PHILIPRISING

STADIUM availability is a critical factor although I would certainly agree that it's disappointing that the final round will be held outside of Europe.

TO the best of my knowledge the only league match that Harris used the GTR was the aborted meeting against Poole.

CORRECT

ACTUALLY no... sadly never saw him win a World Final ... didn't go to speedway until I started work in 1961 and only covered speedway occasionally until the late sixties and was too far down the pecking order to get sent to Sweden in in 1964 and 1966. Our friendship really started in 1966 when I was ghosting some syndicated articles with members of England's soccer World Cup squad and was asked to do one with Briggo. He was a joy to work with - as have been just about all speedway riders I have come into contact with - and we have been mates pretty well ever since. He was (and still is) one of my original five sporting heroes along with Rod Laver, Seve Ballesteros, Gareth Edwards and Bobby Charlton. He is also the most remarkable man I have ever met and at 80 is still living life flat out... pretty much how he rode!

WOULDN'T matter if you did. I never defended Ward. Criticised the various processes and the time it took, although subsequently admitted that the FIM were largely vindicated when the full report came out. Anyway, not sure what this is doing on this particular thread.

INDEED, 1972 after his Wembley crash forced him out of the event.

Riders like Nick Morris and Craig Cook would never be riding in the lower flight then. It's even debateable if Robert Lambert would still be there. BUT, of course, back then there were so many more top flight fixtures and no financial need for riders to double up.

TRY being more specific

BRIGGO was pretty special at Hyde Road ... six successive BLRC titles at a time when the line-up was significantly stronger than the World Final that traditionally preceded it by a week or two. One of BB's greatest achievements in my opinion.

JUST for the record can you provide any evidence that I supported Darcy Ward over the winter.

Peter Collins?

YOU are assuming that I didn't. But, as previously stated, IF it did not then I will apologise. And at no time have I 'accused' Chris of any wrong doing as some comments here seem to suggest. Hypothetically, an engine manufacturer turns up at a GP with an engine that he would like a rider to use. The rider declines. The manufacturer asks whether he would do so for a fee. The rider again declines but says he would consider it for an increased offer. Neither party can agree and both walk away. Neither the rider nor the manufacturer have done anything wrong and move on.

HAVE already said that if no discussion took place I will apologise to Chris.

SAID it would be surprising if he was given another chance to try GTRs and stand by that but that is nothing more than an opinion and a decision that can only be taken by Gerhard and Suter. Nothing to do with me. Chris says that there was no discussions about being paid to use a GTR at Cardiff- which he would have been quite entitled to do - and if that is the case then I will apologise to him if he believes he was being slighted. But nothing wrong with any rider asking for money to use a particular product and for the manufacturer to turn them down or vice versa. It's not a crime.

CHRIS is quite entitled to use whatever engines he wants and certainly isn't obligated to use GTRs. However, Gerhard travelled to Vojens specifically so that Chris could use the engine that served him so well at King's Lynn but (fact) he chose not to even practice on it. Even so Marcel drove from Vojens to Wolverhampton in order that Chris could have a GTR available for the British Final. Gerhard then travelled from Switzerland to Cardiff with engines for Chris, who had indicated that he wanted to at least try one. It was only when he was there (fact) that Chris said he preferred to use his GMs and didn't need the GTRs. Again, that was a choice he was fully entitled to make and was probably understandable given his recent Elite League form but given the time and effort Marcel had made to get them there might he at least not tried one in practice?

YES...

YES...

ALSO posted this elsewhere ... When Kelvin Tatum first rode a GTR at Prague for pre-SGP social media purposes there was no expectations that GP riders would suddenly jump off their GMs and ride what were and remain relatively unknown engines. But Chris Harris did ask if he could try one in practice, liked it, used it in the meeting and again at King's Lynn for the SWC. That was how he came to get to try them in the first place. Previously Kelvin and Marcel had a day's practice at King's Lynn during which they were unexpectedly joined by Robert Lambert who had a few spins himself on a GTR. Gerhard travelled to Vojens and had GTRs available for Harris, including the one he used at KL, but Chris declined to use it, either in practice or the meeting itself. But subsequently he asked if he could have one for the British Final and Marcel drove from Denmark to Wolverhampton although both he and Kelvin felt the set-up of the ones available were not best suited to Monmore. Chris then indicated that he would like to have one at Cardiff and again Marcel made the journey from Switzerland with four engines. Lambert had one but Chris, having not told Marcel until he arrived on Friday, said he now intended to use his GMs which he had ridden successfully in England over the previous few days. Clearly, no other SGP riders were going to change engines at the drop of a hat on the eve of the sport's biggest meeting of the season and Harris was only prepared to change his mind in exchange for a pretty substantial inducement, which GTR were not prepared to pay. Whether or not Harris would have fared better on a GTR than he did on his GMs can only be a matter of conjecture but having been let down twice, at Vojens and Cardiff, it will be somewhat surprising if they give him another chance. Lambert has provided some decent feedback and GTR are now working with the vastly experienced Peter Karlsson in helping with the continuing development of the engine. They (including Kelvin) had also planned to go to Poland for Jarek Hampel to give them a spin but obviously that won't happen now.

THAT some riders were offered 10 grand to ride them. When Kelvin Tatum first rode a GTR at Prague for pre-SGP social media purposes there was no expectations that GP riders would suddenly jump off their GMs and ride what were and remain relatively unknown engines. But Chris Harris did ask if he could try one in practice, liked it, used it in the meeting and again at King's Lynn for the SWC. That was how he came to get to try them in the first place. Previously Kelvin and Marcel had a day's practice at King's Lynn during which they were unexpectedly joined by Robert Lambert who had a few spins himself on a GTR. Gerhard travelled to Vojens and had GTRs available for Harris, including the one he used at KL, but Chris declined to use it, either in practice or the meeting itself. But subsequently he asked if he could have one for the British Final and Marcel drove from Denmark to Wolverhampton although both he and Kelvin felt the set-up of the ones available were not best suited to Monmore. Chris then indicated that he would like to have one at Cardiff and again Marcel made the journey from Switzerland with four engines. Lambert had one but Chris, having not told Marcel until he arrived on Friday, said he now intended to use his GMs which he had ridden successfully in England over the previous few days. Clearly, no other SGP riders were going to change engines at the drop of a hat on the eve of the sport's biggest meeting of the season and Harris was only prepared to change his mind in exchange for a pretty substantial inducement, which GTR were not prepared to pay. Whether or not Harris would have fared better on a GTR than he did on his GMs can only be a matter of conjecture but having been let down twice, at Vojens and Cardiff, it will be somewhat surprising if they give him another chance. Lambert has provided some decent feedback and GTR are now working with the vastly experienced Peter Karlsson in helping with the continuing development of the engine. They (including Kelvin) had also planned to go to Poland for Jarek Hampel to give them a spin but obviously that won't happen now.

THEY are not on general sale.

THE truth is somewhere between the two ... Marcel Gerhard and some guys from Suter drove from Switzerland (via Calais!) to Cardiff with some engines in the belief that Harris would use one. It was only on Friday that he informed them that he wanted to use the GMs that had served him well in recent leagues matches. But for Lambert grabbing one, it would have been a wasted and expensive journey. GTR were prepared to offer Chris some inducement to use an engine but nothing like the sum that he wanted.

NOT for the first time, not quite true ...

CHRIS turned down the chance of using a GTR, even for practice

TURNED down the chance to use the GTR he had at King's Lynn

FULLY agree with that ... and made the point to BSI