News that the Australian Superbike Championship is going to re-introduce prize money; Irish organisers are reducing entry fees; and a plea by veteran racer, dealer and administrator Bill Smith for British Superbike promoters MSVR to give more help to impoverished teams and riders, indicates that real problems exist with racing.

It has been evident for some time that competitor numbers have been reducing year on year due to rising costs, particularly tyres, and entry fees which clubs had to impose because hiring circuits became more expensive. The result? Fewer meetings with many ex-club racers doing track days.

This week's issue of Bikesport News highlights the problems with insurance and describes racing as facing a crisis because of this alone. The escalation of insurance premiums affects everybody on wheels and it is very difficult to know what to do about that other than getting a more competitive market.

Club racing needs lower costs. The price of tyres and fuel is ridiculously high; regulations should be imposed to reduce costs not put them up; clubs, perhaps under the aegis of the ACU, should get together to agree cost reduction measures, including circuit hire. "We hang together or hang separately" should be the mantra.

But what people like Bill Smith are saying - and he is not alone - is that major promoters like Motorsport Vision should put more back into a sport from which they make a lot of money; that in professional competition like BSB the entertainers should be rewarded, ie even in a circus the clowns get paid; that unless there is a better reward system, especially for the more lowly teams, then grids will shrink. Indeed, it looks at the moment that the BSB grid for 2013 will be quite a bit smaller than last year.

Of course, MSVR are an easy target. As well as being series promoter they also happen to own four major circuits. Smith concedes they have done excellent work in improving facilities for fans and need to get a return on their investment but argues that more of the profits should go directly to the teams. It is indeed a highly profitable organisation but the proportion of its profits coming directly from racing is, as disclosed to Companies House, a minority of its total, the larger slice coming from other activities, including track days.

If it were so minded it might argue that its investment in live television, via Eurosport, is the benefit which it gives the teams and which enables them to attract sponsorship. And without sponsorship, in its various ways, for the teams or the championship then everybody would be much poorer.

It is true that the 'magic' of television, whatever the size of the audience, is a big come-on for sponsors and teams like it. The argument has been whether the cost of 'live' on pay tv - something probably in excess of half-a-million quid - or 'highlights' on late-night terrestrial, say ITV, for nothing is good value. So far the teams, certainly the major ones, seem to have been persuaded to forgo some form of direct payment, preferring live tv and the sponsorship deals it brings, some arranged by MSVR.

The importance of television has been argued in this column before. But we have also contended that this most exciting of gladiatorial sports should be reaching a much wider audience, rather more than the 100,000 or so it gets on a Sunday, to make it really worthwhile rewarding the performers on this way. Otherwise just give them the money.

MR VERSATILITY

At a recent lunch which Wolf was privileged to attend (there aren't many!) there was the usual debate on who was the greatest. It got rather more interesting when someone asked "Who was the best all rounder?"

Names like Ron Langston and Sammy Miller, even Jean-Michel Bayle and Jean-Pierre Beltoise were bandied about. Then we hit upon our hero. Indeed it was Scots rider Robbie Allan, brother of one-time British scrambles champion Vic who, we decided, fitted the bill. Robbie not only competed with some success in the Scottish Six Days trial and the IoM TT but distinguished himself, at the ripe old age of 60 plus, in the notorious Paris-Dakar Rally. He was within two days of the finish when forced to retire

Anybody better that?

DOWN ON THE FARM

There was one notable absentee from a star-studded gathering to celebrate John Cooper's 75th birthday party last weekend. Percy Tait sent his apologies saying he was too busy lambing and the ewes on his farm near Worcester weren't prepared to wait . Percy is 83.