PHILIPRISING

THE track in Riga is being completely relaid with more drainage and new material. The facility there has huge potential and not just for speedway. The promoters are still determined to have a SGP in their capital city. Expect more 2015 venues to be named over the weekend

NO NZ GP next year

YOU might just as well argue that the stadiums in Gorzow and Torun are no match for Old Trafford and the Etihad. Cannot compare the standing of speedway in any British city with speedway in towns like Gorzow and Torun where it is the major sporting attraction and more akin to soccer as we know it.

THINK Zagar has already agreed 2015 at BV ...

LIKE them or not the play-offs are a valuable revenue stream

NOTHING to disagree about Tim and, in fact, the weather forecast for Torun throughout the week looks dry...

LET'S hope there isn't a rain off on Saturday and a re-staging on Sunday.

NOTHING to do with a Latvian GP. If (not saying it will happen!) the FIM are found to have suspended a rider who is subsequently found not guilty of the charge are they open to litigation?

I appreciate what you mean about 'part-timers' but let's not forget that all the top speedway riders used to regularly race on the continent, and especially on the grass tracks and longtracks in Germany, every weekend. There was no Poliish league speedway to attract them in those days of course but the guarantees paid to the likes of Briggs, Mauger, Muller and et al were quite considerable. Their continental meetings were very lucrative and I think Simon Wigg always saw himself as a grass track/longtrack rider first and a speedway rider second. In later years Kelvin Tatum followed suit and like Simon had access to the best engines from the German tuners which carried them to their World titles.

PROBABLY more than you do and have been delighted to see him doing well as a fast track rider but to suggest that he could compete in the SGP is pure fiction

I'M with you on this one

FOR German riders it was usually the other way round ... longtrack first, speedway second. And of course the great German tuners who powered the likes of Mauger, Wigg and Tatum to so many longtrack titles were German as well. By all accounts young Riss is very good at the shorter version. I hear that he might ride at Ipswich before the end of the season.

THE old grey matter isn't what it used to be! Bert on the 'sherbets?" You must be joking ... but will pass on your comments

MY thanks too for the constructive and informative comments ... nice to have such a debate on a Sunday. If only it was always thus...

WHAT about a British court? The ACU are affiliates of the FIM. When messrs Briggs, Mauger and Oxley sued the FIM way back in the late seventies, the FIM tried to argue that they were not subject to courts in California. They lost, the California Supreme Court decreeing that as the AMA were agents of the FIM they did come under their jurisdiction.

BUT, hypothetically so please don't try and make two and two make five, what if that suspension was based on a false premise?

HAVING a GP in Australia certainly won't harm his chances

ONLY Pole likely to get a wild card, if required, is Hampel but cannot see him finishing outside of top eight now. Torun should suit him.That would suffice for Polish riders. Biggest problem for BSI/FIM will be if Batchelor gets an automatic spot at the expense of one Swede. Would then need two wild cards for Swedes... Jonsson and Jonasson would be my guess. With Iversen assured of one, a third Dane might get the nod as well. If Batchelor just misses out in the top eight to a Swede he might get a pick but the Joker in the pack would then be Ward. WON'T happen and only one rider (Sayfutdinov) wants to stay on the outside.

VERY slim...

THE Monster rig will be there of course

NEITHER is Emil unfortunately

DIDN'T say that all... there are many reasons why riders are or are not chosen as wild cards and their nationality is just one of many factors.

THAT'S a valid argument and I personally wish that was the case but it isn't.

OH yes there are ... this could run and run.

EMIL and Susi have a very close relationship that goes back to when the Russian started racing in Poland and it obviously works but my own view, having talked to both, is that if Susi wanted Emil to do the SGP he would.