Latvian GP Riga Saturday 8th August

[teijahn]

49 minutes ago, chun said:

This Tatum - Allen bromance is starting to make me feel ill

I cant listen to the pair of tools.  Non stop relentless gibberish, I watched most of the meeting with sound off.

[ONTWOMINUTES]

3 minutes ago, teijahn said:

I cant listen to the pair of tools.  Non stop relentless gibberish, I watched most of the meeting with sound off.

Same ,  much better.  The pair of them love the sound of their own voices.  Pity dave lanning wasn't still able to do the commentary .

[Mr. Clemens]

 Tedious to a degree. The worst GP for quite awhile. The Lodz GP was great. Really looked forward to this one. Has great has the Lodz GP was this was just the opposite. Tedious to a degree. 

It's good to know that people mostly agree how crap it was. 

And they wonder why speedway is dying. 

They said it was sold out but the back straight stand had plenty of empty seats. 

 

[OveFundinFan]

3 hours ago, r8gdp said:

Anymore links out there please can’t get the one stewmac put up to work 

I managed it eventually....don't know how

[r8gdp]

I struggled but somehow managed to get it working not sure it was worth it in the end poor gp

[r8gdp]

Thanks for the tips to get the stream going but what a crap gp track bloody terrible 

[Bagpuss]

Dagauvpils was a better track was it not?

[Technik]

How lucky do you have to be.

Move at the start, get left 20 Metres behind & have no advantage only to see the red lights & the race stopped.

After a slow motion replay the tapes were not touched even if the front wheel was clearly in front of the white line & the tapes prior to their release. 

Who is responsible for ensuring the tape is at the same height as the middle of the front wheel.

[Odds On]

a very poor meeting, whether it was a challenge, league or a grand prix. The grand prix's should be a product to make the sport proud and exciting for everybody to watch, regulars or newbies, last night was little more than a exhibition of following the leader.

Track looked awful before the first race, pretty obvious it was going to be a one line trick track, why didn't the track staff/organisers grade and grade the track whilst the presentation of riders took place, fans at the track and watching would rather a track to be properly prepared than see a yawn fest of rider after rider waving to the crowd!

After Lodz this was a major disappointment  and a very poor advert for the sport.

Well done to BZ and Lambert, Kurtz will again feel he has dropped points when to be brutally honest should of been standing on top spot, Woryna did well to reach the final.

[OveFundinFan]

53 minutes ago, Technik said:

How lucky do you have to be.

Move at the start, get left 20 Metres behind & have no advantage only to see the red lights & the race stopped.

After a slow motion replay the tapes were not touched even if the front wheel was clearly in front of the white line & the tapes prior to their release. 

Who is responsible for ensuring the tape is at the same height as the middle of the front wheel.

Yep, I noticed the height of the tapes, it looked wrong.

[FAST GATER]

16 minutes ago, Odds On said:

a very poor meeting, whether it was a challenge, league or a grand prix. The grand prix's should be a product to make the sport proud and exciting for everybody to watch, regulars or newbies, last night was little more than a exhibition of following the leader.

Track looked awful before the first race, pretty obvious it was going to be a one line trick track, why didn't the track staff/organisers grade and grade the track whilst the presentation of riders took place, fans at the track and watching would rather a track to be properly prepared than see a yawn fest of rider after rider waving to the crowd!

After Lodz this was a major disappointment  and a very poor advert for the sport.

Well done to BZ and Lambert, Kurtz will again feel he has dropped points when to be brutally honest should of been standing on top spot, Woryna did well to reach the final.

Why he was beaten far and square as he has  done to BZ  in previous GP's !

[bringbackHalifax]

When he has a moment to reflect Richard Coleman should start with track prep. However, he needs to be honest and start with he needs to ensure riders have a surface to perform on to create a spectacle every time at every level in the sport. I worry though that he may be oblivious to how good the sport could be as one of the consistently poor tracks this year has actually been Ipswich, his own track and no lessons seem to have been learnt there, so I wouldn’t hold my breath. On a good day there is nothing to compete with a good speedway meeting but a close tussle at the top or a close team meeting is not enough to drag punters back.

[Tinker]

Have to agree with most comments on this thread, a very boring GP. Most of my mates are not into speedway and I sometimes think I should persuade/encourage them to watch a GP on TV and they might even get hooked. Thanks heavens I didn't contact anyone as regards last night! I hate to say this but in a nutshell it was dreadful.

The only speedway I seem to get any enjoyment out of at the moment is the Championship League. Lots of variation and riders generally giving it a good go.

 

[Noelinho]

It wasn't the best GP, but I took six people to it, with five who had never seen it before. They all loved it.

Riga is different to other tracks in that it's very sandy, so it doesn't behave the same way. I don't think the track prep changes to accommodate this.

The first block of racing you really needed the inside line. The second and third blocks of racing (heats 5-12) probably gave the best racing last night, and I'd say it's because dirt had started going out wider, but hadn't gone too far. This has happened at Riga before. The very outside line at Riga is too far wide, so you have to bring the dirt back in to the middle of the track. There, you get riders using the inside and middle lines. But once it's pas the middle, the inside line is by far the best line.

There was no effort to move the dirt back to the inside, and it really hurt the racing later on.

The other issue is the gates are very uneven. Gate 4 starts well, but as the racing goes on, gate 1 becomes clearly the best gate. Gate 2 gradually improves and gate three is like treacle. This is compounded when the track prep doesn't create the conditions you need for a good outside line.

[tellboy]

I gather the heavy rain just before the start didn't help with the track.And a few times during the day.

My daughter and friend enjoyed even though I said the racing wasnt as good as Friday imo.They thought it wasn't too bad,and the atmosphere was good which helps of course.

[Fromafar]

23 hours ago, Fourentee said:

Tatum, even by his own dismal standards, has been woeful tonight. 

If you listen Tatum and Allen really just have a conversation amongst themselves most of the night.Allen just agrees with Tatum about everything.Tatum “sell out crowd and fantastic meeting” don’t really know what he is seeing or watching.🤔

[Fromafar]

On 8/8/2026 at 6:53 PM, TTT said:

Zmarzlik hasn't ridden well all year imo and I don't just mean in the GP's.

Been getting away with it in the GP's due to how weak the field is this year through injuries to a point where Bartek is still in the hunt for gold.

Hasn't been gating well, Been down on speed and has been making numerous mistakes.

Would agree his gating has been poor at this level and it’s costing him.But his class and skill level keeps him in the hunt.He still makes passes that others can only dream off.

[Fullmax]

7 hours ago, Noelinho said:

It wasn't the best GP, but I took six people to it, with five who had never seen it before. They all loved it.

Riga is different to other tracks in that it's very sandy, so it doesn't behave the same way. I don't think the track prep changes to accommodate this.

The first block of racing you really needed the inside line. The second and third blocks of racing (heats 5-12) probably gave the best racing last night, and I'd say it's because dirt had started going out wider, but hadn't gone too far. This has happened at Riga before. The very outside line at Riga is too far wide, so you have to bring the dirt back in to the middle of the track. There, you get riders using the inside and middle lines. But once it's pas the middle, the inside line is by far the best line.

There was no effort to move the dirt back to the inside, and it really hurt the racing later on.

The other issue is the gates are very uneven. Gate 4 starts well, but as the racing goes on, gate 1 becomes clearly the best gate. Gate 2 gradually improves and gate three is like treacle. This is compounded when the track prep doesn't create the conditions you need for 

Speedway GP weekends are always great regardless of the standard of the racing at the event itself. Prague, one of the best weekends on the calendar with possibly the least entertaining racetrack on the GP circuit.