JT

It's only taken him twenty two races to win his first heat. Hand him a series wild card!

In fairness there's nobody really comparable. Who else in World Speedway has had five series nominations, a free ride into the Grand Prix Challenge (despite going out in the first round last year) and the qualifying procedure for a Cardiff Wild Card changed in his favour (then changed back again this year)? The closest is Freddie Lindgren, who is effectively the Swedish Chris Harris, having received four series nominations. Both should never be anywhere near a full time Grand Prix season ever again unless they qualify in the top 8 or go through the Grand Prix challenge (without the aid of a free pass). JT. PS. It's not 'picking on' someone, it's utter frustration at the blatant favoritism afforded to a rider who receives charity year on year, yet time after time bemoans his misfortune. If he was Polish or Danish, do you think he would have been in the series in the first place, let alone had five nominations? Whether it's the track, his team or his machinery, there's one certainty, it's never HIS fault. The best thing Phil Morris could teach him is not how to gate (I think that's a lost cause), but just to enjoy the experience while the time lasts and stop blaming everyone else for the fact you aren't of consistent Grand Prix standard any more.

Whether he bombs out of his semi or not, we may as well stick Harris name in the final already! The organisers will never learn, they parachuted him into the Challenge last year ahead of the thirty or so more deserving riders and he's repaid them by probably being the worst full time Grand Prix performer I can remember so far. JT.

Cook, Bridger and Harris 8th, 9th and 10th respectively. All go through (top 10 qualify) with 8 points, with Harris' last ride 3rd over Suchanek proving decisive. Lawson's 3 points only good enough for 14th place, so he is out. JT.

So instead of bypassing the smaller federations and parachuting a Brit into the line-up (as per the Chris Harris GP Challenge saga last year), they've done it by the book. Tough on Howarth, who it was reported would take his place in the meeting, but much fairer. JT.

It's farcical that you have to go to these lengths when you've already paid a fortune for the ticket, but in my experience the Crewe queue is nearly always empty. I've looked at the route from Cardiff to Crewe and it goes via Cwmbran, Abergavenny, Hereford etc. Just to be sure, I'd buy a ticket for a town on the other side of the border (Hereford) and you should be let straight through. Just swap tickets (and platforms) when you're inside and you should be able to catch your desired London train. You'll be £11 worse off (see ticket link below), but it's probably a small price to pay for inconvenience of waiting around. I can't promise it will work, but it may be worth a try! http://www.thetrainline.com/buytickets/combinedmatrix.aspx?Command=TimeTable#Journey/CDF/HFD/12/07/14/20/15/Dep//////Dep/1/0//0;0;0 JT.

Jan Pedersen of Arena Essex rode an upright. I think he rode one at Newport right up until 1998. Here he is in 1997, looks like he's about to win a 'meaningful' race! (Photo from the Newport Speedway SOS Facebook page) https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=241695452676761&set=gm.471846472937907&type=1&theater JT.

Cheers, Phil, very Interesting reading. Surely such costs are unsustainable already, let alone in the long run? If a decent monthly wage in Poland is £300, or less than £2 an hour, is it any surprise the crowd was so poor at Bydgoszcz, when the cheapest ticket was over £12? Then again the GP's at Torun and Gorzow tend to attract big crowds, so maybe it's just that area of Poland struggling. Off topic here, but personally I would prefer to say packed stadiums. Then again it's not my money at stake and I understand BSI are a commercial entity. Maybe the organisers see more of a benefit in die hard's attending at a higher profit margin per ticket, than speculating on getting a full stadium with cheaper tickets? It's also difficult to calculate whether lowering ticket prices would have any effect whatsoever. JT.

Sounds cheap, Phil, but a quick Google search shows you the the average monthly salary in Togliatti is around £275 per month (that's just £3,300 per annum) (source; http://www.leaderproject.com/togliatti-russia.html). As an estimate, let's say a worker does 160 hours per month, that equates to an average hourly wage of £1.72, making a ticket around one and three quarter hours salary. Given the above report says the city is comparable to Toronto in living costs, I'd suggest a £3 outlay for speedway would be quite a big decision for your average working class Russian. Maybe such commercial considerations are why the Speedway GP hasn't gone to Russia yet? The ticket margins are just far too small/non existent. JT.

