It's interesting that so many unrelated challenges in vintage racing circle
back to the same set of problems. I believe the long term vitality of
Vintage Racing depends on finding some ways to balance out the underlying
tensions behind these issues. Problem is that everything gets so intertwined
and is so contradictory.
For example, a lot of great cars don't hit the track very often today. One
contradiction is that they stay away because they're worth a great deal of
money, but that's mostly because there are venues for them to play in.
Thirty years ago they were relatively useless, and in fact, because of some
fairly arbitrary rules in Vintage Racing most race cars from the late
seventies and eighties are priced more or less like salvage--especially the
club level stuff . Don't get me wrong, I personally believe that the Golden
Age of racing was the fifties and sixties--but then I also consider the
sixties to be the epitome of music.
A second reason great race cars stay away from the track is they are
uncompetitive. To be worth all that money they have to be absolutely
original, and their original configuration is very well known. Virtually any
good special can eat their lunch, because they have been tweaked in every
dimension. I'm convinced the reason Peyote is so fast is 45 years of Mojo--a
lot of people making every change they could get away with. Does that happen
to a 59 Testarossa?
Dean, there's a good reason why your specials cause anxiety among the
officials. How long can they keep the DBwhatevers, Testarossas, Birdcages,
and all the other pukka racers showing up if you and other riffraff like you
(me for instance) keep waxing them. The bad news is that they don't have a
solution for the real problem. It's not just specials--there are a host of
TR3's and MGAs that could have won anything short of a F1 race in 1959.
Never mind MGB's and TR6's. It doesn't require cheating--just refinement
within the rules at the limits of current technology. If I use a piece of
software to tweak my suspension until my TR3-based special handles better
than a Lister, it's not only not cheating, it's not detectable (under my
personal rules, that last phrase is redundant). If I use the very latest
brake pads to quintuple the performance of my TR3 disks, it's not cheating.
The stopgap approach is to get increasingly snotty about the regulations,
but that won't work for long. Thousands of people who care about what
happened in 1960 die every week. Unless vintage racing is going to be
perused only by a dwindling pool of geezers there will need to be some way
to reconcile higher performance with originality and authenticity.
I doubt that we racers can leave it solely to the clubs and officials--there
doesn't seem to be enough cooperation between them to tackle such a
fundamental issue.
I think it would be very useful to get the vintage racing magazines
involved, and look for some longer term solutions--some kind of plan to
start including more cars without pushing the great cars off the track. Some
ways to ask and answer questions like "when is a car vintage?" Do they
really have to rot untouched in a garage for forty years before they are
considered for our events? Does anyone really believe that the only stars
are the cars?
For that matter, most racers I know like to win--or at least win their own
private race for fifth place. As much as I admire Steve Earle's
determination and clever methods to avoid the winner being the first to
cross the finish line, we all know how important that is to each of us.
I have a lot more questions than answers. I've been trying to provoke some
debate on these issues. I'd enjoy hearing both your concerns and potential
solutions.
I know Tim Suddard pays attention to the FOT list--Tim, is this an issue
that you'd consider airing in Classic Motorsports?
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