There is no real world championship for Open G-12 cars, but the 2002 Benelux Cup was somewhat THE G-12 of the year, with all the best racers at the start. The three best specialists were f.l.t.r. Chris Radisich (NZ), Frankie Poledna (CZ, winner) and Einari Fyhr (SF, runner-up). IMCA considers that other federations should think before continuing hyper expensive racing with ES24 and ES32 cars. Such cars, going hardly any faster than an Open G-12 car, cost at least 3 times the price of a G-12 car. By keeping up the tradition of ES24, ES32 and 132F1 the typical conservatives in slot-racing, guided by the most conservative of them all, Charlie Gooding, one creates an island for the happy few, while more and more racers quit the hobby. In the future the IMCA will do greater efforts to develop Open G-12 racing, hoping that we can convince one day the more progressive wing to stop Charlie Gooding's conservative madness. I wished to see Charlie one day driving a simple model car, equal to all others, or a simple G-12 car equal to all others, and I am wondering if he still should be the winner. Most conservative racers are just conservative to protect their own status. They don't win because they are such fantastic racers, they win because they have such fantastic cars. At the Open G-12 race Radisich, Poledna and Fyhr had no fantastic cars. If they finished among the top-3, it's just because they are the best racers with fast scale cars. Of them Poledna raced even a simple production chassis, costing less than $ 35 US!  Pic: Paul OWH Kassens.