Elite Riders Championship - 25/09/2014

[*JJ]

Who won?

Sandhu.

[oldace]

Sandhu.

 

I liked that joke best the first time to be honest

[stevebrum]

Lets hope this isn't a sign of things to come for our great sport making the huge cock up of all cock ups again.

Certainly yesterday was a farce and we are likely to have another track going the same way as Belle Vue being under investigation for inability to get track prep correct.

No doubt Cov will have all future meetings under extra scrutiny, as they should be.

[speedwaysliders]

one thing that hasnt changed is ref Chris Gay making huge mistakes.In the sky sports re run all those years ago Jason Crimp tried to make him aware of his mistakes but hes clearly not listened!!!!!!!!

[GREDON]

Wonder if track problem is not similar to that that occurred at Gelsenkirchen and Cardiff, the shale mix is too wet. FTM has already stated track was in after last Stock car meeting. Major work has been carried out in winter, so no doubt a lot of water fell in the foundation which have been refilled with very wet shale. Any more rain such as Friday has nowhere to drain away as still wet underneath. The only thing to be done that I can see is to dig it up again when the sun shines and is warm and either replace with a drier mix, or dry out the existing which will take weeks..

One other point has Mr Sandhu sold stadium or not, if he has he is not going to pour money into the place while deal goes through. Think Speedway and Stocks people need to get together and see what needs to be done. Next Stock meeting must be in doubt

[IainB]

The BSPA has got to get its collective house in order to organise and run these meetings professionally.

It's not even as though it's a one off, look at last years ERC and 4's... there's probably others, I've lost count

[SpeedwayTShirts]

BIKERfm Speedway Show back this Tuesday 8-10pm with new presenters and Coventry's Mick Horton and Kenneth Hansen confirmed as Live Guests. It's an internet radio station and can be listened to via PC, Smart TV or any mobile phone by visiting BIKERfm.co.uk

[mikebv]

must admit I did have a wry smile when reading today's newspapers concerning the possible terrorist plot to destroy the horse racing season...

 

the reason was, it did make me think what would happen if they ever decided to destroy the speedway season...

 

and then it dawned on me that they would never target speedway, not because there wouldnt be enough publicity, it would be simply because they'd be hard pushed to match the destruction already heaped on speedway by those who run the sport themselves....!

 

you really can only feel sympathy for the riders...

 

imagine trying to engage sponsors and portray an image of professionalism when much of the whole infrastructure around you just reeks of rank amateurism..

 

oh for a 'barry hearn' to take by the scruff of the neck, what is,(when done well as some do) a great sport to watch.....

 

let's hope that this is this seasons' major 'town halls up' now done and dusted and we move on...

 

(or maybe not so much dusted in this case!)..

Edited March 24, 2014 by mikebv

[jeremy heaver]

Coventry Stadium Press Release 24^th March 2014

During 2013 both speedway and stock car suffered from a mediocre track at best to a surface which resulted in cancelled meetings at worst. We consulted with both speedway and stock car promoters and reached a conclusion during the closed season that we needed to change our track curator and to invest more heavily in the track which we have been doing. The reason for making changes was driven by our desire to make the Bees last three seasons to be the best racing possible. This requires a great race surface.

 

We managed to find a very professional track curator in Marek Meinert who has extensive experience in providing an excellent race surface at Bydgoszcz and has produced the track for 16 GP’s. He arrived at Coventry Stadium three weeks ago with excellent credentials and immediately recognised the scale of the work required to return the Coventry surface back to the best in the UK. He does not speak English, however we have at least three members of our team who speak both English and Polish fluently, so language is not a barrier that would affect his ability to curate the track. He has worked seven days a week for the past three weeks between rain showers to regain flat straights and slightly banked bends that had been lost in recent years. Marek knows the track is not right and certainly not to his standard, however since his arrival three weeks ago he has had limited track time due to rain.

 

All the promoters using the track including Mick Horton were very pleased with his appointment and approved of the early results of his work accepting it was going to take time to undo mistakes of the past.

 

The shale going into Friday night’s speedway was moisture rich but was in good shape until we experienced a big downpour at around 5pm which tipped the balance in terms of the composition of the track. This caused it to cut up faster than normal resulting in the meeting being called off after only six heats.

 

The chronology from the cancelled meeting on Friday to the cancelation of the ELRC is important so that disappointed fans, Sky TV, BSPA all understand what went on then hopefully they can draw the correct conclusions.

 

Saturday 22^nd March

2.01pm Mick Horton called Mathew, the stadiums accountant, and Mathew was unable to take the call as he was on a different call

2.13pm Mathew returned Mick Horton's call and Mathew expressed concerns for the track and stated that a decision would need to be made regarding the possibility of cancelling the ELRC. Mick told Mathew he would meet Mathew at 4pm on site that day (Saturday) to make a decision regarding cancellation. It was made clear that it was Mick's decision to take not the stadiums.

