haven't been on the board since OT but anyhow, here's my take on the championship.
1) we have been fairly lucky to be where we are. Luck goes both ways (look at my season last year, for example).
2) despite no one believing me, we are serious about the Grp N title, anything else is gravy
3) given the car I am driving and our current budget for 2004, my assessment it that it is unrealistic to set as a goal for the team (or myself) the national title. the main reasons behind this are as follows:
a) with the Grp N title in my sights, we created our budget to only factor in that title, in terms of both car preperation and event attendance
b) the wins we have had have been 'specialist' in that at SnoDrift I think the ice experience from the canadian rallies downlplayed the car factor, and at OT it was Seamus' all the way until he broke. Podiums are possible perhaps in most events, but overall wins will be far and few between (i.e. Pikes Peak, STPR, LSPR, Maine, there is little chance of a Grp N winning any of those events)
c) the Grp N title is not 'in the bag'. I know what machinery and drivers we are up against and someone winning say 3 out of those 4 events listed puts us on equal terms for Grp N, let alone the national championship
4) As it is for me at this point, i doubt we will be able to make it to several rounds (as in like 3 or 4) of the championship. Although I would love to try and make a go of it, I dont think it is realistic. I need to do more marketing and promotion to make this not a 'how much am I willing to personally attempt to finance and for what reason' question for me, but a 'can I do it' question.
5) my goal is to be 1st in N, a podium is nice. If that can happen at all rounds I attend, great, but given that it probably wont, especially at the 'power' events (yes, I am talking about N here), winning overall is a not really in the frame.
6) should something happen between now and say the next 3 weeks, and we are able to acheive decent results in N and we do have a sponsor, then nothing will prevent us from doing the remaining rounds in an Open car. Its all about the $$ babay. Then I would say we have revised the goals.
7) yeah, sprongl bros will make me look like I'm driving miss daisy. Like at TP03 and PN04. whatever buddy
That being said Frank is still my rally hero.
8) all that being said, i think that there are a lot of drivers capable of winning, and futhermore, that more competition and more closeness in the championship makes it THAT MUCH MORE INTERESTING to watch, from a television and spectator perspective, because you have to drive that much harder and so the action looks 10 times better. For example, in Canada this year, it's anybody's game and it is going to be REALLY CLOSE. I mean like 5 cars going for the win.
-Pat
