January 30/04 2:06 am - Chico Racing & Hardwood Discuss Event Cancellation

Posted by Editor on 01/30/04
 

Chico Racing Drops 24 Hour Event

Earlier today Adam Ruppel of Chico Racing released a statement saying that his company was cancelling the 24 hour event they were scheduled to present at Hardwood Hills on August 21-22. The full statement of the release can be found in our 9:55 am Daily News posting today.

We have since spoken with Adam Ruppel and Glen Meeuwisse of Hardwood Hills regarding the stituation. Mr Ruppel stated that the reason for cancelling the event was because of the ongoing dispute with Twenty4 Sports regarding the rights to hold a 24 hour event at Hardwood Hills. Twenty4 Sports is the company that is owned by the principals of the bankrupt Trilife Inc., who formerly held the 24 Hours of Adrenalin event at Hardwood. After the bankruptcy, Hardwood signed an agreement with Chico Racing to hold a 24 hour event, which Twenty4 Sports is disputing, saying that they bought the contract as part of the asset sale for Trilife. Twenty4 Sports is promoting their own event at Hardwood on the above date, and is taking registrations.

"I am not comfortable with the double promotion going on." said Ruppel. "We have had no correspondence with Twenty4 Sports except for one letter basically threatening us. From a business standpoint our options were running under the current controversy, which had too many ifs, or our other option was to go forward with legal action (to stop Twenty4 Sports promoting their event). The costs involved and the timeline (until the event) didn't make business sense. We are just a small company, and the costs could go through the roof. Even if we won I was not too confident about getting our court costs covered (Twenty4 Sports has stated that one of the reasons they (as Trilife) declared bankruptcy was to get out from under legal fees and costs). Walking away was the right thing to do - we couldn't take riders money for an event that may not happen."

Glen Meeuwisse said in a telephone interview: "we totally understand and respect what Adam has done. I would probably do the same in the same situation. It's just not worth the legal costs involved. Of course we are disappointed that there will be no 24 hour event at Hardwood this year, but we support Chico Racing."

Mr Meeuwisse said that there was no chance of Twenty4 Sports holding a 24 hour event at Hardwood Hills this season, despite the claims by Twenty4 Sports that they purchased the Trilife contract as part of the assets. "We have had letters back and forth (with Twenty4 Sports), but our position has been verified by the Public Trustee, our lawyers, and every other legal opinion we can find."

"It's unfortunate - we've had a number of telephone calls from riders today, asking about the event - it's going to be the riders who suffer. It is just a bad situation all round."