Quote Originally Posted by Mirek View Post
What is funny about the fact that with national car You can't compete on international level? There's nothing funny about it. It's quite sad when You can't compare Yourself with the international drivers even on Your home soil (let's say on Canarias).
Of course there are people who don't care and that all right. Still rallying is a sport and the true sportsmen have always ambitions to compete internationally. The work of ASN among other things is to help local talents to get on the international level and to represent the country. When the ASN sets rules which force drivers not to use internationally recognized cars it closes a lot of door to their own talents. You can't just go and buy R5 to drive something abroad. First it's crazy expensive and second it's completely different car for which You need different driving techniques which You need to learn first.
Honestly, I don’t think that having national regs different from FIA can be a real handicap for those (few) drivers wanting to rally abroad in a regular basis.

For the young guys starting their international careers, probably the best option it’s to leave, as soon as possible, into an international 2wd series. To them, the worst issue about getting into foreign rallys (at least our national guys, and I imagine that in other countries it's the same) it’s the lack of recce control they’re used to. Passing dozens of times into the stages before rally (sometimes in their rally car) will have a negative influence when competing under the strict reconnaissance rules of ERC or WRC rallys.

For the more experience drivers (like national titles contenders) wanting to get into a top international 4wd series, the best option for them it's probably to rent a rally car from an international team, with full service comprised. It’s more easy and cheap than carrying their own material all around.

Above all, ASN’s should be looking to get as much competitors as they can, for their national series. R5’s are great rally cars, very well developed and built, but they are (like most of all the others R cars) a kind of monopoly, being supplied by only 4 or 5 official tuners. This way prices will tend to be very high (as we all know), so ASN’s must look around to find other compatibles ways for less wealthy crews get their share of competitive rallying as well. Establishing a performance balance for different types of cars can be hard, but it’s achievable if there’s a will to do it.