & Mrs Hancock, as a recent father myself I can tell you its now that the fun really begins !

Hi Tomaz The family and I will be there. We look forward to catching up with you again Cheers Pete