A bid to put a real Bermudian stamp on an international rally car has gone sour following Government's refusal of a duty waiver.

The rejection has the duo of Mike Smith and Terry Reynolds wondering why they were snubbed over $6,000 when Bluegrass Management - the company behind last month's successful Monster Trucks show - was exempted from paying more than $300,000 for the super-sized vehicles brought in for that event.

In addition, the rallying twosome were taken aback by a Customs official's statement that they might as well get their Ford Focus customised elsewhere when their intention was to have all that work done on the Island by local auto experts.

"We sent a letter to TCD (Transport Control Department) requesting a waiver on the duty for the car because it was only going to be here for about six to eight weeks. We were going to customise it here and show it with all the sponsors' logos at Harbour Nights and put it in the show window of Bermuda Motors who is our major sponsor.

"We were even willing to put a deposit down and then get our money back later. That's all we wanted and we got a letter back saying 'Nope, you will pay full duty'. We were so mad with the whole thing that we decided 'Fine, we will pay the one-time $6,000 and we'll bring the car in and out as we want'. We didn't pursue it after that because we were so despondent.

"My gripe is that they brought all these monster trucks and didn't pay any duty. Why can these guys do this: bring in six of these $100,000 trucks; not pay a dime in duty and turn around and make money off the event?

"We're not asking for a hand-out. We're just saying that $6,000 is a lot of money that we could really have used for something else," said Smith, the navigating half of the combination which will compete in the World Cup Rally in October.

The course for that race traverses a dozen European countries from London, England, to Athens, Greece, where the rally starts and ends respectively. The Bermudian team has been offering sponsorship packages for local companies to be advertised on the car as part of their promotion pitch for the Island and to help underwrite the more than 30,000 needed for this project.

"We purposely targeted local Bermudian companies. We didn't go for the XLs (Capital) or the ACEs. We wanted real Bermudian companies to promote the Island and we've got lots of encouragement from locals who think this is a great thing. We thought Government would give us a break because this is good for Bermuda.

"We were going to build it here though bringing in the parts was going to cost an arm and a leg. After the incident with Customs, we thought 'Okay, forget this, we'll just build it in England'. We're still bringing it here in August before we go to the World Cup Rally in October," added Smith.

What sealed the decision not to customise the car here was a telephone call by Assistant Collector of Customs Larry Conn, advising Reynolds and Smith of Customs' decision and suggesting they would be better off building the car overseas.

A major element of the query concerning the concession to Bluegrass Management stems from the letter sent to the rally team by Collector of Customs Winniefred Fostine-DeSilva in which she stated: "Unfortunately, there is no provision in law for duty relief in matters of this sort, nor is the duty refundable."

Though not wanting to be dragged into situation, chairman of Bluegrass Management, Mike Jones, revealed their waiver request was also initially denied by Customs, though he received ready assistance from other Government departments. Only after he was allowed to plead his company's case to an official panel was it granted.

"The provision that ours was under was that it was a charitable community event that was being sanctioned by different Government departments as well as that it was an exhibition. It was not a competition or anything of that nature. They made it clear that if it was ever a competition, the trucks would not be allowed in duty-free," he explained.

The entrepreneur, who formed Bluegrass with friends, hopes this uproar over their concessions does not have negative repercussions the next time they approach Government with similar requests.

As for the rally pair, they are pressing ahead with preparations despite the hiccup in their plan. Their sponsorship campaign has gone "quite well" thus far and they are hoping more businesses will follow the lead of Bermuda Motors, The Beach Restaurant and Bar, BITCO (Bermuda International Trading) and Greymane Contracting.

"We are still negotiating with some companies. We feel that once we prove ourselves and we've gone rallying a few times and sponsors see what we can do for them, we'll get even more interest," said an optimistic Smith.