Vintage races again

"We worked very hard to see if we could keep the vintage races here," Greg Goddard, general manager of Gunstock Recreational Area, said yesterday, "but it wasn't growing." Earlier this week Goddard announced the cancellation of Vintage Motorcycle Weekend, which has kick-started Bike Week for the past six years.

Gunstock hosted the vintage races in partnership with the United States Classic Racing Association (USCRA), sharing the profits according to what Goddard called a "ratcheting formula," which allocated 70 percent to Gunstock until attendance topped 3,000 when the take would be split evenly.

Goddard said that the gate fell shy of 2,000 last year when Gunstock's expenses for staging the event approached $21,000. "Our revenues from the gate, vendors and sales were about $25,000 and we cleared $4,000," Goddard explained. He said that the revenue from the two-day event was a third of that from the traditional Wednesday hill climb while the expenses were greater. "The hill climb is not labor intensive and the costs are minimal," Goddard said, adding that the vintage races required stringing more than two miles of fence and setting more than 2,000 bales of hay. "We also promoted the event. on radio, in print and last year through a point of sale campaign in partnership with Pepsi out of our marketing budget," Goddard remarked.

"During the winter we tried to negotiate an arrangement by which USCRA would pick up some of the set-up and break-down costs," Goddard said. "Then the individual who did the swap meet backed out. We had nothing for Saturday so I proposed limiting the event to Sunday only," he continued. "At that point USCRA dropped the event. They asked if we would take on the vintage trials and the Reunion Riders dinner, but we declined," he said.

Stressing that Gunstock is owned by the county, Goddard insisted "my primary responsibility is to ensure that the area operates at a profit while also providing recreation an entertainment for the community. There is a balancing act," he explained. "We donate the facility to nonprofit groups and charities but we have to keep focused on the bottom line."

In place of the races, Gunstock will rent campsites, which at $85 per person for three nights Goddard estimated would return more than $4,000.

Goddard insisted that the decision to cancel the vintage races "does not mean we don't support the Laconia Motorcycle Rally and Race Association or Bike Week. We certainly do," he affirmed. "I wholeheartedly support Bike Week and Bike Week activities." Furthermore, he said that "we would be open to considering other activities in association with Bike Week and I would certainly entertain bringing the vintage races back to Gunstock if I could work out a reasonable arrangement."