Amici,
This connects very loosely to what I was talking about in the tread "what's
wrong with vintage racing". I wouldn't want to change things much, but I'm
starting to think that SOVREN is REALLY on to something. They've gotten
fairly tough about authenticity and period-correctness. Incidents like this
probably reinforce that more than a bit. Not to minimize the value of those
cars, but stick a TR250 and a Birdcage in that pileup and the dollars
involved would go up by at least two magnitudes. A lot of significant cars
pick and choose where they want to go. I enjoyed the HSR Mitty, but I was
taken aback by the "rules" (what rules). I suspect they would have found a
place for my Radical.
On the positive side, with all the modernization, there's a lot better
safety gear. But I haven't seen any organization ever question a car for
having too much safety gear. Well, there were a few eyebrows raised at my
NASCAR TR3's "roll cage", but you don't really have to connect a roll cage
to the front shock mounts for safety purposes.
By the way, the new website for the Columbia River Classic is up at
www.CRClassic.com Please be sure to forward that URL to anyone you think
might be interested in coming to what should be a great event. I was really
trying to get SOVREN to relax it's rules to ensure more cars could come. Now
I'm not so sure.
For anyone that may have been trying to contact me, I'm still in Frogville,
Paris to be exact. Wonderful place, but I don't have a shop to work on stuff
here, so I'm getting tweaky. Back in the US on Tuesday, racing at Bremerton
the next weekend. Life is hard.
Au Reservoir,
Bill Babcock
Babcock & Jenkins
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-fot@autox.team.net [mailto:owner-fot@autox.team.net] On Behalf
Of Larry Young
Sent: Thursday, July 21, 2005 8:57 AM
To: greenman62@hotmail.com
Cc: BillDentin@aol.com; fot@autox.team.net
Subject: Re: BRIC pile-up
The national organization is VMC. I don't know that much about it, but
apparently it doesn't have any teeth. I believe these types of problems
have been discussed in their meetings. Art Summerville of CVAR is always
talking about the laissez-faire attitude that other organizations have about
cheater motors and aggressive driving. CVAR sent a lot of big bore cars
home when they started pumping engines last year. At CVAR a spin or four
wheels off means you come in (stop and go the first time) and metal to metal
contact means someone goes home. With my TR3, I'm happy to be in a very low
key pre-1961 group at CVAR. I really enjoy vintage racing and the attitude
of most drivers. I wouldn't be in it, if overly aggressive drivers were the
norm.
Larry Young
greenman62@hotmail.com wrote:
>> I can almost guarantee there will be repercussions in vintage racing
>> in the USA.
>
>
> Certainly everone will be doing a bit of self examination. I hope
> nationally, Group 6 will...
>
> In my mind, the sanctioning bodies are in a difficult position. How
> tough can they get? A lot of folks in vintage racing are there because
> of dissatisfaction with the way things are in "real" racing.
>
> Maybe it's time for a national organization of sanctioning groups (if
> there isn't one already) to standardize classes and enforcement of
> these standards.
>
> To be sure we will see less and less significant cars on track in the
> future... and that's a damn shame.
>
> Greg Petrolati
>
>
>
> Greg Petrolati Champaign, Illinois
>
> That's not a leak... My car's just marking its territory...
|