Donington this weekend - Is it on? - It is NOW! - And there's more!

[Suze]

In a nutshell, it's about a quarter page story where Gillett has said sorry to racers affected by the issues, and says he "understands it is disappointing and he understands the level of work and financial commitment by organisers." Article also says they expect it to be sorted within a few weeks, and also quotes the Masters statement from last week saying they're pushing ahead.

[Piglet]

Originally Posted by Suze

In a nutshell, it's about a quarter page story where Gillett has said sorry to racers affected by the issues, and says he "understands it is disappointing and he understands the level of work and financial commitment by organisers." Article also says they expect it to be sorted within a few weeks, and also quotes the Masters statement from last week saying they're pushing ahead.

Don't suppose he mentions reimbursing the wasted costs that teams and organisers lost last weekend

[Suze]

Do I need to answer that..............?





No is the answer!!

[Piglet]

Originally Posted by Suze

Do I need to answer that..............?





No is the answer!!

I guessed as much!

[Peter Mallett]

Thanks Suze. Sounds a bit like damage limitation to me.

[Suze]

Yes, though I suspect some might say it's a bit late for that....!

[Andrew Kitson]

Oh dear, doesn't look good:
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/74717

[simon drabble]

this had a certain air of inevitability about it......... so Moscow GP in July from 2010 then!

[Andrew Kitson]

That story has just been on the BBC news too.

[Peter Mallett]

And indeed the BEEB. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/moto...ne/8015028.stm

[rogerwills]

Originally Posted by simon drabble

this had a certain air of inevitability about it......... so Moscow GP in July from 2010 then!

Doubt there is money for that either!

[Al Weyman]

What a set up, I think we have all been had.

[Dave 455]

Some people have, others already knew what a mess Gillett was in, be prepared for a DVLL goes into liquidation annoucement soon, not sure what effect that will have on any if the events due to go ahead in the near future. Shame this runied the Donny 09 season, HSCC/MGCC with the yelloe flag zone, MSVR cancelled, F3/GT postponed?, Britcar cancelled, AMOC cancelled. Don't know what will happen with the rest of the calendar, but as of today only 1 digger around the Coppice/Mcleans area, hardly rapid progress towards track rectification.
The sunner Tom can get the lease of Simo the better, scrap the 2010 GP, jsut get Donny racing again, for the racers, for the marshalls and for the fans. Kepp F1 at Silverstone, it's got brilliant facilaties.

[grantp]

Originally Posted by Dave 455

.... but as of today only 1 digger around the Coppice/Mcleans area, hardly rapid progress towards track rectification.

Other parts of your post notwithstanding ...

So how many diggers can you get working on a section of a relatively small tunnel?

On a persoanl level I am fairly agnostic about whether Bernie's circus comes to town although without the MotoGP from 2010 the Wheatcrofts would have a somewhat less prestigious circuit on their books. But then who knows what the future holds for MotoGP or any of the other majors?

If F1 caps budgets (but not drivers apparently - so they could pay the drivers and then get the drivers to pay for their seats in some way that adds to the budget?????) then there is a chance that the 'spectacle' may lose its sparkle. What price would a ticket sell for then? It could be a good one to lose provided it is at someone else's expensie.


Grant

[Dave 455]

, the tunnell is small but it shouldn't be, it reduces the run off at both sides between Mcleans and Coppice to nearly nothing. It needs to be 3 times longer. The circuit shut for 3 months to build this tunnell, how long is it going to take to extend it to get a track licence? The Masters Series are due their in 2.5 weeks!

[SZRacer]

Hmmm......during all this debacle, I wondered (and still wonder) what the qualifications/experience of DVLL were to attempt this sort of infrastructure (and financing) project. So, thanks to the power of the web, here's what I found:


"Lee Gill* and Simon Gillett are the new owners of Donington Park. They come from very diverse backgrounds with Gill having spent much of his career at Marks & Spencer PLC, where he held several executive positions, working mainly in the supply chain. He then moved on to join i2 Technologies Inc, a NASDAQ-quoted supply chain company for which he worked as head of retail in Europe, Middle East, Africa and Russia. He believes that attention to detail is the secret of success and sees much potential to improve customer focus in the leisure industry. Simon Gillett was a regular visitor to racing in his childhood as his father was in charge of sponsorship for Elf in the UK. He started his professional career as weapons engineer with the Royal Navy but then moved into the software world, before creating his own retail consultancy business. He embarked on the plan to buy Donington in 2005.
The funding for the project is coming from the two men, from a property investment company and from the Anglo Irish Bank."


*Left DVLL in 2008.


So, let's see - We have two people from a retail background (nothing wrong with that - I'm a retailer myself ), finding the project via property investments (in 2009? Yikes!!), and the Anglo Irish Bank (also yikes!).


One would presume that if the other cash was due to be raised from debentures, to go on sale, as they quoted, 'in March 2009' - Then you would have thought they would have started selling the debentures PDQ!!


James

[Peter Horsman]

I don't think we've all been had. Not very many of us thought that this was ever going to be posible, let alone within the timescale, and so we've not been had. And I would hazrad a guess that what we clearly saw, Mr Ecclestone was probably on to fairly early.......

[Piglet]

To many of us the GP was always a non starter, the deal was clearly rushed through to allow it to be announced at the Silverstone GP in 2008 thus giving BCE the chance to make the BRDC squirm under the media spotlight on home turf. Gillet I'm sure was flattered that BCE though he was a serious player (as arguably Nicola Foulston was before him and at least she was a serious player!). BCE of course didn't really care too much, he wanted a way of poking the BRDC in the eye and if one is very cynical a way to get rid of the BGP without it being his fault.

