Jack
I understand what you were getting at, but I don't think it is so much
politics as mother nature and industry. Mike Manghelli's previous post
explains the reason for different lengths, tracks and directional
runs. With so many people running thesedays, I believe the fine points
of why something is done a certain way becomes lost to the masses.
With no vested interest in one particular vehicle, I have the unique
perspective of an observer. Sure, I have noticed a wink here, and
there, but by and large the sanctioning bodies TRY to be fair to
racers. In any volunteer group you'll have the dedicated and the
slackers, but after 65 years I'd say SCTA as a whole gives the LSR
racer a great stage to play on year after year and the USFRA deserves
a lot of credit for emulating the SCTA model, but adding their own
special brand of LSR racing -- like the 130mph club -- and giving the
racers yet another opportunity to run SAFELY on the salt.
Jack, your car is very special part of the land speed racing
community. It is imbued with styling bravado that few really
understand. It speaks volumes about how to slip through the air. In
fact, during the holidays, when I was visiting relatives over in
England I had dinner with Ron Ayers, the designer of ThrustSSC, aka
world's fastest car, and as we were chatting about salt racing he
volunteered that he felt your car was the most advanced design for a
Bonneville car he had ever seen. He went on to comment about a variety
of things he admired about the execution and I thought to myself, "Ha!
once again the hot rodder blows away the educated engineer." good for
you! passion and determination are omnipotent!
Historically speaking, as powertrains, materials and technology have
improved, so have the vehicles. P{perhaps some of the classes haven't
kept pace, but with so many I can't comment knowledgably. What I can
say is I find the variety of racing machines to be fascinating from an
observer/fan/storyteller perspective -- and we haven't even touched on
the colorful characters (you know who you are) that build and run
them! I could the spend of my storyteller career writing about land
speed racers and NEVER get bored. Gee, that's a great idea, why not?
Speedy Regards,
"LandSpeed" Louise Ann Noeth
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