For what it's worth, I feel like putting in my two cents in support of the
attached.
First, there is a separate team thicko list, on the team.net server, that
much of the "private" banter is conducted on.
Second, Mosport is a fast, daunting track that breaks cars. The track
features enough high speed corners that, in a Sprite, you enter at least
four of them flat out in fourth gear, without lifting when on a 9/10th's
lap. I can say this from personal experience since I once did such a lap
at Mosport in a 1275cc Midget, gaining a personal best lap time out of the
deal. In twelve years at running at Mosport, at least 40 race weekends,
I've only ever hooked up one or two 9/10th's laps, no 10/10th's laps, and
a whole bunch of 8/10th's laps that I've really enjoyed. But I still
cannot enter turn two at anything like a real race speed
consistently! Track legend has it that when AJ Foyt was running there in a
Champ car, he spun so often between two and three that he refused to
race! Carroll Smith considers Mosport the toughest track in North America
(if I recall the paragraph in his book correctly).
Mosport is dangerous for two reasons. The first is that so many of the
turns are taken at high speed, creating high suspension loads. If your car
has any suspect parts, they get a real workout. If you break, you're going
very fast when it happens. Second, the track still has a few bumpy
sections, and lots of places where the wall is close to the track. That
means that if something does break, odds are that you'll hit a wall rather
than get caught in a nice run-off area. The track is in the throws of a
radical upgrade, and by this time next year will be totally transformed.
All that said, I like Mosport and I'll keep running there. It places a
premium on car preparation and driver skill and courage. The problem with
Mosport in a Vintage context is that it does sometimes require a notch
higher level of preparation and skill (or experience on the track, which
amounts to the same thing) than people bring to it, and the courage thing
often gets translated to recklessness in the Vintage world.
Well, I wrote all this stuff, and I don't think it amounts to a hill of
beans, but I'm going to annoy everyone with it anyway. I just seem to get
set off when anyone implies, by word or action, that racing, at any level,
can be safe. Racing, at 6/10th's, 8/10th's or 10/10th's, is dangerous -
I've seen bad accidents caused by slow, inexperienced drivers driving
over-restored cars at 6/10th's, and I've seen the opposite, so I place no
pre-judgement on who will cause the next one.
Cheers, all, Brian
At 11:44 PM 07/04/2000 -0400, Ccanepa50@aol.com wrote:
>to me it doesnt matter if I agree with the "on the surface" flippant?
>attitude of the series of postings about the unfortunate demise of the RRB, I
>personally am relieved to hear the driver survived relatively unscathed and
>will be out there again, I feel that all of us benefit from the sobering
>experience of that driver, anyone who thinks that he or she can prevent
>being a victim of such a event thru a schedule of checks is dreaming and
>should wake up to reality, while diligent routine checks will reduce the
>chance for such events, to think that they can be eliminated is truly the
>joke here......even if you only drive at '80%', on a old car 'something' will
>eventually fail, or, something will happen in front of you on the track, and
>if you happen to be in the wrong place you will become the passenger in
>such an experience, while i firmly believe and participate in the concept of
>routine checking of stressed parts, serious scrutiny and preperation of the
>car AND IN THE LIBERRAL USE OF NON-VINTAGE SAFETY PRODUCTS like fuel
>cells-onboard fire systems, better than minimum roll cages, wrist
>restraints, 3 layer suits, etc.....we can reduce our exposure but will
>never be imune from being a participant to such a experience.......reality
>can be avoided for so long..... but then its gonna smack you right up side
>the head...........if you think it wont happen to you.....you're probably
>next............
>chuck canepa, sanfrancisco, vintage sprite (& ITA/E RX7, where i can go
>100% racing)
Brian Evans
Director, Strategic Accounts
UUNET, An MCI WorldCom Company
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