Jeff Winchell wrote:
> I'd guess Greg's 5.9 second lead had nothing to do with his not
driving faster.<s> That
> and the fact that he had autocrossed the car one time (the
previous weekend) before
> entering it in nationals.
This had already gone too far before the above comment, but it is
now time to set the record straight about the Fordahl AP entry
that year. Here are several well-established facts:
1. The car in question was not even a GCR-legal GT car. It had
been allowed into its GT class earlier that season via a special
accommodation on the part of the Comp board.
2. Per the Solo II Rules, the car was not legal for AP. It should
have been assesed weight penalties for several items, including
non-original fuel injection and rims that were larger than those
specified in Appendix A.
3. The thinking, such as it was, that was used to justify
allowing the car to enter in AP at Nationals was that, since the
Comp Board had allowed it in GT, extraordinary circumstances
notwithstanding, it had to be legal for Prepared.
4. AP ran in the rain at least one day that year. The fact that
the Fordahl entry had four built-in pneumatic jacks and that
multiple tire changes therefore were possible _in_grid_ were
competitive factors on that day.
Now, is any of this the fault of the entrant? No. Did it
completely blindside the other competitors in the class?
Absolutely. Did the car have modifications that would have, under
normal circumstances, triggered substantial weight penalties in
AP? Definitely. Would the car have won had it been ballasted to
the AP-appropriate penalized weight? Probably, but we can't know
that for sure.
Is this example relevant to this discussion? Absolutely not.
Jay
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