Weather causes a weekend of chaos
By Sean Lawless on 8th Mar 17
Bad weather caused chaos last weekend, forcing the cancellation of a number of major events in the UK.
While competitors at the MXGP of Indonesia faced appalling track conditions, the most high-profile victim of the UK weather was the opening round of the Michelin MX Nationals at FatCat Motoparc in South Yorkshire.
Heavy rain leading up to the event flooded the track and the promoter made the brave decision to pull the plug two days before.
"After a track inspection at 8am the track is waterlogged,” explained MX Nationals spokesman Elliot Spencer. "More rain came last night and with two days of rain due leading up to the weekend we have been forced to cancel the event.
"Working closely with the track owners, we have tried to make this decision as early as possible to avoid people travelling and minimise any costs incurred.
"The team at MX Nationals want to produce the best possible events and we do not cancel events easily as anyone that was at round one last year knows but on this occasion we do not feel that it would be possible to provide a national-level event this weekend.”
A decision is still to be made regarding
re-scheduling the event.
Three days later – and 160 miles to the west – WOR Events boss Steve Ireland was forced to cancel the timecard enduro planned for Llandrillo Forest in North Wales after a freak blizzard deposited at least five inches of snow on the venue in the space of 20 minutes.
‘Well bloody hell – what a seven hours that's just been!' stated Ireland later that day on social media. ‘A massive dumping of snow that was not forecast! Unreal how it came in. Meant we had to shut down the event for everyone's safety.
‘Massive thanks to all the staff for helping sort it all out. We will make an announcement very soon on the rescheduling of this round one timecard series'.
With more bad weather forecast WOR Events has also cancelled its meetings planned for this weekend but remains confident the opening round of the National Hare Scrambles series at Baden Hall on March 18/19 will go ahead.
