Update: October 2024 event at VIR

The NCR Board of Directors has voted unanimously to cancel our planned October event at VIR.  As RE, I want to make it clear to the membership why we came to this decision.

1. We formed a committee to examine how we might utilize that weekend. As we approached the coming October 3-day event date, we decided to form a committee to help create an event plan for that date. We have not had an event in the fall @ VIR since 2017. A Hurricane, the Runoffs, COVID, and other conflicts have made it so we haven’t had a fall event date @ VIR in 7 years. We also wanted to try and find a way to incorporate multiple disciplines into the 3-day weekend so that we can work on building our participant base in the region to make it easy for people to get on track.

2. VIR is expensive and we have to make money at our events if we are to continue racing there. One of the items we must keep in mind as we plan these events is that our rent at VIR is much higher than most tracks in our area. For us to put on an event as a region we have to set entry fees on the higher end so that we can have safe events that we can afford and won’t be a burden on the region’s future finances. We also have to be able to cover 3 days at the full weekend rental rate.

3. There are simply too many competing events, with lower entry fees, in October to make it likely that we would cover our expenses, much less turn a profit. As we worked through this process it became evident that multiple established events on or near our date would likely make it hard to recruit participants and even volunteers to our event. For Road Racing, there is the SARRC Invitational Championship (SIC) 1 week before our date, the MARRS Finale, the same weekend, and the American Road Race of Champions (ARRC) 2 weeks after our event. For TT the TTNT Championship is being held one week after our event. Additionally, all of these events are being held at venues that are less expensive than VIR. People have most likely already made plans to attend these other events, or are more likely to be budgeting to attend these less expensive events.

4. Losing money at this event would put our entire 2025 racing program in jeopardy since we would have no way to make it up before next season.  An additional factor that needs to be considered is that we need to be aware of our 2025 schedule and make sure that we have the funding for those events. We are required by VIR to pay rent in full in advance of each event. we need to ensure that we have the funds in the bank to cover all of our spring weekends before they happen. If the October date isn’t successful and we lose money this could cause our accounts to be depleted to a point where funding the spring events at VIR would be a huge struggle and even maybe not possible.

5. With all of this information, we decided it was too risky to continue pursuing an event in October 2024. We have worked with VIR management and they are helping find someone to take the dates. They are working with us to get a Goblins Go date for fall of 2025.

We understand this isn’t the type of news anyone wants but we want to ensure everyone that we are working with the best intentions for the region and our membership to keep the region solvent and able to continue to have a presence at VIR.

Anna Crissman
RE North Carolina Region – SCCA