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"Am I the Only Dreamer/Hoper?"

From: Enrico Mauletti Date: Fri Sep 8, 2000

Since the C/L WC's ended a few weeks ago, many words have been written within this group about the future of Team Racing. As part of those discussions, much has also been said about some sort of simplified/unified racing class in order to achieve a soft, safe, etc, etc, introduction to and training for F2C. It really does now seem that whatever "problems" F2C today may or may not have, just about everyone has agreed that we need more people in F2C (… and in C/L FIRST?) - also, just about everyone seems to have agreed that whatever we may or may not end up changing in today's F2C rules, changes made purely to simplify F2C so that it becomes "easier" and more accessible to more people is NOT the way to go.

I've had contact with a number of you about this subject in the past, the basic goal being to introduce (Beginners) & to re-introduce ("Returnees" & R/C'ers) to CL racing by defining of a unified set of rules (same rules should equal more comps per year available "nearby" for everyone), but with all sharing the same "open, no frills" philosophy, and where everyone can still follow their own ideas & preferences.

The result of those discussions was a PRELIMINARY set of rules that Andy Sweetland and I tried to present in Valladolid last year during the EU Champs. A little later on that same set of rules was also presented inside this group under the title of "STR" (Simple Team Racing).

Actually, here in Italy we have already been using the STR rules (with small modifications) for the last 2 years or so. There have been some small difficulties, but we have been able to run either 2 or 3 STR comps each year, each comp attracting between 6 to 8 teams. This has been a lot of fun, but to be honest, so far we have only attracted 2 real newcomers into C/L racing (all the others being "returnees" and/or people who are already involved in other C/L classes). What's more, none of those 6 to 8 teams are seriously considering taking up F2C in the future …........

I agree with many of the ideas that have recently appeared inside this group, but, WHAT NEXT? Here's my suggestion:

I would like to re-open the discussions about UNIFIED rules (hoping to arrive at the same PRACTICAL OPERATING conclusion TOGETHER). I suggest starting these discussions by collecting all the C/L TR rules (ALL classes other than the official FAI class), as they exist today and as they are actually USED today. That means collecting all the rules used everywhere in the world for events like: Open Goodyear (e.g. UK) British Goodyear (e.g. UK) F2C Nationale (e.g. UK & Portugal) Other kinds of Goodyear (e.g. France, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Denmark, etc); plus the rules used in places like N. America & Australasia (for classes such as Rat, Mouse, Weasel, etc, etc, etc);and any other classes that I've forgotten to mention or have not yet heard of! Yes, I do mean anything and everything in C/L racing!

If members of this group will send me their local rule set/s (also giving me some indications about the actual goals of each class, the average number of people involved, and the numbers of contests per year), then I could put all these details into an Excel file so that direct comparisons will be possible.

By doing that I believe that we could achieve at least 2 positive results: 1 - Everyone will know EXACTLY what rules are used in any particular class in each country; 2 - By using the comparison tables we can easily see what the REAL differences are between the various rules and countries. That will show us just how big those differences REALLY are. Those results should point the way towards the "next step" …....... Are there any other dreamers/hopers out there who want to help me in this attempt by sending me the requested information? If so please contact me directly.

Ciao Enrico