Just back after a day the Millenium Stadium for practice for tomorrow's British Speedway Grand Prix.

So what of the first day observations?

Well, the new Tony Olsson era seems to have started well, apart from the almost inevitable delays in getting track passes and being able to park somewhere, but more of that in the proper blog, which will come out next week.

First of all the track did look good. Our first track walk at 9.30am showed a well watered track which seemed very flat and smooth with quite a covering of light shale. It had been packed but not so hard that there wasn't a little give in the surface.

Practice commenced at 3pm after the draw had ben made.

So who shone and who didn't. Well first of all we were all surprised that they ran practyice in reverse order. For those who have not experienced the mind warping sensation of a speedway GP practice session, the riders come out in three's according to their positions from the start of the year so we expected Jason, Tomasz and Davey Watt (subsitituting for the injured Emil Sayfutdinow), followed by Greg Hancock, Andreas Jonsson and Nicki Pedersen and then Rune, Kenneth Bjerre and Freddie Lindgren. These would each have a couple of minutes to blast around before returning to the pits.

What we actually started with were Hans, Magnus and Chris Holder, the Jarek Hampel, Chris Harris and Tai Woffinden, followed by Scott Nicholls, Ben Barker and Danny King.

First of all, if practice were to transpose itself into race day you would be sensible to put your money on Jason Crump. Awesome speed allied to aggression, with clouds of shale kicked up as he used the kickboards on both straights to generate extra speed, he looked very impressive. Hans Anddersen also looked quick as did Freddie Lindgren. Tai was very aggressive, especially out of turn 4 while Jarek went about his business quietly.

And what of Rune. Well, when we spoke after he'd had his track walk he said he thought it was a brilliant track, as long as no extra water was put down. He started quickly and then soon the leg was hanging off the side of the bike and it was clear he was enjoying himself.

The track held up beautifully, making plenty of dirt and there were no ruts or holes. It seemed to give riders plenty of grip and lots of choices of lines. In the past they've tended to stay close to the white line but this year everyone seemed happy to try inside, mid and wide lines.

Initial impressions are that the GP could be really spectacular without the ruts of the early years.

As a betting man, I'd have my 10p on Jason and, of course, another 10p on Rune.

The blog on last night's stunning fixture against Eastbourne and Edinblog's match last week will be posted as soon as I have time to get my breath back.

We'll be on the road back to Cardiff tomorrow at the cfrack of dawn so time for a quick Ovaltine and then off to bed.