It was still raining hard

2.49pm As the rain had become heavy Mathew sent Mick a txt message “Please come tonight so we can make a decision tonight”

4pm Mathew returned to the stadium to meet with Mick and the track staff.

6.39pm After waiting for over two and a half hours Mick did not arrive, call or txt to say he was not coming. Mathew sent Mick a txt “ Are you coming today” The reason for the txt is because the stadium has no power to cancel a speedway event it is down to the staging promoter.

6.39pm Immediate reply from Mick “ I will be there at 10am in the morning” No apology and in the full knowledge that no work had taken place on the track due to rain. Mathew and all the track staff felt badly let down as they all knew a decision should have been taken on Saturday but would instead be taken Sunday morning.

Sunday 23^rd March

Around 10am Mick arrived on site and saw the track was waterlogged and requested that the blade should be used to remove some of the water but the track was to wet for that to have been effective. He made no decision regarding the meeting and clearly he was hoping it would dry out in time without listening to the advice he had been given.

 

In the past Colin Pratt as the promoter of the Bees would have been on site making sure the track

could be made ready and if that was not possible he would call the meeting off as early as possible to save fans traveling or even Sky setting up. Since Colin is no longer involved in the Bees nobody from the club overseas the track preparation to ensure it will be ready on time.

 

We are not in control of the cancelation of events due to track conditions as that is the promoter’s decision and responsibility and we fulfilled our obligation to inform Mick Horton about our doubts which he chose to ignore. He showed little regard as to the state of the track on Saturday and was cavalier in his attitude on Sunday morning.

 

The track will continue to be prepared by Marek Meinert with one aim to be the best in the UK by using his experience gained at the highest level in Poland and he will enjoy our full support in that task.

 

We are sorry that Mick Horton has decided not to race at Coventry but rest assured we will still be operating for the next three years as a stock car track.

 

Coventry Stadium

[YerRopes]

So the start of the 2014 season begins with another farcical ERC shambles that is even worse last year's mess.

 

No lessons have been learnt and the BSPA obviously have scant regard for the sport and its supporters or are even more incompetent than most ever believed.

 

I fully expect the 'inquiry' to be a whitewash constituting a vague shrug of the shoulders by the BSPA..

 

Yesterday should have been a 'flagship' meeting garnering much needed positive publicity and 'whetting the appetite' of the supporters (who deserve so much better)...

[jeremy heaver]

Iv,e been reading through post after post for about 2 hrs and I appreciate everyone being upset having travelled and wasted basically a whole day with quite a lot of outlayed costs now I would like to ask will most of you accept the position Mick Horton is in .At the end of last season Coventry Stadium wasn,t being sold and He has only been the promoter of the speedway so this season he puts together a decent team and is allocated the ERC.Mick has never been the Stadium owner it has always been Avtar Sandhu therefore Mick rented the Stadium to run Speedway as far as he new under the same system he has operated ever since he moved in 3 yrs ago.Two weeks before the season began he found out his landlord had moved the Goalposts by removing the Trackman who had been there for a few years and replacing him with an unknown Pole who has reputedly been involved at Bydgoscz.Now we have a massive problem as up until now the previous trackman (who is very experienced) was obviously fully commited to preparing a good track with out any outside interference and don,t forget last year nothing was being suggested that caused any concern reference selling the stadium.This year Sandhu is commited to selling up (although he has promised a 3 yrs cooling down period for Mick to find somewhere else) but He decided to change the track curator setup which he is quite entitled to do.Now getting to the track prep itself IMO the Storm meeting should not have gone ahead so close to the ERC but Mick needs people coming through the turnstiles to make running two teams pay so they did start the meeting. Unfortunately the damage wasn,t done then it was done in November at the last Stock Car meeting most of you speedway fans don,t see the state of the track after, believe me its extremely hard work after a dry meeting to get it back to a safe racetrack for speedway after a wet meeting its a bloody Nightmare .We all know how bad the weather has been all through the winter months and the track still wasn,t right at the end of February .I feel sorry for the new curator but it seems he hadn,t got any knowledge of English track conditions and was thrown in at the very deep end. As far as the BSPA are concerned it doesn,t matter if they have got an advisor there or not if the shale isn,t worked properly over a long period it ain,t going to be Raceable.

In my day it would have been Saturday if the weather allowed, and from 6 am Sunday morning as it was sunny most of the day, if it is turned over and mixed with a little dry stuff it comes better and better everytime you move it.IMO MIck has taken a lot of stick which he hasn,t deserved but thats just me ..

 

FTM you have my number if you wanted to know the truth rather than make stuff up you only had to call rather than blow a lot of hot air. The previous trackman worked during the winter on the track until three weeks ago.

[Blazeaway]

Blah blah blah blah...

