PHILIPRISING

RUGBY World Cup ...

NO ... Millennium love the speedway as shown by their agreement for track building to start asap. They have already worked out how to protect the pitch when the speedway track goes in.

NO

ALL those that employ both Kelvin and Nigel (Sky, BSI, Eurosport) rate them very highly and love what you call their shouty style so don't hold your breath... and your evidence that more and more people are saying that he spoils the programmes is? And whatever your opinion of Nigel as a commentator to suggest that he isn't knowledgeable about speedway is laughable. And not professional ... what does that mean?

WORK on Cardiff track starts today .... BSI have been allowed into the Millennium much earlier than usual as the stadium isn't being used since the One Direction concert. It is true that the pitch is now permanent and there has been some changes to the actual mix of the material going down but that should be a positive rather than a negative. Don't know the full details yet but there will be plenty of track testing going on between now and July 4. Easier to get moisture in than out! Next week the track in Horsens for the GP there on August 8 will be laid. They have also bought covers, based on those Olsen has at Vojens.

TRUE but the feeling was that it was better to wait...

BECAUSE it hasn't yet been shown on British Eurosport ... don't want spoil it for those who don't know the result

COME on then ... who put their money on Sweden?

DUE to start at 18.50 UK time...

TRACK very, very wet ... you wouldn't want to be at the back!

BUT after a brief respite it is tanking it down again at 18.43 (got it right this time)

STAND correct ... computer stays on UK time. Just had some lightning...

16.40pm here in Vojens , the covers are off and it is slashing it down!

GIVE the kid a break. Think you might find it was more his parents' decision that he couldn't get back but they will learn as will Robert. KING used a GTR in his first four rides but switched to his GM for the last heat decider. Didn't have the benefit of Gerhard and or Tatum on hand to help with set up. The GTR is, apparently, very different to ride than a GM and Danny naturally felt that for such an important heat he should use what he knew best. That GTR and another will be going to Chris Harris at Coventry for the BF.

GIVE the kid a break. Think you might find it was more his parents' decision that he couldn't get back but they will lean as will Robert.

WHY anecdotal? He lives there, sees it with his own eyes. In Poland the clubs are exactly that, no different to football here. Players (riders) can and do train every day unless away riding elsewhere. The clubs employ full-time coaches, mechanics, etc. Nothing anecdotal about that... nor the pay rates.

WAS chatting to Joe Parsons of Monster Energy for a while yesterday morning. He now lives in Torun and was telling us how the junior riders there, and at other tracks in Poland, have full use of the stadium all week, have all equipment supplied free of charge, mechanics permanently on hand... it costs them nothing. Sadly that just isn't feasible or possible in the UK. And it's no wonder that so many kids aspire to becoming a speedway rider in Poland when the pay scale is around $1,000 a point. And in many cases that is after a signing-on fee and other bonuses or guarantees. And you only have to look at SGP riders' bikes in the paddock to see where the bulk of sponsorship comes from. The Danes do pretty well in their own country - Pedersen with Moldow for example - but even they have Polish companies on board, too. It used to be said that riders needed to race in the UK to become accustomed to all sorts of tracks to further their careers. Now they don't because the continental circuits, where they earn a living, are nothing like Lakeside or Wolverhampton.

HARRIS had two GTRs available ... the one he used in Prague and Coventry (versus Poole) and the one that worked so well for him at Kings Lynn. He also had a new GM brought along by his tuner, Brian Andersen. Despite the protestations of Kelvin Tatum for whatever reason Chris didn't even use the KL GTR in practice and decided to go with the GM in the meeting with the second GTR as his back-up bike. Both Kelvin and Marcel tried to convince him that a strong motor is required at Vojens, even if the track is slick but he wouldn't take it on board. Chris chopped and changed from GM to GTR during the meeting but the fact is that the best option was back in Marcel's car. It's unlikely that the result of the meeting would have been any different but it is odd that having ridden so well at KL and enjoyed the engine so much that he then discarded it a few days later.

I KNOW that. But if the GTR doesn't require servicing for at least 100, maybe 200, races then the savings are quite astronomical.

THE market place is not the top riders but if someone like Harris thinks he can be more competitive and save money then that's the route he will take. NOT necessarily. Much of the work that is carried out by tuners when building a GM and replacing various parts has already been done. Of course, it will always be possible to improve something but, I repeat, for a bread and butter rider an engine that is both competitive from the outset and able to run for several meetings on the bounce why go to that expense. Not every dropped point is down to an opponent net having a 'faster' engine. If the top riders wish to spend tens of thousands of pounds constantly having their super-tuned engines serviced and refined that is their prerogative but for those lower down the scale they are never going to beat those guys anyway.

Mr Standard rider doesn't go to PJR now and who is to say that he will get them to run much quicker anyway. But if a rider can use the same competitive engine for weeks and months on end with little or no service bills then pure economics will kick in.

BUT that will be up to the rider(s) concerned. If they want to spend additional money in the belief it will be better so be it. Chris Harris told me on Monday that Jarek Hampel sent his engines back to his tuner after just two meetings, 10 heats. But on the evidence of what he rode that night Chris said would be happy to run with that. If a rider believes that a GTR performs as well as a GM without additional tuning and servicing and can save him a significant sum of money over the course of a season then surely it has to be a viable proposition.

NO idea but why would they not be legal? Imagine testing a GTR would be no different to a GM. I'm no expert here but no doubt someone will comment...

NOT being sold yet...