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For many years Libra racing was the standard in American ProRally. They usually won, and they usually had the best car. They typically had a 4wd turbo with around 300 (usually less) horsepower. All rallies were blind. Typically there were a couple more National competitors that ran all the rallies and had similarly prepared cars (except for a well known purple exception).
Today we have around 30 cars of the same speed and preparation. And now some some super manufacturer cars at the front that are much faster. 450 horsepower, and professional drivers. And "Safety" notes. The notes enabled 14 cars in 2002 to drive the first stage at STPR faster than the previous record.
I think we are going to have to go to the smaller restricter that was proposed for Open class. It will increase costs for the teams that can least afford it, but we need to slow down. Performance is the easiest way to acomplish that. I think going to a maximum width tire would also help. If you can't get enough traction, you can't get as much speed generated.
Do we allow Recce? This may make rallying safer for the top teams. But, I don't see how we can. It would increase the costs and eliminate racing for National championships for all but 8-10 teams (manufacturers and rich individuals).
If the "safety" notes are not intended to be ran at 10/10ths like "pace" notes are, we would still have teams showing up and purchasing notes from teams that had done the recce and were selling them. I don't think this would be as good a situation as we have now.
Do we go back to blind rally's? And ban maps on top of it? I don't know why it was so bad previous to 2001 when this was the way we rallied. This would certainly slow the cars down. But then we have the "regional" nature of route books. Some are very descriptive, others are more of a course following nature.
If competitors at the very front of the field have an accident like the one last weekend, how do the rest of us avoid the same situation? They had the best of everything, and still had the accident.
Are we going to get any new safety equipment as a result of last weekend? Would the Hans device have made any difference?
Obviously I'm having a hard time with what happened. We all are. I just think if there is anything that can be done to avoid this situation in the future, it should be looked into. If we call it a "racing" accident and then forget about it, it will happen again.
Today we have around 30 cars of the same speed and preparation. And now some some super manufacturer cars at the front that are much faster. 450 horsepower, and professional drivers. And "Safety" notes. The notes enabled 14 cars in 2002 to drive the first stage at STPR faster than the previous record.
I think we are going to have to go to the smaller restricter that was proposed for Open class. It will increase costs for the teams that can least afford it, but we need to slow down. Performance is the easiest way to acomplish that. I think going to a maximum width tire would also help. If you can't get enough traction, you can't get as much speed generated.
Do we allow Recce? This may make rallying safer for the top teams. But, I don't see how we can. It would increase the costs and eliminate racing for National championships for all but 8-10 teams (manufacturers and rich individuals).
If the "safety" notes are not intended to be ran at 10/10ths like "pace" notes are, we would still have teams showing up and purchasing notes from teams that had done the recce and were selling them. I don't think this would be as good a situation as we have now.
Do we go back to blind rally's? And ban maps on top of it? I don't know why it was so bad previous to 2001 when this was the way we rallied. This would certainly slow the cars down. But then we have the "regional" nature of route books. Some are very descriptive, others are more of a course following nature.
If competitors at the very front of the field have an accident like the one last weekend, how do the rest of us avoid the same situation? They had the best of everything, and still had the accident.
Are we going to get any new safety equipment as a result of last weekend? Would the Hans device have made any difference?
Obviously I'm having a hard time with what happened. We all are. I just think if there is anything that can be done to avoid this situation in the future, it should be looked into. If we call it a "racing" accident and then forget about it, it will happen again.