-----Original Message-----
From: Arthur Emerson <vreihen@hotmail.com>
To: rocky@tri.net <rocky@tri.net>; autox@autox.team.net
<autox@autox.team.net>; autox-cm@autox.team.net <autox-cm@autox.team.net>;
kcautox@egroups.com <kcautox@egroups.com>; hottvr@aol.com <hottvr@aol.com>
Date: Monday, October 02, 2000 9:15 AM
Subject: Re: [kcautox] Illegal tire warming???
>
>"Rocky Entriken" <rocky@tri.net> wrote:
>>
>>IMHO, the rule against tire warming has always meant that you
>>cannot go off to some distant corner of the lot and do donuts
>>for 60 seconds before coming to the line.
>
>The local interpretation ALSO includes "tire warmups" as the
>burnout that you see at the drag strip before a car runs. It's
>unsafe, probibited at the drivers' meeting, and is grounds
>for immediate expulsion from the event. I don't recall
>seeing anyone locally try this in the past 6 years.
Absolutely right!
>I do have a personal record of ejecting three (yes, 3) drivers
>from one event for reckless driving in the paddock, though.
>Before somebody labels me a safety Nazi, two were running a
>1/8 mile drag and the last one was deep into third gear at the
>far end of the lot that was being shared with a Jehovah's
>Witness convention. Second gear gets you an "education,"
>third gear gets you ejected, and 4th gear gets you bodily
>removed from the site without even being allowed to return to
>the paddock and gather up yer stuff. :-)
And right again! The reason for a no-tire-warmup rule really has nothing to
do with warming tires. If everyone could do it, and do it safely, it would
be okay. In fact, at one Nationals (the first Topeka, I think) there even
was an attempt at creating a tire warmup/scrub area -- it never worked out,
not sure why. In fact, the more I think of it, I think it was an area
designed so people could scrub the stones and false rubber off, and was open
the weekend before (during the Pro) but not during Nationals itself (space
needed for other stuff).
The reason for the rule has to do with community relations, so we are not
seen as a bunch of disorganized, undisciplined speed nuts out terrorizing
the populace. This is because such tire-warming activity has usually been
attempted at a part of the site where event officials are not present to
regulate it and ensure it is done safely. So we do regulate it ... by not
letting anyone do it.
>>It most emphatically does NOT and NEVER HAS been a rule that
>>forbids a driver driving from his grid slot to the start line wiggling
back
>>and forth on the way.
>
>There *is* a 5 MPH rule on all of our local sites, which includes
>every inch of the pavement on the site not located between the
>start line and finish beams. The 10 MPH wiggle that you cited is
>in violation of that, if nothing else.
IMHO, this stretches it a bit. If going to the startline at a 10 mph wiggle
is illegal, then so is going to the startline at 10 mph without wiggling.
Which I'd bet about 99.9% of your competitors do at some time or another. We
*say* things like 5 mph speed limit. We *mean* drive slowly, safely, no hot
rodding. I could not drive to the line at 5 mph if my life depended on it --
no speedo. I drive in a slow, calm, non-endangering manner. On occasion I
have driven to the line in a more "spirited" manner and have been justly
chided for it.
BTW, if 5 mph is everywhere but between the beams, then you gotta get nearly
full-stop before you reach the finish in order to drive the entire exit at 5
mph or less! :-) I've always regarded the speed-limit rule as applying
everywhere outside the course area ... and the course area includes the
passage from grid to course, and from course back to grid. However, that
said, those passages, NOT being competition segments, must still be driven
safely and with respect for others present. Thus this usually mandates
against burnouts, etc. Although at one of the Dallas Nationals, where the
passage from grid to course was several hundred feet of empty concrete --
and I DO mean empty -- many drivers did a bit of burnout on the way. There
was room to do it safely.
>I, for one, am NOT going to question the call of the KC event
>official. I wasn't there, didn't see the incident, and most
>importantly don't know the layout of their site. At one
>of our primary sites, the lane from staging to the start line
>passes within 10 feet of the timing trailer. It's unsafe to
>wiggle, burn out, or even drag your brakes in a 3-pedal car.
The proximity of the trailer requires due caution, although saying you can't
drag the brakes seems excessive. That can be done at less than 5 mph safely.
>If the safety steward or any event official tells you that
>your actions are unsafe, your duty as a card-carrying SCCA
>member is to say "Yes, sir" or "Yes, ma'am" and modify your
>behavior accordingly. Tell the Knuckledragger to put away
>his guns too, :-) because I don't think that even Paul Foster
>will take your side against an event official.....
Yepper. Even if you should disagree, the Safety Steward is god. Should you
choose to disagree, do so in a non-confrontational manner which usually
means not just at the time he is trying to do his job. Do it later, when it
becomes an academic discission. Not sure, but I get the impression that's
basically what the Bullmaster did. He may not have cared for it, but that
moment was not the time to get into it and he didn't (although it was not
the Safety Steward in his face, was it?). But he questions it and asks here
for others' experiences thus, exactly, making it an academic discussion.
>
>-Arthur ("Licensed to eject" edition.)
--Rocky
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