British GP’s Belle Vue Fri/Sat 13th/14th June

[THE DEAN MACHINE]

2 hours ago, OveFundinFan said:

It is relevant. Flares, amongst other things, are not allowed, but they got in. Bag searches were being done, perhaps hapazordly. So if flares didn't get picked up what other things could have sneaked in. If you recall a few years ago someone got past security at the Manchester Arena, left a bag with a bomb in it and a large number mostly kids got killed. If security is lax anything could go on, not only bombs....machetes, you name it, it could happen.

And we could all step out the house tomorrow and get run over by a bus but statistically that ain’t going to happen just like the chance of you getting blown up by a bomber ain’t going to happen, you can’t live life on what if 

[THE DEAN MACHINE]

16 minutes ago, MattB said:

One of the great "what ifs" for me is Darcy Ward.  Had a stayed fit and got his head right, he would've been a big danger to Zmarzlik in my opinion.

Darcy was around a few years and did grow up abit towards the end of his career but fact is this Darcy as great and natural talent as he was he didnt have the discipline to be a great, Darcy was a modern day Kelly Moran 

Edited Sunday at 05:25 PM by THE DEAN MACHINE

[OveFundinFan]

3 minutes ago, THE DEAN MACHINE said:

And we could all step out the house tomorrow and get run over by a bus but statistically that ain’t going to happen just like the chance of you getting blown up by a bomber ain’t going to happen, you can’t live life on what if 

By due diligence the Manchester Arena bombing could easily have been averted, but they took their eye off the guy and a dozen of more precious family members lost loved ones. Statistics are just numbers, no feeling in numbers, there are feelings when someone loses a life or suffer life changing injuries.

[THE DEAN MACHINE]

1 minute ago, OveFundinFan said:

By due diligence the Manchester Arena bombing could easily have been averted, but they took their eye off the guy and a dozen of more precious family members lost loved ones. Statistics are just numbers, no feeling in numbers, there are feelings when someone loses a life or suffer life changing injuries.

When your  dad is in the CIA they never take their eye of you, terrorist attacks don’t happen without being facilitated 

[MattB]

14 minutes ago, THE DEAN MACHINE said:

Darcy was around a few years and did grow up abit towards the end of his career but fact is this Darcy as great and natural talent as he was he didnt have the discipline to be a great, Darcy was a modern day Kelly Moran 

Hence why I say "had he got his head straight"

[THE DEAN MACHINE]

14 minutes ago, MattB said:

Hence why I say "had he got his head straight"

But he didn’t and that was never going to change because that’s the person he was 

Edited Sunday at 05:52 PM by THE DEAN MACHINE

[IainB]

1 hour ago, racers and royals said:

They want meetings to finish in a final and i know it was confusing when the winner of the final didn’t go home with the most points. 

Nothing confusing about that at all... you didn't have to do any points conversion like you do these days, now that is confusing. 

[FAST GATER]

40 minutes ago, MattB said:

One of the great "what ifs" for me is Darcy Ward.  Had a stayed fit and got his head right, he would've been a big danger to Zmarzlik in my opinion.

I think we all agree Darcy was an exceptional rider . 

[R87]

1 hour ago, THE DEAN MACHINE said:

Darcy was around a few years and did grow up abit towards the end of his career but fact is this Darcy as great and natural talent as he was he didnt have the discipline to be a great, Darcy was a modern day Kelly Moran 

Sadly many similarities between Ward and Moran.  Both talented, but extremely unlikable as individuals 

[THE DEAN MACHINE]

Just now, R87 said:

Sadly many similarities between Ward and Moran.  Both talented, but extremely unlikable as individuals 

I didn’t actually mind Darcy, in the few times I came into contact with him he was always courteous but I am fully aware of his off track shenanigans 

[Triple.H.]

6 hours ago, therefused said:

Why are you talking about bombs for some weird reason? Literally not relevant to the conversation at all

You either have security checks, or you don't have them. Do them properly or not at all, will you get on your next flight for example, if no passengers have security checks ?

[IainB]

They even let Chris "Bomber" Harris into the stadium... shocking!

[szkocjasid]

7 hours ago, racers and royals said:

Why ? GP points are not race points. They want meetings to finish in a final and i know it was confusing when the winner of the final didn’t go home with the most points. The riders understand the system and in my opinion it’s good for TV.

I personally don't think it's confusing at all, every heat counts is a simple explanation.

I think it's less confusing than when 5 riders tied on 6 points, one of them is guaranteed to finish 4 points better off than another! I just don't understand a single justification for doing this? What does it achieve?

If they are desperate for the winner to receive the most points, make the final 20-18-17-16, everyone else takes home their score after 20 heats. 

I think that's much easier to understand.

[szkocjasid]

6 hours ago, Fromafar said:

I think Top 2 to Final.Next 4 run-off for final 2 places would be fairer.IMO.Then points awarded to what you scored in Heats if not in Final .

I don't like the current system, but the one thing which is better than the old semi finals is only the winner advancing. Stops riders settling for 2nd place. Having top 3 to the final and 3rd-7th in a semi final for the last place, would achieve the same thing.

[Zagarmeister]

I was around in the days of Ivan Mauger, and regularly watched Tony Rik and I consider Zmarzlik the greatest speedway rider in history already.

