False dawn Posted March 23, 2014 Report Share Posted March 23, 2014 I'm bit out of touch with this forum these days, so sorry if someone has suggested this before...... Can't we get Barry Hearn to run the sport for a couple of years. He'd pull this sport apart and put it back together bigger and stronger (in spite of a number of egos with vested interests). For sure, messes like we've witnessed today would be a thing of the past. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
New Science Posted March 23, 2014 Report Share Posted March 23, 2014 (edited) BSPA should have got involved but if the Coventry promotion/stadium owners had done enough damage already then not much else BSPA could do except call it off early but that is where Referee comes in also and arrival of riders. Â It is just one big mess but the main portion of blame does lay with Coventry, they asked for trust to run the event for BSPA and they blew it big time. [3 meetings at Coventry this year Xmas cracker,Cov VS Cradley,ERC and what do we get 3 cock ups.The blame for this lies at Coventry speedways door. 3 meetings at Coventry this year (xmas cracker,Cov VS Cradley,ERC)and 3 cock ups.The blame lies solely at the people running Coventry speedway.If they have no control over track preparation then they are cutting their own throats ! Cannot understand how anyone was allowed to pay into the stadium when the powers that be knew exactly what was going on. Edited March 23, 2014 by New Science 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A ORLOV Posted March 23, 2014 Report Share Posted March 23, 2014 Went to the pub at 5 inorder to have a meal before the speedway, wondered why no one else had arrived by 6 then got the news from the Stadium. What a bl**dy shambolic affair. This is a bspa event and after an abandoned meeting on fri someone from the bspa should have been at the track on sat to make sure the track would be ok for tonights meeting. In fact someone from the bspa should check that at any meeting they run everything is ok. I accept that rain that was not expected could come down just prior to any meeting but that was not the case. The track was bad on friday and not fixed. Â I only had to travel to the pub but I really feel for the fans that travelled to this meeting. The bspa cannot be surprised if at the next elc, elrc or whatever if very few turn up to watch it. Â Horton has accepted that a third party is responsible for the track prep. He leaves one of the most important parts of his business to someone else, who he has no control over, his business judgement is questionable. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jacques Posted March 23, 2014 Report Share Posted March 23, 2014 (edited) As I posted earlier a number of people who do know what they are on about when it comes to both track and bike preparation tried to advise the staff employed by the stadium but were told to go away. Â I am no expert of track preparation but to me the surface looked like it had too much clay in it and earlier in the afternoon when they did try to do something it just created ploughed field furrows and seemed very much like plasticine. Â Although everybody at Sky sports was very disappointed like the fans that this meeting turned into such a non event as far as I am aware the conspiracy theorists can stop now as A apology was given and agreement made about costs. Â Â These staff are? Told to go away by who? Edited March 23, 2014 by Jacques Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigeddiechek Posted March 23, 2014 Report Share Posted March 23, 2014 Simple answer is they should have run it at Berwick. Neutral track, always in perfect conditions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greyhoundp Posted March 23, 2014 Report Share Posted March 23, 2014 Â Â These staff are? Told to go away by who? Â I would surmise by the NEW Trackman, as obviously he prepared it HIS way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LagutaRacingFan Posted March 23, 2014 Report Share Posted March 23, 2014 The new track man may have had his own methods, What's to say that he isn't the track curator of Stal Gorzow, Torun or Zielona Gora. Let's find out his real identity before branding him a 'useless pole'. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
False dawn Posted March 23, 2014 Report Share Posted March 23, 2014 Good sponsors + TV coverage + Rider contracts + Stadium and Track preparation = Happy fans = Loads of money  Spot the missing elements from today's speedway Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sandie Posted March 23, 2014 Report Share Posted March 23, 2014 Just got up to date reading the last 10 or so pages and it just makes me so sad to see all this complaining / discussion, call it what you like about the track curator when one of the best sadly passed away today and there are only 8 messages of condolences on that thread. Â Just trying to get some perspective on all this I guess!!! :-( 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Local Boy Posted March 23, 2014 Report Share Posted March 23, 2014 You have to laugh don't you? Coventry promote the event on behalf of the BSPA at their stadium where they are responsible for all aspects of ensuring the facility is fit for purpose; yet half the forum are blaming the BSPA for the ineptitude of Coventry. Â Coventry is an Elite speedway venue with decades experience of running successful major events. When awarding events to a promotion with the experience that Coventry's have the BSPA shouldn't even have to think about will the track be prepared correctly, it should be, end of conversation. Â It is a shame that all the good work done by many of the promoters and the BSPA, is constantly undermined by those who are either inept or running their own petty agendas. