The Silverstone 24 Hour Grand Prix

[Ron-da-Valli]

I thought of doing this til I saw the £200 entry fee. It also depends on the number of riders on a relativley short circuit all at once. I'll see how it goes this year with a view to entering next. ( Or try the Mersey Roads 24)

This is my original post also querying the number of riders involved. 700 does seem a hell of a lot and if that wasn't enough then it would be a nightmare, as Colin's maths suggest!

 

[DCLane]

If all 700 had paid £200 each, that's £140,000 for the organisers.

How many were they expecting?

 

[srw]

£140,000, less whatever Silverstone were proposing to charge them, less publicity costs, less office admin costs, less insurance costs.

My best guess as to the hire fee for exclusive use of the entirety of the Silverstone circuit for two days starts at 6 figures. That's based on a vague knowledge of what it costs to hire conference facilities at a prestigious venue for one day.

 

[frank9755]

This article reckons about £10k to hire the track for a day.
Their revenue from 700 entries may well have been higher than £140k as they were involving charities who normally pay for places on such events. But I find it hard to believe they had 700 entries. Colin's calc above shows it simply isn't credible.

 

[mmmmartin]

The OP has made only two posts, on the day he signed up to CC, and both of those posts were ads for this event.

 

[frank9755]

To be fair, he did get into a discussion, but under a different username, on a parallel thread here when we tried to explain some of the challenges he would face with getting this one to the chequered flag.

 

[srw]

This article reckons about £10k to hire the track for a day.

Being pedantic, it's £10k for a track (presumably one of the less glamorous ones), and £30k for the Silverstone complex for a day - so £60k for two days, plus a bit (I suspect) for overnight. Less than I'd have expected, but still a heck of a lot.

 

[peter HY]

How many entrants were they looking for, if 700 wasnt enough?
1,000 cyclists all crammed onto Silverstone for 24 hours would have made for a very busy track, with the variable speeds of riders, especially in the small hours when people would have been tired and visability reduced.

I gathered from British Cycling that nearly a half of the 700 entrants paid the charity rate. So by my calculations, the Organiser had collected less than £70k from us toward the £100k plus hire fee for the circuit and its Wing facility. No wonder insolvency beckoned! Here is a summary of what I gleaned from several phone calls and emails since the "will they/won't they?" cancellation notice. I write as a former corporate audit partner and Assistant Director at the Serious Fraud Office and court appointed forensic accounting specialist, but more to the point I entered this event with my son, his half brother and a young friend of theirs. For all of us, the loss of £150 is not petty cash.

Having studied the T&Cs carefully, several things struck me:
a) the presence of the British Cycling ("BC") logo at the top of the page,
b) the references to BC's website as the conduit for entry forms and our money and
c) the very nebulous references to the Event Organiser (as being "The Silverstone 24 and its appointed staff and agents",

From this it seemed to me that BC was acting as quasi-principal in this transaction and that(what seems now to be)unscrupulous care had been taken both in the T&Cs, the S24 Website, and also the emails from Tom Wenham, not to divulge the name of their agent, Sportworks Logistics Limited (SLL). Incidentally, it was Sportworks Events Limited that went into liquidation in June and when I spoke last Wednesday to the liquidator (0208 661 7878), they were hoping imminently to be appointed to its sister company, SLL. I registered my name as a creditor, in case my credit card, through whom I paid, refused to repay our £602 entry fees. Early discussions on Friday with Barclaycard, sounded optimistic, as we have not received the goods and services we paid for. At the time of writing though, I am still waiting for Barclaycard Disputes Dept to send me the claim forms, which they want filled in and accompanied by the BC and S24 web cancellation pages and the T&Cs.

Throughout this process, I've been in regular contact with Ian Phillips, Sportives Manager at BC, after several failed attempts to speak with Tom Wenham. Ian has been very fair, but naturally trying to protect BC's interests and therefore there is a limit to what he can say to me. However, after several exchanges, it is clear that:

a) SLL had never run a cycle sportive before
b) perhaps BC's due diligence did not extend to a full credit reference on the company
c) it seems that BC exerts no financial control over the entry moneys once they have passed them over, so the promise in 5.1 of the T&Cs is a rather empty one. This is why Ian is unable to write much more to me on Thursday than "It is now understood that a company acting on behalf of Sportworks will be making an official announcement at the end of this week or early next. They are also due to provide a point of contact for all future correspondence. This for the time being is all we know and we will endeavour to keep everybody informed where possible."

We must watch this space. But to all who paid by credit card, get in touch with your card company and make a claim. Hope this helps. Peter

 

[frank9755]

Fascinating, Peter.

It had not occurred to me that they were cancelling and not refunding the money. Very sorry to hear that you have been put at risk of being substantially out of pocket as a result.

You are right to be sceptical of the organiser's experience: this was rather painfully displayed on here when he made announcements about his night ride plans.

 

[peter HY]

Fascinating, Peter.

It had not occurred to me that they were cancelling and not refunding the money. Very sorry to hear that you have been put at risk of being substantially out of pocket as a result.

You are right to be sceptical of the organiser's experience: this was rather painfully displayed on here when he made announcements about his night ride plans.

Just received my proof of debt claim. The provisional liquidator indicates again that most credit card companies will refund the entry fees in full. You can download the Barclaycard disputed claim forms from their website. Otherwise it can take up to 10 working days to receive them by post.

 

[peter HY]

I have had our £602.40 for our S24 team "provisionally" rebated by Barclaycard. Unless their merchanting people notify us within 28 days, the rebate will be deemed fully approved. Inadvertently and it's because BC used the names of both Tom Wenham's companies in their website, I've inverted their names. It is SEL that is going into liquidation imminently and SLL that was wound up in June. Hopefully a good many other entrants will be bailed out by their card companies, but it will make me wary of any future ambitious events that BC front, unless they're run by reputable and clearly solvent organisers.