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Donington... the fallout
Topic Started: Dec 16 2009, 12:18 PM (1,131 Views)
John
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Speedworx,Dec 17 2009
06:55 PM
Its a shame your event got cancelled John. It would have been a good chance for someone to try and get some photos of the state of the track.

Never thought of that... the organisers are considering other suitable venues... one of the front runners is the Williams exhibition centre at their factory... now that would be worth a visit.
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sportsman
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Now Donigton's future lies with it's owners.Gillett has left them with a ruined track and now it's up to Wheatcroft family what they do with it.
Either rebuild it, or sell it again.Either way it's out of action as a race track for the next season.
The museum and collection are safe.Maybe the Wheatcrofts will re open the museum.


"Donington Park's future remains uncertain after the administrators were unable to find a buyer for Donington Ventures Leisure Limited's lease on the track.

The lease has now been returned to Wheatcroft and Son, the circuit's owner, with DVLL's staff made redundant.

"We have not managed to sell the lease and we have handed it back to the landlords," said Nigel Price, a partner at administrator Begbies Traynor, which was handling DVLL's situation.

"Although there have been many interested parties and detailed and lengthy negotiations, ultimately it has not been possibly to do a deal."

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/80674
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mrr9
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Administrators have failed to find a buyer for the lease on the Donington Park racetrack, it has been confirmed.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/leicest...ire/8429932.stm

what a shame this has to happen to such a good track

the only thing it be good for would be to turn the area into houses there is no chance of the people that own Donington to get any money to repair the damage done

and no one going to buy the lease for a race track without a working track

Mark
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Paul_Murtagh
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I hope someone can rescue Donington. It was a magnificant circuit before Gillett and his cronies turned up with Monoploy money to rebuilt the circuit. I hope that history repeats itself and Donington rises from the ashes once more to host racing, and maybe one day an F1 race again in the future
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HSX
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I'm fairly certain that the damage done to the place can be fixed easily. It's just a shame that the pie in the sky dreams caused the destruction in the first place. I never ever saw it becoming a reality and it makes me angry to think that Gillett has ruined a once great circuit.
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Steelstallions
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It really is a bargain for any company or organisation who specialises in running tracks or a company formed by experienced people wanting to take it on.
They have an international airport right next to it and the M1 is on its door step, its got history and its got space to expand.
I am not surprised no-one immediately is taking it on considering the economic climate, but I doubt this golden opportunity will not be taken on by some one in the future.
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sportsman
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It's not that much of a bargain.
This the original prees release. Motor Sport Vision were one of the interested parties but they didn't think it was such a good deal.And MSV have extensive experience in running racing circuits.

""However, there was still serious interest in the circuit as a national track, although the onerous terms of the lease meant that a deal could not be done in the relatively short timescale available to us."

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/80674

http://www.motorsportvision.co.uk/
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sportsman
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Seems odd we have a new topic on the same news.
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Red Andy
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sportsman,Dec 28 2009
01:40 PM
Seems odd we have a new topic on the same news.

Topics merged for ease of viewing. <thumbsup>
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Red Andy
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HSX,Dec 28 2009
11:45 AM
I never ever saw it becoming a reality and it makes me angry to think that Gillett has ruined a once great circuit.

Congratulations for predicting the credit crunch.
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GordonB
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Red Andy,Dec 28 2009
02:19 PM
HSX,Dec 28 2009
11:45 AM
I never ever saw it becoming a reality and it makes me angry to think that Gillett has ruined a once great circuit.

Congratulations for predicting the credit crunch.

You always trot out that line, but really, what's your point?

The crunch itself was predicted by many people - just because you didn't doesn't make it impossible to predict.

And really, it wasn't necessary to actually predict it, just to be prepared if it happened. Millions and millions of people and corporations managed this miraculous feat.
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Red Andy
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My point is that lots of people say, "I never thought Donington would be ready," but in reality, if not for the credit crunch they would have succeeded. People act as though it was Gillett's intention to bankrupt his company and render Donington unusable, but really DVLL were just caught out at the wrong time when large-scale construction projects suddenly became unfeasible.
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sportsman
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Red Andy,Dec 28 2009
03:00 PM
My point is that lots of people say, "I never thought Donington would be ready," but in reality, if not for the credit crunch they would have succeeded. People act as though it was Gillett's intention to bankrupt his company and render Donington unusable, but really DVLL were just caught out at the wrong time when large-scale construction projects suddenly became unfeasible.

That's not quite true.Gillett does have a history of doing similair things before.And DVLL were a brand new company which was formed to buy the Donington lease.
DVLL had no assets at all of their own,all they had was a 150 year lease on Donington and a 17year contract for the British GP.
They had no credit rating,no collateral, in short they had nothing to use a security for financing.So they intended to use a debenture scheme to raise the neccessasy funds for the construction work.
Debenture schemes are very, very risky investment.Even without the credit crunch he would have struggled to raise the financing he needed.

This is worth reading.

http://www.pitpass.com/fes_php/pitpass_new...es_art_id=38020
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Brave_Lee_Flea
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sportsman,Dec 28 2009
04:02 PM
Red Andy,Dec 28 2009
03:00 PM
My point is that lots of people say, "I never thought Donington would be ready," but in reality, if not for the credit crunch they would have succeeded. People act as though it was Gillett's intention to bankrupt his company and render Donington unusable, but really DVLL were just caught out at the wrong time when large-scale construction projects suddenly became unfeasible.

That's not quite true.Gillett does have a history of doing similair things before.
.
.
.
Debenture schemes are very, very risky investment.Even without the credit crunch he would have struggled to raise the financing he needed.

This is worth reading.

http://www.pitpass.com/fes_php/pitpass_new...es_art_id=38020

Interesting though it is that link has been posted before in response to Red Andy's unreasonably stubborn defence of Gillett. Didn't make any difference then either.... <hitwall>
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sportsman
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Odd that.I work in the construction industry.We specialise in fast track construction projects including contracts of this size.
From the PDF files that Donington published, myself and Flood1 who also has a great deal of experience in fast track construction wre able to do a take off of materials, calculate construction time and methods and cost.
I asked one of our accountants to look up DVLL's credit score.We obviously subscribe to various companies who provide this information on any limited company or PLC.
They will also run a background check on the directors.I was very interested in approaching DVLL to put in a tender for this job.That was until we got the credit report.
No way would we sign any contract with any company on such a shaky finanacial footing.
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