New classes for MSN/MSVR circuit rallies

[BertMk2]

Originally Posted by hoffman66

They are sprint events that cater for very certain sorts of cars, I remember years ago talking to admittedly rich crews at an airfield moaning about having to adjust their suspension and use different tyres because the surface was not very good, that to me is a part of rallying, not turning up in a hillclimb car setup basically for circuit racing.

Oh for the luxury of having a selection of different tyres! We do adjust the suspension setup prior to events based on how good/bad the surface is likely to be but that's really only ride height changes (again we just don't have the variety of springs/shock absorbers to do anything else). Our car is certainly more softly sprung than some.

Originally Posted by hoffman66

it serves a purpose but for me, these events would not exist in the main rally season, they exist to make Palmer and other venues money off season and are designed to impact the venue as little as possible.

They are click bait for the off season a bit like the car shows at the same time. AS I say they serve a purpose and you can see with this raft of changes the people running them are trying to claw back interest.

These events existed before this championship started - they've been going on for years, it's just that now there's a championship that links them together into a "season" and that season runs over the winter. There's nothing wrong with running in the "off season" - in fact from my point of view I prefer competing outside the warmer months, it's hot enough in the car in January let alone June. The events seem to get good entry numbers so clearly they're catering for what the crews want - they're a very relaxed days rallying.

Originally Posted by hoffman66

The closed roads scene is the future, always has been, to bring us in line with the rest of Europe in particular and hopefully these circuit events in my opinion stay off season for people who don't really know much about rallying to watch at, as for fans like me, they are really not worth the effort to watch at anymore.

More closed road events would be great to see - but I'm not sure how many we're realistically going to see. The obstacles to getting one up and running are huge and the amount of work that goes into it really can't be underestimated - Chelmsford Motor Club put in a phenominal effort to get Clacton up and running, hopefully that can be replicated elsewhere.

Forest Rallying appears to be declining (cost and availability of forest seem to be the problems) so maybe closed road events can take up some of the load from there. I assume from you "proper rallying" comments you spend a lot of time out in the forests? There's not much forest rallying left in the south (no more Tempest, Rally Of Kent long gone) so the forest events are a bit of a trek for me - any favourite events / venues you'd recommend for a trip into the woods?

Originally Posted by hoffman66

But as is the case with most club level motorsport these days, the punters are the last people these events, circuits etc think of.

That's because club level motorsport is paid for by the competitors - the potential return for the circuits from the paying public is limited, is it really worth their while? But I'd have said the circuits seem to be doing a good job of making 'an event' of some of these meetings (Fireworks at Oulton Park and Cadwell Park for example).

Like any motorsport event the circuit rallies aren't for everyone (in the much the same way that I don't watch bike racing - it's just not something I enjoy) but they seem to fill a hole for some people and currently they're obviously viable for both organising clubs and circuits - long may that continue!