PHILIPRISING

ANYONE winning 12 rounds would more than deserve to be World Champion.

WHY are they embarrassing? Winner of the final is the winner of the GP. Points accumulate for the championship. Good to see you posting again by the way (apart from this one!!) RIDERS on Saturday said the track was perfect. Not too slick, not too grippy, very smooth, no ruts. What more do you want?

LIKELY to be even more disappointed when he sees the Danish SWC squad. Looks like they are going for Nicki with the kids. Building for the future. Now, there's a thought!

IN the GPs it is the Race Director who determines when the riders are ready for a rerun and then informs the referee to start the two minutes. Quite simple. In effect that is what happens for every GP heat. The two minutes is started by the referee when the Race Director orders the pit gate to be opened and the riders enter the track. Craig Acroyd's semi-final decisions was also straightforward. The race had been competed the split second Hancock crossed the line and he could exclude Pedersen without a rerun. Simples.

WRONG! CROWD was 12,800

SORRY but the referee (Craig Ackroyd) was absolutely correct. CORRECT

IT'S one of the biggest nights of the year here in Sweden ... sadly I am not referring to the Grand Prix but the Eurovision Song Contest. I didn't realise how massive, and I mean massive, it is here. It's party time for the Swedes, they dress up and just love it the whole contest. And, to make matters worse as far as an attendance at Ullevi is concerned, Sweden are actually favourite to win the damn thing. At least the weather looks favourable. There was an overnight shower but this morning the sky is blue and its warm and breezy, although there could be a shower later.

NICKI Pedersen summed it up before the start of practice: "We should be racing on THIS track. It is terrific but who knows what it will be like after practice." The riders were full of praise for the track and hopefully with decent weather it can be replicated on Saturday.

MIGHT as well get the ball rolling. Track at Ullevi has been down for almost three weeks. Weather looking good for later in the week, which will almost be a first for Gothenburg in recent times. New pit area this year following some changes to the stadium structure. Remarkable that riders like Greg Hancock, Andreas Jonsson, Jason Crump, Tomasz Gollob and Nicki Pedersen have never won at Ullevi. Will that change on Saturday or will Emil Sayfutdinov and Chris Holder add to previous triumphs?

Why not?

WILL look into that ... Rosco at least lightened the mood in the Harris camp with normally has a big black cloud hanging over it. Rosco has been a big help previously but who knows (no pun intended Andy) and time will tell. Starting with this evening. Now around 13.15 local time and its dry and should stay that way.

NOTHING on this one so far so ... was 28 degrees yesterday and is forecast to be half that today. The track at the Marketa has been altered slightly, the inside curb at both ends has been lowered which, said Hancock and Holder, should provide different options going into the corners. Not so good news is that the new material on the track is very loose and doesn't appear to generate much grip. However, we have had heavy overnight rain which should cease this morning and leave the rest of the day and evening dry. Alun Rossiter is here with Chris Harris, who tested five engines in a day long session in Poland on Thursday. It is now just Rosco and Mark Courtney with Bomber.

I UNDERSTAND the 2012 version will be ready and available for Prague

RIDERS are at liberty to request Paddock passes for their guests at each event. In Copenhagen, for example, the four Danish riders will probably have hundreds of guests arranged through their respective sponsors. Paddock passes do not include admission to the stadium and access to the pits is denied after 17.30.

TATUM did spend some time with Scott Nicholls in 2009 but it came to a halt when Scotty decided (as he was entitled to do) that he didn't want to go down the route that Kelvin suggested, which included a special diet, a very strict training regime, some adjustments to his riding style, especially off the start, and a number of mechanical changes. In my own opinion, but one based on first hand knowledge of how Olsen helped Gundersen, Mauger with Nielsen and, indeed, Briggs with Tatum and Adams, just about all of the current crop of SGP riders could benefit from having a top class former or current rider alongside them in the pits assuming that person had the ability and knowledge to sum up changing track conditions, to suggest minor but possibly significant set-up changes, and so on.

