Brian Dziewa, Chairman of the Board at MOBRA, made the following announcement yesterday:
Today, the MOBRA Board officially approved the O’Fallon Grand Prix as the 2016 Missouri State Road Race.
MOBRA bylaws require applications for State Championship events to be submitted by the end of November and that the Board vote and approve the Championship events at the December meeting. Unfortunately, the Board did not timely receive any applications for the 2016 road race championship.
The Board provided notice to the riders that it was still seeking applications for the road race championship. Subsequently, the Board received an application from the OGP to be the state championship road race. Although in Illinois, the OGP has been a regular event on the BARR calendar for several years and the road course is a worthy championship course. At the time the Board received the OGP application nearly two months had passed since the application deadline. Based on the timing, the Board decided to vote on the application and approved it.
Less than ten days later the Board received another application for the Championship to be held in Augusta. Upon receipt of the second application, the bylaws were reviewed and it was determined that for procedural reasons the Board needed to vote again. The Board regrets the confusion that this caused and decided to do what was best for the Board and the riders it serves.
As such, we re-voted today taking both applications into consideration. Both races are very strong candidates based on the qualifications–precedent of race, course, and promoting experience. Ultimately, the Board reaffirmed its earlier decision to grant the state road race championship to the OGP.
The Board wants to express that it is willing to work with and support all Missouri Race Directors in their efforts to create new and grow existing road races in Missouri. Furthermore, the Board hopes that every year it will have more applications to choose from.
As stated, the Board regrets any confusion that was caused