Disaster
Strikes - Kills Coast To Coast Rally
A spectacular fireball
is all that remains of the Coast To Coast Rally
2000 after Glyn Trafford, Rally Director for the
Island Rallysport Club, pulled the plug on it
today.
"We have been dealt
a virtual death blow by the complete lockdown
of logging company holdings leading out of the
Victoria area. The Fire Hazard Closure, announced
as the reason for the postponement of this rally
earlier in the year, has been changed to an indeterminate
closure to all users into the foreseeable future."
"It seems that vandalism,
garbage dumping, and dangerous partying has prompted
this complete closure of the area from Victoria
to Port Renfrew to Shawnigan Lake. Since the rally
starts in Victoria and returns there, this is
a complete disaster for the organizers."
"The Island Rallysport
Club has been plagued by problems this year. Earlier
we had to postpone C2C and move Midnight. This
required a change of organizers for Midnight.
Although Midnight was run this last weekend, that
bridge being out was only the second problem for
this traditionally well received event. The shortage
of the 'normal' complement of competitors from
the Vancouver area, coming after the financial
loss because of low entry levels in Edge of the
Rock 2000, has given us major concerns.
With C2C we are now
stuck having to transit every competitor from
the start point to the overnight location before
we can even start rallying. This is simply unacceptable.
It requires an almost complete overhaul of the
whole rally route, finding additional roads to
cover for the lost regularities, and making new
arrangements for accommodation in another town,
meals, etc. The time available is not really
sufficient for an experienced rally organizer
much less one whose first event was run only a
few days ago."
"The fact that
we only have one early registration in hand, but
would have even greater costs hit us due to the
extra scouting and rework now required , does
not justify the extraordinary lengths to which
our members would need to go to pull off C2C for
the scheduled date later this month."
"As rally director
for the club I have to pull the plug. All of us
in IRC, want to thank those of you who have expressed
interest in C2C, and we sincerely apologize for
this cancellation. We know it is totally disruptive
to everyone's schedule, and a great disappointment,
but postponing C2C once again would be irresponsible
on our part. The hurdles we have faced each time
we have tried to put on C2C this year may be a
message we should finally heed and put C2C 2000
to rest."
Glyn Trafford
Rally Director
Island Rallysport Club
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