The Elise Trophy rounds at Donington Park on 18th/19th April have been cancelled due to the event being cancelled by the event organisers MSVR.
Statement from MotorSport Vision Racing:-
MotorSport Vision Racing (MSVR), the racing division of MSV, has been forced to cancel its scheduled race event at Donington Park on 18/19 April as the circuit does not possess a valid, full track licence.
Following widely publicised concerns regarding recent development work at the circuit, MSVR requested assurances from Donington that all necessary works for the venue to receive a valid track licence from the governing body of motorsport in the UK, the MSA, would be completed ahead of the MSVR 'Blast in the Park' event in nine days' time. Mindful of the importance of competitors' planning and arrangements, Donington Park was given a deadline of 1pm today (Thursday 9 April) to address these concerns. However, MSVR received no communication from the circuit.
A spokesman for the MSA has also confirmed that they will not issue the circuit with a track licence until the circuit has been inspected and fully complies with MSA regulations. Accordingly, MSVR has been left with no alternative but to cancel the event in order to give the competitors, marshals and officials as much notice as reasonably possible.
MotorSport Vision's Chief Executive Jonathan Palmer said: "It's extremely disappointing that this remarkable situation has occurred, and that we have been forced to cancel our event at Donington Park due to the lack of a valid track licence. This has caused significant disruption to all of MSVR's competitors and series, including Formula Palmer Audi, that were due to race next weekend."
"It is quite unsatisfactory and particularly unacceptable that we have received no communication from the circuit on the matter. We are currently in discussions with all our series and championship coordinators to arrange alternative dates and venues, and these will be confirmed at the earliest opportunity."
From exiges.com
For those that do not know the reason that the MSA have refused to issue a track licence is the new dual-carriageway tunnel between McLeans and Coppice (basically the old one made a lot bigger ready for the construction team for the F1 party) SEE HERE has left a smaller run off area and an 'elephant trap' on both sides of the track, i.e. if you go off there you could easily end up in the tunnel entrance or exit, both of which are about a 30feet cube with vertical stressed concrete steel rod strengtheners sticking up from the bottom!(and which will probably become the base of the new bridge supports).
The MSA have refused a track licence so far (I think this will not be a problem once the F1 track is complete and bthe tunnel replaced by a bridge - the tunnel is for construction.)
I'm not sure how much of the infield is left for spectators - it is becoming one big building site and certainly the VSCC has been told that there will be very litle of the infield available for our meeting in September.
750MC held a race meeting last Saturday and HSCC last Sunday. Donington had been granted a temporary track licence for the weekend but it stipulated NO OVERTAKING ALLOWED between McLeans and Coppice. In the event the stewards on the day extended the no overtaking zone back towards Starkey's and the run up to Macleans, effectively neutralisung a large part of the overtaking zone of the circuit.
MSV are, of course, headed by a clever businessman who has turned MSV venues into 'gardens of England' that are well presented and very usable by organising clubs. Donington has some learning to do in this respect and this cancellation is bound to end up in the courts.
One of the partners (Lee Gill) has pulled out and there is a big row about his share holdings I believe. This fuels the worry that Donington simply don't have the money to put this right in the short term. There are also rumours that Donington Park Ventures (the operating company that Gill left and which is now in the hands of Simon Gillet, his former partner) owes the owner (Tom Wheatcroft) quite a lot of rent on the 150 year lease but this has been denied. In February, Autosport reported that Max Mosley has said that the FIA would be willing to help keep the British Grand Prix on the Formula One calendar if the national governing body (the MSA) approached it in the event of problems with Donington Park's rebuild.