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FTM Posted March 24, 2014 Report Share Posted March 24, 2014 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 .. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G the Bee Posted March 24, 2014 Report Share Posted March 24, 2014 Cheers for input FTM. Â Only thing is, you say the damage was done last November. However press and practice day went without a problem as far as I could see. Lots of laps put in and track held up fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FTM Posted March 24, 2014 Report Share Posted March 24, 2014 Cheers for input FTM. Â Only thing is, you say the damage was done last November. However press and practice day went without a problem as far as I could see. Lots of laps put in and track held up fine. Ok I wasn,t there for practice but I wouldn,t think that one week after it could be so bad for the Friday night Storm meeting. As is the norm practice tracks are put in as slick as possible so there must be an underlying problem. .Like I said there hadn,t been enough work hours spent on the remedial work needed.but I doubt if either of us will be told why Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrMungo Posted March 24, 2014 Report Share Posted March 24, 2014 The new track man may have had his own methods, What's to say that he isn't the track curator of Stal Gorzow, Torun or Zielona Gora. Let's find out his real identity before branding him a 'useless pole'. Marek something. He did Bydgoszcz back in Poland from what I was told on Friday night. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LagutaRacingFan Posted March 24, 2014 Report Share Posted March 24, 2014 Marek something. He did Bydgoszcz back in Poland from what I was told on Friday night. So hes obviously qualified, Maybe he made a mistake? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
speedwaysliders Posted March 24, 2014 Report Share Posted March 24, 2014 Start of a new season and STILL nothing has changed to guard against the British weather,and also guard againt the complete numpties running our sport.Track dryers,Track covers have all been put forward,but NOTHING 100% official to guard against meetings being called off,this is 2014 for christ sake,surely in this day and age there should be something in the rules that ALL Tracks must adhered to.You have to have covers or a back up plan if something crops up. Â 1 -I think sweden have worse weather then us,but they can relay their track with fresh material. 2- Why couldnt we have the reserse riders for the meeting go round on the track,that way at least we can see if the track is raceable or not.or even riders local to coventry in the elite league could be used just to see with our own eyes how bad the track is. 3-Why werent the alarm bells ringing after the coventry storm meeting? Did EVERYONE concerned in this event think everything was going to be hunkydorey?Im sorry but i just cant blame the poor track man from mars or wherever he came from ,for this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BritPete Posted March 24, 2014 Report Share Posted March 24, 2014 Who won? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woz01 Posted March 24, 2014 Author Report Share Posted March 24, 2014 Even if Horton wanted to have his own track man the stadium wouldn't go with it. The stadium run many different events during the course of a year, they are NOT going to let an non employee of the stadium work on the track. The track makes a lot of money for the stadium so it makes sense for them to have there own team. Whoever is the owner has made a huge mistake getting rid of the old track curator. As mentioned above he produced a decent track for P&P. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
g13webb Posted March 24, 2014 Report Share Posted March 24, 2014 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 ..  Thanks for your defence of Mick Horton, and I can see where your coming from. It must be very difficult to operate in the scenario you've outlined above.  BUT, and a big BUT at that, Why did he open the gates, charging people £25 a head, plus £4 a programme, taking people good money, knowing the track was in a bad state and the meeting would be cancelled?????????  Surely, Knowing the state of the track, he could have had it inspected earlier by the Ref or/ and the riders, and made that decision by 3pm and save people travelling and wasting good money on an event that was always in question.. THEY must have been desperate for the money and couldn't give a damn for the supporters.  The decision to run a prestige event at Coventry was a massive mistake by the BSPA. The track was once the mega track of the country but those days have long gone. Recent years, the track has been rubbish-heap rubbish. The problem yesterday was exactly the same as when the Stars rode there last year. We then, had to endure 90min hold -up after heat 5, so they could repair that same patch back then. That meeting went on forever......  All the parties concerned, have obviously learnt nothing... What a shambles........ 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mdmc82 Posted March 24, 2014 Report Share Posted March 24, 2014 The new track man may have had his own methods, What's to say that he isn't the track curator of Stal Gorzow, Torun or Zielona Gora. Let's find out his real identity before branding him a 'useless pole'. He is a taxi driver who has used the tractor in Poland but never lay or prepared a track before Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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