 

What remains is the fact that this meeting should have been called off way in advance of the time it was decided not to commence with racing.

[racers and royals]

 

Coventry Stadium Press Release 24^th March 2014

During 2013 both speedway and stock car suffered from a mediocre track at best to a surface which resulted in cancelled meetings at worst. We consulted with both speedway and stock car promoters and reached a conclusion during the closed season that we needed to change our track curator and to invest more heavily in the track which we have been doing. The reason for making changes was driven by our desire to make the Bees last three seasons to be the best racing possible. This requires a great race surface.

 

We managed to find a very professional track curator in Marek Meinert who has extensive experience in providing an excellent race surface at Bydgoszcz and has produced the track for 16 GP’s. He arrived at Coventry Stadium three weeks ago with excellent credentials and immediately recognised the scale of the work required to return the Coventry surface back to the best in the UK. He does not speak English, however we have at least three members of our team who speak both English and Polish fluently, so language is not a barrier that would affect his ability to curate the track. He has worked seven days a week for the past three weeks between rain showers to regain flat straights and slightly banked bends that had been lost in recent years. Marek knows the track is not right and certainly not to his standard, however since his arrival three weeks ago he has had limited track time due to rain.

 

All the promoters using the track including Mick Horton were very pleased with his appointment and approved of the early results of his work accepting it was going to take time to undo mistakes of the past.

 

The shale going into Friday night’s speedway was moisture rich but was in good shape until we experienced a big downpour at around 5pm which tipped the balance in terms of the composition of the track. This caused it to cut up faster than normal resulting in the meeting being called off after only six heats.

 

The chronology from the cancelled meeting on Friday to the cancelation of the ELRC is important so that disappointed fans, Sky TV, BSPA all understand what went on then hopefully they can draw the correct conclusions.

 

Saturday 22^nd March

2.01pm Mick Horton called Mathew, the stadiums accountant, and Mathew was unable to take the call as he was on a different call

2.13pm Mathew returned Mick Horton's call and Mathew expressed concerns for the track and stated that a decision would need to be made regarding the possibility of cancelling the ELRC. Mick told Mathew he would meet Mathew at 4pm on site that day (Saturday) to make a decision regarding cancellation. It was made clear that it was Mick's decision to take not the stadiums.

It was still raining hard

2.49pm As the rain had become heavy Mathew sent Mick a txt message “Please come tonight so we can make a decision tonight”

4pm Mathew returned to the stadium to meet with Mick and the track staff.

6.39pm After waiting for over two and a half hours Mick did not arrive, call or txt to say he was not coming. Mathew sent Mick a txt “ Are you coming today” The reason for the txt is because the stadium has no power to cancel a speedway event it is down to the staging promoter.

6.39pm Immediate reply from Mick “ I will be there at 10am in the morning” No apology and in the full knowledge that no work had taken place on the track due to rain. Mathew and all the track staff felt badly let down as they all knew a decision should have been taken on Saturday but would instead be taken Sunday morning.

Sunday 23^rd March

Around 10am Mick arrived on site and saw the track was waterlogged and requested that the blade should be used to remove some of the water but the track was to wet for that to have been effective. He made no decision regarding the meeting and clearly he was hoping it would dry out in time without listening to the advice he had been given.

 

In the past Colin Pratt as the promoter of the Bees would have been on site making sure the track

could be made ready and if that was not possible he would call the meeting off as early as possible to save fans traveling or even Sky setting up. Since Colin is no longer involved in the Bees nobody from the club overseas the track preparation to ensure it will be ready on time.

 

We are not in control of the cancelation of events due to track conditions as that is the promoter’s decision and responsibility and we fulfilled our obligation to inform Mick Horton about our doubts which he chose to ignore. He showed little regard as to the state of the track on Saturday and was cavalier in his attitude on Sunday morning.

 

The track will continue to be prepared by Marek Meinert with one aim to be the best in the UK by using his experience gained at the highest level in Poland and he will enjoy our full support in that task.

 

We are sorry that Mick Horton has decided not to race at Coventry but rest assured we will still be operating for the next three years as a stock car track.

 

Coventry Stadium

 

Mick Horton said he won`t run meetings until they have sorted out the track-Jeremy Heaver has said Mick Horton has decided not to race at Coventry(full-stop) very worrying state of affairs.

[ruckerroo]

Sounds like doomsville, arizona to me , what a fetid mess.

[Haza]

Mick Horton said he won`t run meetings until they have sorted out the track-Jeremy Heaver has said Mick Horton has decided not to race at Coventry(full-stop) very worrying state of affairs.

reading that statement that looks like that's it for speedway at Brandon - I still think the plan was to move to Pboro this now looks even more likely . Very sad day for British Speedway if this is the end at Brandon .

