[Lurch]

Is it the intention to again have every rally count for points in the 2005 Rally America series?

I would like to see a situation where you take the best 8 out of 9 or 7 out of 9 or something like that.

For a true national championship I think you should be required to cross the country at least once. However, its a big friggin' country and most of our players are self-funded and multiple cross-country treks are very expensive.

Thoughts?

 

[mayhem83]

Lurch,

RA has said they intend to use the 2005 PRR and one of the changes was to count your best 6 of 9 events (it may have been best 7 of 9). Either way, I would guess that there will be some allowance with regards to this issue.

Mark Utecht

 

[Lurch]

Oh. Thanks.

 

[Bruce]

One consideration for a truly National Championship is that all of the top competitors in each class should have to race EACH OTHER as much as possible, given the godawful size of this country. It ain't much of a championship if the #1 and #2 guys were never at the same rally at the same time.

Bruce

 

[KevinG5Hahn]

Not to be a downer but I wonder how much consideration was given to expanding the schedule and organizer support. Being maybe selfish in this issue and in Colorado where our ProRally level population is small but our Club is beginning to boom I could see this really penalizing the organizers and sponsors of events. While we are closer than the opposing coast for anyone our events don't have the long standing status or traditional appeal. If competitors don't have to come and like those longer haul events more its going to be hard to establish a long standing enough event to make the improvements and growth that is so needed.


It might be selfish but then again why go to STPR and MFPR if you are from cali other then they are heavily beloved events and have more prestige and history behind them. If you can afford those events if you don't do two others why not drop some of the less signature events? This could help competitors at the expense of organizers is all I am saying....

 

[Lurch]

>One consideration for a truly National Championship is that
>all of the top competitors in each class should have to race
>EACH OTHER as much as possible, given the godawful size of
>this country. It ain't much of a championship if the #1 and
>#2 guys were never at the same rally at the same time.

I agree with you, Bruce. But I expect that the TOP guys in many classes will be fighting right down to the wire and will run beyond the minimum to make up for a DNF, a flat tire induced poor finish, etc. If they ain't fighting for it, then there wasn't THAT much competition there anyway, eh? I do think that dropping one or two makes it more fair though considering the state of our current competitors and the value of the series.

 

[gplsek]

I think droping events is a good thing, but I also would like to see people having to cross the country at least one time

Example have 6 events count 4
(2 events in each part of the country, East, Center, West)
You can drop 2 events but not 2 from one region.
so for example west coast competitor would run 2 events on the west coast, 1 Center and 1 east. If you don't compete/start at least 1 event in each region you should not qualify for a national championship.

In the current state of the sport I do not see a need for 9 events on the national calendar, start out slow and build up over time.
If you have more events that slots on the calendar, just rotate them each year, some organizers do not want to put on a National event every year, they would like to back of for a season run a Cub event and ramp up for national again a year later.

just some ideas

-g

 

[grinner323]

>Not to be a downer but I wonder how much consideration was
>given to expanding the schedule and organizer support. Being
>maybe selfish in this issue and in Colorado where our
>ProRally level population is small but our Club is beginning
>to boom I could see this really penalizing the organizers
>and sponsors of events. While we are closer than the
>opposing coast for anyone our events don't have the long
>standing status or traditional appeal. If competitors don't
>have to come and like those longer haul events more its
>going to be hard to establish a long standing enough event
>to make the improvements and growth that is so needed.

Why not have a Colorado Rally Championship then. Or a Rocky Mountain Rally Championship... something along the lines of what the California series or the NW rally has. That would probably better serve local sponsors more than a Nation wide series.

Philip J. Boer
grinner323(at)sbcglobal(dot)net

Tact is just not saying true stuff. I'll pass.