A Call to Arms: 24 Hours of Moab Needs You … And Your Mother
- By Singletrack.com
- Published Nov. 24, 2011
- Updated Dec. 2, 2011 at 9:15 AM UTC
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The optimistic poster for next year's race...if it happens. Photo: 24 Hours of Moab -
The race directors are always thankful to those who support the race, even if it won't be enough in 2012. Photo: 24 Hours of Moab
24 Hours of Moab race director, Laird Knight, committed to making a decision by Thanksgiving about whether or not there would be a race in 2012.
I don’t know about you, but I have a strong hankering for turkey today. Must be Thursday.
Drum roll for the resolution readers have been waiting for with bated breath: Knight has reached no conclusion.
Knight is not ready to resign to letting the 24 Hours of Moab fade into the dust just yet, but making the race a success won’t happen without a fight.
The race directors are always thankful to those who support the race, even if it won't be enough to keep it alive in 2012. Photo: 24 Hours of Moab
To break even in 2012, the race needs to add 40 teams more than entered in 2011. Add 20 to that number, in case any unexpected pipers need to be paid. And, ideally, another 20 so Knight could have a salary for the work he puts into the race for the first time in a year and a half.
Still, Knight is hopeful. He wrote Thursday morning, “The financial dust has settled and, sure enough, I am in the proverbial hole on this year’s race. The good news is that, due to the perfect weather that saved roughly $10,000 worth of dust suppression expenses, I’m not in as deep a hole as I had feared. Still, I owe vendors upwards of $20,000.”
“Is it do-able?” Knight wrote. “I think so but it will be no small achievement. And, I can’t do it all myself. It’s going to take a real commitment by everyone who has a stake in the ongoing success of this great event. Teams who raced this year need to come back and bring another team with them. We need the folks who missed last year and even those who haven’t been back in many years to come back out of the woodwork. And, of course, we’ll need the support of enthusiastic sponsors and the continued hard work of my dedicated staff (they’ve all declared their intention to return).”
Knight has set tentative dates for October 6th and 7th. This makes the race a week earlier than usual. Knight hopes the warmer weather will encourage more riders to come out to the red dirt.
Knight has set the date back to the start of 2011. In the meantime, he says, “moving ahead is still very risky. To be more confident and to have more than my seat-of-the-pants, ever-optimistic, blind faith to go on, I will be publishing an on-line survey to accurately assess the degree of commitment that is out there. Look for this survey in next couple of weeks.”
If you want to continue racing the classic 24 hour event, convince other riders to come out and show their commitment to endurance racing, and take the survey to show Knight that enthusiasts will make it worth his while.
FILED UNDER: News TAGS: 24 Hours of Moab