It may only be the end of April 2023, but it’s already been a rocky year for road racing in Northern Ireland. Although the country has a long and proud history of road racing that’s unlike anywhere else in the world, its 2023 season prospects were dealt a seemingly fatal blow back in February, when it looked like the entire season would be canceled due to insurance hikes.
By March 2023, though, things had seemingly made a change for the better. Thanks to a combination of both local business donations and crowdfunding to save Northern Irish road racing in 2023, organizers announced that they were able to obtain a lower insurance rate for the events. As of March 15, it seemed that races including the North West 200, Armoy, and Cookstown 100 would be able to be held for this year, at least.
Even though the news was good for a sizable chunk of the 2023 Northern Irish Road Racing season, fans will already have noticed that no mention was made of the Ulster Grand Prix in that happy announcement. Absence of evidence is not always evidence of absence, however—so the responsible thing to do was, of course, to wait until there was actual news about the event.
The 2023 Ulster Grand Prix shoe finally dropped on April 25, 2023—and unfortunately for fans, the news is not good. The Dundrod and District Motorcycle Club, with heavy hearts, made the official announcement that “it is with deep regret the Dundrod and District Motorcycle Club has been forced to abandon plans to revive the Ulster Grand Prix on August 18 through 19, 2023.”
The event was last held in 2019, before the global pandemic put the world on pause for the next three years. As the DDMC told the story, two issues had arisen that led them to announce that their plans could not go forward for 2023. The first is that organizers had attempted to get a good look at the public liability insurance policy obtained by the Motorcycle Union of Ireland, Ulster Centre. That document allowed other event organizers to say in March that the season was back on in the first place.
However, DDMC was not able to view this document, and yet was expected to cough up £26,000 (about $32,402) by mid-April, regardless. Since the organizers were not able to view that document after repeated requests to do so prior to their payment deadline, the DDMC’s solicitor (that’s a lawyer, for us Yanks) advised the club not to go through with it.
That’s just one problem, though. The other problem that the DDMC mentioned is that it had so far not received any indication from Tourism Northern Ireland as to what funds (if any) it could expect to receive to help stage the Ulster Grand Prix. Although the Club had applied back in December 2022, it did not hear back as of April 25, 2023, it said.
Things had already been rough for the Ulster GP since 2019, when bad weather and resulting low attendance exacerbated an already tough financial situation. Now the 2023 event is canceled once more—and it’s not clear what the future holds for one of Northern Ireland’s historic road racing events.
