I havn't seen any of the post on the AP protests, but figured I would
give my point of view since I probably have the most to gain. I finished
fourth, but I think I am technically in third right now.
Before we ever made a run, Peter Fehn and David Butler (of Dallas)
protested the Porsche 911 RSR of Greg Fordahl. If you don't know what that
is, it is a Porsche factory "Works", world class endurance racer. Jodi
Fordahl told me it was the back up car to the second place finisher at
LeMans. Greg Fordahl is one of the mechanics for the team and was loaned the
car for the weekend, so it's probably not an issue we will have to contend
with in the future. The car probably cost about $250,000 new, if you could
buy one. (someone told me that that car was available for $125,000, but I
didn't see a for sale sign on it). It was beautiful and had more high tech
cool stuff in it than all of the other ~800 cars combined. The engine was a
3.8 liter monster and therein lies the first protest. The rulebook lists
911s up to 3.6 liters in AP. That was basically Fehn's protest. The car
was, declared legal by the protest committee, because there had apparantly
been a rules update that made the car legal for GT1 roadracing, and somehow
that gave it a backdoor into AP. Fehn has appealed that decision.
David Butler's protest was based on the preamble in the begining of the
Prepared rules that stated the rules should discourage the use of high tech
components and be geared towards the amateur racers and that the Porsche
violated that concept. I don't know what became of that protest.
The second place car in the class was Craig Nagler's 99 BMW M3. Robert
Huffman of Dallas wrote up the protest because the car had a belly pan
running from the front air dam back to the front cross member. Nagler was
disqualified but has appealed
that decision.
So... I finshed fourth behind Fordahl's co-driver Leeds Gullick, but
with Nagler probably out, he's in second and I'm third. Fehn says his
protest became very complicated and that he still had a good chance of
winning. We'll see... hopefully before next years event!
Personally, I don't feel like the Porsche should have been allowed in
our class. It was more comparable to the fastest EM cars and would have won
there but only by about .5 seconds, rather than the almost 6 seconds in AP.
The Nagler protest was chicken shit, and at worst he should have been
penalized 1 second. maybe even just told to remove it for next year. That
would have left the results as they were. I think Nagler should be the AP
champ and I would proudly claim second and i told Craig that. Since that
probably won't happen, I just wish we could go back in time and throw out
all of the protests and let me walk across the stage and get the fourth
place trophy (my first Nationals
trophy) I earned, in front of my friends and the rest of the crowd. Now I
can only look forward to shaking the mailman's hand when he hands me the big
envelope with some undetermined trophy in it. Of course if it says first
place on it, I will damn sure claim the four new Hoosiers that come with it!
Tom
AP 29 - I'm number ?!
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