10/08/2022
THOUGH, apparently, FIM British Speedway Grand Prix “organisers have plenty of surprises lined up to toast two decades of World-Championship motorsport in Cardiff – with a fanzone taking over the city on the Saturday, before racing gets started at 5pm” these “surprises” still remain a total mystery with just three days before the tapes rise […]
06/07/2020
SO “farewell” to yet another pathologically dull BSI Chief Executive we barely got to know or notice. Without fanfare or a ceremonial speedway airhorn farewell salute, Steve Gould has suddenly left his job leading the Speedway Grand Prix series barely nine or so months after he joined to replace Torben Olsen. For a long time […]
19/05/2020
You are automatically drawn to some people in life. Others find you. Knowing them makes life better and helps you see it anew or for what it really is. The late Gordon ‘Gordie’ Day was a gentle soul with an intense curiosity about life and people. He charmed and was charming. He found everyone and […]
26/10/2019
BSI Speedway have just commenced their search for a Vice President to lead and strategically mastermind their current (and possibly future) exclusive rights to “the Championship” aka the FIM Speedway Grand Prix, FIM Speedway World Cup and/or the FIM Speedway of Nations. What a fabulous and excessively well-paid job for any appropriately qualified speedway fans […]
01/10/2019
THE Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM) deadline to submit expressions of interest (tenders) to identify candidates interested in winning a £100+ million contract from them by becoming involved as a Promoter of “the Championship” – aka the “FIM Speedway Grand Prix World Championship, FIM Speedway World Cup & FIM Speedway of Nations And On an […]
27/12/2017
Sky Sports and BT Sport have finally reached agreement to allow open access to all their satellite channels for all their subscribers. Whatever happens in the negotiations with BT Sport over broadcasting Premiership League racing, this definitely means that British Speedway will be broadcast live on Sky Sports next season….albeit that currently the only confirmed […]
28/12/2016
Drawing upon the full majesty of the 13 years of his ‘independent’ speedway reporting career, Bournemouth University’s finest media graduate and Britain’s speedway reporter extraordinaire Paul (Burbo) Burbidge’s digital social media profile continues to hollow out and infantalise the news content of the speedway reporting landscape. It is access all areas, “I write news for […]
01/01/2015
Fans who wish to savour the statistics of the Speedway World Championship continue to be very badly served by both the F.I.M and the Speedway Grand Prix series current commercial rights holders and organisers BSI Speedway (an IMG company). Both continue to choose not to publish official attendance figures for SGP series events. The F.I.M. […]
27/12/2014
Drawing upon the full majesty of his 11 years speedway reporting Paul (Burbo) Burbidge’s digital social media profile continues to revolutionise our often turgid speedway reporting landscape. Part of a new breed of digitally savvy speedway journalists (“I write news for Speedway GP website and manage speedway gp social media. I’m also Speedway Star’s Chief […]
26/12/2013
Some romantics still believe the proper function of news journalism and news reporters is to try to speak truth to power. Sadly in the English language speedway media universe – without so much as a blush or backward glance – reporters usually only provide news and opinion suitable to those who pay them or, at […]
08/12/2013
Latest figures reveal that the FIM Speedway Grand Prix series average attendances continued to fall in 2012 and 2013, despite the ‘blip’ poor results of 2011. Worse still, SGP series continues to decline in popularity at most series event venues and overall. This isn’t really a great surprise – since 2002 the trend remains one […]
04/02/2013
The good news is that the 2012 FIM Monster Energy Speedway World Cup finally halted the ongoing precipitous decline of the Speedway World Cup television audience on Sky Sports. The international big name sponsorship of Monster Energy was extensively trailed and hailed as the dynamic future by themselves, the speedway trade press and rights holders […]
06/07/2012
The reverse Midas touch BSI repeatedly show via the ongoing decline of their Speedway Grand Prix television audience on Sky Sports looks like an outlandish success story in contrast to the rapid collapse of viewer interest in the Speedway World Cup. Looking at the publicly available figures for 2006-2011, popularity has gone from robust to […]
05/10/2011
The Polish Ekstraliga in 2012 will operate a rule to limit each team to only one Speedway Grand Prix rider per team. Therefore, any rider offered a wild card for the 2012 Speedway Grand Prix should – for financial reasons – turn down the opportunity to ride in the SGP series. If, indeed, career earnings […]
09/12/2010
After (allegedly) the most exciting Speedway Grand Prix series since the dawn of time, the ‘high’ quality of the racing product appears to have little impact at the turnstiles. A quick glance at the official F.I.M. figures for each venue recently published in Polish magazine Tygodnik Zuzlowy reveals that overall attendances remain more or less […]
18/11/2010
SHALE TREK Review by Paul Burbidge, Speedway Star 20th November 2010 WHEN it comes to writing about the shale sport, Jeff Scott has established himself as speedway’s literary equivalent to Sky Sports camera-come-mascot Moley. He is the man with a different angle on proceedings – an angle or viewpoint which is not always aired by […]