In response to some of your comments Simon;
Thunderhill is primitive, but also much less costly that Sears or Laguna.
Not everyone shared yours or Marnix's feelings as David Love and Peter
Giddings both brought their beautiful Ferrari's and had a good time (and I'm
not implying here that they're any better than Murray Ross's concours MkII
Cortina, who was also there). Saturday was picture perfect, and while there
was wind on Sunday, it wasn't anywhere near what we experienced last year.
With regard to track direction, the course was originally designed to be run
either direction. NASA has run it in reverse with no problems. I've talked
to some who have done it (Tom Morgan, for one, in his MGA) and they loved it.
I would suggest that it needs to be treated as a new track and an
appropriate learning curve. Without some prudence on the driver's part you
could just as easily fall off of Turn 1 in the current configuration. I
can't buy the argument that the track is any more dangerous run the opposite
way. There is less experience with it this way, but that's it.
I've been told the Enduro is a CSRG trademark, but like lots of other
complaints that CSRG hears from its members, those who complain, aren't the
ones coming out and supporting the events by entering them and helping to
defray the increasing costs of conducting an event. The same holds true for
those complaining about letting in more and later model cars. Many of the
ones who complain the loudest, I haven't seen at an event recently. The fact
remains that you need not only enough people to make the event financially
viable (roughly 100 at Thunderhill, more at Sears), but you also need enough
entrants to make the grids large enough to conduct a fun event. In my
opinion, there's nothing worse than a grid of 15 or fewer cars, where you
find yourself all alone with no one to race with. Grids of 30 or 40 or even
more make for better events for both the drivers and spectators. For those
who want to run alone, then an SCCA solo event might be a better choice.
Its a constant dilema that the CSRG Board has to deal with....whether to be
more strict in acceptance and not have enough cars, or be more liberal and
hear complaints from the "old guard" who aren't supporting the events
anyway....what do you do??
Myles
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