In a message dated 1/17/01 7:40:42 PM Pacific Standard Time,
mgvrmark@hotmail.com writes:
> Your comment "you have to be at absolute peak attention for a half an hour,
> running at the ragged edge, not wasting a tenth of a second that you can
> help" implies a relationship between attentiveness and 10/10ths driving. I
> disagree. I believe there are plenty of good drivers in vintage, that ARE
> at absolute peak attention, but choose NOT to run at the ragged edge.
>
>
You are missing the point, Mark.
I was describing what real racing IS. If these attentive vintage racers are
running at less than 9 or 10/10ths, they are merely attentive and aware
(which is GOOD, mind you) parade participants, out having some fun. And I'm
one of them, most of the time.
RACING _IS_ 10/10ths - there is no other way to do it. Anything less is just
playing around, and if you want to play safely, you damn well better be
attentive.
With respect, anyone that has never raced in SCCA (or CASC), likely has no
real idea of what that sort of racing entails. I don't at all mean that to
seem elitist - I don't do that sort of racing any more myself, by choice,
except for the odd few of laps run at 8 or 9 10ths once in awhile, but I
don't know any other way to describe it.
I used to run 13-14 races a year, sometimes with 2 races a weekend. I was
young, and once I reached a certain level of skill, I could run a 20 lap race
with no more than about 2/10ths of a second between consecutive laps (unless
balked by traffic, obviously). I don't know if I could do that any more, and
I don't know if I'd want to, but I sure remember what was involved.
Any participant should be aware of what is going on around them on the track
(many are not) but simple awareness and attention, certainly do not equate to
being capable of that sort of racing.
And the roving chicane categorisation was NOT meant to be denigrating the
slower cars - you and I are, after all, slower cars compared to most of the
stuff out there, It was simply meant to denote slower cars that don't
necessarily watch their mirrors, and can in any case make 'spirited'
competition around them more hazardous than I would consider tolerable.
If you and I were having a hard fought battle, running very close without any
other cars around, no problem. If we were overtaking a slower car that due to
previous experience, training or just inattention that day, didn't see us
coming, I would not pass him on one side while you passed him close on the
other, with a speed differential of 20 or 30 mph - he MIGHT see one of us and
in shock and avoidance steer into the other one of us. That's what I mean by
being an RV. I try like hell never to fall into that category, and running
qualifying sessions in ICSCC races with McLarens and such scared the living
bejesus out of me a couple of times and imprinted the lesson very well, but
who knows, I might have the odd moment of inattention and fall into that
category, at least momentarily, myself.
Bill
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