[Jacques]

Mick Horton said he won`t run meetings until they have sorted out the track-Jeremy Heaver has said Mick Horton has decided not to race at Coventry(full-stop) very worrying state of affairs.

It seems there is very much more to this than we are being told too!!

[Tommy Sweetman]

Looks like all bridges have been burnt then between Sandu(and Jeremy Heaver) and Mick Horton,mentioning only the stock cars running at Brandon.

[speedwaysliders]

so now everyones passing the buck!!!Mick Horton says hes not to blame,coventry say he partley is,and the bspa will conduct an inquiry into the matter and proberly blame neither,but go for the weather option as the cause!!!ONLY IN SPEEDWAY!!!

Edited March 24, 2014 by speedwaysliders

[TheSmiler]

That statement has broken my heart. Looks like that's it, yet again the fans are the last to be told where they stand.

[Man in black]

This has been posted today on a stock car forum by the Coventry stock car promotor:

 

 

Coventry Stadium Press Release 24^th March 2014

During 2013 both speedway and stock car suffered from a mediocre track at best to a surface which resulted in cancelled meetings at worst. We consulted with both speedway and stock car promoters and reached a conclusion during the closed season that we needed to change our track curator and to invest more heavily in the track which we have been doing. The reason for making changes was driven by our desire to make the Bees last three seasons to be the best racing possible. This requires a great race surface.

We managed to find a very professional track curator in Marek Meinert who has extensive experience in providing an excellent race surface at Bydgoszcz and has produced the track for 16 GP’s. He arrived at Coventry Stadium three weeks ago with excellent credentials and immediately recognised the scale of the work required to return the Coventry surface back to the best in the UK. He does not speak English, however we have at least three members of our team who speak both English and Polish fluently, so language is not a barrier that would affect his ability to curate the track. He has worked seven days a week for the past three weeks between rain showers to regain flat straights and slightly banked bends that had been lost in recent years. Marek knows the track is not right and certainly not to his standard, however since his arrival three weeks ago he has had limited track time due to rain.

All the promoters using the track including Mick Horton were very pleased with his appointment and approved of the early results of his work accepting it was going to take time to undo mistakes of the past.

The shale going into Friday night’s speedway was moisture rich but was in good shape until we experienced a big downpour at around 5pm which tipped the balance in terms of the composition of the track. This caused it to cut up faster than normal resulting in the meeting being called off after only six heats.

The chronology from the cancelled meeting on Friday to the cancelation of the ELRC is important so that disappointed fans, Sky TV, BSPA all understand what went on then hopefully they can draw the correct conclusions.

Saturday 22^nd March

2.01pm Mick Horton called Mathew, the stadiums accountant, and Mathew was unable to take the call as he was on a different call

2.13pm Mathew returned Mick Horton's call and Mathew expressed concerns for the track and stated that a decision would need to be made regarding the possibility of cancelling the ELRC. Mick told Mathew he would meet Mathew at 4pm on site that day (Saturday) to make a decision regarding cancellation. It was made clear that it was Mick's decision to take not the stadiums.

It was still raining hard

2.49pm As the rain had become heavy Mathew sent Mick a txt message “Please come tonight so we can make a decision tonight”

4pm Mathew returned to the stadium to meet with Mick and the track staff.

6.39pm After waiting for over two and a half hours Mick did not arrive, call or txt to say he was not coming. Mathew sent Mick a txt “ Are you coming today” The reason for the txt is because the stadium has no power to cancel a speedway event it is down to the staging promoter.

6.39pm Immediate reply from Mick “ I will be there at 10am in the morning” No apology and in the full knowledge that no work had taken place on the track due to rain. Mathew and all the track staff felt badly let down as they all knew a decision should have been taken on Saturday but would instead be taken Sunday morning.

Sunday 23^rd March

Around 10am Mick arrived on site and saw the track was waterlogged and requested that the blade should be used to remove some of the water but the track was to wet for that to have been effective. He made no decision regarding the meeting and clearly he was hoping it would dry out in time without listening to the advice he had been given.

 

In the past Colin Pratt as the promoter of the Bees would have been on site making sure the track

could be made ready and if that was not possible he would call the meeting off as early as possible to save fans traveling or even Sky setting up. Since Colin is no longer involved in the Bees nobody from the club overseas the track preparation to ensure it will be ready on time.

 

We are not in control of the cancelation of events due to track conditions as that is the promoter’s decision and responsibility and we fulfilled our obligation to inform Mick Horton about our doubts which he chose to ignore. He showed little regard as to the state of the track on Saturday and was cavalier in his attitude on Sunday morning.

The track will continue to be prepared by Marek Meinert with one aim to be the best in the UK by using his experience gained at the highest level in Poland and he will enjoy our full support in that task.

We are sorry that Mick Horton has decided not to race at Coventry but rest assured we will still be operating for the next three years as a stock car track.

Coventry Stadium