There are proponants and adversaries to the gumball race, and the debate between these two groups focusses mainly on safety issues. In the following paragraph, the pro's and the cons concerning the gumball race will be presented.
The Gumball race is organised on public roads without the permission of the local authorities. The capital dispute however, is not unauthorisation, but the lack of respect for legitimate road users. Antagonists groups claim that the competitors do not follow the highway code, i.e. speeding, inciting road rage and from the right, and that they plainly put the common road user in danger and cause accidents. Authorities try to limit these kind of violations by assigning extensive fines, but while such efforts fill the coffers of the exchequer, they do little to inhibit law breaking, since the participants pay 10.000 £ entrance fee, and anticipate the fines in their budget.
Moreover, participants see police intervention as a game, and so take even more risks on the road. Some politicians are trying to ban the Gumball rally from national roads, but because the organisation emphasizes the rally aspect and denies having anything to do with racing, they have so far circumvented prohibition.
Fans mostly get excited by the marvellous cars and extravagant dirvers and dream of entering the Gumball rally. Some even save up for many years to be able to enter the competition.
Partisansaccentuate the fact that average drivers do not follow road regulations neither.
Traffic fines are imposed daily and driver licenses are revoked on a regular basis. At least, they say, the competitors do not commit drink drive or drug offences. Moreover, participators are experienced drivers and accidents
caused by them mainly result in superficial damage to bodywork and very few outsiders get hurt. The majority of Gumball advocates does not deny that some drive like madmen during the rally, but accentuate the fact that this is only a minotiry, and most participants do not enter for the competition aspect but for the experience in pursuit of dynamic leisure.
On the whole, the main reason public opinion is opposed to the Gumball rally, is participants lack of respect for road regulations. Proponants, on the other hand, are enormous fans of the cars the participants drive in. A possible compromise could be a legal race, a race which could run over 2500 miles and through 10 European cities. This could be an alternative because it combines the type of cars and participants that the Gumball race attracts, but would impose the standard trafic rules.