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Elite Riders Championship - 25/09/2014


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What a shambles this has turned out to be and I do have sympathy with the Coventry Speedway promotion as the stadium employ the track man who obviously has no idea. To make things worse people who do know what they are doing tried to advise and got told by stadium staff to stay out of it,our track we will do it how we want.

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It's no good parts of the sport pointing fingers at others. The sport as a whole had the job of ensuring this meeting was properly staged. Apportioning individual blame is irrelevant although I do feel some sympathy for the Bees' promotion.

 

Surely these behind the scenes problems were known in wider circles outside Coventry and surely Friday night's problems must have sounded alarms?

 

If your flagship seasonal launch is threatened unnecessarily surely you intervene to make sure it's dealt with?

 

 

I agree absolutely with what you say.

 

But can you imagine the balls it would take for some one at the BSPA to phone up Coventry Stadium and say.

"So, Avtar. I hear you are having a few problems, is there anything we can do to help?"

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Is this the beginning of the end I wonder?

Ridiculous flippant comment. People have travelled and spent money on expensive fuel for a meeting which didn't appear to be under threat from the weather. There is every right to be annoyed.

 

As for Hortons comments they just don't wash with me. The Speedway at Cov is his business, if someone was detrimentally affecting my business in the way he states I'm afraid I would have to prevent it from happening.

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COVENTRY promoter Mick Horton has issued the following statement following the postponement of the Elite Riders’ Championship on Sunday.

“I have made the decision today that the teams representing Coventry Speedway will not be taking to the track at Brandon until such time as the stadium bring in the correct and proper track curator to prepare our track.

“The track has been totally unacceptable. I am embarrassed and humiliated and I am not prepared to take all of the criticism because this is 100 per cent down to the stadium.

“They got rid of our old track curator and brought in a new one and it simply hasn’t worked. I am totally humiliated and can only apologise.

“I have told the stadium staff what the situation is – it’s destroying me. We said early this morning that the track should be bladed but they decided to let it dry and pack it, and it was still rubbish.

“Television were here and I have taken a lot of criticism, and I know I’m going to get the flak. But I want to make it very clear that this was totally out of my control, this was 100 per cent down to the stadium.

“They brought in the track staff and assured Coventry Speedway that this track curator and track staff team was the best that we could get. The rest is history – it has been a total shambles starting on Friday with the Storm match and now on Sunday for a major national event.

“There is no way that I will allow a Coventry team on that track until it is correct, and until that time, until it is in a suitable condition to race on, we will decline any further shared events or TV meetings.

“In all my years of speedway, this is my lowest moment. I feel absolutely humiliated by something that is totally out of my control.”

switch your home meetings to the East of England Showground might as well do it now as in 3 years time
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It's no good parts of the sport pointing fingers at others. The sport as a whole had the job of ensuring this meeting was properly staged. Apportioning individual blame is irrelevant although I do feel some sympathy for the Bees' promotion.

 

 

 

Just got back after spending £25 for the most expensive piece of yellow paper ever.

 

They shouldn't have open the doors in the first place.

 

Why a BSPA official isn't on hand to ensure a meeting goes ahead or doesn't (in a proper customer friendly way) proves how unproffessional our speedway leaders are.

 

 

We were leaving and there were still cars being allowed into the car park, unbelievable.

Edited by Deano
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Nobody is arguing that the track was unridable, but it didn't happen in a instance. Coventry must have known there was a problem with the track and should have made the decision earlier and stopped all those fans from paying out decent money when there was no hope of it ever being on.

 

This was contempt in the extreme, and shown little or no respect for the supporters a all. Taking £25 a head and £4 for a program for a meeting that was never going is a total disgrace...

 

Can you wonder why our speedway is such a joke.. If I had anything to do with promoting I would make sure Coventry never run another big Meeting..... They don't deserve that honour.......

Edited by GRW123
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Can the ELR be moved to Poole on Sunday? It doesn't seem that Coventry are capable of putting on a decent race strip for the occasion. seriously.

