Peter Craven/grand Opening

[Phil The Ace]

FURIOUS Belle Vue Chief Executive Officer David Gordon hit back at the criticism which followed the disastrous abandonment of Saturdays inaugural meeting at the new National Stadium, saying: This was NOT our fault.

 

Gordon and Chris Morton had to face a sell-out crowd to say the Peter Craven Memorial Trophy meeting had been called off after riders said the track wasnt safe following a practice session.

They were locked in an emergency meeting early on Monday with the Manchester City Council Project Team and stadium builders, ISG, to discuss what went wrong and what was to happen next.

 

Gordon stressed that all aspects of the stadium construction , including the laying of the track, were carried out under the stadium build contract. Belle Vues only responsibility was the erection of the safety fence, a specialist operation, which it was agreed would be done by track curator Colin Meredith.

 

Gordon said: There was a problem with the sub base of the track around the third and fourth bends which was recently completed. there were contractors workmen and machines out there first thing on Monday working to correct the problems."

 

 

Track work commenced early this morning

 

We had internal meetings on Sunday and meetings with the Council and the building contractors on Monday. The whole investigation process into what happened is ongoing. We will not comment until everything has been clarified.

 

The fact of the matter is that we didnt receive what we were supposed to receive. I cannot stress too much that we did not build this track, it was the responsibility of third parties and it was not fit for purpose.

 

We tried our best to get this meeting on but we were let down by circumstances beyond our control. We are now in serious dialogue with all concerned."

 

The contractors, who are not under our instructions, were working on the track first thing on Monday morning. The Belle Vue track curator is out there giving them advice and we hope his experience will help them get it put right.

 

Gordon added: The riders reaction not to race was understandable. The track was not raceable and how do you tell them not to race?

 

The work on the track will be reviewed by the stadium project team hourly and we will take a decision at 9am on Wednesday about whether or not we can run Fridays home meeting against Wolverhampton. If the remedial work is successful completed and tested then we will race.

 

We will be making a separate statement about re-staging and refunds for Saturday when we have taken advice about the contractual obligations that the other parties are subject to.

 

Asked about a Promoters Association statement blaming Belle Vue for what happened, Gordon said: No comment. I wouldnt make a statement like the BSPA have until I was in receipt of the full facts of the matter.

 

He concluded: Belle Vue Speedway are not to blame for Saturdays disaster. Other parties need to accept their responsibility and deal with the consequences.

[Ron]

FURIOUS Belle Vue Chief Executive Officer David Gordon hit back at the criticism which followed the disastrous abandonment of Saturdays inaugural meeting at the new National Stadium, saying: This was NOT our fault.

 

Gordon and Chris Morton had to face a sell-out crowd to say the Peter Craven Memorial Trophy meeting had been called off after riders said the track wasnt safe following a practice session.

They were locked in an emergency meeting early on Monday with the Manchester City Council Project Team and stadium builders, ISG, to discuss what went wrong and what was to happen next.

 

Gordon stressed that all aspects of the stadium construction , including the laying of the track, were carried out under the stadium build contract. Belle Vues only responsibility was the erection of the safety fence, a specialist operation, which it was agreed would be done by track curator Colin Meredith.

 

Gordon said: There was a problem with the sub base of the track around the third and fourth bends which was recently completed. there were contractors workmen and machines out there first thing on Monday working to correct the problems."

 

 

Track work commenced early this morning

 

We had internal meetings on Sunday and meetings with the Council and the building contractors on Monday. The whole investigation process into what happened is ongoing. We will not comment until everything has been clarified.

 

The fact of the matter is that we didnt receive what we were supposed to receive. I cannot stress too much that we did not build this track, it was the responsibility of third parties and it was not fit for purpose.

 

We tried our best to get this meeting on but we were let down by circumstances beyond our control. We are now in serious dialogue with all concerned."

 

The contractors, who are not under our instructions, were working on the track first thing on Monday morning. The Belle Vue track curator is out there giving them advice and we hope his experience will help them get it put right.

 

Gordon added: The riders reaction not to race was understandable. The track was not raceable and how do you tell them not to race?

 

The work on the track will be reviewed by the stadium project team hourly and we will take a decision at 9am on Wednesday about whether or not we can run Fridays home meeting against Wolverhampton. If the remedial work is successful completed and tested then we will race.

 

We will be making a separate statement about re-staging and refunds for Saturday when we have taken advice about the contractual obligations that the other parties are subject to.

