Quote:
Originally Posted by BertMk2
The 4wd class makes a lot of sense - there are plenty of Subarus and Evos out there that are never going to be able to keep up with the R5 and WR Cars. I suppose the same is true in the 2wd classes - our Escort has a sequential box and a non-oem engine - so on the one hand we're part of the problem, on the other our car is nowhere near the spec of the top cars in our class. 10 years ago our car would have been a decent spec, now it's well off the pace - we don't have the budget to keep up with the development curve. We could change it to a lesser spec - but again that's more expense and the class structure is only relevant for the MN championship so you'd be further off the pace on other events.
In some respects it's the usual problem - a championship becomes popular so the cheque books come out and the clubmen drop down the order. Using an R5/WRC on a single venue event seems like collosal overkill to me (but I do like seeing them in action  ). One of the events we did there was a crew putting on a new set of tyres after every pair of stages (as in 4 brand new tyres every 10 or so miles) - there's no way a clubman competitor can compete with that kind of outlay.
The MSN championship is doing a great job of putting rallying in front of "non-bobble hat" people though and the events we've done have been enjoyable - there also seem to be quite a few "first time drivers" at the events so hopefully they're a way of getting more people into the sport. |
I do applaud them for trying to do something to encourage competitors on more limited budgets (it’s all relative) and I certainly think it is the most accessible form of the sport, usually with good spectator numbers.
As for the competitors chucking tyres at it, then that will always be the way but perhaps they could help the budget conscious by selling on their “used” tyres at cheap prices. Alternatively perhaps the regs could limit tyres either in numbers per competitor or to List 1B or 1C etc as do many club level race series.