Hearne Hill and Red Bull

I'm a fan of saving some historical locations which can still be used/ admired/ learned from. I think the Hearne Hill velodrome in London's South East can offer all of the above. It was built in 1891 and is the only remaining venue from the 1948 London Olympics. It's quite decrepid but there seems to be a local crew willing to do it up. It's a shame that this crew only became vocal when the council suggested they might smash it down, however, they seem to be getting a little attention now.
http://www.savethevelodrome.com/

I'm also a fan of taking established sports and offering them on a smaller scale in order to fit a party in there too. And thanks to this offering I have ended my one-man boycott of Red Bull after their poor treatment of should-be world F1 champion Mark Webber last season. This is the Red Bull Minidrome:

Red Bull Minidrome from Eyeball Moving Image on Vimeo.

The vid above was the last minidrome party in NZ (you can tell by people getting up after big stacks- cousies are hard!) but the German manufacturers of the velodrome claim that the new one for London is banked in a way that allows speeds of 80km/hr! There are 100 people entered and the top 32 go through to the finals at 7pm on Saturday night.

Luckily I will be there to induldge in what this blog post would have you believe are my two favourite passions; watching mini-sports and giving money to good charities because entry is through a donation to the Hearne Hill Velodrome Trust.

Come along and support if you can.

http://www.redbull.co.uk/cs/Satellite/en_UK/Event/RedBullMiniDrome--BikeSportsEvents--RedBull-021242923679584