WHEN was Tatum with Harris?

COME along and have a look Andy. Think Monster were more than pleased with exposure, not least having had two winners in just two rounds.

LET'S not forget that there are only two Polish riders (plus a wild card on Saturday) in the 2012 series. However, bit early to declare Polish speedway to be on a slippery slope. Torun and Gorzow will be sell-outs and a GP in Warsaw next year is very much on the drawing board. Gollob is an almost impossible act to follow but there are undoubtedly some genuine talents coming through ... Dudek, the two Pawlicki brothers, Janowski and so on. Much sporting attention in Poland will obviously focus on the Euro soccer championships in June but, unlike the UK and indeed Denmark and Sweden, there remains massive media interest in speedway.

CHRIS failed to score in three rides for his Polish club on Sunday ... really is in the doldrums at present. You are right about the timing cover.

ANDY ... huge Monster hospitality rig outside the stadium, attracted fans like bees round a honeypot Friday and Saturday. Lots of other Monster activity there. Inside loads and loads of Monster branding, gantry above starting gate, new scoreboard bedecked in Monster, new lining up zone, lots of Monster presence in pits, their own photographers and media guy (grandson of Peter Oakes, very promising young journo) and so on. Probably had to be there to fully appreciate but, believe me, it was very proactive. And, of course, with two different Monster riders winning the opening two GPs they are over the proverbial moon.

OLE Olsen has absolutely nothing to do with track preparation at permanent venues. Considering how hot (over 80) and very sunny it had been during the day the Leszno guys managed to produce a good track, with inside and outside racing lines, although the surface material there is very strange. BIG stadium, holds around 25,000, but high ticket prices and lack of decent accommodation in Leszno didn't help. Their crowd for first home league match this year was 11,000.... just (eat your heart out British clubs) 7,000 for the second WHISTLES and boos were aimed at Gollob not Holder. Leszno crowd didn't like his attitude towards their own hero Hampel.

NIGEL and Jan Staechmann will be in Leszno this weekend ... providing the world feed commentary that will be taken by Sky amongst others

WE do but there is nothing wrong with HEALTHY debate. Right Humphrey?

IF you are talking about costs or fees paid to BSI/IMG it's because I don't know them and don't pretend to or guess. That's their business and the only one that should be and is in the public domain is what is paid to the FIM. There are many areas in which our frequently diverse opinions actually synchronise and I actually enjoy reading your posts although I do feel that now and again you pluck numbers out of the air with regard to the SGP. I do also disagree with you that BSI/IMG are not interested in speedway outside their own bubble. They are, even if for altruistic reasons, because the healthier speedway is in general, the cake if you like, the better the icing will be. You might actually be surprised at some of the initiatives they have tried to implement only to be thwarted or frustrated by various administrations. While they certainly wouldn't comment publicly, they must also get agitated by the machinations of the FIM at times. Only recently the FIM insisted that the proposed Clerk of the Course in Auckland travel to Prague from NZ, at his own (or Buckley's) expense, for a seminar. At it happened, Tony Briggs (who held a lapsed FIM licence) was able to travel from Poland and attend and officially take the role. A relatively minor issue, I admit, but one that illustrates while the FIM are happy to pressure IMG into taking the SGP worldwide they aren't ready to grasp some of the issues that are involved. The Under 21 championship is a case in point and it remains to be seen how many of the contestants actually turn up in Argentina when their interest in the championship is over. In an ideal world perhaps an international governing body that only embraced speedway could work wonders in harness with BSI/IMG but unfortunately there doesn't seem much chance of that.

BUT the freight wasn't handled by the airline(s) direct but through a specialised company who no doubt have arranged their own tariffs which are unlikely to be found through a cursory investigation on the web. It just so happens that Emirates proved suitable on this occasion but perhaps in the future Air New Zealand (London-LA-Auckland) might be more beneficial. I am only dismissive of figures that quite often appear unsubstantiated by fact.