Fine tuning of confidential 2008 restructuring plan revealed

Rumours in the Speedway Star claim that a three-league structure for next year could be dictated by attendance figures. It has been mooted that there would be nine teams in each league those with
Attendances greater than 1000
Attendances greater than 750
Attendances greater than 500

It’s a plan that raises more questions than it answers, particularly for those clubs where their ambitions lead them to claim to be in a certain league when the turnstile receipts are lower. Perhaps, the attendance figures declared to the tax authorities would be the one used to determine the ‘real’ average attendance?

However, a later draft plan to rather sophisticatedly fine tune this proposal has fallen into my hands and further additional qualifying criteria questions will be used to determine the actual final composition of which club appears in which league.

Each team has to answer these questions and adjust their initial provisional total of fans (500, 750 or 1000) accordingly. They can also choose to exempt themselves from two questions under the tactical questions rule.


The promoter is an ex-rider (gain 20 fans)
You have ludicrous home advantage (lose 50 fans)
The promoter is an avid user of hair care products (lose 25 fans)
The promoter has a beard (gain 75 fans)
The team kevlars look nice (gain 5 fans)
Promoter officially owns two clubs (lose 20 fans)
Your track curatorial team are wanted b y other clubs (gain 50 fans)
Promoter unofficially owns two clubs (lose 40 fans)
Promoter drew up plans for the future organisation (lose 15 fans)
Promoter sits on BSPA committee (gain 1 fan)
The promoter is a senior citizen (lose 30 fans)
You have two starting gate mechanisms (gain 40 fans)
You own your own stadium (gain 50 fans)
Your promoter gives a totally unbelievable excuse for defeat/meeting postponement (gain 10 fans)
There are photos of the riders in the pits (lose 25 fans)
The promoter combines the roles of presenter and photographer (gain 60 fans)
The presenter thinks the fans come to see him (lose 80 fans)
The presenter tells unfunny jokes (lose 60 fans)
The presenter is intentionally funny (gain 20 fans)
Your riders think a wheelie is entertainment (lose 10 fans)
The riders stay to sign autographs for fans after the meeting (gain 30 fans)
Air horns are banned (lose 15 fans)
You change race night (lose 70 fans)
Your riders go through the motions (lose 50 fans)
You have a free car park (add 30 fans)
You pay £1 to park (lose 50 fans)
You club has always had the same race night (gain 50 fans)
The promoter has a sports car (lose 90 fans)
The announcer/presenter sounds suicidal (gain 10 fans)
The promoter refuses to wear a BSPA jacket on race day (lose 40 fans)
The track is as rough as sin (lose 30 fans)
Your promoter has a dispute with your landlord (lose your stadium)
The promoter talks a good game on Sky (gain 10 fans)
Your star rider consistently fails to show for tenuous reasons (lose 100 fans)
Consistently learn the star rider isn’t riding when inside the stadium (lose 30 fans)
The promoter has owned a series of failed companies (lose 50 fans)
Your sponsor has a silly name (gain 20 fans)
Your superstar rider always turns up and gives their all (gain 20 fans)
Your club is about to move to a new purpose built stadium (gain 10 fans)
Your club has planning permission to run in another stadium (gain 50 fans)
Your promoter loves to issue legal threats (lose 50 fans)
Your team line up changes every week (lose 25 fans)
The meeting announcer bares their bottom (gain 40 fans)
Your sponsor sells products you think no one buys (lose 20 fans)
The stadium is in town (gain 50 fans)
The promoter exploits the rules to win (gain 10 fans)
The track shop has a mug with the name of least capable rider (gain 30 fans)
Your riders really give their all (gain 60 fans)
You no longer have a consistent race night (lose 40 fans)
The promoter moans about the rules (lose 50 fans)
The team manager appears in ignorance of the rules (lose 25 fans)
Fans can watch from the comfort of their cars inside the stadium (gain 15 fans)
The promoter fears technology, particularly the internet (lose 30 fans)
The stadium is outside city limits (lose 90 fans)
Your riders have unpronounceable names (gain 5 fans)
The programme costs £2.50 (lose 50 fans)
Your club has a great tradition (gain 20 fans) but hasn’t won anything for years (lose 50 fans)
Your catering is edible (gain 5 fans)
Promoter comes from a public service background (lose 100 fans)
Promoter comes from private business background (gain 5 fans)
Promoter has no public signs of ego (gain 30 fans)
Promoter has a wealth of promoting experience (gain 20 fans)
The promoter loved the club as a child (gain 25 fans)
The promoter loved the club as a rider (gain 45 fans)
The promoter secretly loved the club from a far (lose 20 incredulous fans)
Your team prefers to win rather than entertain (lose 30 fans)
Your riders love to race (gain 70 fans)
Your start girls dress nicely but suggestively (gain 50 fans)
The music comes from a fairground (lose 75 fans)
The music comes from the 70s and features Led Zep or ELP (gain 50 fans)
Garden chairs are welcomed (gain 30 fans)
You have a successfully community initiative (gain 100 fans)
Food not bought on the premises is banned (lose 60 fans)
Your club includes a future British World Champion (gain 120 fans)
Your riders come to the bar afterwards (gain 30 fans)
Your riders come to the bar afterwards and buy own drinks (gain 20 fans)
The referees box is over the finish line (gain 20 fans)
You club doesn’t appear on Sky (150 fans)
The promoter brings the marketing disciplines of another industry to bear even though they didn't work elsewhere either (lose 75 fans)
Kids go for a pound or free (gain 5 fans)
You have new tractors (gain 2 fans)
The club volunteers get thanked (gain respect)
Adverts in the programme outweigh other copy (lose 30 fans)
The club website has been refreshed in the last 12 months (lose 20 fans)
Your club has no website (lose 30 fans)
Your club website contains critical comments not just PR puffs (gain 100 fans)
Your club has a supporters club (gain 30)
Your promoter rarely bans people from the stadium (gain 10 fans)
The promoter moans about reduced attendances (lose 25 fans)
You have away coach trips (gain 30 fans)
You run a free bus to home meetings in the local area (gain 8 fans)
You have a cuddly mascot who gives away sweets (gain 25 young fans)
The stadium is accessible by public transport in both directions (gain 30 fans)
Reports of the meeting you attend bear no relation to your experience (lose 25 fans)
Your rider’s race in the rain (gain 20 fans)

