One of my pet hates are complaints that vehicle regulations for the Australian Rally Championship put the sport out of people’s price bracket.
Group N, WRC, R5, AP4, whatever it is, there'll always be someone who thinks that they're disadvantaged because their budget doesn't run deep enough to compete on an equal footing with Toyota, Subaru, or whoever else is winning at a given time.
Rallying is totally unique, and it makes us incredibly lucky that we can compete alongside Sebastien Ogier or Ott Tanak.
In no other sport that I know of can you do that.
You can't pay your entry fee and compete in Wimbledon alongside Roger Federer. You can't take the new ball and bowl bouncers at Steve Smith.
And you most certainly can't take the field alongside Cameron Smith or Gary Ablett and chase a football around.
In any of those sports you have to prove you're worth. If you're talented enough, you can make your way up through the ranks, from club, to state, to national level, and eventually compete against the big guns. If you're good enough!
It's the same in circuit racing. If you show a bit of potential you can work your way through go-karts, Formula Fords and the development series and eventually - funds willing - hit the big time in Supercars.
In rallying, however, provided you have the right car and enough money, you can compete wherever you like – from small club events right up to three day WRC events. It's what makes our sport so accessible.
But just because that's the case doesn't mean the rules should be changed to suit you and your budget.
CAMS take on the FIA's international rally regulations for a reason. There are modifications made along the way to enable things to be easier, such as the AP4 class, but by and large, the rules are set in stone.
Long gone are the days when you could build a home rocket to Group G regs, bolting a Mazda rotary engine into your Datsun 1600, and take on the front-runners in the ARC.
If the regulations put the national championship out of your price range, then go and compete at a level that suits you better. There's no shame in not having the money to compete at the level we'd all like to be at.
Back in the 1990s I was running Group N Mazda in state rounds, and doing okay. I couldn't afford to up-spec it to match the Group A/PRC cars though, so I sold it and stepped back to competing in club events in a rear-wheel drive car. A comedown, yes, but it at least allowed me to continue competing.
You may not agree with it rules or the reasons behind them being what they are, but that's the way it is.
Let's accept it, and move on.
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