>Rocky,
>
>Words and phrases like "hosing" and "scew out of" are very misplaced and
>inappropriate.
If you create a PAXed system, or even just bump someone up until a class is
made, that could easily be a solution. It is one thing to make someone run
with a handicap, it is quite something else to bureaucratically render
someone's effort meaningless when that someone has little option of his own
(short of selling his car and buying something else) to rectify the
situation. When you tell him he doesn't deserve a trophy because he did not
beat anyone you have hosed him, you have screwed him out of what he worked
all season to achieve -- what he was fully ready and willing to do by
beating everyone else who showed up if only someone would.
>It is also not the club's "fault" that not all classes "make". In
>fact through the club's offering multiple other classes to create some
good, as
>Jim mentioned earlier, other open SCCA classes have suffered.
No it is not the club's fault (meaning SCCA), but when the club (meaning the
local Region) tells a driver his season of effort is meaningless and
unworthy of recognition, that is just being mean-spirited and that IS the
club's fault. The driver was there supporting the club, he deserves to have
the club support him in return, not spit in his face.
>In a world full of "something for nothing"...
His season of effort, of preparing, transporting, entering, driving his car
fully in the hope of having someone else to run against is not "nothing."
Please note, there is NO failure on anyone's part here to do anything. It is
not the driver's fault no one else came in his class. It is not the club's
fault either. It just IS. The fault comes when some superidealistic
individuals try to demean that driver's effort by declaring it unworthy of
the same recognition he would have received had just one newbie in a
street-tired uncompetitive car showed up to get trounced by that driver.
>... "social promotions", and "welfare
>for no work" it would be nice to have something that represented a real
>achievement up on the mantle. Give a valued prize, a partial discount on
the
>next Series, special recognition (all not to my preferences), or *best
yet*, an
>opportunity to compete in a Paxed class where the abilities and competitive
>spirit can be honed and developed.
>
>To award a trophy with the words "First Place" in the world of automotive
>competition, when there was *no competition* is very hollow and
meaningless.
Says who? And who are you to decide what someone else would consider
meaningful? I have a few of those and I consider them meaningful. Just
because no one else showed in my class does not mean I didn't drive my heart
out, try to do my very best, try to improve each run. And hey, maybe I was
the only car in my class, but maybe I beat the time of the winner a couple
of classes up. Then I'd really feel good about myself and feel that trophy
was earned. But even if not, so what? I was still the best one there in my
class, I beat all the people who didn't show up, and I was there to take on
anyone who would. That's worth something.
>I think most if given a choice would choose to compete and earn the trophy.
>Why not allow them that chance?
Here we agree. That would be a better solution. But who's going to take
charge and do it? You? Thanks for volunteering. But what if no one does.
Does that then mean we screw the single-car-class guy? And this: what does
it hurt YOU to let HIM have an award?
>Feel good? Even kids know when they have really earned something and when
they
>haven't.
Even the kid who goes and strikes out at every at-bat should be given the
encouragement and praise for having the guts to stand up there and take his
cuts. Sometimes overambitious adults place entirely too much emphasis on
winning, when the true emphasis should be on the playing. Baron de Coubertin
(inventor of the modern Olympics) said it well, that the important thing is
not the winning but the taking part, not the triumph but the struggle. I've
been to youth track meets where every finisher gets a medal, and even
someone who's an age-group winner when he was the only competitor in that
event in his age group gets a gold. He knows he earned it because he put
forth his best effort. The fact that he was light years away from the
age-group record is irrelevant.
>Sorry - I guess I just don't get it.
"It" is RESPECT for someone else's effort and commitment, and not demeaning
it by imposing requirements over which he has no control, such as the
participation of a third party.
>Scott Meyers
>Riding off into the sunset.........hey, if I'm alone, do I get "First?
:-)
You betcha! Because no one else did it better.
--Rocky Entriken
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