shame the refusal is so late in the day-all that expense for a NO really does seem unfair, especially as his application came in so early, but then the decision couldnt really be made till after cut off date when all applicants were in

still bad pr for the event if people start to tally up all the money lost by people hoping to come over and race and then look at how much they'd need to spend to race-might strangle the future hopeful privateers who cant get big name sponsors...and even then any sponsor would think twice of investing again if they've already been told sorry try again next year