Endurance Road Rally Championship 2009

CANCELLATION OF THE 7th WELSH ENDURANCE ROAD RALLY
 
We much regret to tell you that the 7th Welsh Endurance Road Rally, due to be held on 8th and 9th August, has been cancelled because of lack of entries.
 
The few competitors who entered have already been told, and their cheques or refunds will be posted later this week.
 
At the beginning of May we published the Regulations on our motor club website, and sent out 225 emails to our past competitors and supporters, telling them that the Regulations and Entry Forms were available for downloading. In the next month we received just FIVE entries, and two of those crews were not on our mailing list. In previous years we would have received a third or more of our total entries in that period.
 
So, we sent out a reminder email to the same 225 people, asking them to put in an entry as soon as possible and offering to accept a deposit of just £50, with the remainder paid in instalments. We received nineteen emails in reply, four saying that the entry form was in the post and two saying that they expected to enter but not yet. Thirteen people were kind enough to send us emails saying that we would not be entering, for a variety of different reasons - on holiday, work commitments, sold the car, no tyres, even one past competitor replied saying that he was now living in India. Unfortunately those 13 who could not enter were all "old guard" competitors on the Welsh Enduro, so from just those emails we knew that a quarter or more of our regular hard-core supporters would not be returning this year.
 
In the following week we received just six more entry forms, three being from the Turner team. Total entries: 11.
 
There are seven weeks to the rally and several serious financial commitments would have to be made by the end of this current week, but clearly we did not have the entries, and the fixed costs are the same whether we receive 20 or 120 entries. Therefore the Directors of Amman & District Motor Club Ltd. and the Welsh Enduro Organising Committee unanimously decided that to go ahead with the rally would be financially quite unjustified.
 
If we'd received 20 entry forms and emails promising perhaps another dozen then we would have taken the gamble on getting a rush of last-minute entries. But we had received just ELEVEN entries, a few promises and thirteen emails from regular competitors saying "can't come, sorry".  Clearly that was not a basis for investing thousands of pounds.
 
Those people who have never organised a rally may ask why we didn't delay our decision until later, say, mid July, three weeks before the rally. The answer is the financial commitments that had to be made this week. The manager of the Walters Motorsport Complex has already started work altering junctions and tidying up just for our rally, and with seven weeks notice hopefully another customer can be found for the venue. Some of the Forestry Commission charges have already been paid, but the bond was overdue and would have to be paid this week together with hundreds of pounds of administration charges - all this in addition to the forestry road usage charges, of course. We've block booked a nearby guesthouse for our officials from away, and hopefully there's enough time for some of those rooms to be re-let. The scrutineers, rescue vehicles, a rally ambulance, paramedics, the technical support and recovery teams, etc., have all been booked and these officials could justifiably charge us if we cancelled the rally at the last minute. And on it goes. The later the decision, the greater is the cost to us. Remember, we guaranteed to refund the entry fees IN FULL if the rally were not held, so a cancellation means all the costs must be paid by Amman & District Motor Club.
 
Why have so few crews entered to date? A comparable rally would be the South West Endurance Rally held in March, and they had 54 entries (but 20 down on the previous year). Already the Bullnose Endurance Rally in September has 25 entries, so is that the sort of rally which you, the competitors, prefer – one day, 30 miles of Selectifs (the Welsh Enduro has 108 miles), no night navigation leg (we have a 90 mile road rally through classic Welsh lanes, including the famous Abergwesyn Pass), and half our entry fee?
 
Every year at the finish of the Welsh Enduro we ask competitors to complete a Feedback Form. Apart from one competitor last year who moaned about every single thing (he broke down), each year the feedback is that everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves - latterly in spite of the Welsh Monsoon - and did not want ANY change to the format. Everyone said that they'd be returning the following year. But they didn't. Why?
 
Because of the current financial crisis, did the majority of prospective competitors simply hold back their entries expecting to save money by entering at the last moment? Unfortunately we rally organisers are not psychic. We cannot gamble with thousands of pounds of Motor Club money in the expectation of receiving dozens and dozens of last-minute entries. Amman & District Motor Club is a small club with strictly limited financial resources.
 
Apart from the 13 people who have already emailed us to say why they couldn't come this time, if you’re a regular competitor then please tell us why you haven't entered. Have you suddenly taken a dislike to the Walters venue? Was it because of our prohibition on Silverstone tyres? Was the rally just too expensive? The SW Enduro entry fee was £25 more and with food and club membership extra, both of which we supply free on the Welsh Enduro.
 
We contend that we organise the best value-for-money endurance rally and we do feel let down, made worst by not knowing why support for our rally has vanished.
 
Regarding the future, we have already applied to hold the Welsh Endurance Road Rally on the same weekend next year (7th & 8th August 2010). Hopefully you'll enter – early !!!!
 
Yours in motor sport,
The Organising Committee,7th Welsh Endurance Road RallyAmman & District Motor Club Ltd.