As promoters of Sunday's otherwise excellent event at OWLERTON STADIUM, Sheffield Jackie and I would like to unreservedly apologise to customers in the Panorama Room who were other wise innocent bystanders to a fracas that broke out in the bar area. In fifteen years of promoting and several hundred events, we have never experienced such behaviour and as promoters never wish to do so again. The instigator has now been identified and we will - in due course not only be naming and shaming the individual but will receive a life ban from attending any oval racing event at any ORCi - BriSCA Stadium in Mainland Europe and his details will be passed to ALL promoters.

We cannot and will not condone such behaviour that not only bismirches a family entertainment but also unfairly categorizes all patrons of Banger Racing the same which is grossly unjust and perpetuated by a mindless minority - It will not be tolerated now or at any time in the future and will be dealt with in the strongest possible manner that the law may offer us.

The incident for those involved and who witnessed it, marred what was otherwise an exciting,entertaining and spectacular day for 99.9% of the huge crowd present whose behavious was beyond reproach and special tribute must go to the drivers for their sportsmans like professionalism throughout the day.

The mindless minority soured a memorable day for the main man, Andy Holmes - the consequences being that many people who wanted to enjoy an evening with Andy could not subsequently do so. We hope to remedy this in the near future.

Not only this, the consequence is that the Stadium owners current position is that they will not permit any further Banger Racing in their stadium - A sentiment I must admit I empathise with and despite what may be rewarding commerically, stadium owners A&S Leisure and Startrax as a promotion do not and will not be associated with such behaviour whatever the gain.

The future of Banger Racing at Owlerton Stadium very much lies at the discretion of the Managing director and a meeting I have with him later in the week.

Your support in joining me in demonstrating this was an isolated event would be valued and that 99.9% of attendees whatever side of the fence you may reside join me in abhhoring the incident.

If you have any helpful comments you may e-mail me direct or the stadium manager kenspooner@owlertonstadium.co.uk.

I end as I began, this was an isolated incident in my experience, but will not be tolerated and without such guarantees of future behaviour and any goodwill from the stadium Managing Director in accepting any assurances I may be able to provide,the bitter irony is that a fantastic stadium that is now becoming appreciated as one of [if not the best ] venues for action has been put at risk at the very time that it is beginning to deliver big audiences and excellent entertainment. 2010 currently has fabulous plans outlined for this stadium.
The small number of people being identified should hang their heads in shame and expunged from the sport - immediateley and permanantely!

We are encouraged by the assistance from within the sport on this subject underlining that as a whole we are proper,decent people who want a family day out.

We now have several corroborating witnesses who have independently identified the same individual, two of whom have supplied a name. Work will continue to corroborate the name before we actually name the individual.

It is now a time to draw a line under this unfortunate subject and concentrate on what a brilliant event Sunday actually was and look forward to forthcoming events. This, whilst unfortunate, is an isolated incident, ridding the sport of these people is a primary concern, we should not however dwell too much on and concentrate on the future and how it will not be repeated.

We thank everyone for their views and comments on the event which are heartening - where we can learn little things, we will try to do so, similarly where we can improve on to hopefully make all four planned events in 2010 at Owlerton better - not forgetting BoB 2 Litres proposed for Monday 26th October!

Re:


Saturday, 19 September, 2009 1:35:22 PM
<tr class=msgHeaderContainer id=3_messageHeaderToContainer><td>STEVEN REES <stevenrees01@btinternet.com>

From:	"johngilburn@owlertonstadium.co.uk" <johngilburn@owlertonstadium.co.uk> Add
To:
Cc:	kenspooner@owlertonstadium.co.uk

Steve,

Thanks for your e-mail following our meeting yesterday. Thanks also for the suggestion of a returnable £1,000 bond payment. However, the financial implications are not the real concern - my responsibility is to ensure the safety and welfare of all customers to the Stadium, the staff, and last but not least, the protection of the reputation of the company and the safeguarding of the licences. Therefore, I do not see the need to request you to deposit a bond.

Having discussed the matter with my colleagues and a number of other people, and having considered the matter very carefully, I have decided that for the time being, we will continue to stage Banger racing, but taking each meeting on a one-by-one basis. This means that the meeting in October can go ahead, but it is subject to the condition that you provide an additional three security officers, at your cost.

As long as the meetings take place without any similar major incident, we should be in a position to continue with future meetings, but we will obviously need to meet to have a full review.

Subject to the above, and assuming the next scheduled major event in May 2010 is able to take place, it is essential that we have meetings well in advance of the event, in order to plan the security aspect extremely carefully. As you are aware, neither of us can afford a repeat of what happened last Sunday.

I would also like to make it clear that I do not blame either you or the Banger drivers in any way for what happened, and I appreciate the support which many of the drivers have shown.

Kind regards.

JOHN

JOHN R. GILBURN
( Managing Director - Sheffield Sports Stadium Ltd )
DDI: 0114-281-6210

Quoting STEVEN REES <stevenrees01@btinternet.com>:

> John,
>
> Just a note to thank you for at least taking the time to see me and for the constructive nature of the dialogue.
>
> I am, as are the racing community, well aware of the seriousness of the potential consequences of Sunday's fracas and I am sure, like me wish to re-assure you there would be no repetition should your deliberations prove positive. We and they will undertake what practical additional measures you may require to provide such reassurrance.
>
> On reflection - and this suggestion came from Jackie, perhaps before each major Banger event, we paid a £1000 bond, returnable on each occasion may be a partial answer. The next major event is not scheduled until May 2010 allowing considerable time to plan accordingly.
>
> Hope you have a relaxing weekend, I am away today at Kings Lynn for the F1 World and a BriSCA F1 promoters meeting on Monday.
>
> Once again thank you for your time,
>
> Regards
>
> Steve

a bit late with this comment i know but trouble with the computer. first i would like to thank startrax for putting on one of the best banger meets ive seen for a long long time and also to andy holmes a personal friend and a fantastic banger racer who will be missed from future events. a big thankyou also goes to mr john gilburn for taking all the fact about the event that happened in the bar and not putting a stop to any future banger events at the superb venue. i hope now that the 2 litre battle of britain dous this stadium proud and we have another brilliant meeting that sheffield is famous for cheers david