An open letter to all AGP participants, their families and anyone in the industry that is interested.
Reluctantly weÕre canceling the Evansville Atlantic Grand Prix event at Evansville Motocross Park, because thereÕs a nasty rumor that was started within another racing association that is opposed to what we are doing...and that is that if you ride the AGP Evansville race you might be disqualified at their association event which is at the same location the following weekend...Why? Because it might be considered pre-riding the course.
The problem is that over the last two weeks, IÕve been fielding phone call, after phone call from AGP motorcycle participants concerned that if they ride our event, that they would be points void or disqualified at the association event the following weekend. Most all calls came from riders or families of riders that are in tight points races for that associations championship.
WeÕre still trying to find out how the rumor started, but from what we can tell it was started at an association hare scrambles race two weekends ago.
What bothers me the most is that this story would not have ever happened had we not tried to help out an association club that was in trouble.
HowÕs that? Well our friends in the association club that is hosting the association event the following weekend, came to us because they lost their property and asked us if we could help them find a location for their event. We recommended Evansville and we set them up with the land owner and worked things out for them to have their race in 2006.
Then a couple of weeks ago...on the association web bulletin board, a member from the promoting club posted a message thanking Atlantic Grand Prix for getting them the land and wanted everyone to know that Atlantic Grand Prix helped them save their hare scrambles. What happened next was that the association pulled that members post and someone from within the organization chastised that person for posting it.
Then the associationÕs Hare Scrambles President...who happens to be a really a good guy posted a message on the association web bulletin board last week stating that it was OK to ride the AGP Evansville event, but within minutes of him posting that message one of the web moderators pulled his post because members that control the association web bulletin board didnÕt want their members to know the truth about what was going on.
Why? Because thereÕs a group of people within the association that have been trying their best to destroy the Atlantic Grand Prix series.
This isnÕt the first time this has happened and itÕs been going on for a while now.
Just prior to our AMA National Hare Scrambles event in Eagleswood NJ on October 14 and 15 the association decided to make our event year end points-void for their members.
Why? Because they thought that they could keep their association riders away from our event.
The excuse they were using this time was that our gate fees was not in compliance with their associationÕs rule book, which has a rule stating that association gate fees canÕt exceed $5.00.
To comply with the association rules we offered to refund the association members at signup $5.00 out of our pocket so that we would comply with their association rules and they said no it had to be for everyone coming through the gate and with over 2500 people coming through the gate over the weekend it would have cost us close to $12,000 and that would have put us $10,000 in the red.
What everyone should know is for the Atlantic Grand Prix series to secure our venues we partner with communities that normally wouldnÕt have us. 100% of our gate fees go to charities within the community that our events are held in. ThatÕs the only reason we get these prime locations, apparently some in the association are worried that our races are just much better than theirs and they are afraid of what weÕre building.
My primary concern now is that the damage has already been done and that a lot of riders that were going to be coming, are not. It really doesnÕt matter at this point what is said because the participants donÕt know who to believe anymore.
At this point I really donÕt know who to believe anymore, because their story changes daily, but what we do know is that there is no way that we are going to punish riders that I count as close friends for someone elseÕs arrogance and stupidly.
I personally would have to be nuts to even run the event this weekend considering the problems that this group of people have caused both me and my business.
My only goal all along has been to put on the best events and the best races for both Motorcycles and Quads and I believe weÕve succeeded.
Again the only people that are being hurt by all of this is the racers, their families and the fine people at that run Evansville Raceway.
Again I have to apologize for the cancellation, but I feel that itÕs time that everyone knows what is really going on so that itÕs stopped once and for all, the damage that these people are causing to our sport is 100 times worse than what any environmental group could ever do to us.
Sincerely
Dale
Dale Freitas
Director of the Atlantic Grand Prix series.
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