BRAINTREE & DISTRICT MOTORCYCLE CLUB MOTOCROSS 26 MAY 2008 POLICY STATEMENT
To Riders in the Main Results from Monday's Event

Dear Competitor,
It will be quite evident to all that despite extensive pre-meeting promotional activity, the atrocious weather over the holiday weekend caused the paying public (and indeed many of the riders) to stay indoors, and only a very small income was generated on the gate.

Every club operates around its own particular resources with regard to its ability to run motocross events - be they land availablity/cost, the enthusiasm and number of its volunteer members, or the equipment it has at its disposal. Over the last 5 or more years, the Braintree Club has steadily declined as a motocross club, being, as it is, made up of mostly trials-riding members with little appetite for organising events for other disciplines. This lack of motivation for taking on the horrendous task of building our non-permanent circuit over difficult terrain from scratch, then taking it all down again after the meeting has been exasperated by bad weather for 3 successive years now. Last year's event had to be called off the night before, with only a substantial financial loss to reward us for our efforts in building and dismantling the track - the latter taking place in dire conditions.

This year's event would not have been run had it not have been for the 4 non-committee members who stepped in at the last minute to save the fixture for Eastern Centre motocross. With little and reluctant unpaid help from a sympathetic handful of our trials members, we attempted to reverse the direction we felt the club was heading in, and I hope you will agree that the result - the promotion of this event with the longer and more interesting circuit - was a great success. Given decent weather, it would have been a match for any of those top-level Stisted meetings the Braintree Club became well known for in previous decades. But it has come at a cost. Once again, struggling with antiquated resources and limited manpower, for all our efforts and without setting aside anything for prize money we stand to end up barely in profit (all costs are not yet accounted for). Rider entry fees have been the main revenue in covering the high costs of land, medics, toilets, public address, recruitment of experienced/licensed officials from outside the Club to run the event on the day, insurance fees, ACU levies, programme printing etc etc, the public gate contributing relatively little.

It is therefore the opinion of the Club that on this occasion no prize money will be paid. Instead, we propose to put any surplus towards sourcing more up to the minute equipment for future meetings. We have to make the task of building a non-permanent motocross track easier for the few unpaid club members who involve themselves in laying on the facility for you the rider to race next time here at Stisted - and to encourage other helpers for the long term. Carrying on next year using stakes 4" and 5" diameter, manually humping heavy mattresses and pallets across difficult terrain, winding out rope by hand - all this has to be replaced by modern lightweight equipment and methods, which has to be financed. There have been indications from Martyn Stammers that outside sponsorship of the Centre Quad Championship rounds might be in place (Gary Hockey Off Road Motorcycles?), but this club is not been part of any likely deal.

The Stisted venue is far too valuable to risk losing to ACU Eastern Centre Motocross just because no-one in the Braintree Club has the desire to build it any more. Watching briefly some of the racing on Bank Holiday Monday - even in those terrible conditions - was a real joy. From the main central spectator area, the entire track could be seen, and the unique features of the green and undulating Stisted meadows make it unthinkable that we should risk its future to the riders and supporters of this Centre when it is in our hands to keep it going.

I hope you will understand and support this decision, and I look forward to seeing you next year when we hopefully will have better weather, a bigger public gate, and an exciting track to race on once again - and of course some money to go for.

Thank you for seeing the meeting through in such dreadful conditions - I know most of you revelled in the rain, but many either didn't turn up or drove off and left us to it!

Richard Sillett,
Secretary of the Meeting

OFFICIAL OVERALL RESULTS FOR THE MEETING (over 3 points scoring legs)

NGR:
1. 47 Lee Keyton 54
2. 374 Dave Roper 40
3. 155 Darren Murfitt 40
4. 121 Dave Watson 31
5. 173 Steven Bottoms 30
(Note - NGR Championship scores from full results of each leg decided by Lyn Berwick)

OPEN:
1. 41 Jason Morland 55
2. 31 Clint Wright 54
3. 222 Chris Hockey 45
4. 441 Julian Harvey 44
5. 144 James Yearley 41
Best MX1 Expert: 41 Jason Morland (55)
Best MX2 Expert: no contenders
Best MX1 Junior: 86 Chris Nunn (30)
Best MX2 Junior: 441 Julian Harvey (44)

QUAD:
1. 52 Paul Bloomfield 52
2. 71 Mark Collier 45
3. 2 Mark Pearson 44
4. 10 Tom Whiting 25
5. 6 Wayne Barker 20

(Note: full results of each leg sent to Andy Crawford, Centre Recorder, for Centre Championship purposes).