PHILIPRISING

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.

I DIDN'T say it was great, simply that when there isn't plenty of passing some people rush to blame the track. Ward and Sayfutdinov, Pedersen and Iversen showed what could be done. Sometimes it is just because the riders are either too good or not good enough. With regard to earlier comment about 'summer weather' ... initial comment was that hopefully the fine weather in NZ would continue for track preparation (ie laying of the actual surface).

NO idea what the terms of his contract with BSI/IMG are

RIDERS get five air tickets and three double/twin rooms for the duration of their stay

NEWSTALK ZB with Murray Deaker CERTAINLY didn't say that riders can only pass when one makes a mistake but it does make it more likely. SKIDDER ... fully agree with you. Speedway riders are racers, they like to go fast, the faster the better. I am no fan of F1, find it very boring even on TV, but on the odd occasion I have been cannot help but be impressed by the pure speed of the cars. Got that same impression at Western Springs standing by the pit gate as the boys roared past. Great skill, great speed but not that exciting overall. I always found longtrack a little boring for the same reasons. Boy, they go fast but like any big track the riders tend to get spread out. Generally I think speedway is better on smaller tracks although of course there have been exceptions ... the old Hyde Road was a perfect example. But it was almost a freak, that's just the way it was. I know there are some who don't accept this but there is no pre-determined policy to make tracks for the GPs that will not generate good racing, especially in the Tony Olsson era. Great effort was made at Western Springs over the three days but, in fact, the track was at its best on Friday when practice didn't start until 5pm and there was quite a lot of cloud cover. It generated a lot more grip than it did on Saturday. The sun is so strong in NZ that water put on the track evaporates even before it has time to sink in. But the people there did their best and will no doubt feel that it didn't work out as well as they would have liked but it wasn't for the lack of trying.

WHY always blame the track if there is a lack of passing? The better the track the less mistakes riders, especially of this ability, are likely to make. And live speedway is always better than on the box. I recall from my own speedway viewing days at Wimbledon that it was so much better watching from outside the grandstand rather than behind glass there. Western Springs is a big, fast track, not easy to make up ground once a rider has got away. Greg Hancock was live on radio on Sunday. Asked what he thought of Western Springs? "My favourite track in the world," he replied. That's a rider's perspective, of course, and not necessarily what the spectators will agree with.

THE BBC tried that at Wimbledon for the Internationale many, many moons ago. You are right ... didn't work.

EUROSPORT will provide the production facilities at Cardiff

THE thinking behind the 'draw' change was that it would cut down the time between Heat 20 and the first semi but upon further consideration it was agreed that we could speed up the existing process, which we did at Western Springs.

APART from the start positions all the boys thought the track was great. Darcy and Emil proved that. In this sort of field anyone who gets in front - witness Zagar in his last race - can stay there. Referee had no option with Iversen, unlucky though he was. He laid his bike down, with all good intentions, but the fact is that no one fell off in front of him and the race was stopped because Niels was on the track ... hence the cause of the stoppage.

THE word from the Plish riders here in NZ before leaving today was that all the first round meetings have been postponed. True?

MY first impression was that as the 2012 title chase went to the pen-ultimate race why change it but I can see that, in theory, it should keep the competition even tighter. Time will tell, don't think it is a big deal really.

NO double points this year.