Brian Patterson.
Circuit Latest…
On Tuesday evening 13th February,
the Council of The Ulster Automobile
Club unanimously voted to proceed
with this year’s Circuit, as a two
day event on Easter Saturday and
Sunday, 7th & 8th April. The rally
is planned to be a round of the
Tarmac and NI Championships. The
plan is for three stages, repeated,
on each day. The base for the rally
will not be known until this Friday
16th Feb. The official name of the
rally has still to be decided.
Circuit Background
There was a major upheaval last
weekend in the organisational run up
to this year’s Easter Circuit of
Ireland, when John Conway, MD of
Meteor Electrical, issued two press
releases (6th & 7th Feb) stating
that his company would no longer be
involved in the event.
This matter is deeper than just a
sponsor split however, as Conway,
through Meteor Electrical, is the
driving force in the ‘Circuit of
Ireland Ltd’ organisation, set up in
2006 to run the rally in conjunction
with the original organisers, the
Ulster Automobile Club(UAC), plus
other motor clubs.
The background to this is that
Meteor Electrical sponsored the
‘Circuit’ in 2005, but the 3rd day
of the rally, and then the
prizegiving, did not go well and the
event got heavy criticsm. Following
a lot of deliberation, Conway
offered to back the rally again, but
only if a new company was formed
and he was invloved in the
organisation, and that he could
bring in outside expertise. This
duly happened in 2006. The rally
base was moved from Enniskillen to
Derry. There were some stages in
Donegal, and the Circuit was
ajudged to have been a success.
Consequent to that, there were some
difficulties between the UAC,
spearheaded now by its Chairman
Stephen Potts, and John Conway of
Meteor. These difficulties seemed to
come to a head in January. The
Council of the UAC cancelled their
agreement with ‘Circuit of Ireland
Ltd’.
Stephen Potts then stated that on
Tuesday 6th February, at a meeting
in the Ramada Hotel in Belfast, that
he tried to reconcile the situation
by presenting an acceptable
alternative ‘heads of agreement’.
Conway then issued his statement on
Friday 9th Jan. As always in matters
of this nature there were more
angles to it than a Rubik Cube.
Relevant to this situation is that
the UAC people involved are simply
looking after the interests of a
non-profit making club.Central to
everything, apart from running a
rally, are the rights and/or
possible ownership, of one of the
most famous and valuable brand names
in European, if not World,
motorsport.
The Ulster Automobile Club has been
running the rally since the 1930’s,
when it was known as the Ulster
Motor Rally. In recent years the
Club, and the rally, has been much
diminished from its heyday years.
The Ulster Automobile Club has the
right to the permits and the road
closing orders, although there seems
to be a general belief that if the
Club cannot run the rally this year,
the entitlement to those could be in
jeopardy in future. Potts states
that the event may be of 2 days
duration, or possibly 3, depending
on whether Donegal Motor Club invite
the UAC to avail of the Innishowen
Peninsula Stages. The rub for the
UAC will be the practicalities of
organising such a high profile event
in such a short time now. The rally
is still scheduled to be a round of
both the Tarmac Championship and
Northern Ireland series.
Even as late as last Saturday,
following the issue of his
statements, John Conway was still
insisting that he only had the good
of the rally, as well as Meteor
Electrical, at heart. He pointed out
that he had massive funding in place
for the next few years and was
bringing in outside expertise. He is
also well on the way to setting up
a ‘Superspecial’ to run through
the streets of Derry, and is
planning a series of other events,
such as power boat racing, utilising
the prestigious Circuit of Ireland
brand name.
Current Tarmac Champion, and last
year’s Circuit winner, Eugene
Donnelly, was aghast at this
development with the Circuit. Eugene
views the possibility of the
Circuit being in jeopardy as
unthinkable. He feels that with all
the funding and backing that has
been put in place, and with so much
now at stake in the Tarmac
Championship, that it is important
that the event takes place. “This
is like having a great car, but with
only three wheels. We have to bring
all the parties in and resolve this
situation,” said Donnelly.
Brian Patterson.
