[alfaman]

At the end of last year FF1600 was on everyone's lips. A cracking King of Kents race at the Festival and then talk of a national championship with overflowing grids.

It seemed that FF1600 was really back in vogue.

Just as I was looking forward to seeing my first FF1600 race of 2003 I check the entry for this weekend's race at Brands Hatch and see just 6 cars entered!

So where has all the enthusiasm gone?

Is it the drivers voting with their feet against entry fees?

Have they switched to Zetecs?

Or is it too early in the season syndrome?

Just as one sparrow doesn't make a summer I'm not writing off FF1600 because of a (potentially)thin grid at one race meeting. But does anyone have any clues to why so few are set to turn out at Brands?

Are they all saving £30 by racing at Castle Combe the previous day? (What's the Combe entry like by the way?)

Or is the tide turning amongst drivers who may see the Southern Zetec championship as a better deal with a bigger variety of tracks to race on rather than a few rounds on the Brands Indy circuit, a couple at Lydden and a quick blast on the Brands GP track?

And I've seen some Zetec bargains in the back pages of Autosport lately.

The Zetecs had 20+ at Donington the other week and it's a shame they won't be at Brands on Sunday.

Let's hope more FF1600s will venture out over the next few rounds otherwise those action-packed races in the JPS sponsored days will seem long gone.