Road racing cancelled for 2023

[mikey]

All motorcycle road racing in Northern Ireland cancelled for 2023

Organising clubs say it is impossible to run events - including the North West 200 - because of soaring insurance charges.

www.bbc.co.uk

One hell of a blow to motorcycle sport in this country and the obvious knock on effect to local business and tourism in general.
Is the death knell finally sounding for road racing due to insurance? I know it’s been tight for a number of years but to go to the extent of cancelling everything shows how bad it actually is. Sad day.

 

[southsky sunrise]

I grew up in a van going from race to race with my dad, even though I don’t bother with it now he did right up until he died, sad news for a lot of people this morning.

Hopefully he’s not too sad up there

 

[ilovequo]

Gutting news, is the PL policy put in place centrally by the motorcycle union or individually by each event?

 

[dh1079]

Terrible state of affairs and the adverse effects on economy in areas they take place in will be felt

 

[Slimsbikers]

Shocking news! Be a big loss to this country if they can't get something sorted for the future. Isle of Man will be the only option to see pure racing.

 

[Coog]

Can the Isle of Man continue without Irish road racing? I thought racers needed a certain amount of road racing miles or time under their belt before they could do the TT?

Sad state of affairs. I’m not a fan of it really but would have taken the odd run out to it anyway just to soak in the atmosphere. You’d like to think there would be assistance at a local government level to help it go ahead given the benefits to the local economy (if they weren’t being a pack of eejits).

 

[ilovequo]

Big implications for the TT off the back of this I’d say…
Edit: @Coog just said what I was thinking
The TT has had a real boom in interest the last 15 years. Pity more of the spotlight wasn’t shared with the Irish roads scene to limit the risk of something like this happening

 

[hannakournikova]

NW200 alone is reported to bring over £12m to the NI Economy

 

[Slimsbikers]

Can the Isle of Man continue without Irish road racing? I thought racers needed a certain amount of road racing miles or time under their belt before they could do the TT?

Sad state of affairs. I’m not a fan of it really but would have taken the odd run out to it anyway just to soak in the atmosphere. You’d like to think there would be assistance at a local government level to help it go ahead given the benefits to the local economy (if they weren’t being a pack of eejits).

Good point about getting the miles under the belt! Would have went to all the races and there was always a great following from tourists/overseas visitors.Local economy will suffer for sure.A mate has an Airbnb he rents out to race fans.Was fully booked by 6 people for a total of 5 or 6 weeks.That's all gone now meaning local cafe's and bars miss out as well.

 

[NickR]

You can only imagine what the insurance costs are for motorcycle racing when for example the TT has had at least one death every year the early 1900s. There were 5 last year alone.

It's sad as I grew up in Portrush and always looked forward to the NW200. It will be a massive blow to the NI economy and hospitality in the area. Hopefully they can get something sorted.

 

[Boabybooster]

NW200 alone is reported to bring over £12m to the NI Economy

Half of that is @gav525 booze and kebab spending.

 

[Davytog]

Sad,sad day. Pure Northern Ireland feck up. the benefits to the economy are difficult to quantify but even the supporting events such as Cookstown would have seen a good number of UK visitors spread around the towns and villages.
I do wonder why this situation has arisen apparently out of the blue. How could the PL triple? Why so late in the day has this come up and off course there is no government to support this, even if in the current cost of living crisis there was any scope to do so.

Solution - divert all MLA pay into a fund for the PL!!!

 

[Antoin]

Sad,sad day. Pure Northern Ireland feck up. the benefits to the economy are difficult to quantify but even the supporting events such as Cookstown would have seen a good number of UK visitors spread around the towns and villages.
I do wonder why this situation has arisen apparently out of the blue. How could the PL triple? Why so late in the day has this come up and off course there is no government to support this, even if in the current cost of living crisis there was any scope to do so.

Solution - divert all MLA pay into a fund for the PL!!!

