Underneath you will see a letter from John Roberts who is Chief Marshal for York Motor Club. He is confirming the cancellation of Teesside. Please see the full story in his words.
From our point of view I would firstly like to say how sorry we are that the event had to be cancelled and their efforts to secure a back up venue unsuccessful. We wish them all the best for the future.
Secondly I would like to re-iterate that we will give York MC our full support with their efforts to run a sprint in the 2016 season.
Subject: York Motor Club’s Keith Pattison Memorial Sprint – Cancelled
From: John Roberts
To: “mail@crossborderspeed.co.uk” <mail@crossborderspeed.co.uk>
Mon, 9 Mar 2015 22:40:10 +0000 (UTC)
Dear Dave,
It is with great regret that I have to confirm that York Motor Club has been forced to cancel the 2015 Keith Pattison Memorial Sprint, scheduled to run on Bank Holiday Monday 25th May 2015, a round of the Cross Border Speed Championship.
Teesside Autodrome informed us last month that they were cancelling our booking of the venue for the Sprint (we had booked the date with them in June last year immediately after last year’s Sprint) because they were not applying for a Track Licence this year because they “could not comply with the requirements of the Track Licence”. We have subsequently tried to negotiate with Teesside Autodrome, including offering to obtain a single date / event Track Licence from the MSA (so they would not have to obtain one) and offering to source all the 40 fire extinguishers required by the Track Licence (at our own cost) as well as the other safety equipment and personnel which we always arrange ourselves anyway.
However, they were not willing to negotiate, and have cancelled our booking. No doubt there may be other financial reasons for them cancelling our booking (bearing in mind that they claim they can make a much greater profit on running a karting event than a sprint). However, we feel very let down by Teesside Autodrome, especially given the success and popularity of our sprints there over the years, and also the fact that they have left it so late before informing us of their decision (given that the date has been lodged with them for almost 9 months).
We have been actively looking for a replacement venue at short notice, but given the lack of available dates at venues and the very high hiring costs at some venues, we have not been able to find a suitable alternative venue for our 2015 Keith Pattison Memorial Sprint. We will continue to look for a suitable venue, possibly for later in the year, and if unsuccessful, will try and bring back the Keith Pattison Memorial Sprint in some form for 2016 !
In the meantime, I thank you for your support with our Sprint over the years and hope we can rely on your support in future years if we are able to run the event. However, as you’ll appreciate, regrettably, the cancellation is out of our hands.
I wish you a successful year of motor sport! Please email me back so I know you’ve received this email.
Kind regards
John Roberts
York Motor Club
