I know John and Mike on a personal level and I don't believe either of them are trying to divide the hobby at all...
I stood with John this weekend at the Ultimate Scale Truck Expo while Jerome from JS Scale discussed with John getting product over to them in France. Then Jerome showed John the electronics set up in their debuted Cherokee Chief, which was a very unique system from Germany with integrated light control and sound etc. It also used a multichannel system where the drag brake is basically on its own channel so you can decide the level on intensity on the fly. When Jerome got done explaining it and John checked it out and even played with it some his response was "That is really cool, I always like seeing other companies products, thanks for showing me"... If that makes you think the guy is trying to divide the hobby then YOU need your head examined :roll:
I have a feeling this all came out due to the USTE event which is NOT a competition but rather focuses on the Vendors and their product, and driving your Tiny Truck on very realistic scale courses with zero rules or drama. The ONLY aspect of competition through out the weekend is a GCM Racing show and shine gallery, where GCM has a half dozen categories such as "Best Engine Bay" "Best metal work" "Best Paint/weathering" "Best detail" etc and everyone lines all their rigs up, they are then voted on by placing small banners in the appropriate category on the truck. After all the votes are out they take all the trucks who are now semi finalist and they all band together and vote a winner for each class.
They do a side by side drag race course with provided box stock axial trucks, a rally course with TF2s, and this year an expedition course which the only rule was that you had to take a pic with all 20 signs and your rig and had 4 hours to complete the trail
other then that there are 7 courses for you to play on, no rules or restrictions on your trucks, no one cares how many times you back up, hand of god is encourage in order to not wreck your "doll house" truck...
on Saturday they had 186 people who showed up, registered, and tiny trucked it...
I didnt hear one single bitch out of any person there... everyone had a great time and there were plenty of doll house trucks andddddd there was still wraiths and chinese knock twin hammer looking things running around... because the event organizers dont care what you bring as long as you have fun. The only thing they will tell you is that the courses are geared for class 0-2 style trucks so if you show up with a wraith or a class 3 style truck you may be bored...
At the end of the days these guys are trying to bring back the simple and the fun...They achieve this with this event, and this was my 2nd year going and IS the one event I will attend EVERY year...not just because I build doll house trucks but because there is NO BS.
With that said, I believe this is what the guys were trying to do when they formed this new association.
KISS, fun, drama free, BS free... I hope they have the success they desire