Re: C4 Vette

[Paul Foster <pfoster@gdi.net>]

Andrew_Bettencourt@kingston.com wrote:
> 
> You are not understanding the point.  Corvette attendance may have gone down,
> but the SCCA drivers who ran in Corvettes DID NOT go away.  Do you see how
> adding a Corvette class only dilutes participation instead of increases it?

I got your point from the other post. As I stated I'm going to cross
check the 45-odd Corvettes drivers who showed up at Salina in '89 and
see how many are still coming out to Nationals. My guess will be a small
handful and some of those are still showing up in Corvettes. 

> 
> My feeling on the Regional Corvette clubs is that they don't have the skill 
>set
> to compete with SCCA level drivers.  It's not that the car is outclassed, it's
> that the drivers (and this isn't so of any of the Vette drivers I know from 
>SCCA
> SS) have too large ego's to get beat more than a handful of times before they
> take their ball (C4) and go home.

If they see Corvettes doing well in the class they are happy. If they
see Corvettes getting clobbered by a couple seconds a run then all but
the truly diehard will not come out. It doesn't matter whether or not
they themselves can do it. They don't mind being beaten by Roger Johnson
in a '86 C4. But they do mind losing to someone in a car that weighs 600
lbs less that may make more than the stock horsepower due to alleged
boost creep.

> 
> I don't want to further expound for fear of pissing any of my Vette friends 
>off.
> Matt Murray and Rich Fletcher can comment on the type of driver that typically
> go to PCA events.  They just don't want to get crushed by SCCA level drivers 
>in
> the *same* car so they create their own playground.  Great people who drive
> their cars spiritedly, but not, for the most part, hard-core autoxers.

As stated above I completely disagree and I think the '89 attendance
list will prove that. There were no more than 4-5 great drivers who
could have won in the 45 or so Corvette drivers who showed up. The rest
just wanted to be part of the experience as are most of the people who
show up at Nationals. I seem to remember they were very happy campers.
But that could have been due to the beer.

Paul Foster