[Janneman]

Originally Posted by chunder

I think cross that when someone starts coming in and spending huge money on marketing, PR and trying to reach a global audience the budgets will substantially increase as a matter of course. It sort of cascades down. They buy aanother semi, we buy another semi, they buy a massive setup jig, we buy one too. etc.

The teams now are almost works level, certainly with Peugeot. VW, Ford and Audi are largely dealer teams as they would have been in somehting like a national rally team, but they are still receiving big money from importers and manufacturers.

I think the days of the Isachsen, Schanche, Pailler (Peugeot), Stecka Jernberg are gone. The guys with a bit of money to develop a car themselves are gone. The only one really is Robin Larsson who is not exactly short of money but they do a brilliant job.

My hope as I say is that WRX goes truly global, for works teams only, like a travelling circus. IMG do not want anyone else, they only want their money registering for the series and for bolstering the grids at ERX rounds, they have knocked back their tv coverage and media exposure to such a degree that it is almost useless using tv as a marketing campaign for your team as you get nothing more than a few youtube clips. But they can't race anywhere else.

If they really cared they would put ERX with all Europe rounds, but sadly fans are turning up whatever, as they usualy do when they are being fleeced but don't realise it.

It is called being swept up in hype. It's what millions of dollars of marketing can achieve, which is why people in that industry are paid a lot of money, they can make a grain of sand sound exciting.

And luckily for them, there is very little car based international motor racing at the moment that is doing anything but stagnating.

Bikes however are starting to rapidly encroach into car sport fans lives, and that is where I have been spending far more time in recent years. More accessible, more skillful, more human and you can still get a thrill at club level aswell as the top level.

I was one of the guys who believed in an Euro championship besides WRX for the more gentleman drivers and teams with a more normal budget. But after seeing the disaster of the RCE-cup last year and especially this year that believe faded away. No interest from drivers. No interest from (circuit)organisers. And as a result no interest from spectators.

I still can not get the idea why an only 5 races long ERX is preferred over a decent European Championship (I don't mean RCE) with for example 10 races. Is it only the ERX final on youtube that make their decision?