Matt Bates comments on the Greedy/Featherstone incident

Things got heated between Ashley Greedy and Gradie Featherstone during the Birmingham Arenacross which has led to both riders getting an immediate competitive ban taking any further part in MCF sanctioned events and Arenacross.

Ashley Greedy (33) will receive an eighteen-month full MCF competition ban whilst Gradie Featherstone (3) will receive a twelve-month full MCF competition ban as in line within the 2020 MCF rules, regulations and sporting codes of conduct.

Matt Bates who runs the Arenacross UK series has shared his thoughts on the matter and posted the following message to social media.

This might be worth a read; Never has the saying ‘You’re damned if you do, You’re damned if you don’t’ ever meant so much. The point that I so badly want to get across in the best possible way is, whether I’m a promoter that creates the show or an organiser that stages a race series, I DON’T twist the throttle on any of those bikes.

I want to be clear; I don’t want to see riders getting injured and I definitely don’t want to see grown adults fighting on the track in front of young families and children (my kids were in the audience too). I don’t want mums, dads and girlfriends of grown adult riders abusing our crew and each other.

I take the risks, create the hype, the buzz, and a place for a sport to be showcased in some pretty nice indoor places when all there normally is in the winter months is mud and no fans. I’ve been personally slammed for not making decisions when some of our racing has got out of hand… so now, along with the MCF, we’ve made the decision that so many have asked for, and that’s very clearly the correct decision despite some not agreeing.

In 5 minutes of madness, Saturday night became an absolute shocking disgrace that was born out of many culminating factors that stretch across years of ‘issues’ between riders. Please don’t think that these riders that we build the hype around are given an open-door to do what they wish on the track – believe me, they know the rules and they are grown men with an ability to twist the throttle or back off.

For the other 3hrs & 35 minutes, the event, the racing, the show and the sport sat under a massively positive spotlight. Just like it has done over the other 55 nights we’ve staged events over 8 years with tens of thousands of ‘new bike’ fans!

So let’s move on, drop the negativity, trust the right people are doing the right jobs (even if you don’t always agree) and carry on as we were but in a slightly better place. After all, what else would you all be debating about on a Sunday if AX wasn’t here??