As I have indicated to all of you repeatedly,  we find ourselves in an extremely sensitive situation re acceptance of the event by the community – residents, municipal government and police.  We put a great deal of time and effort into convincing these groups that we should be allowed to continue.  Many of the residents have no objection.  Some are extremely supportive, but a vocal few are extremely negative.  It is a fine balancing act to maintain our welcome status in the area.  This is not peculiar to the OWR. Have you wondered why MLRC is the only club continuing to offer drivex events in Ontario?  The public relations issues and liability concerns are the key deterrents. So in order to be able to maintain this event, we must demonstrate to the communities that we are doing everything possible to operate safely and unobtrusively.  Within the context of what we are doing,  some would see that as an oxymoron.  One of the best solutions we see to this is to create Quiet Zones in the most sensitive areas and to strictly enforce those QZ’s.   To further complicate matters,  any problems resulting locally resulting from the OWR have serious implications for the Tall Pines.

Today I was back in the area to meet with a disgruntled resident who went to the O.P.P. this morning.  I think I have worked things out with him by correcting some misconceptions and by making some promises to him for next year.

It is abundantly clear that almost all of you understand our predicament and support our actions.  For that I thank you.  Unfortunately a small minority do not get the picture.  I mentioned in the Driver’s Meeting the obviously irresponsible actions of someone on Old Hastings Rd. on Saturday afternoon.  Today in my debriefing with the O.P.P. I discovered that on Saturday evening one team acted extremely irresponsibly during the event.  That is testing our excellent relationship that we have worked so hard to build with the police.  Some competitors complained about the application of penalties in the Quiet Zones and much worse, treated the QZ marshals poorly.

I am still very committed to this event and to this type of event.  As I said above, the feedback I have received yesterday and today convinces me that most of you truly understand the situation we are in and appreciate our efforts to make it continue to be viable.  We will continue with the measures we have been following.  Any who cannot understand the rationale would do all the rest of us a favour by opting out next year.

Enough of the negativity.  Through thirty years in education I learned to avoid use of the shotgun approach whenever possible.  I assure you that most of the feelings that I and the rest of the workers have about the 2006 OWR and the competitors are very positive.  You demonstrated intense competitive spirit balanced by a sense of good sportsmanship and good judgement with respect to safety and the welfare of your fellow competitors.  Your many messages indicate that you had a blast and learned a lot.

Congratulations to the winners.  You really earned your good results. It was so close in all classes that very small differences in strategy and luck could have produced very different final Results at the end of the night.  I’ll bet that most of you know what you plan to do differently next year, don’t you?

Keith Townsend has worked up a Results summary that fits everything into one 8.5 x 11 page.  If you would like it,  just ask me for it.

See you next year.

Ross