[spoier]

I've been watching a bunch of Canadian rally videos lately, and I'm a little confused. Maybe this is a touchy subject but..

Why does, for instance, Subaru Canada field a factory team made up of Canadians, same with Hyundai to some extent (unofficially?). In the States though it seems like the factory drivers holding US passports are outnumbered and somewhat lower on the totem pole. Mitsubishi doesn't sell cars up North, of course, so no factory involvement.

Just seems weird to me. I can't imagine the competition is so low in Canada that they don't "need" foreign pros to win. It seems like it would be a better investment to hire local talent. I know there are some fast Yanks out there.

Of course, I have little to no understanding of the internal politics at work here.

Skye Poier
Seattle, WA

Vive le Prole-le-Ralliat!
http://www.rallyrace.net/

 

[Adrian Wintle]

>Why does, for instance, Subaru Canada field a factory team
>made up of Canadians, same with Hyundai to some extent
>(unofficially?).

The Subaru Canada team was originally 3 separate teams running with Subaru Canada support (TNT, Rocket, and Van Gogh), and it was with the 2002 WRX that the cars were all Subaru Canada cars. There is
no Hyundai support in Canada that I know of.

>In the States though it seems like the
>factory drivers holding US passports are outnumbered and
>somewhat lower on the totem pole.

In the US there is competition between the factory teams, so bringing in the furrin' drivers makes sense - Mad Cow disease helped with the availability of drivers too. Also, I'd guess that Subaru is using the US effort as a development exercise for parts before they homologate them - there doesn't seem to be a justification for the amount of money being spent otherwise.

>Mitsubishi doesn't sell
>cars up North, of course, so no factory involvement.

Mitsubishi does sell cars under its own name in Canada (as of last September), but that doesn't invalidate your argument.

>Just seems weird to me. I can't imagine the competition is
>so low in Canada that they don't "need" foreign pros to win.

It is. There is not a lot of depth to the field in Canada - has something to do with the limited population base and probably a lower level of 'discretionary' cash available (i.e. money to pay for the rally cars etc...)

> It seems like it would be a better investment to hire local
>talent. I know there are some fast Yanks out there.

They want to buy success - you go with what you know works.

>Of course, I have little to no understanding of the internal
>politics at work here.

It's not so much politics as marketing...

Adrian

 

[spoier]

>There is
>no Hyundai support in Canada that I know of.

The Hyundai web site mentioned Buffum and others winning in Hyundai cars, so I assumed they were involved to some extent

>>Just seems weird to me. I can't imagine the competition is
>>so low in Canada that they don't "need" foreign pros to win.
>
>It is. There is not a lot of depth to the field in Canada -
>has something to do with the limited population base and
>probably a lower level of 'discretionary' cash available
>(i.e. money to pay for the rally cars etc...)

Huh, well I guess we should all be entering up there then, and taking home the trophies!

Interesting to note that Pat Richard was in the Peugeot Cup, Network Q and is going to the WRC, even though most of his experience seems to be in those "limited depth" events.

>They want to buy success - you go with what you know works.

Seems like that attitude is far too prevelant in general, for my tastes.

Skye Poier
Seattle, WA

Vive le Prole-le-Ralliat!
http://www.rallyrace.net/

 

[Adrian Wintle]

>>There is
>>no Hyundai support in Canada that I know of.
>
>The Hyundai web site mentioned Buffum and others winning in
>Hyundai cars, so I assumed they were involved to some extent

I believe that a couple of those were so John could drive without affecting the US championship.

>Huh, well I guess we should all be entering up there then,
>and taking home the trophies!

I'm not saying that there aren't some very good drivers, just that there aren't as many drivers at each level as there are in the US. It's not as bad as the difference in population base (10:1) might indicate, though.

>Interesting to note that Pat Richard was in the Peugeot Cup,
>Network Q and is going to the WRC, even though most of his
>experience seems to be in those "limited depth" events.

And a lot of SCCA events too - besides which, Pat is one of those people who just seem to have the talent, the time, and the financial ability at the same time...

>>They want to buy success - you go with what you know works.

>Seems like that attitude is far too prevelant in general,
>for my tastes.

It's the 'American Way', isn't it? ;-)

Adrian

 

[Flyboy]

The foreign drivers go a long way towards lending international credibility to the series and other American drivers. If Americans only raced each other, then there would be no guage to determine how good or bad we are. By racing against known foreign drivers who've won series and accomplished certian goals, we are setting a benchmark. For example, if Ramana Lagemann was consistantly beating Mark Higgins, or at least matching him, then the rest of the world could assume that he was probably as fast and could therefore perform similarly in some of the things Higgins does, such as test driving for Ford, or placing top ten in a WRC event. Another example, if Tom McGreer or Pat Richard only raced in Canada and didn't do any US events or international events in Pat's case, how would we know they are really the world class drivers they are? Bottome line, there are two ways to bring credibility to american rallying: we can go there and race, or they can come here and race. Number two is a lot cheaper for us.

Dennis Martin
[email protected]
920-432-4845

 

[Lancia037Rally]

RE: Canadian factory teams

Big announcement to be made this weekend at the CARS AGM meeting in Calgary regarding a certain manufacturer.

 

[aafce]

RE: Canadian factory teams

10...9...8...7...

 

[robin]

RE: Canadian factory teams

>Big announcement to be made this weekend at the CARS AGM
>meeting in Calgary regarding a certain manufacturer.

So maybe the question should be "What's with the American co-drivers in the CDN factory cars?"


Robin

 

[aafce]

RE: Canadian factory teams

I can not make it on CARS GM ( I am from Calgary). I wonder if anybody from this forum will be there. The CARS web site is slow. It would be nice to have fresh snow?I mean cryptic. Right John?}>

Jerry

p.s.
I saw Delacour and T.Harding in Calgary tower?;-)

 

[Roving Rally Man]

RE: Canadian factory teams

"I saw Delacour and T.Harding in Calgary tower? "

Was Don King or any Fox execs there too?????