manchesterpaul

You've got to admire the bravery of the riders.

Does anyone know who the australian colour commentator is? He usually asks some good questions

To answer the commentator nooo Gollob doesn't lead the championship!

It is nice to see the swedish fans so enthusiastic and loud. This sort of weather can often dampen a crowd vocally.

Will the cream rise to the top? Gollob and Pedersen up now they stragglers so far lol

Points in order gates 1234 22-8-11-19 Win in gates order 5-0-2-3 = Gates 3 4 ok

Weeeeeeee! despite the conditions Emil shows superb ability and bravery

Why on earth did Gollob choose not to cross the finishing line when a last place counts more than a non-finish! He may regret that in the event of a countback.

Three-way tie at the top of the series right now UPDATE Sam just echoed my observations on Sky 16 races needed for a result by the way

Gollob, Hampel, Sayfutdinov and Pedersen all outside the top eight after two races!

Dear oh dear lol...do you know what?....whatever!....maybe i'm just a glass half full person and you are a glass half empty one I'm off to enjoy myself anyway and despite the webcams showing a fair bit of rain now one lives in hope of a good GP. Enjoy all.

Wow superb links both. In the one of the stadium you can nearly see the track lol. Don't suppose i can stretch your talents to getting a street level cam, forget the rain threatening the GP, i want to see pretty blonde swedish ladies walking by lol. Yes i know i really need to go to Sweden to accomplish that. Ahead of the meeting i'll be keeping an eye on the one covering the stadium to see how many fans are making their way to the meeting. Fingers crossed we get a nice surprise and see a healthy crowd and not 1,2,3,4 from the gate remaining 1,2,3,4 to the chequered flag. We need GP's with good racing in the early part of the season to keep casual viewers and maybe create new fans to the tracks.

Initially yes, although this post from 'flagrag' in the other thread indicates an effort at persuading the masters to have a re-think? Then again maybe flagrag is unaware that Premier Sports may now have a deal in place, if indeed they do. "Just a further quick thing to add unless any last minute changes have to be made the GP on Sat night shoule be the first GP to be broadcast in HD apart from Cardiff as previously the HD feed from the circuit has been downscaled due to lack of HD studio space in London but it is planned to be in a HD studio this week. If it was my own personal decision to make with the increased interest from Premier sports in Speedway I would look at getting the Polish Extraliga on Sky even more so in the summer when main live Sun afternoon action is Cricket so no football and Rugby union especially with the positive viewing figures this has already been offered to Sky but I understand was turned down on the basis that it would not bring a gain in new customers which I would argue may not be true with the increased Polish expats in UK who many would prefer to watch it on TV rather than a computer screen."

If you glance down slightly you will see there is a thread a few places below this titled 'Gothenburg GP - Red Button Final Hour', in that someone involved with Sky have confrmed the meeting is on in full. Additionally, it should be available in HD. At least they are planning to broadcast it in that mode. There''s also further input from the same source in a thread in the 'General' section regarding the viewing figures being good, the coverage of the Swedish GP and possible plans to gain the Polish speedway rights. Although Premier Sports may be beating them to the latter.

Thank you for the links. I actually came on here to request if anyone had radar links. Yellow on weather radar animations is never a good sight

Was merely a passing comment not accusing them of any great sin lol. Their website has improved this year too looks much better.

See how it goes next time only i was all done and dusted and had created two racecards as well as my own interactive one by that time. Thing is i was aware of the same anomaly with the first GP. I'm pretty sure when i checked 9am onwards it had in very big letters 13:00 BST. Even the famous sites are not averse to slip-ups. Be that BSPA with results not tallying with their league tables or the SGP not showing Artem Laguta in their current standings despite the fact he is still shown as a GP rider. Anyway important matter is that we get a good GP with racing and fans in attendance, not yet guaranteed on either count.

