SGP Needs a Revamp
By Geoffrey Langley

Dave Green is absolutely right when he suggests that there should be fewer GP's to give the competition more meaning, especially as almost all the top eight appear likely to miss riding in the U.K next year because of the pressure of so many GP's. The problem is that many fans, including myself, have got used to seeing the top riders in competition every couple of weeks and if there are less GP's there needs to be something pretty good to replace them on our TV screens ( and certainly something better than the usually boring World cup qualifiers)

So what can replace the GP's ?

My suggestion is that there should be a maximum of 6 GP's preceeded by three regional qualifying rounds, one for Eastern Europe, one for Scandanavia and one for Britain/Australasia/USA (or something approximately similar). The top four from each region go straight into the GP's later in the season and the riders finishing 5th to 9th in each round, plus one wild card go forward to an extra round and the top four from that also go into the GP's. The benefits of this formula would be;-

1. The riders only compete in 7 or at most 8 meetings but the TV audience get to see 10 meetings

2. It allows for a rider to have an off-night but still get a second chance to qualify, unlike the present system.

3.It allows a greater number of young riders to ease into top-line competition and build up their experience (and sponsorship) rather than being thrown in at the deep-end and being completely outclassed.

4. It would allow the British public, for example, to see the young talent around in the rest of the world, and vice-versa.

5.The grip that Pedersen, Crump, Hancock, Adams, Gollob, Andersen and Jonsson have on the GP's is not healthy for the sport. I do actually believe that those seven are amongst the best riders ever and certain past World Champions might well struggle against them but there is something not quite right about them not being made to qualify on merit rather than being seeded through on the basis of the previous year. These guys, with their relatively large sponsorships, should be capable of sailing through the qualifying rounds but recently we have seen, for example, young Ben Barker beating first Crumpie then AJ, so the top men need to be kept on their toes, and the younger riders need to be given a fairer crack at qualifying.

Speeedway should be (to quote Ole Olsen) "tough but fair". Long may it remain so.