 

Asked about a Promoters Association statement blaming Belle Vue for what happened, Gordon said: No comment. I wouldnt make a statement like the BSPA have until I was in receipt of the full facts of the matter.

 

He concluded: Belle Vue Speedway are not to blame for Saturdays disaster. Other parties need to accept their responsibility and deal with the consequences.

Is he for real?

[Fromafar]

FURIOUS Belle Vue Chief Executive Officer David Gordon hit back at the criticism which followed the disastrous abandonment of Saturdays inaugural meeting at the new National Stadium, saying: This was NOT our fault.

Gordon and Chris Morton had to face a sell-out crowd to say the Peter Craven Memorial Trophy meeting had been called off after riders said the track wasnt safe following a practice session.

They were locked in an emergency meeting early on Monday with the Manchester City Council Project Team and stadium builders, ISG, to discuss what went wrong and what was to happen next.

Gordon stressed that all aspects of the stadium construction , including the laying of the track, were carried out under the stadium build contract. Belle Vues only responsibility was the erection of the safety fence, a specialist operation, which it was agreed would be done by track curator Colin Meredith.

Gordon said: There was a problem with the sub base of the track around the third and fourth bends which was recently completed. there were contractors workmen and machines out there first thing on Monday working to correct the problems."

Track work commenced early this morning

We had internal meetings on Sunday and meetings with the Council and the building contractors on Monday. The whole investigation process into what happened is ongoing. We will not comment until everything has been clarified.

The fact of the matter is that we didnt receive what we were supposed to receive. I cannot stress too much that we did not build this track, it was the responsibility of third parties and it was not fit for purpose.

We tried our best to get this meeting on but we were let down by circumstances beyond our control. We are now in serious dialogue with all concerned."

The contractors, who are not under our instructions, were working on the track first thing on Monday morning. The Belle Vue track curator is out there giving them advice and we hope his experience will help them get it put right.

Gordon added: The riders reaction not to race was understandable. The track was not raceable and how do you tell them not to race?

The work on the track will be reviewed by the stadium project team hourly and we will take a decision at 9am on Wednesday about whether or not we can run Fridays home meeting against Wolverhampton. If the remedial work is successful completed and tested then we will race.

We will be making a separate statement about re-staging and refunds for Saturday when we have taken advice about the contractual obligations that the other parties are subject to.

Asked about a Promoters Association statement blaming Belle Vue for what happened, Gordon said: No comment. I wouldnt make a statement like the BSPA have until I was in receipt of the full facts of the matter.

He concluded: Belle Vue Speedway are not to blame for Saturdays disaster. Other parties need to accept their responsibility and deal with the consequences.

So he is saying the track was constructed with no input or supervision by anybody to do with speedway track knowledge.You couldn't make it up.

[Trevor]

For those not there, here is one of the practice laps.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJgVR2yPHBc

[speedibee]

For those not there, here is one of the practice laps.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJgVR2yPHBc

Wtf was wrong with that ?

[SPEEDY69]

Didn't look to be any issues at all, with Nicki on the inside and the next guy more to the centre - certainly no arm stretching going on?

[racers and royals]

Blimey the track must have deteriorated pretty quick after that video was filmed !!!!

Rider power and weak ref maybe the reason

[arthur cross]

So we now have a situation where, based on other informed postings on this forum ...

 

1. Last Wednesday, before any SCB track licence was granted (that only happened on Friday), Belle Vue were advised that the least-worst scenario given the several weeks of cold, non-drying March weather and the state of the 3rd/4th bends was to call off the Peter Craven meeting with a couple of days' notice (still awkward for those fans who'd booked non-refundable hotels but, apart from that, plenty of expenses all round could be swerved) ... at that stage, it was still in Dave Gordon's control as Belle Vue's Chief Executive Officer to take such a decision (or, at the very least, alert anyone like the city council or the track contractors about just how seriously the meeting was in doubt).

 

2. On Friday, with serious doubts within the speedway network about the meeting going ahead (witness plenty of talk about it around the pits and terraces of both the home openers at Coventry & King's Lynn), the SCB incredibly granted the new stadium its track licence given that this licence only refers to the fixtures-&-fittings rather than the state of the track surface, thereby removing one obstacle (the lack of a track licence) that would have forced a Peter Craven postponement even if Gordon or his fellow clown Chris Morton didn't have the guts to do it themselves anyway.

