Why Change the rules from 3 cars per team ?

[mixxer]

Why have they changed the rules re how many cars a team can run in the series ? cause it seems piontless if they were trying to bring more teams, when the big teams can just buy another francaise (thats if 1 is avaliable) and still run the same number of cars and in the process not freeing up any spots for new competing teams.
As far as single car teams too bad if you've got a good team with some solid top 10 runs who just lacks the big name sponsor, all of a sudden your forced into joining forces with another team with their own sponsorship which will reduce the number of potential sponsors who you can approach for your own car.
If there is a reason I dont know what it is.
IF I've miss interpreted the regs on number cars per team I would appreciate a simple explanation (simple enough for an ex drag racer)
cheers

[sevi]

Basically because of grid spaces, there were more entries than were allowed to start. There were a lot of teams last year that were having to pre qualify to race for that event.

[RaceTime]

That still doesn't answer the question or solve the problem though.

Why, for example, should HRT or ProDrive be able to buy franchises to allow themn to run more cars at, say, the expense of LRT or somone?

[pete55]

In my opinion they should only be allowed to run 2 cars and no limit on number of franchises. At the end of the season the ones who couldn t make it would either be in Konica or racing something else.
Get rid of the stupid pre qualifing rules and just let the top 32 or 36 cars at each track start the race. Of course the non qualifiers would have to have some race time so you would have to have a race for them.

[pete55]

I'd like to add a bit to my last post. I would have teams nominate which series they would be entering and they would have to only race in that series. The exception being they could drop from open class to Konica but not go back unless it was for available spaces in the long distance races.

[sevi]

I am going to say this again and see how many people I upset this time
IMO there should be a restriction on budgets, therefore no one can have 4-6 cars.

[Onlooker]

Originally posted by pete55

Get rid of the stupid pre qualifing rules and just let the top 32 or 36 cars at each track start the race. Of course the non qualifiers would have to have some race time so you would have to have a race for them.

How would you detirmine the "top" 32-35 cars at each race ? Championship points,speed, size of wallet,best presented,by running a tape measure over their transporter,quality of food in their VIP area?
What tha hell is wrong with lining them up on Friday and seeing just who the top guys are split them into 2x30 minute sesions and 2 x 15 minute qualifying (with new tyres) and so you have 20 or so cars on the grid at a time and pack up the losers Friday night and away you go.
Give the Level 1 teams one or maybe 2 "get out of jail free cards" to allow for any slip ups but after that maybe they should be re assessing their ability to participate.

If the winner of the Konica has to buy his way into the championship then that is wrong everyone should have a chance and yes by giving the L1 teams an extra chance you are reconising their commitment and crowd pulling power but quite frankly who really enjoys a past great wobbling around at the back safe in the knowledge that he will be at every round. I personaly would rather see a few guys having to actually drive for their spot and if a driver has to carry a car that isn't quite right to get it in and show just what he can extract from it then all the better.

That would be an interesting job for someone!!!! Keeping tabs on team budgets. Bit like keeping Rugby League clubs under salary caps.

[Onlooker]

Pretty Hard to do as the "salary cap limits the amout you can spend on the players but a budget cut has to include travel etc what do you do about a team with Mobil cards for all the team and truck or a deal with Qantas for flights,some get free panels from the manufacturer and in the case of say a Prodrive you can have staff not employed by the team but by the head company who can always "volunteer" of a week end or at the completion of their tasks at the work shop during the week.

[pete55]

Sorry Onlooker, what i meant was the top qualifiers. Salary Caps would be good but how to police them.
One possible way would be to limit staff employed by the team and have only a certain number in the pits or pit area at any time. Might also be bit hard to police so other than that i can t see many ways to do it.
I dont think you could limit drivers salary as teams would always want the best driver in their team.

[Crash Test]

Ideally a salary cap would be the gun thing to have, but you would have possible situations where a car or three get written off, or a transporter burns to the ground, and a team would be operating on beer money. With everything being standardised, would it be possible for many more things to be made spec components? Eg, in a perfect world you could combine dencar and beehag, have one company producing all of the chassis, standard suspension etc. Shoot, imagine if you took the suspension variable out of the equation, there would be a whole heap of time and money savings.

