Irish road racing is once again under threat from the rising cost of insurance with Killalane already removed from the calendar for 2017 after premiums rocketed to £18,000 for one event.

Insurance to protect the public is the principal cost to any club and for 2017 the cost of providing cover at a race meeting has escalated dramatically; for instance for the National events like Cookstown, Tandragee and Armoy that fall within the Ulster Centre affiliation the increase is in the region of £4000 while for the International events, the Vauxhall North West 200 and MCE Ulster Grand Prix the rise is approximately £7000 bringing the total insurance bill for a National to approximately £18,000 and an International to £37,000.

That £4000 has to be paid up front to the Ulster Centre and the remainder before an event runs so it doesn’t take a rocket surgeon to work out why a road race is becoming less and less viable with no guaranteed income.

In the Southern Centre (Motorcycling Ireland) things are even worse with no speed events until late January while a two-year deal was finalised with an insurance company.

This statement has just been released by the Loughshinny Club which organises both the Skerries and Killalane events:

Following much discussion and many meetings over the last few weeks the Insurance Premium has finally been agreed (thanks to MCI for their hard work in this regard).

As expected it has gone up, but no one foretold the 100 per cent increase. In preparation for the club’s AGM we expected to have maybe a 10 per cent increase and had budgeted appropriately to run Skerries and Killalane.

But when faced with a 100 per cent increase it was back to the drawing board for the hard working committee. We have considered all aspects and tried to see if we can stretch our finances, but unfortunately in 2017 we can see no other way of continuing road racing in Fingal, but to promote just one race.

It is with great sadness that we have decided to only promote The Skerries 100 in 2017. Trying to find another €25,000 to run our second event, Killalane Road Races, is just not feasible this year.

We will be writing to all our members in coming weeks with our plans and contacting our advertisers and sponsors personally – we hope for continued support from all.

Clerk of the Course Susan Plunkett continued in the statement to ask all others who enjoy road racing or who have never been and are wondering what all the fuss is about to go  along and show support.

All the volunteer clubs are working under very difficult financial constraints, so whether you can join each or just one club, sponsor a bale or turn up at the event and pay admission, please, please do something so in years to come we are not trying to describe the noise, smell, colour, speed and sheer thrill of seeing machines and their riders travel on closed, narrow country roads we will still be promoting events so you can witness them.

The bottom line is no insurance, no races and with fewer companies willing to cover the events, the number of claims in this claim conscious society and club’s unable to find the finance to cover their insurance road racing has a very bleak future indeed. Why you may ask, well who will have to pay the price for the insurance hikes? The competitor through higher entry fees to entertain the public of course.

Everyone else can if they so wish watch the show for free, if they are that way inclined. Programme prices are by and large the same as admission to an Irish League football match though the comparison is not quite accurate, as a football match lasts 90 minutes while a road race has on average nine races lasting roughly six hours…

It has been said in recent years that what would kill off road races in Ireland would be the escalating cost of insurance - that day may not be too far away.