In all of the posts about speeds increasing at a single event or over the
past twenty five years, some interest comments were made by some
interesting people.
Of the one's that have stuck in my mind:
Porsche Paul's initial post he discussed that he perceived others making
comments about a specific event's high speed and a general feeling that
speeds had increased over the years (no time frame mentioned).
Rob Pickerel's (sp?) post saying that Howard (Duncan) felt the speeds at
TMS were, in hind sight, higher than what he would have liked. And that
the SEB was or had discussed speed increases over the past few years
(again, no specific time mentioned).
And Roger Johnson's (Ohio) perception of speed increases over the past
25 years (and admitting to having competed in this sport for at least
25 years {braver than I} ).
So what is the point of my post? We have chastised many for "not being
at the event", or that they don't really know how fast they were going.
I those posts ignore the real issue.
These tangents, though amusing or good excercise for the delete key, miss
Paul's orginal underlying message. The other comments that perhaps we
might be increasing our acceptance of an unsafe issue or course, that
a few years ago, would have caused a course redesign.
If it was only Paul's post, you could chalk it up to a non-SCCA guy or an
elistist PCA person, but here you have some voices of reason echoing,
though not exactly, what Paul had written about.
>From what I have read TMS had acceptable run off room, but the stock
speeds may have exceeded the intent of the Solo 2 rules.
So here we are a few bazillion posts later. I suspect the SEB is either
looking at the wording of the maximum speed rules, especially when some
states do have interstates with a posted 70 or 75 MPH, and quite a few
vehicles with the ability to reach those speeds in a very short amount
of time, or the SEB is looking to reduce overall course speeds,
regardless of what is legal on an interstate. With unprotected bodies
on a course, I'm inclined to lean towards any suggestion(s) of a way to
reduce those overall speeds.
It won't be easy or painless. My good wishes and support goes to those
with a tremendous responsibility in resolving these issues and the
future health of out sport.
Matt Murray
Please send all replies to: mattm@optonline.net since I am
away from this domain for two days (after 3PM)
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