PHILIPRISING

JUST been down to the FanZone ... wow! Makes you appreciate why for so many thousands of fans this is very much part of the British GP experience. And so many young faces ... but do they go to leave racing in the UK?

BUZZING inside the Millennium already and there no paying public as yet ... sound checks, national anthems being sung, light checks, second parade rehearsal, production metering (when everyone involved goes through a minute by minute schedule of events starting at 14.00) and last minute track work. Riders hugely impressed yesterday for practice ... fingers crossed!

And Speedway Star...

TWO hours...

SEE rusky's earlier post... getting back to Sweden is one thing, getting to where he lives quite another.

LITTLE birdie tells me that Torun sold 5,000 tickets in five hours on Monday ... seems they are a little more enthusiastic than their Bydgoszcz neighbours

THANKS for that ... you were able to put much more meat on the bone than I did

AS he lives close to the SVEMO HQ working there, as he already does anyway, would be very different to trawling around the SGP and SWC series.

WHERE he lives often involved him having to fly via Stockholm or Copenhagen, waiting for connecting flights, and then still have a ferry trip. He also still worked for SVEMO. There isn't a hidden agenda here....

AND what's wrong with that? I've lost count of the number of times I bid farewell to Tony on a Sunday morning, jumped on a plane back to London and been home while he was still facing a tortuous trip back to Sweden, often not finishing his journey until Monday morning. Unlike Ole Olsen, I don't think Tony ever visualised being in the job for too long but it will be a great shame if he doesn't continue with SVEMO in one role or another.

NO idea...

DON'T think that is what I wrote ... BSI are having to pay the local council to have some road closures for the FanZone.

THERE is another thread for this but cannot remember where!

I WAS there on both occasions ... the track was just modified from the two-day American dirt-track event that preceded it. Don't think that counts... IF you are suggesting Jan Staechmann or Tony Briggs you would be wrong on both counts...

I CERTAINLY didn't gloss over the problems last year. They were there for all to see. It is a well drilled operation completed in far less time than it used to be. The key factor is the material used for the actual track, which this year is brand new. Expensive lessons were learned from the debacle of 2013 but have said many times that it isn't and cannot ever be an exact science. The more tracks they lay the more they learn but it isn't as though last year was the norm and in general tracks at the Millennium and Parken are far better than those of a decade ago.

WE'LL have to stop this love-in otherwise people will talk

HAS been noted by BSI ...

WAS in Speedway Star last week ... new Race Director has been chosen but not announced by the FIM. As I wrote in SS, few realise the time Tony has been spending travelling and away from his family. He has been superb in the role, bring a very different dynamic to that Ole Olsen. But when Ole started the role of Race Director it meant being involved with just about everything before, during and after the meeting and despite the criticism that often came his way, sometimes justifiably, about track preparation he did a fantastic job. Tony was happy to delegate more, concentrate on what he saw as the role of the Race Director, and was very popular with the riders. Many doubted whether he had the character to take over from Ole, a three times World Champion, team manager of World Team Cup winning sides, promoter, track curator, the man who first put a track inside a stadium with a roof, and so on. But he did so admirably and as one who has worked alongside him for four years he, too, will be a tough act to follow.

I DON'T agree with your second par but that's just a matter of opinion. However, I do think it is incumbent on the commentators to at least make a decent effort to correctly pronounce the names of the riders. Poor old Jack cannot even get Pedersen right let alone Miedzinski. Some of his comments are unintentionally hilarious, others just fatuous, but personally don't think he does speedway any favours with what comes across as a very amateurish effort. Conversely, thought Dave Rowe did a fine job with the Swedish league stuff last week so perhaps British Eurosport should wheel him out for the SEC as well. Have posted elsewhere how much I enjoyed the 'Five rooms, five SGP champs' programme that followed the SEC last night. Like The Life of Tai, it was quite fascinating at times and if Jason Crump is looking for new employment his handling of the discussion should point him in the right direction. I can say that in all honesty given that I was originally scheduled to be the host but couldn't make it to New Zealand for personal reasons. I know BSI would like to find air time for more of the features they film in and around SGP events and hopefully British Eurosport, who will be showing highlights of last month's Danish GP tomorrow (Tues), will see the light.

BLIND leading the blind springs to mind

GIVEN that there was only three current SGP riders in Sunday's SEC line-up makes you wonder what all the winter fuss was about. Years ago when the SGP went to Berlin the then boss, John Postlethwaite, was told he should have gone to Gustrow instead. Now we know why. Good crowd, excellent meeting.

SORRY but racers and royals has got it spot on ... again!

WAS recorded before practice in Western Springs. Crumpie did a great job. Will be in the Eurosport studio at Cardiff. He is back in the UK for a fairly short trip.

GOOD point. When IMG first took over their H&S guys couldn't believe that there would be such a display inside a stadium with the roof closed.

JACK'S classic tonight was that Tomasz (Gollob) probably speaks better Polish than English...