New points structure for Irish Tarmac Series

[Roundy Mooney]

What's your view on this ?

Belfast Telegraph
Rallying: Production cars take a big step up in Irish Rallying


By Sammy Hamill
25 October 2006

Irish rallying has taken the first major step towards the eventual demise of the World Rally Cars which have held a dominant position here for the past decade.
Next year's Pirelli Tarmac championship will see production cars in the Group N category scoring equal points in the overall title race with the WRC supercars.

In other words, the outright winner of each round of Ireland's top championship, who will inevitably be driving a WRC car, will score the same points as the winner of the production category although that driver may finish in seventh or eighth overall.

The change, announced in statement from championship manager Don Wilmont, is subject to ratification from Motorsport Ireland but will undoubtedly be given the go-ahead. It follows a decision by the British championship authorities who have banned all WRC cars from their series.

The statement says: "The Tarmac Rally Organisers Association have agreed to introduce a new scoring system for the 2007 championship. It is intended to cater for two very strong groups of customers in the championship by introducing two scoring categories for next year - World Rally Cars and Production Cars - each of which will score equal points for overall championship honours.

"The new scoring system will continue to cater for the large number of existing registered WRC competitors while also providing an opportunity for the growing number of Group N registrations and emerging Super 2000 entries to challenge for overall championship"

[Roundy Mooney]

This was posted elsewhere but you may not have been able to access link so I have posted full letter. Sorry I know it is long. But I thought many of you would find it interesting.

Pirelli Irish Tarmac Shambolicship

by James O'Brien

As a co-driver who has competed in both Group N and WRC on the Tarmac Championship over the past two years as well as being a former Two times Tarmac Champion, a regular competitor in the championship since 1988 and winner of 15 rounds of the championship I believe myself to be as well qualified as anyone to comment on the outrageous disservice foisted on Irish motorsport by the quango that calls itself the TROA.

The beauty of our championship has always been its simplicity – the man or woman who is consistently fastest wins. Very simple and very easy for the man in the street to understand and identify with. By our championship I mean James O’Brien’s championship and that of all the other paying customers who participate in it i.e. competitors - not the sole preserve of a cabal of self appointed and self perpetuating 8 or 9 people who meet in secret behind closed doors.

We now have the case of d’untouchables becoming d’unbelievables – a group of individually sane men making a laughing stock of Irish rallying and a mockery of us and our championship. Gentlemen if it talks like a duck, walks like a duck and looks like a duck then it is a duck and this is one very ugly duckling.

In discussions with TROA Chairman Bobby Clinton after the decision was made he came up with a few lame excuses:
1. The burgeoning numbers of Group N cars compared to WRC cars in the championship – Bobby look at your championship results for 2006. You had 27 drivers in your “big” Group N class while you had 35 in your WRC class. In my books 35 paying customers is always bigger than 27 paying customers. For those who do not know – we, the competitors, pay to do the championship.
2. If the results of the championship for the past two years were recomputed on the new basis there would be no difference – Bobby if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.
3. There would only be a handful of cars capable of competing for overall honours in the next few years. Bobby there have only ever been a handful of people capable of winning the championship in any given year – even under the existing rules a Group N driver has won the championship overall in the past.
4. It allows a wider group of people win the championship. Bobby an ultra competitive Group N class would be the last thing a Group N competitor needs if he wants to win the championship outright. Such a competitive Group N class would help ensure a WRC championship winner more particularly if the competition in the WRC class is weak.

Where did this notion come from? As I said I have competed among the leading Group N drivers in each of the past two years and I have never heard the topic mentioned. In fact I am struggling to find the matter discussed anywhere – maybe that is some measure of how daft it is or how out of touch with reality the TROA are. But then again they can do what they want - they are not answerable to anyone and definitely not answerable to mere competitors. I challenge the TROA to provide a press statement, an interview or even a quotation from any of our leading Group N drivers over the past two or three years asking for the changes they have now imposed on us.