These questions should ensure that the final composition of the 2008 revised speedway league structure matches the present overall lived experience and ensure that a camel is, indeed, a race horse designed by a committee

High Praise for 'Shifting Shale' by acclaimed speedway journalist in South London Press

‘SHIFTING SHALE’
Author: Jeff Scott (£20, softback).
Available at the website www.methanolpress.com or send £24 cheque to cover
P&P made payable to “J.Scott” at Methanol Press, 2 Tidy Street, Brighton
BN1 4EL.

THIS latest book from prolific speedway author Jeff Scott is as quirky and as delightful as his previous mega-offering ‘Showered in Shale’.
It covers some more memories of his touring experiences at various tracks. More importantly, considering it is now nearly two years since Wimbledon were evicted from Plough Lane by the GRA, the Dons get plenty of mentions. There are controversial issues like the ill-fated relocation bid at Central Park, Sittingbourne, and how this was seen by the long-standing neighbouring Kent club Sittingbourne Crusaders.
There is one assessment by Steve Ribbons, who was linked with the Crusaders after initially masterminding Wimbledon’s return to Plough Lane after 11 years’ closure in 2002. Basically, Ribbons’ opinion was that a Central Park base for Wimbledon was a non-starter. His actual comments need to be read for appreciation on a thorny subject.
Author Scott has also chronicled a series of delightful quotations from ‘Speedway Star’ on topics affecting the sport as seen by the promoters, riders and others who keep speedway ticking over.
Many of them were made by the Dons’ last Plough Lane promoter Ian Perkin. They deal largely with the relocation happenings between late 2005 and into 2006. As read in the ‘Star’ on a week-to-week basis, their context appeared very different and less amusing than in the new collated form in ‘Shifting Shale.’
As befits a Jeff Scott book, this is another massive tome - it runs to 352 pages and you need time to assimilate its overall content. But, again, it is a winner in the speedway world where most books on the sport doing the
rounds are historical works.
The book reflects Jeff Scott’s unique appreciation of a dangerous sport. Scott is a talented author, the like of whom speedway has not seen before.
His ability to show appreciation, describe and narrate about speedway makes ‘Shifting Shale’ a must for all who claim to have an interest in this spectacular sport.
Jeff Scott will be selling copies of ‘Shifting Shale’ at Weymouth on Friday July 27 when the nomadic Wimbledon team are scheduled to race there.
JOHN HYAM

John Hyam review in South London Press of 'Shale Britannia'

13th July 2007

‘Shale Britannia’ - A Sideways Glance at Speedway’
Author: Jeff Scott


The book contains 245 colour photos taken at every track during 2005 and 2006. That allows the now-closed Wimbledon club to be featured. It has four photos - the outside of the stadium before a meeting (page 55), the empty entrance to the pits (page 56), and a general view of the track with a lone worker busy raking (page 70). The fourth photo on page 252 baffles me. It shows a plaque reading ‘Reg Potter stood here.’ I would love to know its location in the stadium.

