Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike Bell
The following was posted by Mike Crow on the Silverstone Classic thread recently. Made me think- makes a lot of sense IMO....
"Single seater grids seem to get stronger and stronger whilst closed wheel grids are struggling. Am I naive in thinking that single seaters are generally more original and less subject to development than newly built, hot rod modified and downright illegal GTs, sports and saloons. Perhaps people are finally getting fed up with competing with their cheque books rather than their skills. U2TC at Truxton being an example. I was impressed with how pleasantly lacking in glitz the HF2 paddock at Brands was. Just a few guys with spanners and the cars under an awning but a huge entry."
Of course, we may not be in a Historic Racing 'recession', but falling grid sizes in certain categories must be of concern?
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Mike,
I think the big thing is that today and winning in GT or TC is either you have a 289 engined car with some very tricky stuff in there or possibly a Jaguar run as a works car or maybe a specific engine builder Twin Cam or Alfa engined car. It is governed today by whom can get these and it has caused a true lack of diversity but this also originates from the lack of controls having been done for a certain period.
Only and very recently did we see a number of 289s car disqualified, still they can compete in others series where nothing is being checked, the one that controls has the biggest grid around Europe on average and it's still growing.
On the other hand, FF1600 is on the spot in terms of quality and racing if you consider costs, Formula 2 is the new Formula 1 with performance nearly as close as the bigger cars but with simpler designs and engines that are cheaper to run but not easier to drive I would think in the end...!
Still, on the long terms we will see how it goes as history of historic racing has already proven, when the big boys come to play into such categories and start the development and throwing the money, in the end it has the effect of killing it.
I believe this will all be about control, in the end that is the purpose of why regulations are made and why they should be enforced, keep it fair and square isn't it? And look at FF1600 and why it's always been succesful? Nobody has left it out of control.