Going back to “fix it” it is my belief that the TROA have had their collective heads turned. They see “works” Group N teams competing on a number of rounds of the championship particularly the dual British/TROA rounds and believe that they can attract the said teams to the remaining TROA rounds. Remember if we have 2, 3 or 4 WRCs competing against one another in a tight fight and a runaway Group N leader the Group N car wins the championship. In fact the more intense the competition is between the WRC competitors the worse it is for them and the better it is for a dominant Group N competitor. Tell me who could afford to finance and run such a runaway Group N car – a works team perhaps? I do not wish to denigrate in any way our current group N drivers but a full time professional driver with works backup will almost always be more than a match for an amateur no matter how talented that amateur may be whether that be in a Group N car or a World Rally car. I have sat in with among the best of the Group N drivers – former Tarmac Group N winner Gary Jennings and current National Championship aspirant Alan Ring - so I appreciate more than most their speed, their guts and their ability.

The reality is that any such works Group N team would not only take the championship from our WRC competitors but will also take the press coverage from our leading Group N drivers and take places on our rallies from clubmen – when organisers sit down to decide who is going to be allowed compete on their rally it will be the guys currently struggling to be allowed in at number 148, 149 and 150 will suffer. Nice one TROA – not only have you shot yourself in one foot but in all three. Furthermore if you are an up and coming young Group N driver like an Eoin Murphy or a Keith Cronin you can presently make an impression even with an elderly Group N car as Garry Jennings did a few years past in an Evo 6 but you don’t stand a chance against a full works team. So much for fostering new talent – lipservice - bah humbug.

My name was on an entry with a young driver for this years Ulster rally and we did not even make it on to the reserve list – I know the disappointment he felt. So I am not just talking from the rarified atmosphere of the top ten - I have seen this sport from the very front of the field to the very back.

Somebody should explain to the TROA what pandering to works teams has done to the British Championship and to some British events.

I was a registered competitor in the British Championship when they tried the very same stunt over there with WRC and Formula Two cars. It did not work there and it will not work here. In fact it was so bad in the UK that even they were forced to drop it after just one year.

It’s a bit like saying Man United or Real Madrid can win the World Cup depending on how well they do in their domestic championships or Crossmaglen Rangers or Na Fianna are allowed win the Sam Maguire if they win the All Ireland club championship by more than so many points.

Maybe next year or the year after a Group N 1300cc class become flavour of the month with the FIA – do we then see the championship being won by a guy who finishes at the back of the field in rallies. It is a slippery slope whenever you try to “engineer” or “fix” results. I speak from bitter experience. I have competed on the Manx Rally in a WRC as a second class citizen in a “Trophy” rally run at the tail of the field while the slower British Formula Two cars ran in the “real” rally at the front of the field – they could not have the embarrassment of an Irish WRC beating the “Works” formula two cars. I have also competed on an Ulster rally where “mysterious” errors crept into the results to keep me off the podium to allow at least one “Works” formula two car onto the podium at our expense - I eventually got a mealymouthed apology from the organisers after all the cameras were gone and I had the task of explaining to my sponsors why I finished third on the rally but got no TV coverage and all the press releases showed a British professional driver as having finished third. I thought those bad old days were long gone.

This is poor reward for the individual competitors who went out and spent their own money to buy World Rally Cars to make Irish rallying the spectacle it has become and raised the profile to the extent that we are now to host a round of the world championship

How do we protect our sport and our championship from the very people who are supposed to have its best interests at heart. Remember this was a unilateral decision made without consulting anyone. It is a very poorly disguised attempt to attract works Group N and Formula 2000 teams at the expense of the leading Irish WRC drivers, the leading Irish Group N drivers and the struggling Irish clubmen drivers.

As one of the most senior competitors in the Championship I feel it my duty to fellow competitors to make my views known. Those who know me will realise that I do not have any axe to grind nor do I seek the limelight – there are those far more eloquent than I who are better suited to that task. Every now and again one has to stand up and be counted and I believe this to be one of those occasions.

I am forced to issue this as a statement to the public because the TROA has not had the courtesy to consult with me or to the best of my knowledge with any of my fellow competitors. It is the only forum I can express my utter disgust and overwhelming disappointment at the sheer audacity of the people who call themselves the TROA. The TROA are the organisers of the individual rounds of the championship. Over the past number of years the press releases issued by their individual rallies have all been trumpeting the fact of how many World Rally Cars they have on their entry lists - the very same competitors they are now treating with disdain. There is a word for that.

James O’Brien.

[Cryos]

I would have to agree with yourself, its not the type of thing that they should of gone off and done!

They should of atleast talked with the GRP A and N Drivers and see how they felt; Chances are the Group N boys would of been more than happy with the current system.

As James says If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck... then it is a duck.... If its not broken dont fix it.

I dont like where it is going it could have a negative inpact on the championship...