This photo saga is a documentary-style look at ground level speedway. There are no photos of star riders, but plenty of stadium entrances, terraces, tractors, tyres and the fans. It is speedway photography in the raw, showing the sport’s warts. I regard it as a treasure trove of pictorial information, a much-needed addition to speedway literature.

To compile this unique book, Scott attended more than 200 meetings and travelled 40,000 miles. He said: “This is the story of a speedway meeting on any night or day at any track across the country.”

“It follows the same sequence: the first arrivals – spectators, riders and staff, the terraces filling, the activity in the pits, the bars and trackshop.”

“There are the races watched by breathless fans, the accidents, the victories and the loss. I’ve tried to capture speedway’s full glory, spectacle and atmosphere – the things that draw us all back endlessly to watch a speedway meeting.”

Scott has done just that. I shall constantly browse through my copy, as I do the family albums. This book is a must for all who love the grass roots appeal of speedway.
It’s a delightful documentation of a sport now entering its 80th season.

John Hyam

First Review of Shifting Shale on www.speedwayplus.com

Book Review: Shifting Shale
Shifting Shale
By Jeff Scott
£20, in softback

Regular visitors to the site will hopefully be familiar with the work of author and speedway obsessive Jeff Scott. We’ve featured excerpts from his work and tried to somehow help him minimise the losses his publications always seem destined to make. He’s just published his fourth speedway book in little over a year, a quite incredible rate that hints at an underlying addiction of some kind.
The good news is that the quality of Jeff’s work has not been affected by the quantity he’s produced. “Shifting Shale” is a return to the format that worked so well in his first book “Showered in Shale”. The author travels to every track in the country, meets some interesting (and occasionally odd) characters, sums up what stands out about each meeting and reports it all in an amusing and incisive manner. His first book covered his 2005 adventures, this one is firmly focussed on 2006 – from the New Year Classic to the Brighton Bonanza.
Nobody else writing about speedway at the moment can capture the speedway experience in the way that Scott can. As always, the beauty of his work is in the description of the minutiae - fleeting conversations are recorded in full and the sentiments expressed subjected to analysis. The closure of a toilet block at Reading is discussed at length, it’s hard to imagine any other book mentioning it, let alone considering the implications.
There’s plenty of comment on the bigger issues affecting the sport also. The chapter on Jeff’s first visit to “BSI Reading” makes for fascinating reading, especially given the way that particular project has now turned out. He also covers the tactical ride rule, picking apart the ‘pro’ arguments advanced by some within the sport. If it happened in British speedway in 2006 then you’ll find at least one person’s opinion on it within the pages of this book.
Where this book differs from “Showered in Shale” is in the perspective of the writer. First time round he was an outsider, mingling un-noticed with the locals, free to roam and invisible to most. In this second adventure he’s standing behind a pasting table, hoping to sell some copies of the aforementioned tome and no longer just the nice man asking you questions – he’s now the nice man who’s going to remember what you’ve said and write it all down in a book. This last point does lead to an early sale as a track photographer buys a copy - just so he can send it to his lawyer with a view to suing Jeff for libel! Thankfully nothing seems to come from it, but it does highlight one of the dangers in writing a book of this nature.
In many ways, “Shifting Shale” is about more than just speedway and has more layers than “Showered in Shale”. It’s also about Jeff’s struggle to write, publish and sell a book in a small and crowded marketplace. His first night of sales activity sees more books stolen than he actually sells, on another occasion he finds himself with the very worst spot at the less popular of two rival collectors’ fayres being held in the same street. No doubt valuable lessons have been learned from these experiences and these mistakes avoided on his promotional tour for this new book.
Jeff’s increased profile also opens some useful doors, such as those of the SRA rider of the year awards. The chapter on that particular evening makes for hilarious reading – mainly due to the antics of Steve Johnson and the presence of Sophie Blake. One of the aforementioned was polite and demure while the other was very loud indeed – you’ll have to buy the book to find out who did what. Sophie also features in one of the many laugh-out-load passages within the book with the observation that the official attendance at last year’s Lonigo GP must now be considered to have been 4,500+1.
In another stand-out chapter the action moves to Sittingbourne as Jeff joins the referees in a ‘fun’ practice session. There’s no bravado in his account of the day, he admits to being petrified and relieved when he could retreat to the safety of the changing rooms. This chapter more than any other highlights just what a good writer Scott is, his self-doubt and fear come screaming off the page and will strike a chord with anyone who has ever stepped outside their own comfort zones.
In our review of Jeff’s photography book, “Shale Britannia”, we mentioned that the lack of words was a real departure from Jeff’s usual style. We needn’t have worried, normal service has been resumed here and this book contains as many words as one could possibly want (even if we secretly think he make some of them up). It runs to just short of 350 pages and given Jonathan Chapman’s description of the book as “the ideal toilet book”, Jeff may not be far off the mark with his idea to market it as “the ultimate book for the speedway fan with prostrate or constipation issues.”
In summary – you should buy this book, you’ll enjoy it and you might even be in it!
Shifting Shale by Jeff Scott
• Buy at all good track shops (£20)
• Order via paypal on the website at www.methanolpress.com
• Send a £25 cheque to cover P&P made payable to: "J Scott" to
Methanol Press
2 Tidy Street
Brighton
BN1 4EL

