Speedway burger bar smashed

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Thieves broke into the Gisborne Host Lions burger bar at the Eastland Group Raceway at the weekend.

Club members now have a lot of extra work to do to prepare for Saturday night’s opening speedway meeting.

The intruders smashed two windows to get into the burger bar and obviously injured themselves in the process.

“One of our volunteers went there on Friday to prepare the cooking vats and everything was fine,” said club spokeswoman Maree Young.

“They went back yesterday and found the damage.”

She said among the items stolen was their first aid kit.

“There was blood around, so they had obviously cut themselves getting in.

“A fire had been lit on the window sill and bench, but fortunately it went out before it could take hold.”

The intruders also took the bar’s eftpos machine and took the till outside where it was smashed up.

“There’s never any money left in it, so there was nothing for them to steal,” Mrs Young said.

“They contaminated the cooking oil in the vats by putting some cans of fly spray into them and caused significant damage to the roller blind.

“Strangely they left food stuffs behind. There was plenty of canned food and fresh cheese in the fridge but they left that alone.”

The thieves took some bottled water and cans of soft drink.

“We’re absolutely devastated by this,” said Mrs Young. “We’re a club of volunteers who work damned hard at the speedway to feed people, and all the profits we make are given back to the community.

“With the first meeting on Saturday we’re under pressure now to have repairs made and get things organised to be operational again by Saturday, which we are confident we will be able to do.

“But it has created a lot of extra work for us and put a lot of stress on our members.”