Final STARs Night of the Winter
(Posted 01/02/08)

The final STARs event of the winter took place last night at Firhill in front of a large gathering.

They came out to see British Grand Prix Champion Chris Harris and former Tigers Legend Robbie Nagy with current team manager Stewart Dickson making up the three man panel and being roundly teased at various points in the evening as 'making up the numbers'!

Amongst other things, Robbie spoke fondly of his times in the stripes, of how he fulfilled his early dream of coming to the UK to ride after a tour by the Hungarian side and of how he knew from the minute he saw Shawfield that it was a track he would love (although he also loved the Exeter track). It was a massive culture shock when he first came over, previously in Hungary things like gear set ups had not been very important and he had to learn a lot about different gearings for different tracks with Shane Bowes in particular helping.

He revealed that when he won the Riders Championship, the UK was so new to him that he perhaps didn't realise beforehand just how big an event it was so there was perhaps less pressure on him and he just went out and enjoyed it.

Also mentioned was that Robbie did ride a couple of times just for fun last year as opposed to competitively and might have a couple of run outs for fun this year.

Much of the discussion with Cornishman Chris Harris obviously revolved around the Grand Prix series, his thoughts on the GP tracks and his own preparation and aims for the new season. Chris will have 8 bikes for next season, 4 based in the UK and 4 based in Sweden. As widely reported last year his aim was 5 points per round and to learn and enjoy the GP series but this year he is aiming higher as he is looking for semi-final and even podium places.

When asked about last years GP win at Cardiff, he said that on the rostrum Jason Crump and Greg Hancock were great and were actually advising him how to celebrate and what to do!

He also confirmed that he was offered an attractive package to come to glasgow in 2004 but felt that year he had to go Elite and went on to join Coventry instead. He took the light hearted banter accusing him of a fondness for T-boning James Grieves in very good spirit joining in by naming James when asked for a 'famous Scot'!

Other areas discussed included training and preparation, sports psychologists (although Chris himself has never used one), the new EL points limit and Chris's own strong feelings about the need to do far more to help youngsters wanting to take up the sport to help them break into the sport and progress.

Stewart meantime injected quite a bit of humour into the evening with many quips you probably had to be there to appreciate. In serious conversation he did cover his own feelings on the new points limit in the PL, what teams he felt looked strong, the pros and potential pitfalls of promotion and relegation and his realistic expectations for the Tigers team in 2008. he also made mention of the story in this weeks Speedway Star that Sky may be considering televising a Scottish derby, something Stewart is in favour of.

Obviously the above is only a small flavour of what was said on the night, with other things happening including the chance to get photos taken with Robbie and Chris, the customary raffle and speedway memorabilia auction, comment on the situation regarding juniors for the coming season, an update from Alan Dick and messages from the riders.