We always welcome and value any feedback from our visitors. If you’d like to comment on this article then please fill in our feedback form at http://www.speedwayplus.com/ShiftingShaleReview.shtml#feedback

Big Issue

A selection of photographs from 'Shale Britannia' appears in this week's 'Big Issue' on page 25

I buy a copy every week anyway and would encourage everyone to do so. If you only want to buy this one it's the one with a rather fetching picture of Natasha Beddingfield on the front (issue number 752 dated 9-15th July 2007).


In a message for us all, she tells us on the cover, "I followed my dream, and there's no stopping me now".

Sky cross the water to the Premier League

12th June

It’s a Tuesday night and, most unusually, the Sky cameras have deigned to feature a Premier League encounter - probably the sort of meeting we’ll see them televise a lot more next season. When you listen to Jonathan talk about racing at this level, it’s clear that he sees such trips as a combination of slumming it and an anthropological expedition. He obviously hasn’t attended many meetings at Smallbrook since he claims there is “a great crowd here, as always”, when everyone in the sport knows that the biggest crowds are drawn here during the peak summer holiday months. However, the tenth anniversary celebrations of this unique owned speedway club has swelled attendances beyond the usual hard core of the Islanders support. We learn that apparently the Isle of Wight is separated from the mainland by a stretch of (sea) water – at least this is what Jonathan breathlessly informs us, though it’s a disappointment to learn that the Sky team haven’t swum across since they rather boringly only “sailed across from Portsmouth”. Jonathan is in no doubt that the arrival of the Sky television cameras should be greeted as an event of huge significance in the tiny lives of the people on the island, something akin to the arrival of the railways or electricity that will duly send the resident Islanders into paroxysms of ecstasy. “I’m going through my memory bank” he informs us and we can almost hear the slow grinding of the one gear and its wheel as he desperately tries to recall any team from the Island that has featured in any sports programme ever. After Jonathan thoroughly exhausted his trawl, he then claims, “it’s a special night for the isle of Wight” something with which Kelvin wholeheartedly agrees parrot fashion, “it’s a really special night for the Island!”

Jonathan soon brings his fabled observational skills to bear, “it’s a very big track”. Kelvin agrees, “yes – it’s a very physical track, quite wavy”. Mister Green has been to the pits and is shocked, “what most impressed me was how confident both teams were”. Kelvin has the eye of a pyromaniac about the form of Chris Holder, “got to pick him out – he’s setting the world alight in the Premier League”. Nonetheless he continues, “the quality of show tonight is triffic…I think we will see the best of the Premier League”. In the commentary box, not too far from a very smartly dressed Bryn Williams, Nigel Pearson informs us, “it’s fast, it’s furious on the Isle of Wight” but kindly warns us, “when they go into turns three and four – anything can happen!” Tonight Carl ‘Stoney’ Stonehewer joins Nigel in the booth and during his track walk he identifies that it “looks in mint condition”. Throughout the night his presentational style is more ‘bloke down the pub’ than anything else and he consistently summarises things without pretension.

