1. MKM events cost more to promote than other ORR venues because we are not willing to compromise on safety and the protection of our participants.  To illustrate:  We spend $5000 to the Elko HAM Club to provide the incredible radio net that allows us to talk to any gate, any time, instantly.  We spend $12,000 per event to have Craig Sanford and his amazing rescue team on site to come to your rescue should you ever need it.  We spend $5000 on a life-flight helicopter, and currently, we are the ONLY ORR event that puts a life-flight helo on the ground at our disposal for an event.  We pay our Course Workers $50 each on race day, costing us between $4000 and $8000 per event, and because of the great training program developed by Ted Zaleski, at our events you actually have course workers that know what to do in an emergency and the radio system to back them up 100%.  We will NEVER reduce these aspects of our event costs because your safety is more important to us than profit.  Can we provide the minimum services for less?  Of course we can, but we don’t want to.  So, we need a bigger turnout to break even – it’s that simple, and despite our best efforts, we cannot attract a large enough field to achieve the financial success we need to sustain operations.
    
2. We do not enjoy the community support that successful ORR venues do, such as the Sandhills and Big Bend events.  Having that support is vital, as the community contributes a big part of the atmosphere that makes racers want to return over and over and also because, with strong community and volunteer support, emergency services and other vital, costly needs can be obtained for less cost to the promoter.  At Wendover, there is no community support to speak of, because there is no community – it is just a strip of casinos.  At Battle Mountain, the local population has never shown enough interest to get behind the event despite years of trying, and the community doesn’t offer anything of interest to attract a racer otherwise; and Elko (home of the Gambler’s Run) is too large a community to take any serious interest in our small event.

There are two other factors in play here, as well: 

1. Insurance costs are going up, and our current provider is going out of the ORR coverage business, so another provider would have to be found.  (Incidentally, this provider also covers the SSCC and BBORR events.) 
    
2. NDOT is cutting those “wake-up” rumble strips in the center of all of Nevada’s 2-lane highways. These pose a significant danger to ORR cars, particularly in the higher speed brackets.  Stan Martin’s crash at the SSCC was due to a blown tire, but he encountered the rumble strip at a critical time after the blowout while trying to regain control of the car, which contributed to his accident.  Our personal belief is that competition in the Unlimited or the very high-speed classes (such as our 175 mph class or SSCC’s 180 mph class) is effectively finished, because the risk is too great.  This, in turn, will affect attendance, because many racers enjoy looking at and rooting for the faster cars, and they certainly are the “stars of the show.”

Please note that we have intentionally used the word “Postponed” in the title, as we do still hold out hope that eventually the B100 will return in some form in the future.  If the environment changes, this is certainly possible, so we would rather “suspend” operations rather than close the door completely on ORR.  We truly love this sport, and we regret deeply not being able to continue in the current environment.

In the meantime, we are keeping the MKM organization operational, focusing on the popular mile-shootout format, and as such, we are staging two Mojave Mile shootout events in 2011, conducted at the Mojave Air & Space Port in Mojave, CA (www.mojavemile.com).  We certainly hope to see some of you there, even if you just come over to say hello.  We will keep the openroadracing.com website open for archival access to records and past events, etc., but will be locking the forums on January 31, 2010.  We can be reached at the MKM office number or through the Mojave Mile website if needed.

Sincerely,

Mike, Keith, and Marsha

MKM Racing Promotions