[pete55]

I just can't think of one way to manage a salary cap. With all the various members of teams and also equipment it would be a nightmare and not logistically possible.
Thats why i stated to have a cap on number of people employed by teams and allowed at meetings. Another idea would be to have a single manufacturer supply things like shockies, brakes, front spoilers and real wings etc and as has already happened standard engine management. There are lots more things that could be standardised if you look into it. I guess radiators are almost standardised anyway with PWR supplying most teams.

[mixxer]

Also if you Win the Konica series with your own Team and the big teams are buying up the francaise in the main series then where are the gaps that let these guys in as a Team, the Driver has a chance, maybe some of the Engineering staff if they get picked up by the bigger teams but as a complete Team few have the chance.
Its got to be as simple as limiting all teams to 2 or less cars based on who holds the controling interests in the team.
Then give them all say 2 x 1hr sessions to get the fastest 32 - 36 (depend on track) with the fastest going on to race.
If you dont qualify ....... you dont race its that simple, but at least limiting the teams to 2 or less cars gives the potential for 1 Car teams to move forward to the main series with the option of racing in the Konica's if they havent the outright speed due to an Older Chassis.
Maybe they should entertain the idea of relegation say the top 29 positions at the end of the season remain and the lower ranked cars relegated to the Konica's with a coresponding number brought up to the Main series

[pete55]

For the main series to be totally professional i reckon you should have all teams running the latest model cars for a start. Limit teams to 2 cars but make all teams running in the top series run 2 cars. Any others go to the Konica Series, simple as that.
Franchises are ****, just another way to make someone rich without doing anything at all. If so required a team buys a lease for a year and at end of year all leases are renewed. No restrictions on numbers of teams entering top series but all must run 2 cars and only 2 cars.

[racer69]

I don't think there is any way a salary cap could be implemented properly. If footy they cap the players, which in car racing is the equivalent of capping the drivers, which wouldn't really even out the competition. There are too many variables for it to work.

I not really for caps of any sort, if a team has the sponsership/committment to enter 6 cars, why shouldn't they be allowed to. They should open up each round to whoever wants to enter, the fastest 32 or whoever gets in. That is the ONLY way to stop the fighting regarding entries, no one is refused entry, the championship is no longer a closed shop, the only excuse is the team/driver not doing a good enough job.

I don't think teams should [i]have[i] to run two cars, if they feel they can do a better job with one car, maybe even an old car which is eligible, why shouldn't they be allowed to use it.

Originally posted by Crash Test
would it be possible for many more things to be made spec components? Eg, in a perfect world you could combine dencar and beehag, have one company producing all of the chassis, standard suspension etc. Shoot, imagine if you took the suspension variable out of the equation, there would be a whole heap of time and money savings.

Please no, that is my worst nightmare.

[Crash Test]

Sure it wouldn't be good. But what if in years to come the costs start to kill the sport. Holden and Ford go on an all out spending spree, killing the competition, what happens there?

Hangon, I'm getting slightly ahead of myself here

[The Tool Man]

Originally posted by Crash Test
Sure it wouldn't be good. But what if in years to come the costs start to kill the sport. Holden and Ford go on an all out spending spree, killing the competition, what happens there?

Hangon, I'm getting slightly ahead of myself here

Couldn't have put it better myself.

[mixxer]

Just a thought does someone have a press release from when this rule was changed, Id like to read how it was justified so I can see if it has had the desired affect on the competition that the organisers wanted
Thanx

[pete55]

Crash, with the prices for franchises i don't think you are that far ahead of yourself. Get rid of the franchises. It's a money for nothing profiteering exercise if you ask me.

[RaceTime]

mixxer - all press releases from TEGA and AVESCO are on the RaceNews site (http://www.racenews.com.au)

You could try searching on AVESCO but you will pick up extraneous releases as well. The archive goes back 2-3 years.