Good day to all
Off Road Competitors,
As you are all aware we are having a huge issue with the costs
of the MSA Medical Insurance and licensing for 2012 and onwards.
MSA have published the new licensing forms and costs associated
with the licensing and Insurance. I have had many different
discussion with Neil and all the way up to Francois Pretorius (MSA
CEO) as well as other discipline / club Chairman and the MSA
insurance will remain mandatory starting 1st of Jan 2012 and
nothing we say or do will change things. Whilst trying to
resolve this problem and the way forward with one of the other
clubs yesterday, the chairman explained that more than 50% of
his members relied solely on MSA Insurance and now that the
costs are spread of a wider number of riders, their costs
reduced which made them very happy. Unfortunately this is not
the case for all of us.
Yesterday we struck on a possible way of reducing costs for all
of our members whilst still remaining legal i.e. getting the
best out of both worlds. I have sent the following proposal out
to the WFO and Harescramble club chairman and discussed this
idea with some of the longer serving riders and it may work.
This is the proposal:
If people wanted to race and were only interested in club
championships, what is to stop them from getting a club licence
at R 375-00 and the Scheme B or Club Insurance at R 560-00 –
they are now fully legal and have insurance to race at a club
level. The club will then have to run a club class catering for
all classes i.e. clubman A, clubman B, Open, 200 class, Seniors,
Vets and Masters for bikes and clubman , Open, Seniors, Vets and
Masters quads. The club will also cater for the Ladies class.
This saves the average racer slightly more than R 1000-00 for
licence and insurance.
Currently the entry fees have not changed for Tuskers races from
last year and they remain R 400-00 for regional and R 350-00 for
clubman classes for now as we are still trying to look at ways
to get sponsorships and doing away with trophies (approx. Cost R
5000-00 per race) and giving all finishers medals and the 1st,
2nd and 3rd place medals in each class. So far many riders have
simply stated that they are no longer going to afford to race in
2012 due to the latest MSA fee structure, which means that
Tuskers will no longer have sufficient numbers to run each of
the Regional classes i.e. minimum of 6 competitors to make up a
class. In summary, unfortunately Tuskers will no longer be able
to run a Regional championship as it has done in previous years.
We will however, incorporate the “Regional championship classes”
into the new Club championship and still declare an overall
championship per class at the end of the year all be it a
Tuskers Club championship.
The number of laps will not change i.e. Open and 200 class would
still do 3 laps as per the regional rules etc. When it comes to
the Hluhluwe National, last year even the club class was able to
upgrade to a silver class one day license for the race so this
should be no different this year.
There are of course some issues with this:
· issue will be re-numbering of those bikes and quads i.e. club
class numbering and colours.
· What will happen if a person gets a club licence and uses this
“Tuskers” system (for want of a better word) and then comes to
SCMS to do a haresramble. The competitor will then still have to
race as a Clubman.
· It will not apply to anyone who wants to race regionally or
nationally i.e. for colours etc. They will still have to get
Regional license and insurance.
· The seeding for each race is still being worked on going
forward but for the first race it will be based on 2011
championship points.
Being a competitor myself and having a family of 4 that all have
a passion for racing I believe that this is a workable solution
and will allow most us to save a considerable sum of money
whilst continue to participate in something that we love doing.
What do you guys think about this? Remember that our first race
in on the 11th of Feb 2012 at Kusels so it should be brilliant
as always.
This e-mail is
going to be put onto the Tuskers website as well as onto the
Facebook page and I would urge you all to give feedback.
Our AGM is planned for the 14th of January 2012 at 14H00 at
Highstakes, Cato Ridge so please give this idea some
consideration and support the AGM and the club.
Regards
Kevin Mitchell
Chairman - Tuskersmotorsport |
