All road racing in n.ireland cancelled this year 2023 Inc north west 200 https://www.newsletter.co.uk/sport/...l-ulster-road-races-cancelled-in-2023-4021833
Killed by insurance premiums to cover spectators claiming damages. All you need to know about modern society.
What a shame, a lot of years since as I was at the NW200. A fantastic weekend of motorcycles and Guinness at the harbour bar…then call in at Joeys on the way back to the ferry.
Not ideal the riders will be doing their first road racing of the season when TT practice kicks off is it. Hope theres not a "higher than usual" fatality rate, as that will certainly bring the anti road racers out in force.
I get the impression that the whole Irish road racing scene is run on a financial knife edge; especially when you look at the headline sponsors for NW200 being companies like Vauxhall. No disrespect to Vauxhall but they are hardly throwing money at sponsorships.... I feel like the road racing is run with passion and speculative financial benefit for local communities (i say speculative just because I imagine it's hard to directly correlate). I think the TT will run this year, as it's a much bigger 'commercial' entity, and arguably the 'safest' of the road racing, certainly compared to places like armoy! but I think it's in it's last 2-3 years sadly.
I went in 2018 and it was fekin roasting! Mind you, a lot of people were staring up at the clear blue skies looking rather bewildered
Yeah not a good sign for the future - Like people say I hope the TT isnt hit, but its surprised me for a few years that its still allowed in todays world where clipboard warriors deem it dangerous from council office and ban anything fun in case it offends someone
In 2022, the IoM government stated that the TT alone contributed £39 million to the island’s economy. The latest figures I can find for tourism in general at short notice is 2019 where tourism contributed £133 million to the IoM economy. New strategy wants to increase the number of visitors to 500,000 a year but the Steam Packet Rip Off company needs to invest in its ferries to help achieve this. If the income stream from motorcycle racing can be replaced by other tourism, I can see the TT being canned but not anytime soon. Andy
Surely they could charge a few quid and have wristbands or something? Logistically difficult but it would help pay for the event.
This makes sense, totally, tbf, I've seen loads of negative stuff about the Gas Monkey sponsorship etc, but honestly in a years time you might well see another 4 or 5 of these big names putting money in, and it can't be a bad thing for it.
The article doesn’t go in to any detail on the “number of significant claims” in recent years and £300,000 excess on each claim for racing accidents is a real disincentive too. Andy
That's a real disaster for all road racing. Even the TT could suffer as the Irish road racing has a big following and lots of teams invest in the season full of road racing that includes the TT. We're all going to end up watching classic films of days gone by when they used to race on real roads. I'm glad I've had the years I've had, I don't envy the young one bit, the futures bland.
