Date: Sat, 13 May 2000 12:10:56 EDT
From: PAULES56@aol.com:
<< It is not the size of the class, but the quality of competition! Any time
there are two players, there is a competition. Competition promotes
improvement and sportsmanship. While one car in class is an easy win, you
can still be honored by the trophy - check out how you did in PAX. (Yes I
know it is not perfect, but fighting over class size is?) >> SNIP
I have to totally agree here. I ran EMod in a street car, got alot of
trophies, finished 50th out of 100 or so on index. Moved to STU last year,
still had no direct class competition except for a couple events. Broke into
the top 20 on index (we use(d) RTP instead of PAX) though. I knew I had to
be very close to the SS cars, and beat the ESP cars so it was much more like
having a class. I also had a co-driver for a few events, and having a very
good driver push me moved me up alot.
Now I bought an EStock 95 Celica ST, and we have a class of 5 or more at
every event, and at the previous event, all five of us were within .9
seconds. This weekend we were a bit farther apart on a bigger faster course.
I took on the challenge and won the class in a last run blow out. To give an
idea what competition can do. I took 3rd on the index standings out of 179
drivers. This was the first time I trophied in the ES car, and I have to
thank my fellow ES drivers for making it so much fun. The competition is
close, and I know they will not make it easy for me to repeat my win. 4
events so far, and 3 different winners. My wife is also running the car in ES
open, she is improving every week, and will probably get into the trophies
soon. If she ran ladies, she would be put into the index ladies since there
were no other ESL drivers locally. There were three women ahead of her, on
index, but they too were running open. All women running in L classes were
behind her so she would have won the indexed ladies. The competition is
pushing her as planned. Last year we got a ride in Jim Harn's Celica ST and
my wife took a second at last years nationals, after just 3 events in the
car. (that helped our purchase decision ;-) We will have to wait and see how
she does this year. Maybe I will do better than 10th out of 18 too.
Gary M.
|