No, your not the first to think this, another suggestion is the Pro and Novice mini class, etc etc etc. All of them dilute the mini field. The key is to listen to those who have tested the theory out. If a $1000 mini means you win, then why isn't this happening at ANY track? Its because its so much easier for slower drivers to complain about someone spending more, than to fess up you got beat by a better driver. Ivan is a prime example. I saw him when he was new to rc. He has now put in the hard work, doing a crazy amount of laps with his mini over the years, he is now a robot of a driver, and wins a lot, unless you make him laugh on the drivers stand..... And he has one of the cheapest and usually crapiest looking minis in the world. Hell, he even runs a flag on the back of his mini. Tell me how that makes you win?

The key IMHO, is for the fast dudes to tell all about their setups and continually help the slower guys with their cars and lines on the track. Up here, Scott W (HPRT) Steve Soon, Ivan, all the fast dudes in Alberta, freely give up their setups and help out anyone in Mini. I also freely give setups, I work on peoples cars and have rebuilt a number of other cars to make the exactly the same as mine, to remove the perception that someone is winning due to spending more. If I can pick up someone elses car, put on my shocks and tires, then do the SAME lap times as my fully setup car, then Mini isn't about spending $$$. Its about a decent setup and a quick driver.

Although this is easy with a spec motor like we have up here. Having the open 21.5 down in the states, im sure there is a lot of $ that could be spent to get that last bit of speed. Up here, the spec motors took care of that, and the racing is awesome.