Rally Driver Development Programmes Launched in NZ
Inspired by Pirelli backed Star Driver initiative and our NZ track racing superstars, Scott Dixon and Brendon Hartley, the Rally New Zealand organisation launched today a new scheme to cultivate our rally kids (>26yr) from 2WD to the world stage.
It will be certainly interesting to see how this develops over the next couple of years, and then also interesting to see if they can push drivers through this system and into WRC, APRC (or similar).
It's got me interested ;)
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4 comments:
Do you think that because of the current global economical downturn, this "schooling" could be severely affected?
It's going to be a tough couple of years for motor-sport for sure.
We've seen already in the last year in NZ that entries are down, entry fees for events are up and people don't have the same kind of money to throw at competing anymore.
But at the same time we're still moving forward and it isn't fair on drivers in New Zealand to not have the same kind of opportunities avaliable to them that they could get if they were starting out in Europe.
Some of our top national drivers are stepping up to the Asia Pacific series, and it can't be ignored that this is going to thin out the field in the NZRC (as well as the financial situation of competitors). So I believe the Rally NZ Organisation has addressed that fact that something needs to be done - and come up with this.
I think it will be hard to get the scheme going (because of the econimic situation), but in the end beneficial for young competitors to have a clear path to international rallying like that already established in racing. Track drivers can start in karts, then go to Formula Ford, onto Toyota Racing series and then hopefully graduate to something overseas.
Thanks for your question! Hope this give a bit on my opinion :)
Thanks for your answer! Do you think that it is possible for you to expand your view regarding how the hard times are hitting the whole rally industry, especially the WRC? As event prices increase, less people are able to attend thus making the sport as a whole less economically viable, even a liability! Suzuki and Subaru have left, leaving other companies as Peugeot, VW, Fiat, etc, "scared" to actually invest in the WRC. Thanks in advance.
I've written a new post to hopefully expand on where the top level is going. But I think I may have missed your point a little. It's hard to really know the effect the recession is really having on those top teams and their budgets because I'm not closely involved with them.
So I've just looked at what information is readily avaliable, added a dash of the things that I've been told personally and a pinch of my own opinions there.
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