Young talented drivers

[vino_93]

I have to agree , but the reason why we have 'two frogs' dominating the sport is real competition in France .I was at the Rallye Du Var in 2012 i couldn't get over the amount of 'one make series' going on .
You had an R1 Class - The Renault Twingo Cup , ninteen entries - and one Ford Fiesta
The R2 Class :Renault Twingo R2 Cup , ten entries - and four other entries in different makes
The R3 class : thirty seven entries in total !
Peugeot 207 RC R3T cup :twelve cars
Citroën DS3 R3T cup : twelve cars
Renault Clio R3 Cup : seven cars
other makes : six cars
There are other cups going on on other French events in R1 and R2 classes etc , and why is this ? because France has three Car manufacturers - Peugeot , Citroën, and Renault so they are all competing against each other so young drivers get a chance . You dont have this in any other country.

In a way, you are right saying that the three manufacturers enters in France because it's there country. But in another way, that's not exactly explaining this. I mean, Peugeot Sport, Citroën Racing and Renault Sport Technologies aren't doing R3, R2 and R1 to promote themselves. No they want to sell it, and make business with it.
And they do a lot of cups in France, because it's their main market to sell these cars (and then the spare part to run it in second / third hand), not because it's France, their country. If Slovenia was their main market, all of them would organize cups in Slovenia.
But it's sure that the popularity of the french manufacturers, and the strong links they created with the local drivers help them to have this big market.

You can see in France other cups done by outsider manufacturers (Suzuki recently, and now Opel, and there's rumor that a GT86 R3 trophy could be created), for the same reason. One make cup are part of french rally history, and there's always a lot of driver to start in it. And one make cup is the best way to sell car. None would buy an Adam Cup or a 207 RC R3T to do performance in rally. But with a cup, you buy it, because you fight on equal terms with other drivers.


For me, nothing prevent doing cup in other countries. It's based on shoulders of local dealers. In Spain, RMC Competition is doing a Fiesta R2 Cup, which seems to be good. You just need to have good prize (money or a drive for the next season).
I'm quite sure, if Peugeot Italia wanted to do a 208 Cup with a one-year 208 T16 drive, there would be a lot of young guys started (a maybe a future star).