PHILIPRISING

THAT won't happen ...

THERE won't be any studio presence until Cardiff. It was all a bit last minute for Eurosport as well and will take them a little time to fully get their act together.

IT will be a regular feature although possibly not every week.

SUGGEST you read Kelvin Tatum's new column in SS this week and in particular his comments about tyres...

I'M sure that will be the case.

THE last thing I heard was that there has been no follow up to the suggestion of including rugby league and I doubt David Gordon will be courting it.

AS far as I can ascertain there are currently NO plans for rugby league at the stadium.

IT'S not rocket science ... GPs start to the second let alone minute. Okay, that is a TV requirement but could be achieved anyway.

WHAT Kelvin was trying to say (through me) was that tracks can be aesthetically too perfect... two perfectly round corners, two straights of the perfect width and so on. To produce great racing a perfect track needs at least two different racing lines, corners more egg-shaped than round so that riders have to think and use their heads as well as the throttle. He says, for example, that the two corners at the old Belle Vue track (Hyde Road) were very different from each other so a rider had different options at each end.

PRIORITY number one must be the track ... and will be

I HAVE no idea what attendance figure David Gordon has budgeted for in his business plan. Obviously he and Chris Morton will hope for increased crowds with a better stadium and a more favourable race-night. However, no longer will gate income be the only source of revenue and that is what the business plan has been built upon, along with the fact that rent will no longer be payable to the GRA. Throughout the time it has taken this project to get the green light Chris Morton has been charged with designing a track that as near as possible might replicate the old Hyde Road. Starting from scratch also allows them to build proper drainage from the outset. Interestingly, when I was chatting to Kelvin Tatum for his new column in Speedway Star (starts next week) he said it would be wrong to construct the 'perfect' track and that a degree of difficulty needs to be there to test the riders rather than to allow them to race around on cruise control.

READ previous posts about additional revenue. My understanding is that the grandstand will belong to BV Speedway and they will receive the income from bars and restaurants at non-speedway events taking place at the stadium. David Gordon may have his critics as a speedway promoter in the past but he is a sound and successful business who had to present a very detailed business plan to not only Manchester City Council but also a top firm of accountants to prove that the scheme was viable.

I HEAR that the rubber-stamping has taken place and it is all systems go. Great news for Belle Vue and speedway as a whole.

DON'T forget they won't have to rely just on turnstile income, will enjoy all the proceeds of the bars and restaurants and will have no rent to pay. Plus, hopefully, the grandstand will be used throughout the week, again providing a useful revenue stream.

THINK that is very unfair on Niels. He has to earn money and shouldn't be castigated for taking an extra booking in the UK when he has already missed out on two in Poland.

WHAT'S your email address? Or email me at phil@pinegen.co.uk

WE have been very lucky that our Polish photographer Jarek Pabijan has stepped into the void left by Mike Patrick. Thanks to everyone (well, not you Andy) for their positive comments.

NOW, why am I not surprised?

Boys? If only!

IN two weeks time it will be 24 years since I was offered the chance to purchase Speedway Star as part of a redundancy package from IPC. The deal also required that Richard Clark, Andrew Skeels, Mick Hooker and Philip Lanning participated. By coincidence, on the same day there was a lunch at the Cheshire Cheese in Fleet Street organised by SWAPA ... The Speedway Writers and Photographers Association. There as a guest was Terry Russell and he was keen to see Speedway Star survive rather than be thrown on the scrapheap. Pinegen Limited was acquired as an off-the-shelf company and within a few days a deal with the then MD of IPC was struck. The five of us contributed from our redundancy payment to acquire the title but we had no working capital and nowhere to work from. Luckily my parents had two spare rooms in a flat in Surbiton rented to three women and within seven days we had converted it into a temporary base. Over the years we took over the whole flat, then had a purpose-built Portakabin, then an office built on the same site before moving 50 yards down Brighton Road to our current location six years ago. What we didn't have in April 1989 was any working capital, which is why we sold 20 per cent of the shares to Terry Russell, James Easter, Barry Briggs and a mate of mine who worked in the city. Without their initial support we would never have got started. But none and especially Terry ever had any influence on Pinegen or attempted to do so. Within seven years all of the aforementioned had relinquished their shares in Pinegen. So Humphrey, your suggestion that we had backing from certain establishment (?) figures is loosely correct but not I would suggest in quite the manner that your remark might be interpreted.

I WOULD love to take the credit but my biggest contribution was probably keeping out of their way.

YOU can have a look at how Speedway Star was laid out 55 years ago by accessing this week's 74-page speedwayXtra at speedwaystar.net. Some great picture spreads from Western Springs there as well.

CALL 020-83351113 if not ... just £3 including postage and you will get it the next day working day.

I DIDN'T actually see a copy until about an hour before I left hotel in NZ to start the long journey home. Was perfect for the 27-hour flight! I can actually be objective here. Apart from sanctioning the cost of such a mammoth edition I had nothing to do with it. But I would like to publicly show appreciation and the utmost respect for what is after all a relatively small team managed to achieve, both in terms of content and appearance. I know of many other publications of a lesser size that would have required many more people to get the job done. I am proud of it and them and happy to say so. And, of course, if you missed out (and many did because of the postponed meetings) it is still available by calling 020-83351113.

AS I wrote, not familiar with the terms of the contract and who pays what but would guess that Western Springs Promotions would at least negotiate a deal with the Crowne Plaza although at this time of the year, especially with cricket's Barmy Army in town, hotels aren't exactly desperate for trade.