Tomas Topinka wins the first race and Kelvin tells him, “you must have been chuffed to bits with your start there”. After Tomas has said his piece and answered their questions Jonathan dismisses him with, “okey dokey, Tomas” before he flourishes one of his pre-prepared but rather tortuous comments, “they call them the Stars and Tomas Topinka is one of them without a doubt!” The next race is awarded and James Brundle is excluded but also slightly injured in the fall (“looks in a lot of discomfort”) and Nigel uses a euphemism to inform us, “he’s winded – he’s clutching his stomach”. Kelvin looks on at the incident aghast, “I’m pleased to see him up cos they don’t have air fences in the Premier League” but then reminds us that, luckily, “when you’re a youngster you tend to bounce”. Ever the voyeur, Jonathan wants Kelvin to estimate the speed Brundle was travelling at when he crashed. Kelvin nonchalantly estimates “70, 75” as Jonathan then decides to joke about Brundle’s distinctive hairstyle – even though he’s not noted for his own tonsorial elegance - provoking a knowing laugh from Kelv, “that’s something else when you’re a youngster!”

I notice that Sexy7girls appear to be on start line duty tonight and wonder if Jonathan Chapman now travels with his own start line troupe to every fixture? Nigel only has eyes for the racing and plugs the Sky party line, “THIS will be very unpredictable until the last heat”. The cameraman lingers on some maintenance for Jason Bunyan’s bike and Jonathan is keen to demonstrate his mechanical expertise (“having problems with his CARB-BURR-RATER”) though this insight is slightly spoilt by his rather stilted phonetic pronunciation as though he’s reading from a badly written crib sheet. Kelvin refuses to be usurped on technical matters so provides us all with way too much detail, “normally you get a bit more lubrication on the slide and that sorts it”. Talk of lubrication and the sight of an attractive lady defying the rigid gender roles that J&K obviously live their lives by prompts an outbreak of (unconscious) verbal leering from Kelv, “very pleasant to see and nice on the eye – nice to see!”

Although he’s on the Island, Nigel Pearson can’t resist some of his favourite workaday tropes (“engines roar – the tapes rise”) and then also gives us a brief lesson in the ownership structure of the club, “[the] most unique club in British speedway cos the shareholders back their team year in and year out.” The riding prospect everyone is keen to see and talk about is Chris ‘Noddy’ Holder. Stoney likes what he sees in heat 6 when the young Aussie leads by a considerable distance, “he’s only playing at it – he’s not being pushed”, in fact Stoney believes he should ply his trade in the Elite League, “he’s ready for the step up now”. Nigel already thinks he’ll go even further, “one day he’ll be a GP rider” and when Kelv interviews Holder he also soon gushes, “looks like you’re having fun – riding an inch from the fence!”

As ever the advert breaks come thick and fast, so Nigel decides to tease the armchair audience as the pictures fade for the latest break, “you get the feeling this one could go the distance”. When we return it’s clear that Dave Croucher has ventured onto the track to douse it with his trusty hose and, thereby, has outraged speedway track ‘expert’ Jonathan, “we just saw them watering the track and we both looked a little bit surprised!” This complaint is rich in irony given that any speedway meeting televised by Sky means that they will dictate the schedule of the running of the heats and, because of this, they will also dictate the curatorial teams ability to grade and maintain the track throughout the meeting. This would prove significant in heat 10 for Chris Holder since the normal rhythm of track grades had been abrupted by the dictates of Sky and their need for regular adverts, and so an accumulation of shale had built up by the safety that otherwise would have been cleared for a more run of the mill meeting. Penalised 15 metres at the start for a tapes offence, Holder zooms flat out to try to get back in contention. His desire to rapidly succeed in his chase of the Lynn riders unfortunately means that he nearly upends his team mate Cory Gathercole, “the Islanders are getting in each others way – that’s not good! He just ran him so wide – he probably didn’t intend to,” remarks Stoney mildly. Almost immediately, worse is to follow when Holder clatters into the fence heavily and lies prostrate. Gathercole pootles round to inspect the damage, “let’s hope his team mate is saying ‘are you alright?’ rather than trying to scrap him” notes Stoney sagely, apparently speaking from bitter personal experience of such matters.