Impossible to catch if he gates and brilliant to watch come through the field when he doesn't.

Initially I though it was a massive shame that Laguta was unable to defend his title, but all Laguta is is fast.

He's just Vaculik with better equipment, this year he wouldn't see which way Bartek went.

But what I like most about Bartek is that he has no ego whatsoever, he just loves what he does and that's a rare trait.

[szkocjasid]

On 6/15/2025 at 12:31 AM, Daniel Smith said:

May be we force a reduction in the age of rider's in the series, if you're over 35 & not top 6 they can't get a wildcard??

Top 3 of the SGP2 series qualify??

Top 5 U25's from the Polish Ekstraliga automatically qualify for the SGP??

There must be some young, fast, loose cannons out there that can shake up the series??

Absolutely need to shake up the system in some way. We're just getting to much same old, same old qualifying from the GP Challenge, & wildcard picks.

Think most fans want to see a complete shake up of the SGP Series in some way, shape or form.

I can't see any reason to make these changes.

By all means allow rider(s) from the SGP2 (winner only imo) a spot in the GP Challenge, but not a straight spot in the GP series, just because you're the best U21 year old, doesn't mean you are GP standard.

Think the U25 Extraliga idea is even worse, what if the top 30 riders are all 26 or older, you'd be seeding riders near the bottom of the Extraliga into the GP series!

I don't think over 35s shouldn't be allowed wild cards, a rider could be challenging for the world title, like Doyle was last year but miss out because he's "too old".

If the "same old" are qualifying from the GP challenge, then they deserve to be in there, but Huckenbeck (last year) and Kurtz (this year) were added to the series, so there was some new blood if you're looking for that.

To me the best way to get different riders (if that what you desire) in the GPs is more qualify places & less wildcards. If the top 7 GP riders, SEC Champion & top 7 qualifiers make it through there's a chance of some different riders making it through, there's more chance the exciting young rider you'd like to make it in could finish in the top 7 of the qualifiers than the top 4.

That may not guarantee the best riders make it, but if that guarantees riders can only qualify & not be seeded, I'm ok with that.

[midlandred]

8 hours ago, szkocjasid said:

I can't see any reason to make these changes.

By all means allow rider(s) from the SGP2 (winner only imo) a spot in the GP Challenge, but not a straight spot in the GP series, just because you're the best U21 year old, doesn't mean you are GP standard.

Think the U25 Extraliga idea is even worse, what if the top 30 riders are all 26 or older, you'd be seeding riders near the bottom of the Extraliga into the GP series!

I don't think over 35s shouldn't be allowed wild cards, a rider could be challenging for the world title, like Doyle was last year but miss out because he's "too old".

If the "same old" are qualifying from the GP challenge, then they deserve to be in there, but Huckenbeck (last year) and Kurtz (this year) were added to the series, so there was some new blood if you're looking for that.

To me the best way to get different riders (if that what you desire) in the GPs is more qualify places & less wildcards. If the top 7 GP riders, SEC Champion & top 7 qualifiers make it through there's a chance of some different riders making it through, there's more chance the exciting young rider you'd like to make it in could finish in the top 7 of the qualifiers than the top 4.

That may not guarantee the best riders make it, but if that guarantees riders can only qualify & not be seeded, I'm ok with that.

How about…. every country holds qualifying rounds for their own riders, the best of whom progress to further stages of qualifying, then to area finals and then a last round of qualifying meetings, such as Nordic, European, British etc finals, culminating with 16 riders, for a one-off meeting to decide who’s the World Champion - no points carried forward from qualifying, everything decided on the day (night) in front of a massive crowd.

Do you think this might catch on?

[norbold]

6 minutes ago, midlandred said:

How about…. every country holds qualifying rounds for their own riders, the best of whom progress to further stages of qualifying, then to area finals and then a last round of qualifying meetings, such as Nordic, European, British etc finals, culminating with 16 riders, for a one-off meeting to decide who’s the World Champion - no points carried forward from qualifying, everything decided on the day (night) in front of a massive crowd.

Do you think this might catch on?

Not a chance. If that system was any good, they would have done it for 50 years.....

[Mick Bratley]

On 6/14/2025 at 7:09 PM, 40-38 said:

If it takes a few races to get the dirt in the right place for entertainment, why don't they send some juniors out to break it all up a bit before heat 1?

I’ve never understood why we don’t do this in the U.K. In Poland, riders are given some laps practice before the meeting starts and when it does start the track is race ready.

[CrazyMadTom]

Regarding the qualifying system, what do people want the same faces year in year out of a few new faces. Wild card picks need to go and wild card for each round, even in the old world final days some top riders missed a year due to being knocked out of a qualifyer. If you wanted 3 new faces each year , the Grand Prix qualiferys with no GP riders, then Top 8 through each year and a grand prix challenge with the bottom 8 and the next 8 from the Qualifyer in a GP Challenge where top 5 go through(if they stick with wild card at each round only 4 go through).

Onto the points system for each GP, if they want to stick to 23 heats, go back to the A,B and C Finals , where you have to finish top 4 to have a chance to win the meeting, No D final the bottom 4 races get zero points so everybodys final heat they would be racing to not finish bottom 4.