Eastbourne supremo Bob Dugard has backed calls to boycott Grand Prix riders and give speedway its biggest shake-up in years.

Dugard has come out in support of former Eagles manager Jon Cook, who is fed up with losing riders to the glitzy Speedway Grand Prix (SGP) or having to call off meetings because top riders are in action elsewhere.

Cook will tell fans tonight at his current track Lakeside that the time has come for top-flight clubs to take control of the sport.

He is calling for Elite League sides and counterparts in Sweden and Poland to stop using current SGP stars and set up an alternative World Championship.

Cook believes top riders would come flocking back to the clubs and give SGP boss Ole Olsen the cold shoulder.

Dugard and Cook believe they are no means the only promoters who feel the SGP and its qualifying rounds are killing top-flight league racing.

Cook is using his programme notes for Lakeside's meeting with Poole tonight to make a passionate argument about how he feels speedway should be run.

He writes: "The GP series will kill British speedway. There it is. I have said it, what many promoters know but decide to ignore, some because they like a few free tickets and the chance to be recognised as they walk the streets of Cardiff.

"It is time the speedway world took back its sport and by that I mean Britain, Sweden and Poland because Mr Olsen forgets one important factor.

"More people watch league racing in these three countries than watch his blessed GP series and when Andreas Jonsson hits the fence or Niels-Kristian Iversen and Hans Andersen hit the deck, all through no fault of their own or their clubs, there are three league programmes affected, three clubs' businesses damaged and three promoters wondering what is the point of employing riders that are treated so shabily by a series that is bailed out financially by all three leagues.

"It is we that pay for the motor homes, we that pay for the top end equipment and we that pay for the team of mechanics and for what in return?

"This club gets the same revenue from the British Grand Prix for which we sell tickets, run coaches and include a programme advert as we get from one, that's ONE, air fence banner."

Cook insists he has no criticism of SGP riders but every criticism of the system.

Dugard has already revealed he would like to run the Elite League with no SGP riders.

Cook goes along with that but he believes a breakaway World Championship, run on a more compact format, would be a winner.

Although the SGP carries prestige and can be a useful tool for attracting sponsorship, its financial rewards are not great.

Cook told The Argus: "We, as clubs, are the people who hold the power. No rider can run a season based solely on the GPs.

"Perhaps the BSPA should speak to some influential clubs in Poland and Sweden and see what they think."

Cook is convinced the leagues would offer better tracks than those currently served up by Olsen and he has no shortage of punchlines with which to illustrate the point.

He added: "For a promoter, the GP is more scary Saturday night viewing than when you used to hide behind the sofa as a five-year-old during Dr Who.

"If Ole Olsen wants to run a Saturday night demolition derby, maybe he should contact Bob Dugard about putting on some stock cars at Arlington Stadium.

"As it is, the real Saturday lottery these days is which promoter will be first on the phone trying to book a guest when his rider gets injured in the GP."

As the Elite League's only Saturday night track, Eastbourne are worst affected by the GPs.

They have gone head-to-head with live television coverage twice this season, hosting a challenge fixture and a junior event. Dugard said: "It was disastrous. Both meetings lost a substantial sum of money."

Eagles lose Simon Gustafsson at home to Peterborough tomorrow because of a world under-21 qualifier.

There could be several absentees on July 5 when the match against Coventry clashes with a qualifying meeting for riders trying to break into the GP series next year.

Dugard said: "They can't keep springing these meetings on us when we are trying to run a league programme. They are robbing us of our riders."

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