NI Road Racing -The End?

[Dodgy69]

300k... I'm sure there's some big names who could sort this with one push of a button.

[Yorick]

I've heard there's a big gofundme thingy going on.

Let's see which local firms see it will help them

[Tricky]

Let's hope there is some way forward for the sport. It's part of the scenery here and I'm kinda shell shocked.

Agree, me too, and I have everything crossed that it can be sorted, at least partially in terms of the previous calendars- it's fabulous entertainment and something that I ( and I hope a large number of other spectators) would contribute to see it continue

[Rockburner]

I always thought the insurance for events like that would be astronomical, tbh it's less than I was expecting.

I hope they find a way to carry on!

[Bigjawa]

I've heard there's a big gofundme thingy going on.

Let's see which local firms see it will help them

It got to 80k very quickly buts it's tailed off. Biggest donation was 5k

[Dodgy69]

What happens to the money if they don't get enough.

[weeksy]

[Whysub]

I posted this in the bickering forum, for those that don´t go to that dark place here´s a copy and paste

My local road racing will return this July. I apologise in advance for the Facebook link but it's the most up to date info although nothing on this years dates yet. It's in a place called Algueña which is a 40 minute drive from Alicante airport.

https://www.facebook.com/motoclubalguenya/

I contacted the Algueña town hall a few weeks ago, and they confirmed the date for the racing is 2nd July this year.

Incidentally, I rode through there today, trying to find a few nice roads to ride when friends come over. It's 25 minutes ride from my house.

I can also confirm that the road surfaces through the town aren't billiard table smooth, but then they just race 80cc and 125cc GP classes, and Supermoto (unlimited cc I think), so speeds aren't that high, and the turns are nearly all 90° or more.

Just don't stand in the line of fire!

[Pirahna]

It's 25 minutes ride from my house.

If you ride around La Romana, my house is up a track about 2k past La Romaneta.

[Whysub]

I'm the other side of Hondon in Crevillente. Today was the first time that I think I have been through La Romana, usually ride directly between the Hondons.

[Wossname]

Re the NW200 - I have often been puzzled about the finances of this and the other Irish road races. The only cost, to me, as a spectator at a brilliant event, is the cost of a programme. As I go in a group of 4, we don't buy 4 programmes but share 1. Yes - I know, but .... Otherwise, we make no contribution to the costs of running the event.

I went to the UGP a few years ago with my son, and was asked to pay a £30 admission fee to walk up the road to stand at one bend on the course, in the rain, all day. Programme would have been extra. We went home. I'm afraid these 2 paragraphs explain why this problem has developed.

I have considered the possibility of asking spectators - who are mostly M/C enthusiasts to some degree - to make a voluntary donation (£10 annually?) to help these events to survive, but I think that's naive.

Is the TT going to suffer in the same way? The same problems exist. Everybody pays for accommodation etc but not for the overheads.

[Skub]

Re the NW200 - I have often been puzzled about the finances of this and the other Irish road races. The only cost, to me, as a spectator at a brilliant event, is the cost of a programme. As I go in a group of 4, we don't buy 4 programmes but share 1. Yes - I know, but .... Otherwise, we make no contribution to the costs of running the event.

I went to the UGP a few years ago with my son, and was asked to pay a £30 admission fee to walk up the road to stand at one bend on the course, in the rain, all day. Programme would have been extra. We went home. I'm afraid these 2 paragraphs explain why this problem has developed.

I have considered the possibility of asking spectators - who are mostly M/C enthusiasts to some degree - to make a voluntary donation (£10 annually?) to help these events to survive, but I think that's naive.

Is the TT going to suffer in the same way? The same problems exist. Everybody pays for accommodation etc but not for the overheads.

It's a mindset. For many,the road races are a day out,such as going to the beach. You don't pay to go to the beach,so why pay to watch racing? I've listened to them argue with club officials,"it's a public road,I have a right to be here and you can't stop me".

As you say,that has brought us to where we are today. I've always bought a programme and usually spend a few quid on a badge ,or a t shirt,if sold by the club,but there are far more spectators who'd crawl through brambles and hedges to get a free watch and relish the idea of getting one over on 'the man'.

The UGP is a prime example of cost going too much the other way and the money charged a family was well over the top,particularly when you know the funds were 'mismanaged' anyway. I supported the Ulster by being a club member,donating to funds and buying a programme,but when I get a sense of them taking the piss,then they lost me totally and I stopped going and contributing.

A lot of folk find Phil McCallen hard to stick,but he's bang on when he says,we've had free racing for 50 years and it can't continue,if the sport is to survive.

[wull]

That to me means they aren’t fans, they should be supporting the clubs and shouldn’t mind paying to watch especially if it means there is racing to go to. Soon to be no racing because of all these tight arse wank stains.

