I think some people have missed the point. Holding a World Championships in a country shouldn't mean that the citizens of that country are the only people to attend! Looking at the list of honours, it is usually the worlds best driver at the time that wins irrespective of where it is held.
Look at the 1/10th onroad worlds. It doesn't matter what country its held in, the same drivers and teams attend, usually to the warm-ups too. I think when Chazz says that he doesn't want to stump up the cash to send their team to the worlds thats fair enough, they are a small team and that is understandable. What is not fair enough is to say that because he doesn't want to foot the bill the Worlds should come to him. That sounds a little bit spoilt to me, and yes, maybe a bit American. I see that no nation has held more Worlds than the USA, but where is Canada on Darren's list?
I think that the point is that there is a world recession at the moment, and if the teams are feeling the pinch, and the amature drivers are feeling the pinch, then its not surprising that people aren't travelling all across the world to race. Every local club I have been to recently is dropping numbers too.
As Chazz says it is all about advertising for the teams. If they are not going to benefit from placing highly at the Worlds, and telling everyone about it on the boxes of their kits, then they won't attend. Maybe it is worth doing something a bit more radical in terms of cost cutting. As most of the top racers and teams now compete in multiple classes, it would no doubt be convenient to host multiple world championships in the same county over consecutive weeks, say 1/10th electric and 1/8th rally cross, so everyone only gets one set of travel costs?
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