Kelvin reviews the slow motion endlessly and, instead of insight or interpretation, he prefers to rehash what we’ve all just seen with our own eyes albeit with his own unique rhetorical flourish, “he knocked his own team mate off and then threw himself into the fence.” In response, Jonathan blurts, “Holder is out”. Sensibly Kelvin has learnt to distrust these tourettes-like outbursts from Jonathan so he sensibly tries to check the veracity of the facts, “he is? Is that confirmed?”

I must say that the approach of the broadcast is slightly less po-faced this week – I suspect it’s because this is the ‘less important’ Premier League – so moments of warmth and humour slip through along with the casual sexism. Kelvin briefly sounds genuinely witty when he remarks to Isle of Wight co-promoter Martin ‘Mad Dog’ Newnham, who sports a pair of dark glasses that wouldn’t disgrace a Florida based OAP, after his rather partisan (and wildly inaccurate) account of race proceedings, “perhaps you might have to change those glasses Martin”. When Jason Bunyan is interviewed by the ever-observant J & K combination, the camera cuts back to the pits where a lady is evidently hard at work on his bike. The surprise that the gentler sex might be sufficiently skilled to assist in such matters immediately provokes chortles about this incongruity from ‘the boys’ and Jason notes, “that’s me girlfriend Rose – she keeps me perked up!”

An evening of entertaining racing draws to a close and there is, indeed, one of those fabled last heat deciders that, in this instance, ensures King’s Lynn retain the lead they generated after the unfortunate injury to the Islander’s Chris Holder. The cameras manage to catch the spontaneous celebration of Lynn team manager Rob Lyon as he clasps a whooping Jonathan Chapman into his arms. Thankfully Tomas Topinka finishes third in the last heat decider so we avoid any repeat of the earlier awful and tortuous prepared quote (the broadcast equivalent of an inferior ready meal), “they had the TT racing on the Isle of Man last week and this week there’s a TT racer on the Isle of Wight now!”

12th June Isle of Wight v King’s Lynn (Premier League) 42-47

Lovely Review of Shale Britannia from World Speedway

Renowned speedway author Jeff Scott, of ‘Showered in Shale’ fame has published his third book through Methanol Press. The new book entitled ‘Shale Britannia - A Sideways Glance at Speedway’ comes in the guise of a picture book this time around. But fear not as just like Scott’s previous work this is no normal speedway book and is once again full of this charismatic author’s wit and wisdom but this time without the words.

However, if you are looking for a book that contains photographs of your favourite rider in some sort of stunning action shot you have got the wrong book. You are more likely to get a picture of your clubs tractor driver than your favoured clubs number 1 in ‘Shale Britannia’.

The glamour of speedway is a million miles away from that of premiership football and other high profile sports in this country, but that is what we love about our sport and this book too. There are no multi million pound stadiums, club superstores or trophy rooms here. This is British Speedway at every level where trophies are kept in carrier bags, club shops are old cargo containers and comfort is bringing your own garden furniture to sit on.

Shale Britannia is described by Scott as an entire speedway meeting in pictures. It highlights the sights that we all get through the course of a meeting, from pulling up in the car park to leaving through the turnstiles at the end. They are sights that the hardened regular speedway follower takes for granted, the gritty, dirtier, unpretentious side of our beloved sport that is speedway.

The book may take more than one brief glance through to be fully appreciated, however I urge you to do that and look through it again and then watch as a smile comes to your face as the visions and memories come leaping back in their thousands. Suddenly it will all make sense and you will realise what a special and unusual book this really is.

Finally the front cover in our opinion at Worldspeedway.com sums up the sport and this book perfectly and perhaps it’s not always what we see automatically but what is on the inside that really counts.

You can buy this book today from www.methanolpress.com for the bargain price of £15.00 (+ £3 p&p) Or send a cheque made payable to J Scott, to Methanol Press, 2 Tidy Street, Brighton, BN1 4EL

Sky Pundits on the chances of success for Chris Harris of a victory in the GP’s during 2007

April 2nd

“I think it’s going to be a bit of a tall order for him” Nigel Pearson

“He doesn’t really have the starting skills” Sam Ermolenko

April 23rd

“He really is an exciting rider with lots of potential – I’m keeping my fingers crossed” Kelvin Tatum

“I feel personally it may be a season too early” Nigel Pearson