 

(Going forward, at the earliest possible opportunity, surely there must be an amendment to the SCB rulebook that at least the first-time granting of a track licence requires a test of the raceability of the new facility's track surface, even if subsequent renewals of any track licence can still stick to just an inspection of the fixtures-&-fittings.)

 

3. Reflecting on Saturday, having wasted the chance to call the inevitable farce off a few days earlier, Dave Gordon now has the nerve to admit "the riders reaction not to race was understandable" and "The track was unraceable" ... meanwhile, as "uk martin" has noted above, the SCB referee is deemed to be in control of the meeting (rather than the home promotion) for the final 2-hours before its commencement, yet seemingly despite all the mutterings and misgivings of the previous few days, no attempt appears to have been made to hold back any crowd admittance, etc.

 

(No wonder the BSPA have swiftly distanced themselves from either Belle Vue's or the SCB's incompetence, especially if there was any BSPA-generated advice within last week's general damage-limitation hints to call the meeting off.)

 

4. Perhaps the most frighteningly naive situation of the lot, apparently there's still a chance Saturday's problems can be remedied and, wait for it, tested (yes, tested !! ... why wasn't something similar done towards the end of last week? !!) by 9am/Wednesday to keep the Good Friday meeting alive ... meanwhile, taking a far more realistic view, Sky aren't waiting for that 48-hour miracle and have already wiped next Wednesday's coverage from the track off their listings.

 

Throughout the tortuously long-drawn-out process of the building of this stadium, I've consistently pointed out on this forum that I welcome a new National Speedway Stadium being built, especially in a city with as much heritage for the sport as Manchester, but I have no confidence in the ability of Gordon and Morton to run it anywhere near its full potential.

 

I never expected the clowns to prove that opinion so spectacularly accurate before the first competitive lap at the stadium has even taken place !!

Edited March 21, 2016 by arthur cross

[iris123]

It didn't!

 

A small 'Cardiff' style rut which every rider went through with no issue did appear on the exit of turn 4 which was dealt with.

 

A couple of riders lifted in random parts of the track, like what happens at speedway, but nothing to make you think the meeting is in doubt.

 

I can just imagine Harris thinking wtf in the riders meeting as woofinden (allegedly lol!) kicked off.

Trouble is with this scenario is why have the B.V management issued a statement saying the track isn't up to standards and why was work being done to get it up to standards this morning?????

 

In their words

 

Gordon said: There was a problem with the sub base of the track around the third and fourth bends which was recently completed. there were contractors workmen and machines out there first thing on Monday working to correct the problems."

 

Edited March 21, 2016 by iris123

[The Doctor...]

Well you will be out of pocket then because I will be there not that it is any of your business..............you coming to Poole for the meeting on the Wednesday...............

 

RP

 

i'll keep my eyes peeled for you then................

 

and ........................no..............................i'm working on the wednesday......................

 

 

 

 

 

What a ridiculous accusation. I've simply re inacted my weekend into words, the only expectation I had was how great it was to have a National Speedway stadium and that I wanted to be there to witness it. And what the hell has Warsaw got to do with it. I'm off to Warsaw, Prague,Lonigo,Gdansk and Torun this year too. A doctor with NO sympathy, remind me not to see you with my rash !!! Enjoy your speedway, surely it can only get better.

 

But you've seemingly expected all of the negatives of your experience in advance, so its quite valid to ask why did you really bother ? You seem uber cynical on everything, and even go as far to have a go at fans for not singing the national anthem... ludicrous.

 

And Warsaw, well you mentioned it first, not me.

[Albert]

So it wasn't the riders fault... nor was it the refs fault...definitely not the SCB or BSPAs fault...definately not the Belle Vues promotions fault.... therefor, that just about leaves the poor spectators, it must your fault, why the hell didn't you tell them earlier that their track was unfit! you Naughty supporters!

[iris123]

So it wasn't the riders fault... nor was it the refs fault...definitely not the SCB or BSPAs fault...definately not the Belle Vues promotions fault.... therefor, that just about leaves the poor spectators, it must your fault, why the hell didn't you tell them earlier that their track was unfit! you Naughty supporters!

I think the enquiry will find that it is in fact the EU to blame.If we weren't in the EU this wouldn't have happened

Edited March 21, 2016 by iris123

[Fromafar]

For those not there, here is one of the practice laps.

 

Cant believe there was not enough room on that track to miss a few ruts,most of these guys spend doing that at every man made indoor track at GP's.Some one has to get a grip regarding riders deciding at the last minute they don't fancy riding.I have said it before but if it was an Open Meeting with prize money that might be lost if meeting was cancelled they would crawl round and divide it up.Sad days for the Sport.

