Barford Being Bad Boys...

In happier times..

Breaking news this week surrounded Barford Raceway - who fell out of the ORCi. The statement was follows....

"North East Stock Car Promotions, which promotes at Barford, have had their membership of the ORCi suspended.
North East Stock Car Promotions is an Associate Member of the ORCi.  That membership has been suspended, pending an investigation into alleged infringements of membership rules, with specific regard to being complicit in misleading the oval racing community about the status of Ringwood Raceway.
The Oval Racing Council International wishes to make it clear, that Ringwood Raceway is not a member promotion/track of the ORCi, nor does it have any recognised link with the ORC via North East Stock Car Promotions.
Drivers, spectators and officials are advised that, until this matter has been resolved, any racing at Barford Raceway would not be run under the auspices of the ORCi and would therefore not have insurance cover via the approved ORCi insurance operator."

So its very very, worrying news from the North East which will have dramatic consequences for the sport as a whole. Now we knew that the promoter, Cyril Whitfield had been sniffing around Ringwood for a while. Whether it was an attempt to bring Ringwood back out from the cold, or whether it was a chance to build an empire we will struggle to know but....

Trojan (promoters of Ringwood) has responded....

Trojan International Statement Reference ORCi
It has been brought to our attention with our partners North East Stock Cars (Barford Raceway) that membership with the ORCi regarding Barford and us as an affiliation to North East Stock cars has today had membership suspended from the ORCi, We can confirm that both ourselves and Barford are seeking further legal advice regarding this situation and how the ORCi are conducting themselves.
Further details will be posted in due course.

Kind Regards
Craig Robinson
Promoter

then.....

Trojan Statement
I am looking after the driver interest here, this situation has been long coming we have twice this season been accepted and given orci log books from orci themselves, twice we have spent a lot of time and monies updating internal paperwork after being given the go ahead to licence drivers with nesc at barford on the grounds that by receiveing the log books for orci and to be able to licence drivers for the group.

We have taken monies from drivers when issuing orci licences and it is them drivers that have also had to pay day licence as the licences issued by us for orci have not been accepted by orci promoters! my point is why send me the log books from orci directly asking me to issue them twice this season only to have drivers turned away unless they pay again at orci licenced tracks.

This whole orci situation has to stop, a statement has been made by orci that (barford) insurance is not in place, I can give reasurance that that is not the case as drivers who I have down here who are attending barfords christmas meeting have asked and this statement is NOT true the insurance is in place at Barford.

I can let you know that any Orci driver licence will be honoured in full at Ringwood Raceway and we will continue to honour the ORCi bans list and hope this situation is resolved in the interest of the SPORT and for DRIVERS as a whole.

We have asked for a meeting with the ORCi directly and are awaiting their responce for the benefit of us all and the drivers who unfortunatley will suffer because of politics if this is not sorted.

Kind regards
craig

Ringwood - the trojan horse....

The track is now classified as an "outlaw". If drivers choose to race at the Barnard Castle track, then sadly, a 12 month ban is automatically issued for racing on an unlicensed track. So a lot of drivers face an agonising choice of whether they can actually race at their local track and being a national pariah, or hitting the road to to Skegness, Buxton, Cowdenbeath et al, or selling up.

Questions have to be asked of Brisca F2 - why did they give the sports main event to a track who's promotion if it was under investigation...

Questions have also been asked over the whole tired affair.

A Solution is needed and quick, and there has to be some give from both sides. In this time of dwindling tracks, and tracks under constant threat, the ORCi needs to make sure that new opportunities to grab venues to race at are taken at every opportunity, but not so promoters can run roughshod.

Decisive action regarding the World Final needs to be taken as soon as possible. How embarrasing will it be to any potential suitors and sponsors at the NEC to be told that they don't know where the sports premier race is going to take place.

It's a silly empasse which should have been avoided, but the blame is clear to see.