With the situation changing daily, and in the light of this week’s revised government guidelines spanning the next six months, Pre-War Prescott and our Summer Rally are postponed to the weekend of Saturday 17th July and Sunday 18th 2021. Although Prescott may be open by September (and I sincerely hope so), even by then, I suspect that many of the likely entrants, whose demographic is quite senior, will be leery of any large gathering, regardless of the guidelines in place by then. Right now, our overarching concern must be for everyone’s good health.
In addition, the September weekend already has some unfortunate clashes with both the Kop Hill and Harewood hillclimbs, as well as the race meet at Angouleme, plus some added technical complications of having to share the weekend (and therefore local accommodation, etc.) with the local Rotary Club who are gathering at Prescott over the same weekend in September. On top of this the VSCC Prescott long course event takes place the following Saturday, and may well become their two-day event, as the August date for this may well be in question. I know that many PWP entrants like to attend both events, but may not wish to attend Prescott two weekends in a row.
So could I ask all of you who have entered already to let me know whether you wish me to refund your entry or simply transfer your entry to the new date (and naturally I encourage you to do the latter!). Once the dust has settled on entrants’ collective wishes, I shall be holding a sum against these entries and I plan to pay this sum to the Bugatti Owner’s Club – perhaps in the next four weeks – if I can elicit a response from everyone by then. And for those of you who have already booked tickets for the evening BBQ, I will forward these funds to Ciaran who manages the Clubhouse to help him and his staff through these challenging times. I hope that this will provide some valuable income to the BOC and to the Clubhouse when it is needed the most. I will also pay the balance of the hire Prescott fee and BBQ bookings as soon as I have collected them from additional entries and not wait until the usual 60-days before the event deadline (for the BOC) or the BBQ night (for the Clubhouse).
Also, every entrant’s entry fee contains £5 for the RAF Charitable Trust in return for a raffle ticket. I propose to also pay the sum gathered so far to the RAF CT in the next 30 days, as their income will be decimated this year, with the cancellation of the Air Tattoo.
Could I also ask those of you who hold executive, newsletter or webmaster positions in our supporting Clubs and Registers to relay this change of date and change of plans to your respective memberships, so that as many people as possible are aware.
I will be updating the website, entry forms, etc. and I have also added a column to the online entry list for clarity, indicating those who have elected to move their entries to 2021. And I will remove those who elect to cancel. The entry list can be found at http://prewarprescott.com/?page_id=547.
I do hope the above plan is acceptable and not too inconvenient to everyone, as I think it is the best we can hope for in the current circumstances. With any luck, next year’s weekend will be the very best ever, as we celebrate the passing of the storm and much more. I wish all of you and your families and friends, the Bugatti Owners’ Club, the Bugatti Trust, the Clubhouse staff and last but by no means least the indomitable Prescott marshals all the very best as we and look forward to calmer, brighter waters before too long.
If you have any questions or concerns whatsoever, whether or not they relate to Pre-War Prescott or our Summer Rally, please do not hesitate to get in touch.
Please keep an eye open for further e-mails regarding the change of plans in the coming days and weeks, as we work our way through these changes. Needless to say, all other Register activities while continue unabated, including the circulation of Newsletters, website updates, and please don’t overlook the Forum which offers an excellent communications platform in the absence of face-to-face meetings. Please share your news for us all to enjoy, in whatever way works best for you.
Finally, I contacted Gemma Price at Prescott yesterday to let her know my decision. Gemma is the new BOC General Manager/Club Secretary, having recently taken over from Chris Rogers, and below is her reply. I would like to add to this by passing on Jayne’s and my sincere thanks for the incredible support and understanding we have received from all of you as we battle through stormy and uncharted waters. Living around 6,000 miles from most of you, your correspondence and messages of support are appreciated beyond words. Thank you, and this evening, our 37th Wedding Anniversary, we shall raise an an indecently large glass to you all around the world to wish you continued health, happiness, prosperity, and we look forward so much to a tremendous reunion in July 2021.
Ian and Jayne
From Gemma Price:
Hi Ian,
Nice to hear from you.
Thanks for letting me know about your decision to postpone, which I obviously totally understand and support.
Also, thank you for the exceptionally kind gesture of still making a payment to the BOC this year. This is astonishingly generous and on behalf of the whole club I thank you sincerely. The funds will make a huge difference to our survival through these challenging times. It will be a very tough year for the Club in many ways, but we plan to use this time to take stock of how we operate and plan to emerge from the crisis stronger and with a clearer sense of direction and purpose.
We will move your deposit into 2021 as requested and I wish you and your family well through the pandemic.
Take care and stay in touch.
Gemma