Thanks George,
If the SEB gets it's way, you WILL have FP back next year. At the
sparsely attended Tuesday town hall meeting (sparse because the meeting
began at 4:30 like advertised but during the middle of 5th heat), the SEB
and PAC (in the form of Jim McKamey) unveiled their plan for AP/FP. All of
this will be published in Fasttrack either next month or the following
month, so disregard my version as the beer soaked memories of someone having
too much fun in Topeka.
As I remember it, FP ccomes back in it's pre-95(94?) version. AP becomes
it's pre 95 self again with the addition of some Cobra kit cars (with Ford
engines) many of the post 93 turbo cars (or whenever SCCA quit classifying
turbo cars in Prepared) and it becomes a catchall for the cars that want to
go beyond the current prepared rules but short of DM & EM . The listings
would be something along the lines of vehicles <5.1 liters must weigh 2000
or 2050 with 12" wheels. Vehicles over 5.1 liters must weigh (I forgot)
2500? with a 50# hit for 12" wheels. The class would also allow free fuel
injection. The "old" AP cars would carry their current weights into the
class and be adjusted as necessary to make them competitive.
So, for example, one of the target customers of this class would be
Barry Schonberg. He didn't show up this year reportedly because he was
running at Road Atlanta next month and didn't want to have to completely
reconfigure his car. He must currently weigh about 2700#, if he ran AP2K (I
just made that up... catchy huh?) he could drop 700 lbs and add 50 if he
wanted to run 12s and then be at about his GT2 weight for roadracing and
still be Solo legal
I could install a full Motec FI setup on my Datsun and put on 12"
wheels and drop 50 lbs to 2050 for AP or leave everything alone and run FP
at 2100.
Again this is as I remember things and I'm sure I am leaving BIG chunks
out. The SEB hopes to get this implemented for next year but it will be
tough if it meets with any resistance.
If anybody else can help clarify this please do...
Tom
-----Original Message-----
From: George Ryan <quad4fiero@webzone.net>
To: Team. Net <autox@autox.team.net>
Date: Sunday, September 19, 1999 5:44 AM
Subject: Re: AP as viewed from fourth place
>Good Job, Tom!!!
>
>And everybody on this list thought I was on a rant a few weeks back
>when it was announced there would be grey and black market cars, and
>kit cars added to the class next year (Y2K - - at it's best).
>
>Look for more of the same at next years Nationals - - high dollar exotics,
>tube chassis fiberglass bodied kits, etc.
>
>Don't know about you, but I just want FP back again.
>
>G
>
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
>> Date: Sat, 18 Sep 1999 13:12:10 -0500
>> From: "Tom Holt" <tholt@ccsi.com>
>> Subject: AP as viewed from fourth place
>>
>> 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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