Responding to criticism that the Brownstown Road Race and two other races he has revived for the season were limited to beginners racers, race promoter David Butterworth has added categories for elite racers and masters to the June 28 Brownstown race.
Butterworth scheduled the Brownstown race, along with the Peiffer Hill and Deodate road races, earlier this week. He had cancelled those races and some 16 other events a week earlier when they were being promoted by RedRoseRaces.com. As controlling partner in the company, Butterworth announced that the company would cease operations, cancel the remainder of its season and sell its assests.
Butterworth revived the three races under his Pro-Am Cycling banner. He had formerly operated them as Pro-Am races until selling them to RedRoseRaces last fall.
After he had scheduled the three races, some riders complained the events were limited to category 4 & 5 racers and to juniors. Butterworth recently added racer for category 1,2 & 3 racers and masters. Still excluded are category 1 & 2 women.
Also added was cash prizes for winners. Racers are still not permitted to register on race day.
Butterworth said he has not made the same changes yet to the Peiffer Hill and Deodate races. He is waiting to see whether advanced racers make good on a threatened boycott of his events before making further changes. Whether a boycott materializes will begin to be known Thursday evening after on-line registration opens.
Kevin Farmer, president of the county’s largest team, the Spinner’s Cycling Team, said in an e-mail message today that many of his team’s 42 members will not be participating in Butterworth’s races. They remain loyal to RedRoseRaces’ founder Rich Ruoff, he wrote.
“As far as boycotting Pro-Am races, many of us are unwilling to support Dave Butterworth because of what he has done to RRR. I don’t know what the future holds for our local race scene but for the rest of this year most of our veteran riders will not be racing the Pro-Am races,” Farmer wrote.
Butterworth said that contrary to many on-line comments that have been made, the electronic mail messages he has been receiving have been divided.
“People have lambasted me on the one hand and people have thanked me for getting races going on the other,” he said today.