[erniew]

As someone who was standing on the back straight, I noticed after two or three laps that there was a large rut appearing at about half track on turn 3. this would have deteriorated very quickly once proper racing had started, and with 4 riders on track it would have been almost impossible to avoid in a racing situation. This should have been called off as soon as they realised that the track surface could not be laid on turns 3 and 4 until Thursday. The only people responsible for the farce on Saturday are the management of Belle Vue Speedway, the contractors may be doing the work but when they are given the information, it is down to the promoters to make the decision, this they failed to do. I am one of the many who is out of pocket over and above the cost of the ticket for travelling expenses and hotel bill. This could have been avoided if a decision had been taken on Thursday or Friday.

[Phil The Ace]

If it was a GP on saturday would they have rode?????

[arthur cross]

If it was a GP on saturday would they have rode?????

 

No, because the muppet of a promoter hosting the meeting has confirmed by his own quote that he was trying to promote a meeting whose track wasn't raceable !!

[Tigerite]

If it was a GP on saturday would they have rode?????

given what happened at Warsaw last year, probably not !!!

[INCOGNITO]

I am not reading through all the comments on here but I am shocked that some people just don't listen or want to believe it wasn't the fault of the Belle Vue management.

 

Rideable - Yes Bomber said rideable but he was saying he and everyone wouldn't want to see riders just following each other just to get it running.

 

Bomber and the Entire line up agreed that the track was not fit for racing as the base was not solid and putting a roller over it was not going to fix it as it would rip up each time.

 

The only way this can be fixed is to rip it all up and lay a new base and that should take weeks not minutes as it should be left to sit for three months after being laid and worked on regular in that time.

 

If the base is repairable then it could be days or more but there was never going to be racing on that track when it was laid just 9 days prior and not allowed to settle and form a hard base.

 

The surface is ok but it contains too much little stone chippings and not enough clay mixed in to help it bond . It will be interesting to see if the Aces v Wolves match goes ahead on Friday but if there is any concern they should call it now as another cancellation on the night would be unforgivable and could damage the club's and sport too much to recover.

 

The comments of Maybe we were a week to early or it wasn't down to us but the riders has shown the Belle Vue management up and if this is investigated I could see serious fines or warnings handed out to the club.

 

 

I wait to see if Friday will be on but speaking and hearing from respected people in the sport it was always going to be difficult to run and to get this fixed could see Belle Vue starting in April at the earliest.

[Rob B]

Didn't look to be any issues at all, with Nicki on the inside and the next guy more to the centre - certainly no arm stretching going on?

 

 

Blimey the track must have deteriorated pretty quick after that video was filmed !!!!

Rider power and weak ref maybe the reason

 

It didn't much, the problem was down by the kerb 4th bend, riders could have avoided that area if they wanted, just like they have to avoid ruts in middle of a meeting,

Edited March 21, 2016 by Rob B

[Phil The Ace]

I am not reading through all the comments on here but I am shocked that some people just don't listen or want to believe it wasn't the fault of the Belle Vue management.

 

Rideable - Yes Bomber said rideable but he was saying he and everyone wouldn't want to see riders just following each other just to get it running.

 

Bomber and the Entire line up agreed that the track was not fit for racing as the base was not solid and putting a roller over it was not going to fix it as it would rip up each time.

 

The only way this can be fixed is to rip it all up and lay a new base and that should take weeks not minutes as it should be left to sit for three months after being laid and worked on regular in that time.

 

If the base is repairable then it could be days or more but there was never going to be racing on that track when it was laid just 9 days prior and not allowed to settle and form a hard base.

 

The surface is ok but it contains too much little stone chippings and not enough clay mixed in to help it bond . It will be interesting to see if the Aces v Wolves match goes ahead on Friday but if there is any concern they should call it now as another cancellation on the night would be unforgivable and could damage the club's and sport too much to recover.

 

The comments of Maybe we were a week to early or it wasn't down to us but the riders has shown the Belle Vue management up and if this is investigated I could see serious fines or warnings handed out to the club.

 

 

I wait to see if Friday will be on but speaking and hearing from respected people in the sport it was always going to be difficult to run and to get this fixed could see Belle Vue starting in April at the earliest.

Entire line up????? Think you need to rephrase that. As it wasn't the entire line up. FACT