[Dodgy69]

I suppose I've been guilty myself of moaning about paying to spectate in places that were once free, particularly the TT, It's just what we've got accustomed to, chuck a couple of quid in a marshal's bucket and we feel better.

Many fans travelling from all over the world, the islands economy for the fortnight is more than the rest of the year put together, so i was told. So when the racing is in trouble due to insurance costs, do the beneficiaries of this money bonanza, help pay towards these insurance cost, or maybe they already do.

[westers151]

I suppose I've been guilty myself of moaning about paying to spectate in places that were once free, particularly the TT, It's just what we've got accustomed to, chuck a couple of quid in a marshal's bucket and we feel better.

Many fans travelling from all over the world, the islands economy for the fortnight is more than the rest of the year put together, so i was told. So when the racing is in trouble due to insurance costs, do the beneficiaries of this money bonanza, help pay towards these insurance cost, or maybe they already do.

Indirectly they contribute to paying for the insurance via the tax they pay - it's the government who help fund the TT.

The TT is a great example of a government seeing the contribution to the local economy it brings and thus supports it.

[Bigjawa]

Re the NW200 - I have often been puzzled about the finances of this and the other Irish road races. The only cost, to me, as a spectator at a brilliant event, is the cost of a programme. As I go in a group of 4, we don't buy 4 programmes but share 1. Yes - I know, but .... Otherwise, we make no contribution to the costs of running the event.

I went to the UGP a few years ago with my son, and was asked to pay a £30 admission fee to walk up the road to stand at one bend on the course, in the rain, all day. Programme would have been extra. We went home. I'm afraid these 2 paragraphs explain why this problem has developed.

I have considered the possibility of asking spectators - who are mostly M/C enthusiasts to some degree - to make a voluntary donation (£10 annually?) to help these events to survive, but I think that's naive.

Is the TT going to suffer in the same way? The same problems exist. Everybody pays for accommodation etc but not for the overheads.

It's a mindset. For many,the road races are a day out,such as going to the beach. You don't pay to go to the beach,so why pay to watch racing? I've listened to them argue with club officials,"it's a public road,I have a right to be here and you can't stop me".

As you say,that has brought us to where we are today. I've always bought a programme and usually spend a few quid on a badge ,or a t shirt,if sold by the club,but there are far more spectators who'd crawl through brambles and hedges to get a free watch and relish the idea of getting one over on 'the man'.

The UGP is a prime example of cost going too much the other way and the money charged a family was well over the top,particularly when you know the funds were 'mismanaged' anyway. I supported the Ulster by being a club member,donating to funds and buying a programme,but when I get a sense of them taking the piss,then they lost me totally and I stopped going and contributing.

A lot of folk find Phil McCallen hard to stick,but he's bang on when he says,we've had free racing for 50 years and it can't continue,if the sport is to survive.

NW200 went the same way, there's hardly anywhere in Portrush to spectate from, everything has suddenly become a prohibited area or has been blocked off by fences carrying nice shiny banners that look good on telly, they want you to pay 15 quid a head to sit on the railway embankment at Metropole which is dodgy enough but in the wet it's lethal. The Ulster became a joke, that place can go from sunny and unlimited visibility to wet and foggy literally inside 2 minutes, and if it has been raining at any point in the previous week, every field is a quagmire. People ain't gonna pay good money to get soaked and froze to have no racing.

One reason the smaller races will stop is because a lot of the locals don't want it, they're farmers and don't want Joe Public wandering all over their land, don't want to have to move livestock away from the track and don't want the disruption of preparing the circuit and the road closure, the Mid Antrim has been sabotaged twice and there's one boy at Cookstown who has chased folk off his land with a shotgun. It's not like the NW200 that brings in money for shops and hotels and not everyone likes motorbikes.

I'm starting to think road racing has had its day and the inevitable will happen.

[westers151]

I'm starting to think road racing has had its day and the inevitable will happen.

I think you're right; in the past, local regions in Ireland loved the racing as it was entertainment (in the days before internet), and a day out. Time has moved on and there's a lot of other outlets to entertain you, including staying home and watching TV.

The support for road racing is eroding.

The TT, I think, spotted this years ago, and reinvented themselves, plus the whole Island gets a boast from the event, so that helps it massively.

And you no longer need to be from a road racing background to do well - the opposite, infact.

The diehards, like us, don't like it, but that's the way society evolves, and nothing is forever.

[Ditchfinder]

Reprieved https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/motorsport/64938890

[Wossname]

Yay! GoFundMe seems to have come up with some of what's needed. I'd like to think that those who want road racing to continue will recognise that they need to support it financially as well as with their enthusiasm. We'll see...

[Scotsrich]

Reprieved https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/motorsport/64938890

All is not sweetness and light unfortunately.

A condition of insurance is that sidecars are not included which not unnaturally is going down like a lead balloon with the sidecar community.

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