Why on earth didn't they take my advice? I was completely correct.

 

By all accounts it's in a right state. With heavy rain showers due throughout the day will the track staff be able to make it decent enough to have some racing?

Well it didn't need any rain either. What a shower these Coventry track staff are.

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COVENTRY promoter Mick Horton has issued the following statement following the postponement of the Elite Riders’ Championship on Sunday.

“I have made the decision today that the teams representing Coventry Speedway will not be taking to the track at Brandon until such time as the stadium bring in the correct and proper track curator to prepare our track.

“The track has been totally unacceptable. I am embarrassed and humiliated and I am not prepared to take all of the criticism because this is 100 per cent down to the stadium.

“They got rid of our old track curator and brought in a new one and it simply hasn’t worked. I am totally humiliated and can only apologise.

“I have told the stadium staff what the situation is – it’s destroying me. We said early this morning that the track should be bladed but they decided to let it dry and pack it, and it was still rubbish.

“Television were here and I have taken a lot of criticism, and I know I’m going to get the flak. But I want to make it very clear that this was totally out of my control, this was 100 per cent down to the stadium.

“They brought in the track staff and assured Coventry Speedway that this track curator and track staff team was the best that we could get. The rest is history – it has been a total shambles starting on Friday with the Storm match and now on Sunday for a major national event.

“There is no way that I will allow a Coventry team on that track until it is correct, and until that time, until it is in a suitable condition to race on, we will decline any further shared events or TV meetings.

“In all my years of speedway, this is my lowest moment. I feel absolutely humiliated by something that is totally out of my control.”

Perhaps it would have been better to inform the "powers at BSPA" to call the meeting off this morning if he was not happy with present Track Staff.Interesting he refers to to the old track curator as "our" but the new staff don't seem to be "our".im afraid this a typical speedway situation nowadays. Testimonials are run in any conditions just to make sure they get the punters money into riders pockets.A cloud in the sky and the fans will just be sitting watching TV after all these fiascos.Who can blame them.
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Just got back after spending £25 for the most expensive piece of yellow paper ever.

 

They shouldn't have open the doors in the first place.

 

Why a BSPA official isn't on hand to ensure a meeting goes ahead or doesn't (in a proper customer friendly way) proves how unproffessional our speedway leaders are.

 

 

This is what's getting me. That track was never going to be right, so why the hell did they let people in the stadium in the first place?? :mad:

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Absolute joke that after a meeting was affected by the weather it was not touched until today. The surface should have been bladed and the racing surface sorted before being packed and prepared for this meeting.

 

I'm sure there is a local man / team that could have been hired to look after the Brandon track.

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Well said Mick Horton, I feel for you.

 

Does this mean it was down to Sandhu and his people then??! Oh dear, if so there will be several on here saying 'We told you so'!!!

 

Greyhounds gone, Speedway ? Developers wanting to move in quickly??

 

Indirectly, Ford to blame again. He's the one who drove Sandhu out the sport and pissed the man off so much.

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Why on earth didn't they take my advice? I was completely correct.Well it didn't need any rain either. What a shower these Coventry track staff are.

 

Greyhound at Poole on Sundays.

 

Indirectly, Ford to blame again. He's the one who drove Sandhu out the sport and pissed the man off so much.

Well that didn't take long did it?

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Difficult one this.

Of course you've got to think of rider safety and it was riders who didn't want to ride - so it couldn't be called off until they'd seen the track and they'd made that decision.

As a spectator I was intensely disappointed especially as I spend my life sticking up for our sport and standing by the pits at 5.15pm the quality of the riders i was seeing milling about was pretty high IMO ......but then I'm not the one who would have broken bones at the start of the season.

 

I don't really understand all the track prep business...we live in a country with a damp climate, at this time of year it takes a while for dirt to dry out however this should be nothing new and a skilled team should be able to make the most of it. Is this the issue?

 

Coventry is a great club and a good venue. Speedway needs to learn from this although I had thought that adequate, careful track preparation, especially for such a big meeting was perhaps something we already knew.

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