Hmmm, I don't enjoy the them vs us syndrome. My hill is bigger than your
hill. But I will stick my oar in anyhoo.
SFR at one time was a bit "ahead" of the rest of the country in
developing drivers. From the start, we always used SCCA classes and rules
so our drivers had both themselves and their cars ready for the nationals.
We had strong local competition, and the local series was very important
to the competitors, as well as getting ready for a long trip east,
wherever it was.
However, over the years the SFR emphasis has changed from regional to
national for some of our drivers, and the ones who are considering
traveling east also enter as many Tours and Pros as possible, and only now
and then running locally, and when they run regionally, they most often
run in an indexed separate class, removing themselves as targets for the
local drivers.
IMO, this has depleted the local competition levels, and removed the
regional drivers from considering running at nationals...too many costly
steps to take to get to Topeka. I suggest their thought is "You can't be
competitive in Kansas if you omit running Tours and Pros from your
schedule."
Because of population numbers, to travel to these "higher" level
events on the west coast consumes huge amounts of time just getting there.
Nothing is close. Too costly for a regional competitor to "test" the
waters. Thus fewer SFR folks go to Topeka. There was a year or two where
we had 80 entries, this year it was much less.
Factor in the important move by many regions to totally adopt the SCCA
classes (slow to happen, believe it or not, over the last 20 years), which
opened the door for many more talented drivers from all over the country
to vie for a national championship, and you have the championships spread
out more evenly...Congrats to New England for doing so well.
--Pat Kelly
Paul Foster wrote:
> Rocket J sez:
>
> <<<Now let's see if I've got this right: San Francisco has huge events,
> therefore it has the best drivers? The average NEDiv event is rather
> small
> (New England Region perhaps being the exception, but still Soooo much
> smaller than San Francisco) and therefore does not produce great
> drivers.
>
> Have I got that right?>>>
>
> I'd say that is basically true.
>
> <<<Heh, heh, well San Francisco has to suck wind behind its smaller
> NPDiv neighbor Northwest Region this year! SF had 24 trophy winners, 3
> champions. Northwest had 25 trophy winners, six champions.>>>
>
> I'd say that is a statistical fluke. I remember one year ('88?) where
> SFR had nearly 20 _winners_ out of an attendance of perhaps 40 drivers.
> Le'ts see any other region beat that!
>
> <<<Poor ol' New England only had 13 trophy winners -- but just as many
> champions as San Francisco.>>>
>
> You are comparing apples and apples which is usually a good thing. But
> the whole point was apples and oranges, e.g. how many trophyers came
> from Alaska? Not fair? OK, let's see a breakdown of winners vs. size of
> region. I bet you will see a correlation to size...
Paul Foster wrote:
> Rocket J sez:
>
> <<<Now let's see if I've got this right: San Francisco has huge events,
> therefore it has the best drivers? The average NEDiv event is rather
> small
> (New England Region perhaps being the exception, but still Soooo much
> smaller than San Francisco) and therefore does not produce great
> drivers.
>
> Have I got that right?>>>
>
> I'd say that is basically true.
>
> <<<Heh, heh, well San Francisco has to suck wind behind its smaller
> NPDiv neighbor Northwest Region this year! SF had 24 trophy winners, 3
> champions. Northwest had 25 trophy winners, six champions.>>>
>
> I'd say that is a statistical fluke. I remember one year ('88?) where
> SFR had nearly 20 _winners_ out of an attendance of perhaps 40 drivers.
> Le'ts see any other region beat that!
>
> <<<Poor ol' New England only had 13 trophy winners -- but just as many
> champions as San Francisco.>>>
>
> You are comparing apples and apples which is usually a good thing. But
> the whole point was apples and oranges, e.g. how many trophyers came
> from Alaska? Not fair? OK, let's see a breakdown of winners vs. size of
> region. I bet you will see a correlation to size...
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