Paris, TEXAS -- To the ClubRally community:
I am very sorry to announce that we have lost permission to use Camp Maxey Training Site in Paris, Texas, for ClubRally. The new owner gave us time to try to get approvals from several new people, and we were not able to do so.

We don't know if this is permanent, but the ClubRally National Championship will definitely not be put on by the Texas Region as planned. It is pretty certain that we will release our April date for Paris by Night as well. A plea by the State Legislator from Paris to the Texas Military Facilities Commission might work, but it needs to be after we have done some research on the environmental issues raised by the Texas Adjutant General's Facilities & Engineering office, Environmental Section.

It's a real pity, because the event was shaping up to be a really good one for the sport. We have more volunteers from our (largely non-rally) Region than we've had in years. Volunteers from among you were also beginning to surface. Our new Rallymaster had some great new ideas to make Camp Maxey an even better venue for rally. And of course our central location and early date on the calendar made this a wonderful new beginning for the Championship.

We found out about this in October, and have been working non-stop to avert the tragedy. I made a 423.6-mile round trip to the State Capitol, to see if I couldn't get us new permissions, and another due west to Fort Wolters near Mineral Wells, Texas, to talk to the Colonel in charge of training for the Texas Army National Guard. Close, but no cigar. We (SCCA) are the victims of a bureaucratic mess, they said, but they still wouldn't relent.

We are looking for a new site. After SCCA told us that Big Bend Bash was too far from a major population area in the early 1980's, it took us a couple of years to settle on Camp Maxey. We hope to be back in business somewhere, soon.

Yours in the sport,

Sasha Lanz, Chairman, the ShootOut
SWDiv ClubRally Steward