Elite Riders Championship - 25/09/2014

[Robbobee 144]

So we turn up at Coventry Stadium to watch one of the most prestigious speedway events this country offers and we get ...

 

a) a clearly unraceable track with most of the riders conducting a track walk shaking their heads in a negative manner!

'

SKY TV already to go in their first meet of a new tv deal for the next 5 years only to witness 'zilch'

 

c) disappointly aura of a 'run down' stadium - no extra food stands to the normal, still dirty air fence looking totally unprofessional.

 

Messrs Horton and Co at Coventry Bees may not be to blame for the above problems but for once I agree with Shovvie - if it were my business, I'd sure as hell take more of an earlier interest in the matter to ensure the paying public / sponsors etc were not embarrassed as they have been today!

 

Sad day for Speedway in general and Coventry speedway in particular.

[LagutaRacingFan 1,935]

Enough jokes about the Polish guy.

 

This meeting being abandoned has really pole-axed my anticipation for the new season.

[Fromafar 10,362]

So the fans can look forward to being refunded their costs?

 

Of course not.

I somehow don't think she was buying your explanation.

The explanation was probably not complex enough.

[False dawn 2,298]

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.

[Had Enough 233]

Enough jokes about the Polish guy.

 

This meeting being abandoned has really pole-axed my anticipation for the new season.

You normally pole-axe peoples' enthusiasm throughout the season ...

[New Science 1,059]

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.

 

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

[A ORLOV 8,628]

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.

 

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.

 

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.

[Jacques 3,114]

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

 

These staff are? Told to go away by who?

Edited March 23, 2014 by Jacques

[bigeddiechek 1,094]

Simple answer is they should have run it at Berwick.

Neutral track, always in perfect conditions.

[greyhoundp 990]

 

 

These staff are? Told to go away by who?

 

I would surmise by the NEW Trackman, as obviously he prepared it HIS way.

[LagutaRacingFan 1,935]

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'.

[False dawn 2,298]

Good sponsors + TV coverage + Rider contracts + Stadium and Track preparation =

Happy fans =

Loads of money

 

Spot the missing elements from today's speedway

[Sandie 53]

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.

 

Just trying to get some perspective on all this I guess!!! :-(

[Local Boy 36]

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.

 

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.

 

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.

[FTM 146]

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 ..