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Unanswered questions & secrecy mar launch of 2009 Speedway Grand Prix series
24/04/2009
The new series of the Speedway Grand Prix is about to get underway but, arguably, finds the glamour of its start marred by cost-cutting, secrecy and prevarication. Sadly, the fanfare over the arrival of a new website for the Speedway Grand Prix fails to paper over the vexatious issues and unanswered questions that still beset […]
more from the blog
Savage 83% Super Prix Prize Money Cut Announced
02/04/2009
It was only last year that the Speedway Grand Prix ‘organisers’ boasted on their website about the ludicrous concept of the Super Prix events. It was another of those new fangled revolutions that nobody had asked for or could really see the point of, despite hollow protestations that this “finale” would add to the drama […]
Selected Highlights from the 2009 British Speedway Regulations
09/03/2009
They say speedway is a simple sport. Basically, four riders on four bikes racing four laps around an oval track. The dense type and complexity of the 64 page speedway rulebook says otherwise and, though it laudably aims to outlaw cunning and manipulation, each year yet further amendments arrive. Nowadays this rulebook often confuses the […]
Return of the Blunsdon Blog
02/03/2009
It’s back! Older but wittier and wiser after it’s much needed sabbatical. Though the shale never really left his shoes, Swindon speedway blogsmith Graham Cooke is back at his keyboard to take you behind the scenes to, once again, see the rich tapestry and cast of characters that is the Wonderful World of Track Curation, […]
Unresolved Legal Issues Cloud Gelsenkirchen Post Mortem
15/01/2009
Widely seen as the man with the real brainpower in the team of all talents that makes up the BSI management team, Paul ‘Really Important’ Bellamy (Managing Director BSI) has kindly deigned to be savagely quizzed on the SGP (including the Gelsenkirchen fiasco) in this week’s Speedway Star. Billed on the front cover of the […]
No Room at the trough – SGP Rider Pay Rates frozen in 2009 (at 2005 levels) again
05/01/2009
The recently published FIM Speedway World Championship Grand Prix Regulations 2009 make interesting reading (listed as regulation 077). Unluckily for the riders, their pay rates remain frozen for 2009 (just like they did in 2008, 2007, 2006 and 2005). The FIM have again produced an extremely comprehensive 39-page document that covers everything from the specifics […]
Early Christmas Joy from BSI
22/12/2008
After mismanagement and cost cutting apparently ensured the cancellation of the Gelsenkirchen Grand Prix in October, “Paul Bellamy, Managing Director of BSI (Speedway)” [as he’s snappily known] read from a prepared statement in the bored manner of a speaking clock to signal the emotional depth of his frustration at the inconvenience caused to the fans. […]
Tears & Glory Review
05/12/2008
The task of any speedway historian isn’t an enviable one – no matter how eventful the subject matter – since there’s only so many ways you can describe a race, a meeting or even a season. This difficulty has been elegantly overcome by Arnie Gibbons in his account of the 40 year history of the […]
An apology: Steve Skerry (aka Skezza)
26/11/2008
In a recent post, I may have given the impression that Steve Skerry saw his Speedway from Skezza blog as an online opportunity to blow smoke up the collective bottoms of the BSPA and BSI/IMG (whatever they’re called this week). While his research still remains heavily influenced by and/or dependent upon the Speedway Star, he’s […]
Tom Garnell replies
20/11/2008
My interviews with various people behind the scenes at Eastbourne this past season included the following comment from Kevin Coombes. “I fell into it by accident when car sharing to work I heard that the regular presenter Tom Garnell had went away for two weeks to watch F1 racing. I had my opinions on his […]
Bellamy, Postlethwaite & Olsen dominate SGP Earnings again in 2008
31/10/2008
Once again, the end of the 2008 Speedway Grand Prix sees Paul Bellamy, John Postlethwaite and Ole Olsen comfortably ‘earn’ more money than anyone else with some connection to the series. Remember these are the ‘fat cats’ with the business acumen and marketing genius not to be able to manage anything as simple as a […]
Skezza Speaks
18/10/2008
The Daily Mail has wholeheartedly joined the Internet age with various blogs on its website and, quite amazingly, one of these is dedicated to speedway! It’s called Speedway from Skezza with a masthead that features a photograph of a youthful looking member of the newspaper staff. Albeit one with an irksome matey nickname, gel in […]
2008 Live Speedway Season on Sky grinds to a close
14/10/2008
Except for Poole fans, the so-called Grand Final second leg was always likely to end in anti-climax. Though the Pirates have lost at home this season, a Lakeside team ravaged by injuries was hardly going to repeat this medicine or thrill first time watchers. Incredibly, only moments into the broadcast Nigel Pearson – probably contractually […]
Monty Python redux
12/10/2008
Taken from Holsted Speedway newspage: The charge by the calling off from VM to speedway racing can be risk that run into a tocifret millionbeløb. Gelsenkirchen Earth risk to be vådt , catching decent locates that out to Guds available nature. Wet earth is difficult that do dry , catching decent to cold oktobervejr throw […]
BSI Speedway fails to organise brewery celebration
11/10/2008
Ignoring that it’s a further embarrassment for the sport in the eyes of the outside world, the cancellation of the final Grand Prix of the 2008 at the “splendidly-appointed Veltins-Arena at Gelsenkirchen” has to raise yet more serious questions about the competence and visionary management of the organisers, BSI Speedway. It must also cast doubt […]
Shock Slow Down Announced by Graham Cooke
03/10/2008
The speedway websites that you just have to look at throughout the year are few and far between. While the British Speedway Forum is a guilty pleasure, one must bookmark site is the always informative and wide-ranging speedwayplus. While the other is the Blunsdon Blog written by Swindon track staff member, potter, renowned speedway wordsmith, […]
Qualification conundrum
Given that the Speedway Star and the Speedway Grand Prix appear wedded at the hip, it’s astonishing to read some reasonably strong criticism of this event within its pages (both on September 13th as well as the subsequent meeting report on September 20th). Let alone to find that the chief critic is Philip Rising! Beyond […]