JOIN US“We are not the ones that cancelled the races, the races were cancelled by the BTC,” Vinod Sivappa, president of KROA told a press conference on Tuesday.
“The request for two extra race days made by us was not unreasonable. Two-and-a-half months back, the then acting chairman of BTC (M Lokesh), in a joint meeting, promised us two extra race days.
“But after the current chairman (Harindra Shetty) came back from holiday, despite several written requests from us on the above subject, declined to offer us those extra race days. Which is why we were left with no choice but to do what we did at the paddock on Thursday,” he added.
The BTC chairman had said the cancellation of races was due to the acrimonious behaviour of a few owners.
KROA secretary, Arvind Raghavan justified the decision to protest during the races on Thursday. “There were certain promises that were made which were not kept. So in order to highlight those issues we did what we thought was best for the future of racing in Bangalore,” he said in response to a question.
When asked if dialogue between the BTC and the various associations was not the way forward, Sivappa said, “We’re willing to co-operate, but not with the present management.”