Rallycross GP News

[leonidas]

All seems a bit quiet on the GP front - it is only two weeks away. Any news on entries? Suprise overseas visitors? 'New' retro cars?

[AndyS]

I always think the August Lydden entry is a good barometer of how many entries they'll be at Croft. I think there was about 70 or so this year that mainly consisted of the usual suspects, a handful of Belgium entries and a small number of additional retro drivers that normally come out for the Lydden meetings.

I think it'll be something very similar at Croft with a handful of local entries. I can't see any big names turning up, the extended WRX season has pretty much put paid to any chances of that. Still its one of the few chances to see rallycross without a joker lap!

[Stephen H]

Post on Facebook today, from British Rallycross, mentions 50 plus cars booked in, with up to ten super cars, eight confirmed, 2 possibles, for the Saturday Final British Round.

[ebby]

Entry list here: http://www.britishrallycross.co.uk/a...014_MSA_GP.pdf

In my opinion it's an absolute travesty such a mediocre entry can be marketed as a "Grand Prix".

A few Belgians (NOT regulars like Jansen and Pauwels) and Ollie as foreign entries, can't understand why a few more Europeans haven't been tempted over for one last blast before the season finishes. No Andy Scott not even in the 306. No Dorans.

World RX and British Rallycross are seriously diverging.

[chunder]

Europeans haven't been tempted for quite some time.

And let's be honest, nationally in most countries the Supercars are not that good entry wise.

Most of the top guys now concentrate on WRX, you get hardly any Supercar national events even in Sweden and Norway, so I dont know why we expect it to be any different. Only France has a top national entry really. And perhaps Beneloux Supercar wise, but most of them only compete there not WRX.

I think the Easter Lydden is one of the best national meetings.

The Grand Prix tag means nothing, it's just a tag, which is wy no-one bothers anymore and this thread is only 3 entries long.

Drop it, move on, let it die.

[Hickey]

Finding a way to merge it with the Rallycross Challenge Europe might get a few more Europeans over. And rethinking the timing if WRX clashes are an issue. Problem is, any later and it's the time when all the guys are 're doing their cars... Tough one, but I hope they figure a way to make it work. Telling that it's the first year in a few that we haven't bothered to go up. Shame really, fingers crossed for next year. It's a great track, deserves better

[tbtstt]

I assume its the timing of the final round of the World Championship that has ruled out entries from any of World drivers. Shame that there is no interest from Belgium or France though, as Hickey said, perhaps some tie up with RCE would help (though I'm not sure that has had the greatest entry this year?).

As a minor positive, at least there are a few front running Supercars to challenge Godfrey. Hopefully Flaherty has had a bit of seat time in the DS3 since Lydden; would be good to see him, O'Donovan and Procter all running the full British Championship next year.

[chunder]

I think in reality the Supercars need to be downplayed.

A I said earlier, they do not run Supercar classes at most Swedisha nd Norwegian races, maybe Finland?

In Belgium and Holland they only run a few meetings as in the UK, and the guys that run there are usually not in WRX.

Only France really runs a bit of both, but their series is so strong nationally that is no surprise.

So, really the British series should be about running either lower level 4wd cars in with supercars like Godfrey, Harris, Mundy and co who only want to run national.

Or you try and get RX lites, S1600.

Or, you jst run the UK series as BTRDA clubby. Have mabe 3 rounds at Lydden, Croft, Belgium and that is the MSA series.

[Sarge]

On a more positive note, you've still got a national championship able to put out 11 or 12 Supercars (including hopefully Pat out with 'Rosie' that everyone must agree will be very interesting to see ).

As has been said, only the French championship can currently match or exceed that in numbers. Despite the perceived lack of quality in-depth to the British Supercar class, you've still got four or five cars on that list that wouldn't disgrace themselves alongside the World RX field and it's difficult to pick a winner from them for this weekend so we should still be in for a good event.

The timing given the on-going World series is not ideal and yes, it's disappointing there's not more interest from the continent, though given there appears to have been almost zero advertising for this outside of internal channels (unless I've missed something) is it that surprising?

Let's focus on the positives - a pretty healthy entry for a "national" event, and the chance to see the likes of Dave Bellerby, Stuart Emery and some of the other Supernationals up against the Supercars.

Roll on Croft!

[USRallycross]

I am not sure why anyone is surprised by the lack of Europeans on the entry list. Why would they add an event? There isn't any (meaningful) appearance money or TV exposure to help them.

The only way it would work is if VW funded Marklund to come, Peugeot fund Hansen and so on and that isn't happening. New world sadly means the end of end of season fun events especially when it is such a trek from Scandinavia post all the ferry changes.

I think using the title cost some serious money so would rather they not use it and put the money back into the sport and get entry levels up.

