[James Pickard]

I can't help feeling that the point of this debate is being somewhat missed by the 'No' camp.

I wonder if the opinions on here and the outcome of the poll would be different if the question was rephrased to something like "Should I be able to use my perfectly fine 'non-approved' batteries, that are almost in every way identical to the batteries on the ’approved list' and have been approved for use in different parts of the world (with a sticker on them to verify this – I haven’t seen the BRCA one, btw!) at BRCA sanctioned events?"

Bit long winded, but before you all start yelling, "Because it's the rules!", let me put that more specifically as, "Should I be able to use my nanotech batteries at my regionals?" And yes I know that the rules have been decided upon for the year, and yes it's a very democratic process and all that, but the people who do turn out to vote on these decisions tend not be the people using this equipment anyway.

Unfortunately the people using nanotech are just your average club racer, and this person, by and large, isn't going to travel to the AGM. So we end up with the situation where those who are most affected by this are totally unrepresented on this matter at the AGM.

Okay, so what difference does this make? Say someone's just taken up this hobby and has some good, inexpensive equipment and has found a local club to race at. They start doing better and then find out that their club is hosting a regional event, and decide to enter to test themselves against some other racers. They go to scrutineering for the first race only to be told that these perfectly fine batteries that they've been using all this time are suddenly no good because they are not on some arbitrary list. They are told that they must buy some other, more expensive batteries or not race. So what we’ve ended up with is an unnecessary exclusion policy.

It was mentioned on someone else’s post that the first mandate of the BRCA was to promote the sport. This is done fundamentally at grass-roots level, and must not be forgotten when you reach the lofty heights of the Nationals and beyond. What everyone should be doing is encouraging new generations of racers by making this hobby as accessible as possible, not putting up artificial barriers to entry.


Rant over!