It would appear that the more stringent
requirements now being requested by motor sport governing authorities will have
a further impact on the sport.
In the past competitors have relied on the fact that rally
organisers will accept entries up until the last minute to make their events
viable. Whilst some events try to close
their entry list two weeks before their event and others the week before, there
are still too many competitors out there who leave their entries till the last
minute.
That could well work against them from now on. Given the
much heavier workload required of organising teams and the longer timescale
needed to prepare their route, some events may need to look at closing entries THREE
weeks before their event.
Failure to meet this deadline could jeopardise the running
of future multi-venue forest stage rallies.
Look at it from an organiser’s point of view. If they are
going to commit volunteers and resources to such a huge organisational task
they will require some form of assurance that there will be sufficient entries
to make their event viable. If they don’t get that promise, then it is quite
likely that some will pull the plug.
Why take the risk and spend scarce financial resources and invest
time and effort for no return? It doesn’t make sense.
Competitors will have to face up to this. The golden days of
rallying are over. It’s pay up on time – or stay at home and leave the car in the
garage.
Already thinking along these lines are the organisers of the
Jim Clark Reivers Rally scheduled to run on Sunday 31st May. With
entries closing on Saturday the 16th of May, the organisers are
going to have an anxious few days as they await entries coming in before the
closing date.
So far they have received 29 entries. That’s far short of
any break-even point. So the answer is now in the hands of competitors. Either commit
to the event this week, or at the very least intimate your intentions, or the
organising team could well think that without sufficient support to justify
their exertions, then why bother?
It’s as serious as that.
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