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The main thing I think everybody has to concentrate on here is finances. I know that people have been interviewed on the TV hailing the RX150's & Swifts as a budget entry level class with a 20k price tag, but to the majority of club level drivers that is totally unattainable. These classes are fine for guys with a large disposable income who want to have a go at motorsport, and hopefully once they have had a go a decent percentage will be hooked and stick around, not disappear after a season, but these sort of people are few and far between
The thing is, we need to encourage larger numbers than this into the sport, so a class like the Stockhatch's is vital for the people who have a budget of only a few thousand and little mechanical knowledge. There just needs to be a cap on the class so that one or two drivers don't spend megabucks and walk away with it. One radical way of doing this would be a rule that states the championship winning car must be put up for sale at the end of the season for a set price, say 4k.
The current class structure of Supercars, Supermods, a one make class and Stocks is fine, but I think a bit of selective marketing aiming the right class at the right competitor is needed. It's no good trying to push at 20k class at a driver who only has a 5k budget.
It's OK saying we want new classes but we have to think who will build the cars for these classes. In fact in the past on these very pages possible new classes have been suggested, organisers have provided places for these cars, and where are they?
As for adopting European classes, history shows that this has not worked in the UK, and I don't think that will change in the foreseeable future.
Championships? It doesn't really matter how many championships you have. There used to be loads, often with four or five championships being raced for at one meeting, currently the BTRDA & MDA championships are both being competed for in the same races. The important thing is not to have too many meetings. If a driver has a budget for say six meetings, then he can only do six meetings no matter how many are scheduled on the calendar. The more meetings there are in a year the thinner the entry, regardless of how many championships there are.
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