Charlie, you're right about the prize money thing. I was speaking to Dan Cooper's dad on Monday and as far as I can see, for winning the British championship Dan gets absolutely nothing....(apart from a trophy in November!)

If we're content for our best new talent to amount to nothing better than national level (and there's a gulf between that & GP standard), then lets just keep going the way we are. However, if we don't want to see our best youngsters either going off to Spain or being forced into a career path they don't necessarily want. I got the impression (I may be wrong!) that Dan would have liked to have moved to 250 had there been a suitable championship.

It seems to me that the BSB (and now the TT) is just a marketing exercise and I applaud the ACU for trying this iniative. I hope both the competitors and spectators get behind it and make it a success.