Mallory Park fears track will close unless landowner Titan helps

Ian Robert, of accountancy firm Kingston Smith & Partners, has been tasked with resolving the affairs of circuit operator Mallory Park Motorsport Limited, after it was placed into administration earlier this week.

Robert said he had tried unsuccessfully to meet with Titan, the property company owned by former racer Chris Meek that saved Mallory from closure by buying it 30 years ago.

Mallory has been embroiled in a long-running noise row with its local Leicestershire community, and was recently fined £2,500 and ordered to pay £23,000 in costs after being found guilty in court of operating outside the limits set down in its local planning agreement.

MPML, which operated the circuit on behalf of the British Automobile Racing Club, drew up a plan to secure the future of the circuit, which required Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council to increase the number of days Mallory can operate for, and for Titan to agree to a short-term reduction in the amount of rent payable to lease the site.

The directors of MPML put the company into administration when they failed to agree a compromise with Titan.

Administrator Robert told AUTOSPORT that Titan would have to come back to the negotiating table in order to find a way forward.

"There's a real chance the whole thing will be shut down," Robert warned. "We're not running races, testing is cancelled; if I was a landlord I would think it better to have something than nothing.

"I don't understand what's driving them. It's not like a house, where if you need rent you just find another person. This is a specialist site and I can't imagine there are lots of people queuing up.

"The landlord has a perfectly legitimate contractual right to receive rent, but because of [recent] events they are not going to get a penny.

"In a few months time, I don't want people to say what a shame it is that Mallory has become run down, but that is what will happen if the landlord doesn't play ball."