Pictures: JAREK PABIJAN and DAVE FAIRBROTHER d Prix 2015 Republic l Saturday, May 23, 2015
pits with most of the GP riders coming o ver to have a look and quiz Marcel on the technical side of the new engine. Chris Harris even used one in Heat 14 of the Grand Prix, he didn’t win the race but he was not outclassed and showed the new development has got a lot of potential. The basic idea is to try to reduce the running costs by using top class materials from road racing engines, which would last longer between service intervals. The GTR is not the only engine wanting to challenge the mighty GM, as Jawa are also making a comeback with a newly-designed speedway motor fitted with a camshaft from Tornado Racing Cams and other tuning parts from Germany. Former Grand Prix rider Martin Smolinski is now a works Jawa rider and has been having a lot of success on the big fast tracks in Germany, so we could see that famous Czech manufacturer back on the world scene.
WITH Smolinski missing from the Grand Prix series this year, another absence was spotted at the Czech GP - German flags in the crowd. When Martin was in the series, he brought a large following of German fans with him and with Prague being a short hop from the German border, there was a sea of red, yellow and black flags at the Marketa Stadium at last year’s Czech Grand Prix.
Smolinski may have been missing but there
were plenty of ex-riders involved at the Marketa over the weekend. Former King’s Lynn star (and King’s Lynn Star) Tomas Topinka looks after the track, whilst Jiri Stancl trains the Czech youngsters on 125cc bikes. The Stancl family are still heavily involved with speedway in the Czech Republic. Apart
from dad Jiri, his son George, the former Glasgow and Newcastle rider, was busy doing a ‘Pit Walk’ with local fans and explaining the technicalities of a speedway bike and what goes on in the pits between races. George’s sister Alice was providing translations and keeping Philip Rising up to date at the scoreboard. California’s Fast Fridays promoter Dave Joiner, from Auburn Speedway, was also in Prague on his way to officiate as an FIM official at the GP qualifying round in Abensberg, Germany, on Monday. He told everyone how the long drought in California, apart from stopping people watering their gardens, is having an effect on speedway in the Sunshine State. “Fortunately, we can water Auburn using non-drinking water which comes down from the mountains,” said Dave, “so we can still run our Fast Fridays.”
NEXT year, Prague has earned the prestigious European Capital of Sport 2016 award, owing to so many of its inhabitants (almost 60 per cent) taking part in many different types of sport. Sounds like we can look forward to an even bigger and better Czech Grand Prix in 2016 – and let’s see if Tai can make it four in a row!
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