To all SWRA Members and Supporters and Sponsors,
Being the President of any organization isn’t all fun and games at times. Most
of you only see me and the rest of the group of people that work very hard with
me at the race events and Thank God most of the time at the races we’re all
having “Fun”. However I am responsible to this organization to operate it at a
profit because without those profits we could not have the great banquets and
awards that we have been able to provide the last two seasons. Hank and I have
spent a lot of time the last several days reviewing the potential numbers for
the upcoming race at MSR Houston and regardless how we twist those numbers we
are looking at a best case scenario of a possible <$6,086.00> loss.
That number would represent 20% of what SWRA has been spending on your year end
Banquets for each of the last two years. I cannot as the president of this
organization knowingly go to Houston with this upcoming race believing this
potential loss to be possible. We are basing our numbers on a possible 165
entries and loosing $6,086.00 at that level. In 2006 it was a new track and was
heavily advertised locally and we had 141 total entries and lost money. We
decided that it might have been that we had the 2006 event on Mothers Day
weekend and perhaps if we had it in the 2007 schedule early in the year we would
be OK. It was the second race in 2007 which is a point in the season when we
historically have our best participation and we ended up with 175 entries 35
more than 2006 however we lost <$3012.57> at last years event. I know there are
a lot of Kart racers residing in the Houston area. We certainly appreciate the
support that we have enjoyed from some of the Houston area racers and will work
hard to earn yours and others support in the future. In meetings of the SWRA
officers and active board members it was unanimous that we all want to hold
races in the Houston area and have enjoyed everything about our experience
holding races at MSR Houston and their accommodating staff. However the facts
are that without the entries or a much less expensive track to race at we are
prohibited due to the potential loss.
We are moving the September race to Oak Hill and will be having a number of
special awards, prizes and “Saturday Night Feeds” at the track for you. I am
very sorry that I have to bring this bad news to you especially the Houston area
supporters but as we do not have anyone that has stepped up and offered to
financially subsidize SWRA operations I really don’t have any choice. I would be
happy to discuss this with anyone by phone or face to face but, as you all know
from the past, I do not have time to endlessly debate any subject over our forum
or anyone else’s forum attempting to field comments from people posting blind.
Respectfully your President,
J.S. “Mac” McMillan