WELL, the Grand Prix series is up and running and already there are plenty of talking points.

WELL, the Grand Prix series is up and running and already there are plenty of talking points.

None more so that my very smart suit I was wearing on Sky television on Saturday night, as I was one of the pundits for the show.

It seemed to cause some humour among a few people that I was rather dressed up, but I don’t care, I was off to the snooker after the speedway anyhow.

Joking apart, I enjoyed the meeting in Leszno, where Jason Crump won the first round of the season.

There was plenty of dirt on the track (Sod’s Law, I’d have loved more dirt on some of the tracks last year). And Crump made the most of it to beat Jarek Hampel into second place.

So, did I miss not being in the GP?

Well, I surprised myself because I didn’t miss it as much as I thought. Of course it was strange not taking part, as I’ve been in the series for eight seasons, but as I said I enjoyed watching it on Sky for a change.

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I ARRIVED early for the Sky presentation of the GP on Saturday.

Their massive base is past Heath Row, just outside London and I got there in about two-and-a-bit hours from Ipswich. Typical, when I go to Swindon to race, I never seem to get off the M25 and I’m always late.

Keith Huewen, the presenter, met me, Gary Havelock and Sam Ermolenko, who were also on the show.

We all put on a bit of make-up, some more than others, especially Gary, he piles it on.

Then we sit down and basically see the same racing you do. The only time you can nip to the loo is when there is a commercial break.

You might have noticed Sam has a lap top on his desk, with all the heat details on. It looks so flash, but he’s always filling it in wrong apparently, it drives Gary mad.

I stick with my pen and scrap paper.

When I first did anything for Sky I used to hate it to be honest. I was nervous and didn’t know quite what to say. But now it’s more enjoyable and I’ve been booked to do a Wolverhampton meeting in a few weeks.

So all in all it was a nice day and Crumpie, who is of course at Foxhall Stadium tonight, deserved the win.

But will he win the whole series?

Well, I’ll tell you what, I think Jason will take some beating. Hampel looks good, while the likes of Andreas Jonsson, Hans Andersen, Greg Hancock and Tomasz Gollob will all have their day.

Chris Holder will mix things up, I’m sure of that and Magnus Zetterstrom will be a real spoiler. He has already won one race.

But my money is already on Crump.

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IT was a much better performance from the Witches against Poole last week.

Pete Simmons had a word with us before the meeting and I know Olly Allen tried a few different things to get a better feel on the bike.

I’ve spoken to Olly, as I really hope he can come through this difficult patch. I then had a mechanical gremlin just yards from the line that cost us a point, and we really could have won the meeting.

Tonight is the Billy Sanders Memorial meeting and it says much about Billy that 25 years on we are still remembering him with a super field of riders.

The racing at Foxhall is getting better and better, there is no doubt about that, with the new track settling down well.

Many people have commented to me on how good the racing is.

I couldn’t agree more.

AND FINALLY . . .

We have a new little dog now.

She’s called Millie and is the same breed as our last lovely little dog Bo.

AS TOLD TO MIKE BACON

(N) If you would like to ask Scott Nicholls a question, e-mail mike.bacon@archant.co.uk and forward the question through Mike. Or go to Mike’s Twitter page and leave a question on there, www.twitter.com Mike_Bacon.