When looking at the infrastructure changes required to allow the BGP to run at Donington, nothwithstanding the issue of planning consent, it was always going to be an ambitious project for any organisation that was well managed, well funded and competent. It now appears that DVLL have few of those attributes.

Where are we now? We have a massive amount of rent outstanding and the Wheatcrofts' sueing for forefiture of the lease. Do we think DVLL has the money to complete the works correctly and to be able to run the BGP? We don't really know, but it has to be looking even less likely than it ever was, especially with the ever decreasing timescales.

What are the options? DVLL going into Administration has to be one of the real options - if that happens, the lease will go with them and the W's won't be able to forfeit against them without the consent of the Court, I can't see control returning to the W's before the end of this summer - this would in the worst case scenario leave them trying to reinstate the circuit at a time when there is no revenue coming in and I'm still not convinced that anyone prudent would want to be running a race circuit in this current financial climate.

I really hope that Donington comes out intact at the end of this debacle. I don't really care whether they run a GP there.

It's interesting to me that this has echoes of the whole Octagon debacle and whilst Gillet complains that nobody takes him seriously because he doesn't have Petrol oozing through his veins, it does go to show that perhaps Motorsport is a different sector to many other businesses and unless you do understand it well it will come and bite you on the bum!

[Andrew Kitson]

A very good post Piglet.

[JimW]

Originally Posted by Piglet

. . . What are the options? DVLL going into Administration has to be one of the real options - if that happens, the lease will go with them and the W's won't be able to forfeit against them without the consent of the Court,. . .

Yes - good summary Piglet.

But can you explain the quoted bit in more detail? If one of the company's debts is the rent, past and future, why would not the lease revert to TW more or less immediately. We see the notices on shops about the lease having reverted to the owners because of unpaid rent.

Regards

Jim

[grantp]

Originally Posted by Dave 455

, the tunnell is small but it shouldn't be, it reduces the run off at both sides between Mcleans and Coppice to nearly nothing. It needs to be 3 times longer. The circuit shut for 3 months to build this tunnell, how long is it going to take to extend it to get a track licence? The Masters Series are due their in 2.5 weeks!

I was thinking more in terms of width than length of course but I'm not surprised that you (presumably) chose to ignore that in order to continue your theme at any cost.

[Piglet]

Originally Posted by JimW

Yes - good summary Piglet.

But can you explain the quoted bit in more detail? If one of the company's debts is the rent, past and future, why would not the lease revert to TW more or less immediately. We see the notices on shops about the lease having reverted to the owners because of unpaid rent.

Regards

Jim

This is becoming a real bugbear for property owners and there are a number of scenarios in this case:

1. Wheatcroft & Son (W) sue DVL for unpaid rent under the lease and request forfeiture as their remedy. The lawyers will argue about it for a couple of months, it'll take them a couple of months to get a court date but if the court finds in W's favour then the lease would revert to them. This will take a couple of months though and IMO will take them past the end of the summer. It's a good result for W (except the almost certainly won't get the rent!) but it aint going to hapen over night.

2. W sue DVL for unpaid rent BUT DVL go into Administration. One of the wonders of the Administration system is that their is an embargo on Creditors hassling and taking action against the tenant without the consent of the Court.

For Landlord's this is a nightmare, the Administrators might go into occupation and run the business from the premises, but there is no real prospect that the Landlord will get any rent and there is very little that the Landlord can do about it until the Administrator unravels the affairs and works out that there isn't enough money to pay anyone AND crucially in this scenario they can't get control back again without the consent of the Court and that isn't always forthcoming and again will take time.

The Adminstrators can disclaim the lease on the basis that it is a liability but in reality this doesn't happen for some time so again is likely to mean some time without either rent or control of the circuit.

I've dealt with some retail properties where the original tenant has gone into Admistration, the Administrators have run the business as it stands, the Administrators have then negotiated the sale of the business to NewCo we've then spent months dealing with the assignment of the property to NewCo (who are usually in occupation and trading (under the original tenant name usually) but the L looks the other way as it's better not to know) only for it to all fall apart at the end when the NewCo decides (having tested the market with no risk and for not much outlay) that they don't want to trade from that location!

Sorry...in a rush so not sure if that makes sense? apologies for spelling!

[Al Weyman]

Originally Posted by Peter Horsman

I don't think we've all been had. Not very many of us thought that this was ever going to be posible, let alone within the timescale, and so we've not been had. And I would hazrad a guess that what we clearly saw, Mr Ecclestone was probably on to fairly early.......

Sorry Peter, you and others prehaps more in the know may not concider you have been had but for the rest of mere mortal who maybe nieve enough to believe what we were told then we indeed have been had!

[Al Weyman]

I would also add reading Piglets post that just prehaps the reason behind this fiasco may well be just so the present lease holders can wriggle out of their commitment to run the track as they obviously are getting into financial trouble and not doing a good job with it and the whole tunnel thing is completely planned because no one in my opinion can be so stupid to build that tunnel like this, the whole thing stinks and I reiterate that we and maybe the Wheatcrofts have infact been 'had'. I say this as a man who has been had a few times by companies going into liquidation with my money so nothing surprises me in this country.

[JimW]

Thanks Piglet - much clearer.

I must say that the idea of a firm of accountants running Donington has a certain macabre attraction.

Jim