The Suzi Perry Question

In the August edition of ‘Motorcycle Racer’ there’s a feature article on Suzi Perry. Or, as Jonathan Green would doubtless have it, “the lovely Suzi Perry”.

Always the consummate professional, Suzi has some interesting comments on life, motorcycling and her career but two sentances leap out in particular:

“I spent three years at Sky and had a brilliant producer; he could make a really sh*t sport look really good, and he did it occasionally with speedway. I’m not saying speedway is sh*t, but sometimes it is and they would make the programme look really cracking.”

Quite properly Suzi goes on to praise the creativity and the renowned production values of the programme makers, but this raises some worrying questions for fans of our sport.

Is speedway really mutton dressed as lamb?
Is this how it’s generally perceived, when they’re honest, by the talent that is involved in these programmes?
Or is it how speedway is perceived by the apparently important wider general audience we’re often told we need to attract – from prospective sponsors to new fans – to watch the action at tracks around the country?

Does anyone have the answers? May be Suzi does but hasn’t yet been asked?