GP line-up for 2026

[teijahn]

On 9/26/2025 at 4:27 AM, Gavan said:

God there is some crazy talk on here 

Why do people want new blood if the new blood isn’t good enough? 
Choose Fricke Doyle and Michelsen add them to the 12 and then tell me who will be the bottom 3 or 4

Add in the SGP 2 winner and a couple of young poles and you know they will not be competitive 

Those saying Doyle doesn’t deserve one should also be saying Fricke and Lambert are lucky to be in…. Doyle missed one and a half GP’s and rode injured for the 2 at Manchester … he only finished 16 behind Lambert and 13 behind Fricke …. And some say he doesn’t deserve it lol 

Well put, and accurate.  Look to the Polish Ekstraleague Averages (Far and Away the toughest International League) for confirmation.  The new faces/new blood concept is ridiculous if not franked by consistent form in the top League/s against the World's top riders.  As good as some of these young kids are it's a huge step from U21 & U24 competitions to the World top 16 or 20.  The only new blood that has shown enough to suggest competitiveness at GP level is Drabik, & not quite new blood but Piotr Pavliski.

[Phannan]

17 hours ago, teijahn said:

Well put, and accurate.  Look to the Polish Ekstraleague Averages (Far and Away the toughest International League) for confirmation.  The new faces/new blood concept is ridiculous if not franked by consistent form in the top League/s against the World's top riders.  As good as some of these young kids are it's a huge step from U21 & U24 competitions to the World top 16 or 20.  The only new blood that has shown enough to suggest competitiveness at GP level is Drabik, & not quite new blood but Piotr Pavliski.

Another drab gp year ahead then. Same riders year on year . No challengers to Bartek other than Brady and Dan . The winner of SGP 2 should definitely be promoted to SGP1 the following year. Obviously a good rider to win that can definitely improve at the top level. Every sport has promotion as a prize . Speedway is different obviously. That’s why it’s struggling badly and the gp has become a procession. 

[Phannan]

17 hours ago, teijahn said:

Well put, and accurate.  Look to the Polish Ekstraleague Averages (Far and Away the toughest International League) for confirmation.  The new faces/new blood concept is ridiculous if not franked by consistent form in the top League/s against the World's top riders.  As good as some of these young kids are it's a huge step from U21 & U24 competitions to the World top 16 or 20.  The only new blood that has shown enough to suggest competitiveness at GP level is Drabik, & not quite new blood but Piotr Pavliski.

Another drab gp year ahead then. Same riders year on year . No challengers to Bartek other than Brady and Dan . The winner of SGP 2 should definitely be promoted to SGP1 the following year. Obviously a good rider to win that can definitely improve at the top level. Every sport has promotion as a prize . Speedway is different obviously. That’s why it’s struggling badly and the gp has become a procession. 

[IainB]

2 hours ago, Phannan said:

Another drab gp year ahead then. Same riders year on year . No challengers to Bartek other than Brady and Dan . The winner of SGP 2 should definitely be promoted to SGP1 the following year. Obviously a good rider to win that can definitely improve at the top level. Every sport has promotion as a prize . Speedway is different obviously. That’s why it’s struggling badly and the gp has become a procession. 

The winner of the SGP2 should definitely be nowhere near the main SGP series, it's generally years before they're anywhere near the level required to be in the main series if ever at all. The last WU21 Champion currently in the series is Max Fricke who won it in 2016, it's taken him 10 years to get from that level to his current level and he's still relying on wild cards to qualify.

[OveFundinFan]

2 hours ago, Phannan said:

Another drab gp year ahead then. Same riders year on year . No challengers to Bartek other than Brady and Dan . The winner of SGP 2 should definitely be promoted to SGP1 the following year. Obviously a good rider to win that can definitely improve at the top level. Every sport has promotion as a prize . Speedway is different obviously. That’s why it’s struggling badly and the gp has become a procession. 

Generally speaking, the winner of SGP2 is way behind a regular GP1 rider. After winning GP2 series and GP after GP getting beat by top riders could demoralise the young lad and set him back.

When Martin Vaculick came to GP1 he did well initially....but then didn't bother with GP1 fora few years to give himself time to mature as a rider. He came back into GP1, with more experience, came 2nd in GP1 just couple years ago. Sadly this year not performed too well, maybe he carrying an injury or something.

Just after Fricke winning SGP2 came Drabik and Smektala, between them they won 3 GP2 on the trot. Neither of them yet in the GP1 series full time, Jaimon Lidsey the same. I think Jan Kvech was 2nd in GP2 just 3 or 4 years ago, he will come back in 2 or 3 years better then he is now, hes picked up the experience.... it was just too soon for him.