I don't think it is necessarily an NI thing although the lack of govt means there isn't as good a mechanism to get it sorted. Insurance seems to be the cause of a lot of things ceasing to exist. I know locally of a few businesses having to limit what they offer in terms of activities due to insurance hikes.

 

[Captain Starlet]

Shocking and absolutely devastated, I have the entire diary filled with road racing dates at the start of the year, hopefully they can find something.

Wondering if it also affects riders from here racing on the mainland under a MCUI license.

 

[salster]

rumored to be over a £400k insurance hike. what a shambles with only weeks to go to the first race. what about all the racers who have spent thousands on new bikes and gear and also the bikes and spares shops?. also the jobs of guys who build and repair the bikes.

 

[Brian mc21]

It’s not out of the blue as such. I heard a ridiculous figure of claims in against the mcui. For example reading on Facebook from a guy in the know. Travelling Marshall fell off his bike at the Mid Antrim or something and claims for damage to his bike and personal injury. Drunken spectator being repeatedly told not to, climbed a grandstand scaffold and ended up on his arse. Claim in. Sorry if any of this is untrue but just trying to give an idea into why this is probably happening. The claim culture.

 

[Boydie]

@Carson this is awful news

 

[RallyCiaran]

Same thing happened in the south with the rallying, almost cancelled the whole sport a few years back.
Spectators were getting hurt and getting massive claim payouts. Not even related to the rally really. People falling over and breaking legs then getting a million euros.

(Those numbers may not be accurate)

 

[gary1365]

Sure when the council gave the nw money a load of people were up in arms on Facebook saying it should never have happened.

it is a real pity for so many people it’s not happening there’ll be some amount of business and money lost in NI because of it.

 

[Stebo]

I can't understand why the insurance is so dear? Presumably it's not life insurance for the riders, so the whole high-risk sport thing is kind irrelevant. I imagine the biggest risk is a biker crashing and the bike bouncing off into the crowd and hitting somebody or someone's house? or maybe sombody spraining an ankle climbing up somewhere they shouldn't even be. It would be interesting to see what claims have been raised over the years.

I wonder is there a chance that this is a bit of a bluff to see if government will step in and provide assistance?

 

[Boydie]

I am too young (maybe not interested at the time) to know but what were the feeling around the older members when Group B was cancelled?

 

[Dan.86]

A mate of mine was saying his pipe band comps are either cancelled or potentially being cancelled due to insurance/economic reasons so could be a sign of the times.

 

[natogreen16v]

Have we any regular members who road race? I'm sure they going through a wide range of emotions.

We were just saying on the last podcast about how rallying in NI is kind of "protected" by road racing and if you see road racing go that's bad news. Now 2 weeks later we have this

 

[gpaevo]

Same thing happened in the south with the rallying, almost cancelled the whole sport a few years back.
Spectators were getting hurt and getting massive claim payouts. Not even related to the rally really. People falling over and breaking legs then getting a million euros.

(Those numbers may not be accurate)

That was a blanket public liability thing. Sure all the outdoor activity providers, industrial training providers went out of business overnight.

We nearly had to close our rescue training business as all the Irish insurance providers pulled out. Now we have to pay triple through a UK based provider.

 

[Eager]

How many people attend the NW alone ? Each year. As in spectators.
Surely if a organised effort was put in place a good bit of fund raising could take place to help with costs.

Get it in the media out there that even 1 pound per person allows this event to take place.

Plenty of people plenty of buckets and walk the track while races are running.

I can't understand why the insurance is so dear? Presumably it's not life insurance for the riders, so the whole high-risk sport thing is kind irrelevant. I imagine the biggest risk is a biker crashing and the bike bouncing off into the crowd and hitting somebody or someone's house? or maybe sombody spraining an ankle climbing up somewhere they shouldn't even be. It would be interesting to see what claims have been raised over the years.

I wonder is there a chance that this is a bit of a bluff to see if government will step in and provide assistance?

In todays culture probably right down to tripping over the foot of a barrier or bale of straw on a footpath,
Sore ears from a motorbike going past. Etc. mass gatherings are just mass potential claims so they probably price themselves out of the market.