Ah my friend, you have such a fertile mind.
And much grows in fertile cow ( and sheep) pastures.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Roger Johnson" <rjohnson@friendlynet.com>
To: "Team.Net (Group)" <autox@autox.team.net>; "Evo-Discuss (Group)"
<evolution-discussions@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Monday, April 01, 2002 8:19 AM
Subject: Background - Upcoming Olympic Announcement
> I want to provide some of the background behind the
> upcoming International Olympic Committee announce-
> ment regarding the inclusion of Autocross as an
> "Olympic Demonstration Sport" in Athens 2004.
>
> The IOC official announcement was due today, but will
> likely be delayed due to Easter, the April 1st holiday
> and Passover. In any case, as my resignation from
> the ad hoc committee that worked to this end is effective
> today, I am at liberty to confirm what has been whispered
> and rumored among the solo community for some time
> now. Most important is that each of you not be fooled
> by what will appear to be the fulfillment of a widely-held
> dream - there is far more to this than first meets the eye.
>
> And if you can see thru this process, now is *not* the time
> for public proclamations. Much better to let the news
> sink in for a while to allow the true believers to have
> their day.
>
> So while this 'demonstration' status for 2004 and 2008
> are big steps that we are very proud of, it is due to the
> machinations and unreasonableness of one of the member
> countries (Finland) that we aren't further along - in fact
> far more is _undecided_ regarding the competition than
> what has been agreed on.
>
> This effort started some time ago - prior to the Atlanta
> Summer Games, in fact - when SCCA coined our Solo
> II Nationals week of competition the "Solo Olympics".
> Some of the trophies that year were medals with ribbons,
> etc. The US committee preparing for the Atlanta games
> was headed by a friend of Nick Craw, Peter Ubberoth. He gently
> reminded Nick that the work "Olympics" was not in the
> public domain, and asked that we not use that phrase
> to denote SCCA events. This discussion between
> Nick and Peter went further, and ultimately led to the formation
> of the committee that has successfully petitioned the IOC to
> include our sport. And if we can get past the incredible
> politics that have impeded progress, we should be a full
> Olympic sport in 2012!
>
> Each country that had an existing gymkhana/time trial/autocross
> program was invited to select a member to serve on the committee.
> Great Britian, Germany, Canada, Japan, Thailand and the Netherlands
> were the first to elect representatives with our 'friend' from Finland
> coming later, in spite of the fact that there is evidence of only TWO
> events held in that nation, with less than 20 entries at each!
> (Yet this fool is an autocross expert. Geez.)
>
> But you can be assured that world-wide, this sport is poised on the
> edge of explosive growth as other countries, especially in South
> America, rush to develop programs to catch what clearly has to be
> a huge U.S. and Canadian advantage.
>
> As I mentioned, what *has* been decided is far smaller that the
> list of items that have not. The rough outline of the decided items
> include the site for the competition, which is a relatively small parking
> lot at the Hellinikon Olympic Complex (HOSC) south of Athens. Given
> that this is the olympic hockey center, it will get little use for these
> summer games and the lot is ours for the necessary week.
>
> There will be 6 members on each National team, with 6 alternates.
> There are to be 6 vehicle types represented: saloon car, 2 seat sports
> car, open wheel (FF2000 seems to be the choice here) etc. For the
> most part, our committee favored a same-car event, i.e., the drivers from
> each country selected to drive say the formula car would all drive the
same
> car. Each driver gets two runs in that car each day, Monday August 23
> thru Friday the 27th, with their best run from each day accumulating
> to an aggregate total for the team championship and the individual gold
> in that vehicle.
> The order in which drivers compete in that car will rotate - for instance
> if you are the first driver Monday you would be the 3rd, 5th, 7th, and
> 9th on the succeeding days (depending on the number of countries
> competing, of course). And as the sport gets more successful, it may
> be necessary to prepare more than one car (like IROC) in each
> category to accomodate increasing numbers of national teams.
>
> It is in the area of teams that the first obstacles have been presented.
In
> spite of parallel women's teams in almost all Olympic sports, the Japa-
> nese representative Shashimi Wantanabe and the Thai, Mei Upp have
> strenuously resisted the inclusion of Women's classes even in the demon-
> stration phase, as there is *zero* female participation in their
countries.
> And more, as the kinds of events run in the Japanese version of the sport
> are VERY different than the event courses in North America.
>
> Further politics have included the Canadian insistence on a class similar
> to SCCA's A Modified, with competitor supplied and driven vehicles.
> Gee, given the potential for dominance from the Milligan/Cheng car,
> is it any surprise that the Canadian rep (Rae McAlan) has dug his heels
> in on this one?
>
> So of course, not to be outdone, I have insisted on a Viper/Z06 type
> vehicle in the mix. And the German rep (Essen Scheist) and the Dutch
> rep (Ibea Dyke) have joined forces to demand Porsche 911-type vehicles.
> Then the Japanese and English combine to insist that at least two
> of the 6 vehicles be right hand drive. (It is my guess that the new Mini
> will most certainly be included.)
>
> The resolution of these vehicle issues will most certainly, ultimately, be
> money: which of the world's manufacturers will step up to provide the
> millions that the IOC will demand of the Official Supplier of Cars?
> (and tires, shocks, plugs, etc. etc. etc.) Certainly the serious among
> us will then be purchasing those vehicles, to gain as much seat time
> as possible . . . . . .
>
> I am sure that all of the above issues can be resolved, but it is going to
> take a drastic change in the make-up of the organizing committee - the
> reason for my resignation and also that of the French and UK reps is
> the Finn on the committee, Loof Lirpa. I can say with no fear of
> argument that this guy is a total fool, and his obstructionistic tactics
> on everything from vehicles to venue to visas has delayed
> immeasureably the forthcoming announcement. This should have been
> done last fall, and here it is April 1st already. Valuable time has been
> lost as the incredible amount of planning and detail necessary to stage
> this event in a mere 16 months is staggering.
>
> He has further insisted that at least one of the vehicles be of the
> European forest-rally type, with competition indoors on the hockey
> ice! And while constantly decrying the potential inclusion of the
> NASCAR or Indy-Car drivers from the U.S. as professionals, Mr.
> Loof Lirpa insists that Finnish rally drivers are amateurs! Incredible.
>
> So I urge you again not to be fooled: not by the spin the press puts on
> this, nor the biased nationalistic reports that are inevitable, and surely
> not by the coming endless rounds of individual viewpoints that will
> soon overwhelm the electronic lists.
>
> It is up to the ASN (FIA affiliate) in each participating country to
> determine the selection processes for it's team, and if competiton
> at this level is of interest to you please stay tuned (and update
> your passports)!
>
> Roger (O) Johnson
>
>
>
> 419 435-9169 (h/o)
> 419 944-7958 (c)
> 800 422-1682 x89525 (vm)
>
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