PHILIPRISING

I ACTUALLY have some experience of this. A few years back spoke to Andy Smith (not the three-times British Champion) but the UK and then European boss of Yamaha. Asked him why Yamaha didn't or wouldn't make a speedway engine or indeed a bike. His reply was simple. They could, quite easily as it happens, but the time and effort tooling up for a motorcycle that they could probably manufacture the total needs of the sport in a day or two wasn't viable. At the time what Kenny Roberts was racing was a road bike of tomorrow that ordinary people could go into a shop, buy and ride around the streets. And that philosophy applies right across the board of the giant Japanese companies. If there truly was a market these companies would have become involved years ago. But there isn't. And they haven't.

THE likes of Suzuki, Honda, Yamaha will never get involved. There is no market, no spin off from racing machines for them. Sponsorship isn't easy to come by because so few large multi-national companies are involved with speedway. Danish and Polish riders have generally enjoyed the most lucrative sponsorship deals but even they would be dwarfed by those in many other disciplines of motorcycle racing. Nicki is in the twilight of his career and has no doubt done very well financially out of it and may well fancy riding less. But that certainly wouldn't apply to the young guns coming through. They are racers and want to race.

CORRECT...

NEGOTIATIONS taking place. With neither side wanting it to go elsewhere, hard to imagine that a deal won't be struck.

MATT Ford reiterates in Speedway Star this week that squads, more fixtures and regular race meetings are the only way forward for British speedway. Hard to argue with that in my view.

WHEN John Postlethwaite first acquired the commercial rights for the SGP series for BSI from the FIM that was the direction he wanted to go in. John came from F1 where he worked for Benneton alongside Michael Schumacher. But it will never work for speedway. Most if not all riders would want to race more than 12 times a year. It's in their dna. And, of course, speedway has none of the commercial and sponsorship backing that funds F1. No factory teams, no significant manufacturers, huge TV deals, etc. Speedway lives and has to survive in its own little bubble. Pedersen has been fortunate with the volume of sponsorship he attracts but believe me he works hard at it. And one wonders whether his current view would have been the same 15 years ago.

WHAT a joy to see so many kids, boys and girls, in the crowd, all bedecked in Glasgow colours. Great credit to the Glasgow promotion who managed to get that number of people through the gate despite it being on Sky as well. Lessons to be learned ...

AND before long the Danes, Poles and Swedes too

EMIL back in action for Leszno today and scoring well. Will be great to see him at the NSS. Fingers crossed.

JUST keep them on a contract as they do in Poland or Sweden.

THAT would be a start and help to free up riders. People talk of a squad system as if it only involves the so-called top riders. It doesn't. Would help clubs to give opportunities to more riders lower down the scale. Wisely the task of dissemination of the rule book by an independent panel of referees is, I believe, a step in the right direction.Not only are they independent but more often than not are those who have to interpret the current overly complex and often unworkable regulations. The acid test will be when the promoters are confronted by their findings. I'm in the camp of those who would love to see the top riders racing in the UK again but, sadly, there are now a number of reasons why that is unlikely to happen in the near future at least. British tracks simply cannot match the money paid in Poland and Sweden and that's without the geographical factor. So we have to make the best of what we have to work with. The demise of the KO Cup lays firmly at the door of the BSPA. I can recall attending many finals, at places like Belle Vue, Coventry and Cradley, when the stadiums were full to the rafters. But once the BSPA as a body started to treat the competition with disdain that filtered down to the fans they lost a priceless asset. As were test matches against Denmark in particular. More collective thought needs to be put in to ensure a regular fixture list, even if some events have a reduced admission fee. They need to keep the turnstiles ticking and there are many things that promoters could do on a social basis on a race night to ensure that there is additional entertainment on offer to that which actually takes place on the track.

IT'S new this year. They are doing them in the pits because that is where they already have cameras, etc. Personally have reservations and not because I am not doing them any more From a written journalist's point of view, would prefer to see them in the media room. Not much fun trying to get one-on-one interviews amongst the chaos that is the pits post-meeting. But if BT are willing to stay on air to show them then I can understand why they doing it this way now.

ONLY the temporary ones and they have been pretty good too

FULLY agree with that. Been my argument for a long time now. Once fans get out of the routine of going many stop going all together.

5pm local time

SCOTTY is far happier on small tracks. King won the British title on the venue being used for the SWC so surely must be favourite to join the there you mention.

YOU obviously know Cardiff better than me but is it that far from the stadium, bars, etc?

MAYBE not if their No. 1 keeps scoring four points

DON'T think that is the case. Cook contacted Peter Johns who said he knew of a couple of his 2015 tuned engines that were readily available and he plumped for them. Doubt whether Peter is interested in trying to change engines previously tuned by others. Not sure about Emil. He hasn't always solely used Ashtec engines. Peter Johns seems very adapt at providing riders with exactly what they want ... always providing they know what that is!

DIDN'T use them in Horsens for the SGP

PRESUMABLY not

BOUGHT a couple of second hand Peter Johns Racing tuned engines ...

ACTUALLY probably far more than you think as the gap has narrowed. Also some of the EL teams would be happy from a financial point of view to dispense with their high earners.

AJ is off them as well although he changes tuners as frequently as most people do their underwear

CERTAINLY the EL clubs are desperate for more fixtures. Take a look at your own club Skidder1 (and leaving aside for a moment the appalling weather) ... scarce home fixtures during the summer is a nonsense. Need to get back to where tracks can run with some consistency so that fans know where they stand. The strength of top flight teams at the moment seems to be judged by their reserves rather than their No 1.