Nationals preferential entries?

[jimmy]

The UK National series is possibly the worlds highest quality series for 10th off road buggies - fantastic organisation and great quality drivers like Cragg, Bradby, Ellis, Tricky, John Price - the list goes on .

Since I've been doing Nationals (2003 I think I did my first) the series has definitely grown quite a lot - to the point that I've only managed to get straight into 2 races (both 4WD), and my wife has only managed to get into one of six events she applied for.
I think for this weekends National I was reserve 25 or so, meaning at least 155 people had applied to race. Great success.

Being the premiere series, and indeed only series which tours the UKs best tracks, there is a great deal of talent and preference is given to the best driver grades - a rule which makes some allowance to keep the series at the top.


Swiftly on to my point - there is a long reserve list at Nationals already, mostly lower drivers who were not good enough to get straight in. Almost everyone has the opportunity to qualify well in regional races and get a good driver grade - which would get them into Nationals.
If anyone remembers the 2005 National at Bury Metro, we had a couple of top International drivers turn up and race, Steenari and Amezcua - these guys simply wouldn't stand a chance of ever racing over here again now.
Similarly, top drivers like Andy Moore and Craig Drescher are capable of A final at the World Championships but can't even get into the National series (Because their off road driver grades are not high enough).

Having top drivers like Moore and Drescher, but also visiting International drivers, would be a big boost in my opinion to the quality and profile of the series. At the moment it won't happen, and the system that is currently in place works well to make it a fair system for gaining National places - but I personally think there could / should be a way for some (possibly a small number, pre-defined) of top drivers that normally wouldn't be able to get in, to some how jump the queue.

Fair enough - I have failed to get an entry to most Nationals this year, and it's been a bit crap to be honest. So I know how it feels. And there are certainly drivers reading this that would get pushed out of the series if a handful of queue-jumpers were allowed places - But I still like the idea and think it would add to the event.



So -what do people think? would it even be possible or fair? Could 5 (lets say) places be 'put aside' for possible top drivers, and who'd decide who qualifies for those places? Does a world champion touring car driver qualify, does a world Champion in Mardaves qualify?
And being a points series - do we really want 'guest' drivers throwing spanners in the works?


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