Here we go again... There is nothing that hasn't been said before, but I'll put my neck on the block! Shoot me down if you like - I have had 20 years of criticism from some quarters anyway, so another blast won't be any different.
A vocal minority trying to push the majority, regardless?
More funding just to make sure those with a CoD are compliant?
What about the huge amount of income generated by the non-CoD drivers? Are their wishes just going to be ignored? Is anyone going to represent them? The H & C Commission obviously doesn't.
Or, are the powers that be ignoring them (they certainly don't want to support any class that doesn't embrace the CoD concept and philosophy in its current form) that maybe they are deliberately trying to create an "Outlaws" movement within the overall Classic fraternity, who identify with the Classic movement and definitely not the club movement?
Having had a CoD for my main car for 20 years, I can't say that it has made a blind bit of difference either to the ability to race or in any way add even the cost of processing it to the real value of the car.
Most meeting organisers have been financially hit hard when they tried to go 100% CoD and to date, I'm not really sure that despite the honourable intentions, HMC, after several years, thousands of words in support of the pure historic mantra and more publicity than any other classic/historic class, bar none, can be deemed financially successful for any promoter. Even Dale's frustrations for the lack of actual support at meetings has been aired on this board not so long ago, so surely, there must be some concern that the support isn't as strong as some people believe it should be?
Running at just 4 or five events a year, sorry, but HMC has not yet come up with the numbers. Easy enough for anyone who cares to do any research through AMB and just multiply those entries by the $50 MSNZ fee and compare to those other classes that everyone seems to attack, but are adding to the MSNZ coffers every time they race. I know EXACTLY how much we have contributed on race entry fees alone but we appear to be increasingly overlooked and ignored, despite the obvious contribution to not only the coffers but also to the rich fabric of whatever you want to call the meetings to which we are invited.
Thanks to HRC and particularly Chris Watson for the tremendous support over recent years and for guaranteeing a spot on their race programmes. Any moves to try and blunt the success of some meetings by trying to tell promoters who they can and can't invite is not going to be for the overall benefit of the sport. Classes are and will be historically pure or not.
Rising meeting costs are a bigger problem so the long term danger is that historically pure classes will have to combine - or they may not be invited at all. Is that what anyone really wants? Fantastic, pure cars, sidelined because no promoter can afford to invite them? Just be careful because what you wish for may well backfire.
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Originally Posted by Bailey
