Andreas Racing Association is very disappointed to learn that we have been unsuccessful in our bid for the tender to take on the management contract for Jurby Race Circuit. We submitted a well-considered bid and having seen the scores for all four bidders, we know that we received the highest overall scores for the quality component, comprising 50% of the assessment. Our financial plan, comprising the other 50%, was realistic and achievable.

Furthermore, we are particularly dismayed to find that the winning bid is from the organization run by those previous members of the ARA committee who resigned in 2019. Under their stewardship, the club was taken from a sound financial footing to near bankruptcy, race grids dwindled significantly, and at an EGM in October 2019 they recommended to the membership that the club be wound up as it was no longer viable.

If we felt that the tender had been awarded to the best bid, and that the club could work with the successful bidders, then we would accept this outcome. However, analysis of the feedback on the quality component of our bid shows that we received the highest or joint highest score in 19 of the 23 assessment criteria, outscored the winning bid in 13, and were only outscored by them in 3 (for the other 7 we scored equally). Consequently, we intend to appeal this award.

If members of the club and the wider Island community feel similarly aggrieved about this outcome, then we welcome your support. Feel free to contact you MHK (who you can find, with their email address, here: https://www.tynwald.org.im/memoff/member/Pages/HOK.aspx), and tell them how you feel, or attend their surgery and talk to them face to face.

You can also email the chief minister, Howard Quayle, on chief.minister@gov.im. Feel free to mention any of the points above, but please use your own words – MHKs want to hear what you personally think.

This is not a question of sour grapes because we lost; we are genuinely concerned that it could mean the end of club racing on the Isle of Man, and the end of ARA. Many officials and race-day volunteers have already expressed their reluctance to work with the current bid winners, and we know of many club members who feel similarly.

This is a setback, but the fight is definitely not over. Please support the club however you can.

Andreas Racing Committee
23rd August 2020