Lol just quickly went to your profile to see if you on mainland europe and the SGP site changed accordingly. Too be honest, although it's no great importance, i was so suprised it had happened again (did it? lol) i was on the verge of taking a screenshot but was to busy rushing out. I'm fairly certain still that it had in big block letters BST! Obviously i did look and re-look carefully as i hate to criticize anything and would always double check. I soooooo wish i had taken a screenshot now. Anyways no biggie. (i will check up on them next time for sure lol)

Once again on the official SGP site despite having plastered in big letters that the draw is to be made at 13:00BST, it has already been made. But that's all good as it means i can get off out on my travels earlier Whilst most people have now bookmarked the racecard page and will already be busy downloading, this is to let you know that the TWO cards are NOW AVAILABLE. Direct download at the top of this page below. MiniMax 2011 Swedish Grand Prix Racecard Basic Version MiniMax 2011 Swedish Grand Prix Racecard

Just done a quick preliminary search of the local media for the Grand Prix, also aided by Google translate. Unfortunately, it looks like the sport suffers the same ignorance from the media it does all over the world! This site http://gt.expressen.se appears to cover Gothenburg and this one sport http://www.expressen.se/sport/. Despite a long scrollable page picturing many different sports, including Table Tennis! no sign of speedway anywhere. Certainly no mention of the speedway Grand Prix that is being staged in Gothenburg! Do the BSI make no attempt to heavily access and advertise in the local population and city centre of GP's?

Do any of our Swedish friends have news regarding as to whether advance tickets are selling like the proverbial hotcakes, or is it likely to be a turn up on the day affair?. The latter of which would possibly be affected by the weather if it is bad.

Available in the afternoon following the draw tomorrow (Friday) are now TWO different versions of the MiniMax Racecard. There has been added a basic version of the racecard which still benefits from the MiniMax formatting style but without all of the bells and whistles. That makes it perfect for those who just want to fill in the heats and rider grid results whilst being able to check the upcoming heat line-up's, something that the tv coverage rarely does. You can direct download them from the top of the following page and as ever no advertising etc. cluttering up the card. MiniMax 2011 Swedish Grand Prix Racecard Basic Version MiniMax 2011 Swedish Grand Prix Racecard

Picture quality is superb

English commentary. OMG! that means the forum is going to go into meltdown with a second 'commentators' thread war.

Evidence! goodness me! these and forums all over the world would be empty of posts if one had to provide evidence of every opinion. Although i do think it would be a good idea for the libellous entries to require such lol. Evidence regarding my conclusion that many newcomers to the sport would have turned off before we got to the speedway 'racing' is simply common sense and knowledge of how people are. Someone who isn't a fan of the sport, and especially new to it, would not know things were likely to improve and humans being human (as in they have a brain that prefers to be stimulated) would fairly quickly be flicking through the channels to find entertainment. It's clear from several sources - apparently those other than the host organisers - that most people were surprised at the number of empty seats. Don't get me wrong in this day and age all major sports struggle to attract spectators like they used to. Even though speedway attendances are slumping in many places of the world, so are other mass media covered sports in those countries too. Even national football teams struggle and get lower crowds nowadays. I always say it's best to have a full stadium at lower prices that produces the same income as a smaller attendance at higher prices. It certainly not only makes people at home sit up and take interest at a well attended spectacle but, more importantly, sponsors and tv companies. It's human nature to drift towards a large excited crowd to see what all the fun and attraction is about than go over to have a look at what is going on in a sparsely filled arena. Genuinely thank you Philip for the information regarding reasons, that is all i asked for. I should point out though that several riders on tv did bemoan that there wasn't as much dirt as normal on the track. But as you say the majority were happy. Unlike yourself with access to the riders i was going on the tv interviews. So....majority ok with the track but dirt was taken off (not according to me, but to some riders). Incidentally, i'm usually one of the first to pounce upon people when after a few heats of a meeting on tv they start posting about they are switching off because it is boring etc. I remember not long ago at all, i asked how long a poster had been watching speedway (knowing it was quite a while) for them to not realise that the vast majority of meetings that have taken place over decades won't have passing in the first couple of races. My concern with Leszno was how long it took to get some racing. That is great news thanks for that snippet of info too.