Speedway's return stopped in its track as Ambulance Victoria withdraws its services

PREMIER Speedway tickets for its season-opener will be available on Thursday morning after the club found a solution to a last-minute curve ball.

The Allansford-based club spent Tuesday night and Wednesday searching for medical professionals for the New Year's Day meeting after Ambulance Victoria withdrew its services for the foreseeable future, throwing plans into chaos.

It announced last night "all should be in readiness for the January 1 start to what is the somewhat different looking 2020-21 season".

Tickets will go on sale to members at 9am.

There will be a crowd cap of 1000 owing to coronavirus restrictions.

UPDATED 4.15pm:

PREMIER Speedway general manager David Mills says the club has "made some inroads" in finding a medical assistance replacement for its season-opener on New Year's Day.

It comes after Ambulance Victoria withdrew its services.

"We've made some inroads. We're hoping that in the near future we might be onto something that may at least get us off the ground for January 1 and something longer-term as well," Mills told The Standard.

"We're still working through all the finer points at the moment but it's a lot more positive than it was 24 hours ago."

Mills said the club was "in the final stages of negotiations".

UPDATED, 12.30pm:

An Ambulance Victoria spokeswoman said it was a "difficult decision" to notify Premier Speedway that it was unable to provide a dedicated site presence for the foreseeable future.

"As we head into another busy summer and bushfire season our number one priority is to ensure we have sufficient resources to care for Victorians in their time of need," she said.

"We have already seen a rapid rebound in demand on our services since the lifting of Stage 3 and 4 COVID-19 restrictions across Victoria.

"While we support many local and major events we've made the difficult decision in notifying organisers that we are unable to provide a dedicated on site presence."

The spokeswoman said Ambulance Victoria would ensure local ambulance staffing was at a level where both the local community and those attending events received an ambulance if required.

"When analysing our need to be at this event, our data showed we saw only a small number of non-urgent patients who did not require urgent transport to hospital," she said.

"We thank the organisers for their understanding and have suggested that they approach alternative First Aid providers to provide registered paramedics."

Member for South West Coast Roma Britnell said Premier Speedway had been let down.

"Premier Speedway has been let down and has been left scrambling to find alternatives in just a few days after a year of cancellations and disappointments, it's the last thing they need," she said.

"Of course ensuring there are ambulances and paramedics available for urgent calls should be of priority - no one would ever deny that. This comes down to a lack of planning on behalf of Ambulance Victoria."

Ms Britnell said the "fatigue issues associated with the pandemic response had been well known for weeks and it was well known that Warrnambool's population increases significantly over the summer months".

"Ambulance Victoria should have taken this into account two weeks ago when approving plans," she said.

Earlier, 10.10am:

Premier Speedway general manager David Mills says the club has "irons in the fire" as it tries to secure a replacement medical service for its January 1 meeting.

It comes after Ambulance Victoria withdrew its services for the foreseeable future.

Mills said the club was speaking with potential suitors and was hoping it could "solider on" with its season-opener on New Year's Day.

"We have to meet some guidelines within our industry as well, it's more than just grabbing the first-aid man that comes past the gates," he said.

"We have a responsibility to be very diligent with this because it's about the health and welfare of all our competitors and, by extension of that, the paying public.

"There's some requirements from the Sprintcar Control Council of Australia. We need to meet with each supplier and then it's about the logistics and viability of it all because a lot of the organisations are quite sometime away.

"Some are Melbourne-based, some of Mildura-based. There are some that service other speedways across the state currently and we've been in touch with them late last night so hopefully we get some responses back in our favour and we can solider on."

Mills said Premier Speedway wanted to make a decision on January 1 before Christmas to be fair to drivers, volunteers and spectators.

He said drivers needed to prepare cars and visitors needed ample time to decide whether or not to commit to accommodation bookings.

"We are still asking sprintcar competitors to nominate, we'll hold off charging nomination fees at this stage, until we know 100 per cent we are going to race," he said.

Mills said the club had a strong working relationship with Ambulance Victoria.

"We've had great relationships, especially with the local paramedics that have served us," he said.

"Some have gone on to become club officials after enjoying the sport.

"Hopefully we don't lose those quality people to our venue and we can continue to operate."

He believes its decision to withdraw was "due to staffing issues".

"That's probably a result of the strain they have been under with COVID the last 10 months," Mills said.

"We understand that but something has obviously triggered it in the last two weeks since they approved it but that is up to its organisation to make those decisions.

"It's disappointing but I don't think speedway will be the only event or sporting body that will receive the same phone call."

EARLIER, 7am:

PREMIER Speedway's return has been halted with Ambulance Victoria withdrawing its services for the foreseeable future.

The club, which was forced to delay the start of its 2020-21 season due to coronavirus restrictions, expected to start selling tickets this week for its New Year's Day meeting after confirming patron numbers would be capped at 1000.

But the club said that would now be postponed after Ambulance Victoria announced on Tuesday that it would be withdrawing its services for the remainder of the season and the foreseeable future.

In a statement, the club said management had been "working hard in getting everything in line for the ticketing to go live, with members having only just received their priority access codes as reward for their support throughout what has been the greatest period of uncertainty for the club".

"After weeks and months of enduring the hardships of COVID-19, everyone at Premier Speedway was looking forward to a change in fortune as we actively pursued an eight-night season for what would have been the remainder of the 2020-21 season," the statement said.

"That change of fortune was flipped on its head, with Ambulance Victoria notifying the club on Tuesday that they would be withdrawing their services as approved only two weeks ago."

The club said it was back to the drawing board with management now in search of a replacement medical service.

"In accordance with the requirements of Speedway Australia, the Sprintcar Car Control Council of Australia and the relevant rule books of the sport in general, we have been forced to at the very least postpone the launch of our ticketing for the January 1 meeting by a minimum of 24 hours, with further updates to be provided," it said.

"The Management of Premier Speedway wish to apologise for the lateness of this announcement, however we literally took the call this afternoon and have been again wading through the logistics of how this will affect us going forward.

"We understand their may be some fans that feel aggrieved by this decision and subsequent announcement, however there is very little we can do until a replacement is found, a task that is already underway, with the club leaving no stone unturned in its search for a replacement medical provider."

The club said it had not yet drawn a line through the New Year's Day meeting but said "we will need a decent slice of luck, something that has been scarce in 2020, to ensure we can run this meeting in a viable and most importantly safe manner."

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