PHILIPRISING

YERS, very much so. Before speedway found a place on TV, the vast majority of people in this country thought it had long since died. Sky brought speedway back in front of many. Admittedly, the majority didn't also visit tracks to see the sport live but you can hardly blame Sky for that. The money Sky poured into British speedway was never well spent. It largely went to fund rider payments and never to improve the infrastructure of the sport. Cannot really blame Sky for that either. British speedway had a great opportunity to build on the exposure and platform provided by Sky but didn't do so. Personally cannot see how Sky can be blamed for the demise of domestic speedway. They don't create the product.

I TAKE it you are not holding your breath.

NOBODY is perfect but Bracher was a great administrator who stuck by the letter of the law. Hated the Press mind you.And maybe he didn't fully understand speedway but he certainly knew how to run the SCB with Limb as his boss.

AND Michael Limb, MBE ... a great Chairman who actually got involved and run a very tight ship at the SCB with Dick Bracher as Secretary. Trust me, none off today's nonsense would be taking place on his watch.

MANY moons ago the RAC was the ultimate authority for all motorsport, two wheels and four, in the UK. The Secretary of the RAC was also the appointed Chairman of the Speedway Control Board.

YES and no idea

THAT ain't the half of it!

BSPA General Council meeting today ... will anything happen and if it does will they even tell us?

BANKROLLED by sponsors, TV money and wealthy local basinessmen ... bit like England's Premier League only on a much lower scale.

CRUEL but ... Cook said after his last ride that he had tried something drastic and it worked. One wag replied: "He turned the throttle on."

IT is a decision taken on the night but very rarely before a final. There is a feeling amongst many of the riders that Phil Morris over-waters tracks.

HE thought the track was going to be watered, which it had been before his semi, hence his decision to take gate 3 for that race, which worked. Bit it wasn't and he surrendered the best gate to Janowski.

HE was top scorer

THANKS for the correction. Haven't see any at SGPs though.

YOU can read his explanation in SS this week... certainly wasn't arrogance.

I AM not aware that any such tyres are homologated for SGP use. It would appear that many if not most riders use more than one tuner. Also, on Saturday at least don't think there was any rider on a PJR motor. How times change. And will probably do so again .

DON'T think Polish tracks are suffering from dwindling crowds and a lack of youngsters attending meetings. Spoke to Andreas Jonsson on Saturday and says Lublin, a second division team, sell-out every meeting and have over 1,000 fans travelling to away fixtures.

DON'T think it is ...

PERHAPS they could just plug it into the TV trucks

KELVIN T suggested to Emil at breakfast this morning that he skip his first two rides to watch Russia v Croatia. He could take his last three and still qualify for the semis More people talking about the soccer than the speedway. With regard to the track, had a chat with Jason D at Heathrow yesterday and he says it's a good track, lots of work has been done there.

MATCH kicks off at 4pm local time so should be over by 6pm ... unless it goes to penalties!

BUT the promoters provide the finance so cannot be totally divorced from the process.

IT'S coming and soon

AS it was with Belle Vue (Gordon and Morton)

I REPEAT that any views I express here are my own. But I think in the very near future SS will be expressing its concern not only about British speedway but the magazine itself. The two go hand-in-hand and with attendances dramatically down right across the spectrum of British speedway sales of Speedway Star are inevitably adversely affected.