Whilst the event wasn't quite a sell out, judging by this image http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/X714NmgeXMc/maxresdefault.jpg, it wasn't far off, and given the crowds we've seen in the GP so far, certainly not what I'd describe as very poor! Agree about your previous comments regarding the track though, I seem to remember the flat track leading to processional racing. A shame that they invested heavily in the stadium and then designed a track that isn't conducive to exciting racing. A nice stadium with a crap track. Sound familiar?! JT.

Whatever went on behind the scenes last year in ensuring he got into the GP Challenge by hook or by crook is spectacularly backfiring now. At an average of two points a meeting so far, he's on course to be the worst performing full time rider since the GP's changed to their current five ride format. Judging by his league scores, his GP nightmare is having a negative impact on his form everywhere else as well. BUT obviously none of this is his fault. It's not poor Bombers fault that after six seasons of GP racing (five of which were spent as a result of BSI charity) he still doesn't know how to set up his bike or gate on a consistent basis... Before his fans lynch me, I understand he's a lovely bloke, and you will never forget Cardiff 2007, but he's also supposed to be a professional sportsman riding at the highest level. Scapegoating at every opportunity may work in your first season, but when you're still racking off the same tired excuses in your seventh season, then as Scott Nicholls remarked on Saturday, you need to take a long hard look in the mirror. For what it's worth, I think he will improve (although not by quite the extent his bikes and form improved at the end of 2010; just what did he do then, that he can't replicate now?), but the best advice Phil Morris could offer Harris would be to focus on his league racing after this season. Harris still has a lot to offer at that level. JT.

Not that the BSI Propaganda Ministry will admit it, but surely that meeting has to go down as an epic failure? Rows and rows of empty seats, a dreadful, borderline dangerous circuit, and a number of high profile riders publicly venting their anger on TV and Twitter. JT.

Ward telling it like it is. No doubt he'll be reprimanded by BSI for daring to stray away from the official party line. JT.

Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse, they cock up the flags... JT.

When you have the likes of Niemenen and Harris holding off world class riders like Hampel and Iversen with ease, you know the track is crap. I wonder what the official line will be post meeting, surely they can't be happy with this? JT.

It's completely crap. Despite the usual pre-meeting propaganda it's hardly sold out and if the racing continues to be this processional, next years crowd will be far worse. JT.

Gate two looks like a graveyard, with top riders having woeful first rides from there. Doesn't bode well for Hancock (who has already lost a certain second in heat one) in the next heat. JT.

Dire so far, with the only overtake Harris and Hampel passing Hancock when he broke down. It's like a giant Prague. JT.

Big track, narrow bends, is it anything like the old Exeter track, Phil? If it is, this could be Harris' best chance to do something. JT.

I suspect Scott Nicholls grew more and more frustrated with the preferential treatment afforded to one rider, culminating in the guarantee of a British GP wild card for Harris last year, when previously this wild card was decided by the highest place non GP rider in the British Final. The fact they have reverted back to the old way of doing things now Harris is in the GP series full time, only adds to the suspicion that the organisers give Bomber an easy ride. JT.

According to their Facebook page it's not the track, but the new paddock (pits) that won't be ready in time. Seems a little strange to be granted a World Championship meeting, on a relatively little used track, then jeopardise that opportunity by building a new pits area (when they held a qualifier last year and the existing area was clearly satisfactory), but there you go. Their loss is Berwick's gain. JT.

I don't think the problem is with Harris receiving yet another nomination as such (although you do have to wonder how many chances one man can get in a career!), but why the organisers have switched the event from Austria (where Harris bombed out spectacularly last season) to a far more convenient location, and a track he has always done well on. Although I'm sure it's all a coincidence, this latest move certainly doesn't do anything to quieten the conspiracy theorists, who rightly or wrongly believe the organisers do everything in their power to give Bomber an easy ride. JT.

Haha! The poor bugger would probably crash into himself! JT.

On past form they'll probably nominate Harris. "Give him 10 rides" JT.

After a mediocre display in New Zealand, I can see Iversen posing a big threat in Bydgoszcz. One of the top riders in the Polish league, in fine form in the Elite League, and fired up after the first round, that's where my money would go. Harris can't do any worse than five zero's and with nothing to lose should score some points. I guess Gollob has burnt all his bridges with BSI? Going on his historic performances at this circuit and his local celebrity status, I would have thought he'd make the ideal Wild Card candidate. I bet the 15 full time speedway riders are glad the organisers didn't go down this route though! JT.