Irish road racing: 'Difficult for some clubs to come back from this' - Kennedy
- Published
Anne Forsythe has been clerk of the course at the Tandragee 100 since 2013
Armoy road race clerk of the course Bill Kennedy has warned some organising clubs may find it difficult to recover from the fallout of the coronavirus.
All scheduled 2019 international and national road races across Ireland have been either cancelled or postponed.
"The coronavirus will have a major impact on road racing," said Kennedy.
"There will be implications across the board. There may be teams you never see back again and the same applies to some riders nearing the end of their career.
"All riders, teams and race meetings depend on sponsorship and businesses have been hit really, really hard. The fallout will continue into 2021."
The cancellation of the Armoy races, scheduled for late July, was confirmed on 17 April, with the North West 200, Ulster Grand Prix, Cookstown 100, Tandragee 100 and all races in the Republic of Ireland having already been called off.
The organisers of the North West, Tandragee and Cookstown have indicated they may look to stage their events later in the year should circumstances allow but Anne Forsythe, clerk of the course at Tandragee, admits to "only a small glimmer of hope" that her meeting will take place.
The Tandragee 100 was scheduled to celebrate its 60th anniversary next weekend, a week after the Cookstown 100 was due to kick off the Irish road racing calendar.
Road racing faces a testing time ahead as a result of the coronavirus
Tandragee and Armoy aim to return in 2021
"If the race doesn't run we will have to put all our energies into planning for 2021. We will do everything in our power to put this amazing spectacle back on the roads," said Anne.
"It's a very worrying time but it's a sport and we have to be mindful that people's lives are at risk at the moment. That is the most important thing," she added.
"From a financial point of view many of the clubs have already spent thousands of pounds and there is no event so there is no income.
"We don't know how our sponsors who are businesses are going to be affected at the other side of this - we don't know if we will have the same financial backing or not.
"Even though we might not run this year we still have to pay our huge insurance bill which amounts to thousands upon thousands of pounds."
Costs spiralling
Kennedy agrees that "costs have been spiralling every year since the Armoy started in 2009".
"We will try and come back but I will be asking the club members to use their time wisely, examining areas where they could make savings, maybe do things differently," he said.
"We will do our best to come back in 2021 but we face costs of £120,000 year on year and rely heavily on programme sales, subscriptions and sponsorship."