Originally Posted by
JLock
The main reason why you here negativity is because in many areas, attendance is very low, so, adding yet another class just farther deletes already small classes as is. Also, there was a similar class of car, 235mm, back about 3 years ago that was abandoned by the national organization and left to die (it was very strong in my region and many others west of the Rockies). Some diehards of that class would like to bring it back instead of changing a current class of car (many still have there 235mm car). Work needs to be done on shoring up the classes that are currently running. Many feel that this will not attract the new racer and if it further dilutes the competition in 200mm in some areas, that is where you are getting the "may cause some to leave the hobby" statements. Many like good competition and if it is not there, then many will leave instead of buying more equipment (just my take on what you stated).
Well I quess it also depends on the area of where we are speaking. In my area, drivers have two and sometimes three or four 10th scale cars, and to convert one over is not a problem. But yes, attendance is down and so far the new class has helped in bringing up the attendance somewhat. The economy has hit everyone hard, and when we talk about a "hobby" these are usually the last on the list of priorities with people raising families. Most of the drivers I know still run the 200 class, and do not need to buy a car just to run the 220mm.