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| Donington... the fallout | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Dec 16 2009, 12:18 PM (1,129 Views) | |
| Brave_Lee_Flea | Dec 28 2009, 10:53 PM Post #31 |
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Maybe my comment *was* a bit too punchy. Apologies. To be honest, even without the inside information you had available to you, from the day it was announced it seemed obvious to me that the Donington Project was over-reaching. I don't have any experience of construction projects but I used a simple logic; if Silverstone, which needed far less construction work than Donington, couldn't make the sums add up then I couldn't see how DVLL would be able to pull a rabbit from the hat. At the time we didn't know anything about Mr Gillett but, you know, if something seems to good to be true then it usually is. Maybe Red Andy is right, maybe if there had not been a credit crunch the project might have succeeded but I think they'd just have had problems further down the road, perhaps when Bernie's escalator started to really bite (this was after all Silverstone's sticking point and it was only when Bernie reduced the annual escalator that they finally signed up). It doesn't give me any pleasure that I was right to doubt DVLL's ability to pull it off as I have always loved the Donington circuit ever since I did my first motorcycle race school there and the project has failed far more spectacularly than I had imagined but to me it was always unrealistic. |
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| Steelstallions | Dec 29 2009, 12:11 AM Post #32 |
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Considering the information you gathered without the financial interest someone like Ecclestone has in the project, it shows that the whole thing for him was as a lever to use on Silverstone and maybe he knew it was dead in the water but offered the deal to let Gillett burn to secure the Silverstone contract. Blood on the carpet or just making a conspiracy of a sad episode of Donnington race track
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| GordonB | Dec 29 2009, 09:15 AM Post #33 |
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As you say, the evidence points to the possibility that Donington may have been "set up" by Bernie. Possibly, though, Bernie just thought "what have I got to lose? if Donington fails, I can always go back to Silverstone and get a deal with them." Bernie is the ultimate deal-maker. He works by playing bidders off against each other. I think it's no coincidence that the British GP deal wasn't "properly" done until there were two players in the mix - Donington and Silverstone. He does this on a grander scale too - he's always visiting new countries or venues and implying that a deal is all but done. This allows him to squeeze more money out of the existing venues. He's a very clever man, and it's all based on the fact that he absolutely, resolutely refuses to care about the fate of individual venues or races. The sad thing is that the excellent Donington track has paid the ultimate price for his Machiavellian wheeler-dealing. |
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| sportsman | Dec 29 2009, 09:40 AM Post #34 |
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It's possibly that.But that is ignoring the fact that Mr.Gillett pocketed £253,000 in salary last year. Birds of a feather springs to mind |
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| sportsman | Jan 6 2010, 03:46 PM Post #35 |
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This sounds very positve.They have reopened the museum and the cafe and race control. And the money to make it usable again is not such a huge sum. "Kevin Wheatcroft, son of former circuit boss Tom Wheatcroft, who died last year, said efforts to get the track open again were underway. "I can reassure people we are doing everything we can to get things back to normal at Donington Park," Wheatcroft told the Derby Telegraph. "It has been a very difficult time for the whole family, especially with the death of my father being played out against the problems at the circuit. "We were given back the keys to the circuit back and immediately started to work out what happens next. The first thing has been to try to save as many jobs as possible. As of this week, we have reopened the museum and cafe and race control office. "We have been assessing what is required to put things back as they were. We reckon this will cost in the region of about £600,000, but to get it up to grand prix standard you could add a couple of zeroes. "We want to get the place operational again. Hopefully we can get up and running again as soon as possible." http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/80753 |
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| John | Jan 6 2010, 03:55 PM Post #36 |
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Hooray!!!!! I hope it can be made usable ASAP |
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| Steelstallions | Jan 6 2010, 04:07 PM Post #37 |
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That's the price of a small piece of building land................and they have flaming field after field of space they could sell if the liquid money is not available. Sounds very very good indeed.
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| John | Jan 6 2010, 04:14 PM Post #38 |
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Yes but selling land around circuits to build houses only allows people to move in to them and complain they make noise when they race...
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| AndyW76 | Jan 6 2010, 04:24 PM Post #39 |
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Lets hope that a sense of normality returns soon. Donnington is a great track and it would have been a shame to see it fall to rack and ruin. I was hoping that they would still adopt the proposed new layout, though I can't see that happening for the sums of money being talked about. |
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| John | Jan 6 2010, 04:32 PM Post #40 |
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not unless Silverstone take on too much and fail and berni goes offering the GP back to Donington
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| Steelstallions | Jan 6 2010, 04:37 PM Post #41 |
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You don't think i meant the land around the circuit did you? They own a lot more land than that and its very far away from the circuit.
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| John | Jan 6 2010, 04:44 PM Post #42 |
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