CLASSIC WORLD
After two years with no racing between the hedges in the Republic of Ireland due to insurance issues, at least four meetings will be going ahead in 2025
In a remarkable turn of events, a breakaway organisation led by club members has secured public liability insurance for road races at Walderstown, Munster, Athea and Faugheen, which the official governing body had failed to do since 2022.
“There was no prospect for road racing in 2025,” said Paul Power, who helped set up Road Racing Alliance Ireland (RRAI) and arrange the crucial public liability insurance. “A number of clubs decided that if Motorcycling Ireland [MCI, the governing body] couldn’t get insurance, then we should start looking for ourselves.
“It wasn’t done to put two fingers up to MCI; the only driving force was that if we didn’t do it, our road racing would be consigned to the history books. We thought it was better to do something and fail than to do nothing.”
What Paul and his team found was that no insurance was possible if the clubs stayed with Motorcycling Ireland, who had organised insurance for all other forms of bike sport in the Republic. “It would be like trying to get insurance for your living room when the rest of your house is insured,” explains Paul. “We took a leap of faith and thought we’d give it a go.
“We left MCI in October 2024 and by the first week of January this year we had an insurance policy for seven road race events in the Republic. We were blown away.” Four of those events have been allocated, with the remaining three up for grabs. “We’re hoping other clubs will come on board – Kells, Skerries, Tandragee and so on – but at the moment they’re still with MCI.”
But if RRAI managed to get insurance in three months, what were MCI playing at? “We don’t know how hard the governing body’s negotiators tried to get insurance,” says Paul. “We asked the insurance companies what was stopping them providing cover and couldn’t get a definitive answer. It was frustrating.
“But after a lot of knocking on doors and putting things in place – safety policies, codes of practice, etc – and then putting forward an insurance proposal, we got a result. It was a lot of long nights and hard work. We just persisted.”
Premium racing
The four road races lined up for 2025:
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Walderstown July 12, 13
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Faugheen July 19,20
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Munster September 6,7
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Athea September 13, 14