Mark

[AndyS]

Originally Posted by USRallycross

I am not sure why anyone is surprised by the lack of Europeans on the entry list. Why would they add an event? There isn't any (meaningful) appearance money or TV exposure to help them.

The only way it would work is if VW funded Marklund to come, Peugeot fund Hansen and so on and that isn't happening. New world sadly means the end of end of season fun events especially when it is such a trek from Scandinavia post all the ferry changes.

I think using the title cost some serious money so would rather they not use it and put the money back into the sport and get entry levels up.

Mark

Exactly Mark, I too am surprised why people expect a large European entry. The GP of old is from another era, which is long gone. In fact that whole era of motor sport is long gone.

The Super Prix is the most recent event at Croft that attracted large overseas entries. The vast bulk of these drivers came from Scandinavia, there was only ever a handful from mainland Europe in the latter years. The ending of the Newcastle Bergen ferry route in 2008 ended all that.

Towards the end of the Super Prix it was increasingly the Super National drivers that came in large numbers. Its a shame the ferry went because it seemed to be becoming a bit of a big event for them and meant you had two really big finals to look forward to. That could have been built on but through nobodies fault that opportunity is gone.

As regards the GP title, why not. It keeps it alive, nobody says the RAC rally isn't worthy of the name because its not a WRC event anymore. Nobody says the Gold Cup can't be used just because none of the top drivers/teams of the day turn up anymore as they did in its early days. One thing I am baffled by is why it costs to use the name.

Times have changed and you're never going to see the big boys at a GP event anymore regardless of where it is in the UK. Making it the last round of the Challenge might work. Would the lack of a joker be an issue?

The main thing to concentrate on is getting the National scene sorted out first. Moves are afoot with this new committee and hopefully some sense will start to emerge. The BTRDA event in November is showing an entry of 46 cars to date, a lot of the drivers attending have cars that could run at the GP but they aren't entered. Bring the two together and immediately the entry would be pushing 100 drivers.

[AndyS]

Just noticed on the rallycross uk website that it has been announced LHMC and the BARC have been chosen subject to contract as the new joint promoter/organiser of the championship for the next 3 years.

Reading the comments it sounds like the 8 classes will stay broadly the same. No mention of the BTRDA though and I also saw on the clubman rallycross website that they will announce details of their 2015 championship at the Croft meeting weekend in November.

[Stephen H]

Okay, I'm really confused, after 3 sets of timed heats, 20 races, there was an A, B, and C final...with grids determined from the heats?

Then a separate race for the Grand Prix. So how was the grid for this determine?

And why did Belgium Driver, Mertons, make the "A" Final, but not the Grand Prix?

[Stephen H]

Sorry for the double post, now seen the regs and see it was a licence issue.

Just seems a little strange that drivers with differing levels of licences could race against each other in the heats, but not in "The Grand Prix", and feels a little odd having a Grand Prix winner and an "A" Final at the Grand Prix winner.

[tbtstt]

Good initial challenge from Hill, but Godfrey got away clean in the latter half of the race. Good to see Flaherty closer to the pace of the front runners. Shame that OOD didn't make it to the final and that Procter wasn't closer to the front.

With the fixed weight regulation coming in 2015, I wonder if Procter will switch the Fiesta to 2.0L or persist with the smaller engine?

[TimRTC]

Well I had good fun and got some interesting photographs, despite the high wind covering me in dust from head to foot.

Jack Brown tried to fight the tractor tyres. He got out okay and even managed to get his door back.



I was slightly confused by the A final and the Grand Prix being separate races too, but can't complain about an extra race.

[tbtstt]

Originally Posted by TimRTC

Well I had good fun and got some interesting photographs, despite the high wind covering me in dust from head to foot.

Jack Brown tried to fight the tractor tyres. He got out okay and even managed to get his door back.



I was slightly confused by the A final and the Grand Prix being separate races too, but can't complain about an extra race.

Ah, I wondered what happened! He was racing in the background, next thing he was upside down!

The Livestream was very choppy, it looked there was a "slight breeze" causing some issues?

[leonidas]

Originally Posted by Stephen H

Just seems a little strange that drivers with differing levels of licences could race against each other in the heats, but not in "The Grand Prix", and feels a little odd having a Grand Prix winner and an "A" Final at the Grand Prix winner.

The MSA Grand Prix probably has to be a national A licence - but I guess you couldn't make the whole meeting an A license as you would disqualify a lot of drivers.

To be honest it would be better to make it a really good clubman event and call it the Superprix again. Trying to make it out that it is an international event when even some of the top Brits don't go is very odd. Alternatively turn the GP over entirely to Retro cars so at least it represents something 'different'.