PHILIPRISING

THEY have

I THINK there is a lot of confusion on here about the possible future use of GTRs in Britain. It would be impossible to make them compulsory for all sorts of reasons, not least the fact that so many riders who race in other countries, not to mention international events, would wish to continue to use GMs, There is also the fact that Marcel Gerhard hasn't the funds to mass produce the engines that would be required. My understanding is that the BSPA could possibly underwrite the cost of producing a significant number of GTR engines that would then be made available (sold) to riders racing in the UK. They (BSPA) see this as a way of helping riders reduce their costs significantly over the course of a season, as has been the case with Freddie Lindgren. That would particularly benefit riders at the lower end of the scale who quite frankly cannot afford the service bills they incur during the course of a season. As long as the GTR is competitive, and Lindgren's performances suggest that it is, it will attract many who do not require the super-tuned ones currently favoured by those at the very top of the ladder. It will build its own niche market. GM, who apparently are now in the process of modifying their own product, will remain the number one engine of choice not least because only they, at present, can meet the demand.

HAVE been plenty critical of the BSPA, which is why we have such a fractured relationship with them as a body, but they take as much notice as they do the bsf.

AS I have said before, this isn't the time for upsetting the applecart at Belle Vue. Lots off delicate negotiating going on which will come out in the fullness of time and when the future of the stadium is secured for speedway we can examine what previously went wrong. Our prime concern now is for British speedway not to lose its most iconic name and an outstanding stadium. As for changes at the SCB, you obviously don't read SS otherwise you would know the answers to the questions you pose.

THERE isn't a supremo ... HAD it from good authority this week that Belle Vue speedway will continue into 2017 thanks in no small part to the prompt and decisive action of Buster Chapman.

IT'S not a supremo but a collective who endeavour to take a stronger grip on British speedway. Just the messenger here, time will tell.

HAVE done that many times. However, the new-look SCB which kicks in on January 1st, 2017, will adopt stronger authority over the BSPA that the previous set-up.

FROM what I understand the limit would be set at around 13,000 rpm and would only in practice kick in at the start line. You wouldn't need an engine revving at over 13,000 to get round the Rye House corners, or anywhere else for that matter, unless you had made a complete pig's ear of the gearing.

DO you actually read Speedway Star?

DOESN'T really answer the question of rev limiters which so many people do actually think would help bring down costs for riders. Peter Johns also makes many other good points about maintenance of engines which are hardly designed to increase his work load.

ONE man's opinion and all that but with respect think that possibly people like Peter Johns, Marcel Gerhard and Kelvin Tatum, to name but a few, actually do know better.

HAVE actually written quite a few 'editorials' (In My View) over the past few months and I don't think you will find any that toe the BSPA line.

I HONESTLY don't know but pretty sure it wouldn't have gone to BSPA. I imagine (no more) that it was to settle outstanding debts, probably including the Council, to ensure that the meeting could proceed.

THE thing about an editorial comment is that it is actually the view of the person who is writing it and not necessarily of the readership as a whole. A editorial in the Times, Telegraph or Daily Mail probably does reflect the views of their readership because that is why they buy that particular newspaper. I could probably write an editorial every week but why should the opinion of Philip Rising carry any more weight than anyone else. By previous experience, it certainly hasn't at the BSPA! AND I have never said I have a problem with that. I'm not that thin-skinned.

BUT at least I put my own name forward to be ridiculed.

AGREE that they should not have run the meeting after being warned that the track would not hold up. But I do believe messrs Gordon and Morton (especially the latter, who should know about these things) thought that it would be all right on the night. Sadly they were mistaken. That was the point of the escrow account as far as we can ascertain but a combination of delays to the final construction and the backers wanting more control than DG and CM were prepared to relinquish resulted in them being handed their money back, which is when George Carswell and his family stepped into the breach. In reply to Arthur Cross and his post of Nov 8 which I actually didn't see, the answer is none.

IT already is ... by Humphrey

AND to the standard required. They got about 75 per cent right but not the other 25 per cent for reasons which we now know. Obviously selling tickets for opening night well in advance was to help with cash flow but it was a never to be repeated event and one which, quite rightly, they anticipated a full-house and pre-sale of tickets was a practical idea. BV had no expectation of the track not being 100 per cent and it was only that, and not the stadium as a whole, which caused the chaos that ensued. BV will argue, with justification surely, that the ramifications of that night affected on-going attendances and especially the delayed Wolverhampton fixture. Whether or not BV would have escaped all the financial problems that afflicted them throughout the season had these meetings been successfully staged is a moot point. Some of the early backers who came on board with considerable funds, believed to be held in an escrow account, withdrew sometime before completion and the fact that the project still moved forward was in no small part due to George Carswell and his family. In reply to one of Humphrey Dumphrey's early comments, I can give no assurances that all will be fine. All I do know is that several parties are working hard and negotiating to ensure that speedway continues at the NSS.

OF course having to return the money was a huge blow. Having a bumper opening crowd and with it substantial revenue was vitally important for them. It was money they were never going to get again and the loss of four more home meetings, including the traditionally lucrative Good Friday fixture against Wolverhampton was another body blow. It would appear that it all went pear shaped from then which is why Gordon, rightly or wrongly, lays much of the blame at the door of MCC

I HAVE already stated on here that while some people were prepared to talk off the record, and we wouldn't betray that, others had little to offer that we didn't already know. And the vast majority of SS readers don't trawl the internet and actually rely on the magazine to provide them with the sort of information that we did last week. I don't know why you always think Speedway Star should effectively be dishing the dirt, if there actually is any. Our greater responsibility is not to publish anything at this stage that might seriously jeopardise the continuation of speedway at the NSS. I make no apologises for that. We are not a tabloid newspaper and sometimes have to take the view that some things are better left unsaid. British speedway is in a precarious state as it is without SS rocking the boat still further. And if that, as you so nicely put it a few days ago, means I have long lost all journalistic credibility then I can live with that.

LET'S hope you are wrong. The BSPA seem confident that Belle Vue will continue in 2017 and there are people working to make that happen. The Council may or may not be entirely blameless for what happened this year and that could yet have a bearing on how the situation moves forward.

NO one has suggested the riders haven't been paid at all. I spoke to Mark Lemon, who insisted when he took the job that riders be paid regularly, in Torun he said that there were arrears but that riders were being paid. No doubt Zagar would have got his dosh first.

EVERYTHING won't carry on as normal. There will be new people involved, not encumbered by the debt that the previous promoters brought with them from Kirky Lane.

CONSIDERABLY more than that.

BSI and the FIM will no doubt be happy to go back to Belle Vue if and when a new management structure is in place. The staging of the SWC there this year was a nightmare for both of them although, of course, the meetings themselves were terrific. There is a lot going on behind the scenes right now but it is confidential and the last thing I or Speedway Star would want to do is rock the boat and endanger the prospects of a sustained and viable future for the NSS. I do think that is entirely possible but at the time BSI had to notify the FIM of a venue for a SWC round it was sensible to plump for King's Lynn, which after all has done so very well in the past.