Anyone here understand Territory-speak?

[Vandas]

Crash,

I spoke to Rohan and he was quite upset about what was said in regards to his vehicle after the QLD500.

I can tell you that his car had no illegal parts, and its weight is about the same as our car, just under 1000kgs.

His engine is extreme, but still within the rules. I know this because my engine builder (who is in competition with Rohan) told me that he gets more horse power by sacrificing longevity with his engines.

He has a $9000 gearbox in the car, and builds his own differentials.

He and Selectmaz (his greatest competition down here) spend over $100 000 a year on their vehicles.

Whereas we spend roughly $20 000 - $30 000 for the year.

As for Nationals next year. I am currently trying to budget for Darwin, mainly because the NT government are offering us travelling money.

We are changing our operation next year.

We are trying to halve the costs of racing, but maintain stronger results than this season (We had a shocker this year).

Plus next year I am definitely driving. WOOHOO.

[Crash Test]

You can probably blame of the lot of the stuff going around on Mr Lawrence... he attended a few race meetings up here and got up an awful lot of people's noses. We seemed to shake some sense into them with regards to Sports Sedans weights and rule changes for next season, but we haven't heard much on the IP scene.

I dunno... but a budget of $100,000 is fairly serious for state level motorsport, I guess it all goes back to a win at all costs approach, and each 10th of a second costs you more and more. I suppose this is where some form of holomogated weight for each individual vehicle would be adventageous, as there would be little point in spending mega bucks in the quest of finding time that isn't there. But the weights system that CAMS came up with was a wee bit of a joke- how on earth can ou safely secure 200kg in a Suzuki Swift??

[Vandas]

But by making a minimum weight requirement you then put it all back to the horsepower of the cars.

It is again the people with the most money that will move to the front.

Rohan and Selectmaz spend so much on their state racing because they see a trememndous amount of return from that level of the sport.

Rohan builds around 30 race engines a year for clients all over Australia. He also builds gearboxes and differentials for clients, as well as maintaining a number of customer cars.

The driver for Selectmaz is Ken Douglas, who is an owner of MoTeC. Therefore he can pump a fair bit into his own racing.

I hope there isn't a minimum weight requirement because I think it gives the guy with lesser money a chance of getting closer than when you start playing with horsepower, which is where the almighty dollar kicks in hard.

But that is just my opinion.

[Crash Test]

And that's very true too, you're simply transfering the cost over...

Anyways, I'm off to the local IP meeting to night to find out what the latest is.