PHILIPRISING

CHRIS turned down the chance of using a GTR, even for practice

TURNED down the chance to use the GTR he had at King's Lynn

FULLY agree with that ... and made the point to BSI

WHAT'S that got to do with the Millennium or Wembley?

THE last time I looked neither Wembley nor the Olympic Stadium is in the centre of London in the manner that the Millennium is to Cardiff with its close proximity to so many bars, restaurants, hotels, etc. I am sure that is one of the many things fans love about Cardiff. Wembley would never embrace speedway as does the Millennium, there is no roof, okay, not a cast iron guarantee against a cancellation but at least weather-proof. Also, one of the many attributes of the Millennium, as was superbly illustrated by Saturday's terrific opening ceremony, it's ability to be turned into almost total darkness in the middle of summer. Cannot honestly think of one area in which Wembley would be favoured over the Millennium for speedway's showcase event.

UNLIKELY due to stadium availability...

POSSIBLE explanation for gate 1 advantage at the Millennium ... as at Western Springs in 2013 the track was slightly higher on the outside than inside and moisture naturally gravitated to the inside providing more grip, which was critical on a track with short a such a short run from tapes to first corner.. Plus the fact that during races riders continually go over the outside gates rather than those on the inside, thus compacting them more. Had three telephone calls this morning (none of which were primarily anything to with Cardiff) from Barry Briggs, Hans Nielsen and Kelvin Tatum and put that point to each of them and all more or less concurred.

WOULDN'T bet a penny on Tampere next year...

ATTENDANCE was 40,750

THE roof hasn't been open since the track went down two and a half weeks ago ...

KELVIN Tatum spent almost an hour on the Cardiff track today and gave it the thumbs up. Couldn't be better said Kelvin and if it generates dirt on Saturday there should be excellent racing.

NORMALLY an hour before practice so imagine 2pm

DON'T rule out Kaspzrak just yet ...

WITH nine GPs to go and Kildemand in them all unless he gets hurt would be surprised if he didn't make top eight and secure automatic qualification for 2016.

IVAN didn't get his gold bike as any sort of reward from the FIM or for winning three titles. It was a mate of his (Ray Bockleman) in California who came up with the idea of gold plating one of his bikes. Olsen later did the same and his bike is (or was) at the Hotel Haderslev.

CANNOT imagine that the Millennium will have less staff than usual but that would be their call ... COULDN'T agree more... very odd

YES but track was down to the locals last year as well

RIGA ... nothing to do with Stuart Robson. Just saying that apparently the track in Riga for GP qualifier was very good. BELIEVE it is because more people tend to hang around the Fanzone and enter the stadium later ...

RIGA too apparently ... HAVE emailed Chris Durno, who was the referee, to see whether he has a results chart although as previously mentioned there were no prizes nor points money.

FROM what I have heard so far the track in Riga was excellent...

WAS in full flow at one of the cricket ODIs the other day, although I would tend to agree with you.

AGREE with that ... as was Tommy Knudsen who didn't win a individual World title either. And Chris Morton for that matter...

NOT sure of the relevance of your footnote... however, believe me or believe me not, there was no BSI contact with the riders in Warsaw after the start of the meeting. When the riders retreated to a room just behind the pit area on a number of occasions the only people allowed in (and I was standing outside the door - not quite with my ear on it!) were FIM officials including the Race Director, members of the Jury, Track Racing Director Armando Castagna and a representative of the PZM. Eventually the three Jury members drafted an official statement confirming that the meeting had been abandoned and it was only then that BSI were informed.

PRACTICE is shorter this year THANKS for your positive vibes

THE decision to abandon a meeting as in Warsaw is the responsibility of the FIM. It wasn't Tony Steele's sole decision but after a collective verdict from the Race Director and the Clerk of the Course, who believed that the track conditions could not be improved, the FIM Jury (President, Referee and local FMNR delegate) and in light of the riders' refusal to ride they really had no option but to formally call it off. When riders claim, rightly or wrongly, that a track is dangerous and unsafe officials are left with nowhere to go. You can huff and puff, threaten fines, suspensions all night long but if a rider did sustained serious injuries as a result of a crash deemed to have been caused by the track the repercussions would be endless. At no stage were BSI involved in those discussions between riders and FIM officials on the Saturday night. Who is ultimately responsible in Cardiff for providing a track which meets all the FIM requirements? BSI employ Speed Sport but it is also the role of the FIM to ensure that much of the structural work including fence, air barriers, starting gates (plural) and the track are in good working order. As Speed Sport are agents of BSI one can argue that BSI (as at Cardiff) are ultimately responsible if the track subsequently proves unfit for racing despite having been given the green light previously by the FIM. In Warsaw it was the PZM who employed Speed Sport, admittedly at the behest of BSI, but the lack of a second starting gate, for example, is something that as far as I can ascertain right now is still under review. Olsen and Speed Sport will argue that they presented the FIM with a raceable track which was duly inspected, licenced and homologated. The FIM will probably counter that it was impossible to detect that the track would break up as it did and that was the fault of those commissioned to lay it, Speed Sport, and those who employed them, the PZM. There are a lot of grey areas here and there is nothing concrete to emerge from the FIM as yet, at least not publicly, about Warsaw. But I would say that the consensus of opinion is that in Warsaw it was an in-perfect storm. Track conditions were far from ideal, that cannot be denied, but many, including some of the riders who were there, believe that but for the interminable delays caused by the starting gate the meeting may well have reached its conclusion. Had the malfunctioning gate been discarded immediately, and with no second gate, green light starts should immediately have been implemented in line with FIM regulations. Not ideal for riders used to looking left or right at a magnet but to exclude Jason Doyle on a green light start and then to rerun the heat with the tapes, which again didn't work, was borderline stupid in my opinion. Not only that, all the time spent trying to rectify the starting gate and the personnel working on it could have been utilised better on the track itself which may have placated the riders. But while all these delays were going on the riders became more and more frustrated and the rest is history. We are still left with the question of who is responsible at each individual SGP and might that be the promoters of each event, i.e those taking the ticket money , because ultimately it is they who have to make the refunds and incur compensation, should there be any. Food for thought...