Will GP return to Llanidloes?
By TMX Archives on 30th Jul 08
THERE'S no doubt about it the GP of Wales was a great event. Whether you were a rider, a sponsor or a spectator, the event was everything a world championship race should be, if a little wetter than most had hoped. But not that the mud has dried in and around Llanidloes the big question is now whether the club will run another World Championship Enduro?
"Nothing has been decided about the future of the event,” commented HDBC's Rowan Jones. "The amount of positive feedback the club has had has been amazing - Alain Blanchard, the WEC promoter sent us a detailed e-mail thanking us for our efforts and saying that he was extremely impressed with the way the event ran, which is especially nice to hear.
"For the club, the running of a world championship event was something that we'd wanted to do for many years. Having successfully organised British and European championship events, to run a round of the WEC and have so many people congratulate us on having done a good job was amazing. I guess the fact that so many people are asking us if we will run another round shows that we must have done something right.
"The honest answer is that we've not decided anything yet, in fact we've not really sat down as a club and discussed it at all. It would be great to see the WEC return on a regular basis but there is one huge deciding factor – the cost of running such an event.”
Despite numerous companies financially backing the club, running a WEC event certainly isn't cheap. "The matting that we had to use, as we couldn't offer a hard standing paddock, cost the club £8,000,” explained Rowan. "When you add to that another £5,000 for the use of the rugby club, another £4,500 for the use of the land the special tests were run on, you're already looking at costs of nearly £18,000. There are many, many more expenses that have to be covered, which makes the event extremely expensive to run.”
"I'd say that about another £20,000 would have to be raised over and above what we raised for this year's event. The support we received was tremendous, but we'd need to know that the event was being well backed before we could consider running it again.
"There were a number of club members that put in a great deal of hard work both during the event and in the months leading up to it. These key personnel haven't taken a penny out of the club, despite taking time off work. That's one of the hardest things to address – how club members that take time off work to organise the event should be rewarded. Obviously, every member of the club helps but without some of them, the event simply wouldn't run. It's OK to do it once but they can't give up so much time, un-rewarded, year-on-year.
"The fact that we've had so much positive feedback from the town, the motorcycle industry, companies like Red Bull as well as the Welsh Assembly is encouraging, but it's too early to say whether we'll run a WEC event again. It would be great to see the event back in Mid Wales again through.”