[ERC] Circuit of Ireland 2014

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Originally Posted by Mirek

How do You want to do that in practical way? Seriously. Many countries don't follow international rules and once they they have their own rules they have only to options - either to hold two events in one or only the international one. For organizers it is economical suicide not to try to implement national cars somehow. There is nothing idiotic about that.

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As you probably know, ERC Ypres counts each year again also for the Belgian Rally Championship, despite there can't start WRC cars, GT's, BMW's and other cars. Why is it so difficult in other countries to have only the ERC Rally and no other rally? Just as Jarek Z said, the ERC entry lists should be a lot better than... I really understand Jarek Z.

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Originally Posted by Wim_Impreza

As you probably know, ERC Ypres counts each year again also for the Belgian Rally Championship, despite there can't start WRC cars, GT's, BMW's and other cars. Why is it so difficult in other countries to have only the ERC Rally and no other rally? Just as Jarek Z said, the ERC entry lists should be a lot better than... I really understand Jarek Z.

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Thanks for your support Wim! It's good to see that I'm not alone :)
Yes, Ypres Rally is a good example, I completely forgot about it.

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Originally Posted by Wim_Impreza

As you probably know, ERC Ypres counts each year again also for the Belgian Rally Championship, despite there can't start WRC cars, GT's, BMW's and other cars. Why is it so difficult in other countries to have only the ERC Rally and no other rally? Just as Jarek Z said, the ERC entry lists should be a lot better than... I really understand Jarek Z.

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Yes, I know. In fact Barum was a very same example (in 2005 and 2006) but frankly that solution is far from being ideal too. Yes, it looks good for ERC but it's completely wrong for the national championship to have one rally with different rules than the others. It's same like if one ERC event was run with WRC cars. When You look at it from this point You can see that it's stupid. It's stupid also vice versa. In fact it's only a misuse of national championship drivers for having a nice entry list of the bigger ERC event. You can't deny that many crews do the ERC event only because it is part of national championship and not because they would be interested in driving the ERC rally. I know a lot of those who don't give a sh*t about ERC classification and drive Barum only because it is part of national championship. As a result they help to make the very nice ERC list de facto against their own will.

So to sum it...

If You separate national and ERC field You have two worse events in the same time but You clearly see real interest of crews in ERC. You keep unchanged rules for both championships all year long. For spectators on place it almost doesn't matter.

If You force national championship drivers to drive under different rules once per year You get one better event for the price of being largely fake in terms of real ERC competition and some damage to Your national championship (for example many crews can not afford to take part in twice longer event under different rules than the rest of the championship).

Ok for Ypres guys drives S2000 or R5. But look at belgian championship : how many top guys do it ? Not a lot ... And GT cars started in the back of the field last years :) And the guys who have BMW doesn't the rally at all ... the guys we find on entry list are more or less these who have ERC homologated cars.
And it's for sure easier to rent a S2000 in Ypres than in Ireland. You have more travel cost to go in Ireland, and the first is simply to take the boat, whereas in Belgium you can find closer S2000 to rent.

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Originally Posted by vino_93

Ok for Ypres guys drives S2000 or R5. But look at belgian championship : how many top guys do it ? Not a lot ... And GT cars started in the back of the field last years :) And the guys who have BMW doesn't the rally at all ... the guys we find on entry list are more or less these who have ERC homologated cars.
And it's for sure easier to rent a S2000 in Ypres than in Ireland. You have more travel cost to go in Ireland, and the first is simply to take the boat, whereas in Belgium you can find closer S2000 to rent.

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Very possible that Van Parijs start in the ERC field with his new 997, they build them up for getting that FIA passport. The 997 is a bit different then the BMA Porsche 997.

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Originally Posted by vino_93

Ok for Ypres... the guys we find on entry list are more or less these who have ERC homologated cars.
And it's for sure easier to rent a S2000 in Ypres than in Ireland. You have more travel cost to go in Ireland, and the first is simply to take the boat, whereas in Belgium you can find closer S2000 to rent.

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Don't be so sure about this. It is very difficult to find a good S2000 car here, as there is almost no tuner in Belgium where you can rent S2000 cars. The inscription for Ypres is very expensive.

yes of course, but you can find cars in Netherlands, France, Italy, ... (didn't Cracco rent S2000 in Belgium ?)
Irish can find the cars exactly as the same place, because there is none of them there or in UK ... but their is ship cost, which give it more expansive. Contacts are more difficult with the teams on the continent, and want these teams travel up to Ireland ? That's a long travel ...

You can only rent WRC's from First in Belgium. Floral (?), J-Motorsport, Symtech, GoDrive, Kronos (?) are all teams where u could rent a R5 or S2000. About the questionmarks is that I don't know if it's still like that in 2014.

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Originally Posted by vino_93

Irish can find the cars exactly as the same place, because there is none of them there or in UK ... but their is ship cost, which give it more expansive. Contacts are more difficult with the teams on the continent, and want these teams travel up to Ireland ? That's a long travel ...

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So... No cars, high ship costs, difficult contacts, high travel costs, long time travel, reluctance of the local drivers, bad entry list, 2 rallies in one - sorry to be brutal, but does it make sense to include such rally in ERC?

There is one different problem - drivers in Belgium are interested in international competition, to fight with good foreign drivers, to go abroad. Thats why they are able to rent the cars for ERC event. Most of the drivers in UK prefers to start only at home, dont want to comparison with foreign drivers. They have their own field, with local cars and they are not interested in start with S2000 or R5. Despite some of the local cars costs more than renting proper car for ERC...