Bob, I was dinged last year for having ballast (in the form of a car battery) on my platform. I had nowhere else for the battery so I mounted a platform above the battery. I was asked to demonstrate its ability to hold a passenger.
I'm disappointed not in the fact that the FIM doesn't require a passenger but that the required ballast can be placed ANYWHERE on the machine. Plus NO platform is required. If any sanctioning body should be decried as phony in regards to sidecars its the FIM. Go back and look at the history of the racing sidecar. Which for you Bob shouldn't be difficult as you are a big part of it. Up until the advent of the worms, racing sidecars were nothing more than a bare platform. The SCTA is carrying on that tradition of a platform for the passenger.