Kenny Smith could not fit young when he ran one. The best part of the TRS is it was turned down by CAMS as not being right for a premier single seater motorsport. NZ took it up as formula ford was failing and our premier single seater class was too expensive as you had to own the car etc. As it turned out the father(sponsor)/son race teams took it up (Are the cars leased from Toyota?). With testing bans in the northern hemisphere TRS became attractive to driver for off season running and the like of Damon Hill who brought his son down.
Let's agree to leave Kenny as the exception that proveth the rule. It's fair to say that he was once a competitive driver, for the last 20, it's been for fun.
Lets consider what actually happened post F5000 -> Formula Pacific/Atlantic -> Formula Brabham/Holden -> Nothing -> Toyota Racing Series.
Yes, NZ Motorsport were stupid enough to promote for a few years Formula Ford as the top 'formula' in NZ, and that decision was a poor one, but the reality is there was no top series. Sure, the move to TRS wouldn't have happened if Toyota weren't interested in, give the lack of vision within NZ Motorsport, but it reflected a sound decision- stop trying to have international-class competitions in a small market, and focus what funding you can afford on promoting young talent- something TRS does very well indeed.
Atlantics & Brabham/Holden were very expensive formulas. We attracted to many lifestyle/pay drivers to both those series.
That's my argument with the current national league. It's going to be a money hole for some time, its difficult to see a path to financial viability. How does pouring NZ's precious football funding into a bunch of journeymen make any sense? Why not focus it on a younger comp, with a goal of getting more players into good professional leagues, as a plan to improve the all whites?