MCGARRITY SLAMS CANCELLATION
Glens of Antrim organisers stand by decision to cancel the NI Championship finale just days before
Eight-time Northern Ireland Rally champion Derek Mcgarrity has questioned why more was not done to stage the final round of this year’s championship, saying everyone associated with the series has lost out financially.
The Glens of Antrim Rally was cancelled only five days prior to the event due to a lack of entries according to organisers, Mid Antrim Motor Club.
The decision means what would have been a three-way title fight between Mcgarrity, Stephen Wright and Derek Mcgeehan goes in Wright’s favour as no reserve round will take place.
Mcgarrity has slammed the cancellation, telling Motorsport News he had even offered to help make up the entry shortfall.
“It is an absolute joke what has happened with the final round,” said Mcgarrity.
“For me it appears as though Mid Antrim Motor Club has taken the easy way out, I don’t get the impression that they have exhausted all possible avenues.
“Why did the club not send an e-mail to crews and set out the situation? If they needed entries I would have been on the phone and secured five, no trouble at all. I even offered to stand over the entry shortfall; I was happy to absorb the loss.
“Serious questions need to be asked. I would understand if, two weeks from the day of the rally, organisers aired doubts about the event running as planned, but they have not bothered to do that. They never gave competitors the chance to help them make sure it happened.”
Henry Campbell, chairman of Mid Antrim MC, says he has no regrets over his decision to cancel the rally and claims that repeated efforts were made to contact around 15 crews who had not paid.
“There were a number of unpaid entries and before the decision was made these people were called two, maybe three times and there was no response,” he said.
“What does that tell you? They never intended doing the rally. We tried to make the rally go ahead but it wasn’t possible.
“Had we gone ahead with the numbers we had then we would have been at a [financial] loss. I don’t know how much exactly, it is difficult to say, but we needed 65 to 70 starters and we didn’t have those sort of numbers [51 crews had registered an interest].
“The problem we find being the last event on the calendar is that most of the classes have been sewn up. Two or three top name drivers do not make an event.”