Phoenix races cancelled

One of the world's oldest sporting events, the Phoenix Park Motor Races, may cease to be. The event, which is due to celebrate its centenary in 2003, has been cancelled for this year due to lack of adequate funding.

The announcement was made by Motorsport Ireland, the governing body for motorsport in Ireland, and the two clubs that promote the Phoenix Park Races each year, the Irish Motor Racing Club and Leinster Motor Club.

While the news that the 2002 event has been cancelled will be a huge disappointment to motorsport enthusiasts all over Ireland, the fact that centenary celebrations have been put on hold will be a concern throughout the worldwide motorsport community.

The Phoenix Park event is one of the oldest on the world motorsport calendar. In the early days the Phoenix Park was the venue for the Irish Grand Prix for a number of years.

Plans for the centenary celebrations included a festival of historic cars from all of the golden ages of motorsport.

While plans have been put on hold for the 2003 celebrations, Motorsport Ireland has set aside €100,000 for work on resurfacing parts of the Phoenix Park circuit this year.

Cecil Sparks, chairman of Motorsport Ireland, said the decision to allocate funds for re-surfacing works had been taken to ensure the proper infrastructure can be put in place should the necessary funding be found to go ahead with next year's celebrations.

He noted that while Duchas, the authority responsible for the Phoenix Park, had been most supportive and sympathetic in all of their dealings with Motorsport Ireland, they were not in a position to commit funding to the resurfacing of the roads and "without the resurfacing there would be absolutely no chance of going ahead with centenary celebrations in 2003".