Hi all,
I thought I'd add my $.02 to this topic, since I used to
be fairly involved with vintage racing from the F&C end and still
keep in touch via the vintage magazines.
Anyway, regarding winning vs having fun, each club tries
to encourage the fun aspect to varying degrees. By the way, there
are now at least 20 clubs that sanction vintage races, and every
one of them has different rules. One of the clubs de-emphasizes
winning by awwarding trophies to randomly chosen finishing positions,
ie. 9, 12, 7 and 15. Others simply don't award any trophies. Some
publish finishing order and qualifying times, others don't. And
so forth. This is an issue that is being discussed heatedly and
regularly with the majority seemingly preferring the "have fun,
not win" philosophy [at least until they get on the track and the
red mist takes over]. There is now a national level consortium
of vintage clubs, who exchange information about drivers who have
been suspended by a club for overzealous or reckless driving. In
the past if someone was suspended or banned by one club, they'd
just go play somewhere else [we had one driver try this with us].
If anyone wants to continue this discussion, I'll be happy to
either do research in the vintage mags, or give references to
relevant articles.
As far as preparation [ie a five main B engine in an
MGA], again basically the same applies here. Every club has
its own rules, which are different from another clubs. You'll
have to find out which club runs most of the races that you'll
want to attend and get their eligibilty and preparation rules.
I'll be happy to get addresses if necessary. Occassionally,
one club will let an outsider run in one of their races if
the car is eligible by its "home club" rules, even though
its not stictly eligible by thier rules, however I wouldn't
count on this.
Enough babbling, cheers
John
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