600cc in speedweek

[steve-e]

I was talking to a couple of people at the weekend and it seems that the parties wanting to push this through really DO think they're going to be doing it on std ECUs. Interesting that the idea at superside ISN'T to get short and long bikes out together again at last, so if you do ride an F2 you wouldn't be going to Superside on it. The thinking is getting funnier and funnier.

[teamradar]

If I have to put a standard ECU on my outfit it will be up for sale (probably at quite a loss).
There are cost effective options that don't involve motec if you don't have the budget, kit ecu's,DTA, life racing etc.
What is the argument for going to standard ECU's? Nobody who has done any real research on this could possibly think it's a good idea.

[oldbelly]

ECUs will be the least of their problems. I cant wait lol.

[steve-e]

I think you'll be waiting a while (thankfully )

[David Stewart]

The REAL PROBLEM here is that the FIM are ignoring the problem and pretending that it's something else.

At Donington Park this year, I had a conversation with them about it and it was stated that the low entry levels for the World Championship are caused by there not being enough drivers who can handle the power of modern F1 outfits. That is complete Horseshit!

There are plenty of Drivers (and passengers) who are eminently capable of performing at the highest level using the current 1000cc powerplants. The problem is that the Championship that the FIM are offering is not attractive enough to entice the right teams away from their home championships (BSB, IDM, KNMV or FFM).

In the past that would never have happened as everyone wanted to compete at the highest level possible. As it stands today, the highest level does not have the credibility to draw the teams in and there are no rewards for making the jump into the World Championship. The responsibility for that must lie with the FIM, as whilst their Contractural Partners in the other disciplines (Dorna, Youthstream, ABC etc) have invested heavily in Moto-GP, WSB, Moto-Cross and Enduro World Championships - the FIM have invested next to nothing in the Sidecar World Championship.

There are plenty of Drivers out there who could compete at the highest level with the current rules, but those rules need to be enforced consistently and equably and that requires yet another level of investment.

Tim Reeves
Pekka Paivarinta
Ben Birchall
Bennie Streuer
Uwe Gurck
Ricky Stevens
Sebastian Delannoy
Ben Holland
Mike Roscher
Tony Brown
Andre Kretzer
John Holden
Phillipe Gallerne
Sean Hegarty
Timo Manninen
John Clarke
Jonathan Huet
Kees Kentrop
Andy Peach
Jakob Rutz
Steve Kershaw

That's just in no particular order without really thinking about it. Do you really want to tell any of those Drivers that they're not skilled enough to handle the current sidecars? Moreover - do you expect their support after you've told them to throw away tens of thousands of pounds worth of engines?

It's time to recognise that the Elephant in the Room is the lack of direction/leadership shown by the FIM.
The answers are simple and begin with allowing people to keep their current bikes and engines.

1) Funding - There needs to be a Prize Fund and a Qualifying Fund to attract the best teams.
2) Rounds - There need to be just 5 rounds in the 5 countries where the most support lies.
Great Britain, France, Germany, Netherlands & Finland.
3) Timing - The rounds need to fit around teams other needs such as fitting in the TT as many teams rely on it to fund their racing.
4) Events - Events need to be held at the highest quality meetings available.
That means not relying on charity, but paying real money for the right race slots.

That means taking some of the money that we have all paid into the FIM and spending it on the future of the sport. - What an innovative thought!!

I'm going to go away now and start shouting at the traffic on the Motorway - it's just as effective.............

[steve-e]

[Malcolm]

Well the whole thing seems to have gone in many directions and seems to have been started originally by the poor grids at the Sidecar World Championship events. If you analyse the real reason for this its easy to answer COST to compete in the World Championship for the whole season is extremely high as most teams from around the World are generally self financing or partially financed by sponsors, its possible you could answer that a full season of doing the National series is the same cost, but we know from past experience that this is not the case. i.e. travel costs are greater so the main reason for poor grids are
1 Cost
2 Time teams, driver, and passenger are away from work
3 Incentive to compete at World Level ?

The above has nothing to do with engine size there are enough F1 sidecars and teams World Wide to fulfil the grids with quality teams so the problems lye within the way the Word Championships are structured.
The TT does not even need to be mentioned as this is a one off special event and apart from a few, none would ever have any intension of doing anything other than that event and a few national meetings mainly to achieve the necessary requirement to compete at the TT.

The FIM Sidecar World Championships are supposed to be fed from the Worlds top sidecar teams competing from the National Federations Championships to compete and strive to be the best in the World and become a World Champion.

This is the area that needs addressing not keep changing the rules to try to overcome the shortfalls of the way to fill grids at a lot of cost to all the semi amateur teams, and this should be started primarily by the vey person who is muting the changes, and the National Federations, not keep changing the rules of the machinery to gloss over the real reason of the problems that exist that cause low grid turnouts
The FIM race committees that consist of the National Federations members that have scheduled meetings during the year should be discussing the way forward for the World Championships and looking at ways to encourage the teams to compete unfortunately this may involve money i.e. travel money for each team not prize money, I understand that most of the World Championships are run by Promoters in conjunction with the FIM and the necessary National Federation of the event country, but with sidecars at this time there is no promoter and the FIM is the organiser promoter so to this end if they are prepared to continue with the championship it is there responsibility to do it with the correct adjustments needed to make sure it is a real FIM World Championship if not drop it. Its their shop window and should be either be done with the full backing of the committees with all there input necessary or dropped from the calendar completely not just run as an I suppose we should keep it going.
The working groups are made up off the National Federations from around the World so these are the area’s that need the correct information to give the input needed to make the FIM World Championships a real strong FIM World Championships, changing the rules all the time is not the answer what we have at this time with the F1 machines is totally ok, it needs correct input to the organisers to adjust things in a small way, but unfortunately that means spending money from the FIM to help the teams to overcome the cost of travel this then equals the cost back to the same as National Championships then this spectacular sport would grow and become a true FIM World Championship with full grids.

It could also be said there are necessary adjustments needed to be made to the existing rules on a safety basis that would be quite simple to implement because the manufactures of the current engines used in the Sidecar World Championship gain more horsepower on yearly basis so there now becomes the need for some power reduction is basically for the safety of the riders as it becomes increasingly harder for the passengers to endure the g forces for the entire race in safety with the traction of the tyres and braking these machines can now endure this could be done by simply reducing the exhaust outlet at the head so no need for expensive changes to the teams like engines changing to 600cc this then overcomes the longevity of the tyre life ease of control after the race in technical control as the restrictors can be anodised red and FIM etched markings and better safety for the passengers. Ok people could argue that they have no passenger problems, but I think that covers maybe 6 teams.
All these type of changes should be done without discussion ( apart from the FIM working committees getting the technical issues agreed) just implemented and then all National Federations should be made to follow the same technical regulations ok some countries still allow different cc capacity but they could be classified separately i.e. 600cc up to 1300cc this then gives uniformity world wide so that the national federations then know the teams that can be put forward to World Championship series should the need arise.

Contrary to belief the small time I spent working with the FIM and UEM it is possible to make changes, it just has to be presented correctly with good reason, so I believe in making changes to the complete World of Sidecars to chase a dream is totally unjustified as the sidecar classes are healthy, and fine as they are with small adjustments here and there all things are possible, but the huge cost of motor competition these days cannot now be reversed all that can happen is try to regulate it with common sense and logical solutions.

[Malcolm]

i wrote the above passage this morning and see that Dave Stewart goes in many ways with how i see things so lats the debate start

[tonybsa2008]

Spot on Mr Stewart.

[steve-e]

Glad you posted that Malcolm, I was busy this evening plumbing in a washing machine and haven't gone through the emails yet