Dear Lee and Grant and other interested members of the list,
Lee in his first posting said:
I was a VMC member affiliated through the VSCCA, the oldest of the
vintage
racing groups....a racing group that has yet to recognize the need for
1)
any type of required medical exam for a driver 2) updated Snell helmets
(still sanctions a Snell 85 SA), 3) no date checks on safety
belts/harnesses
(could be from 6-15 years old) 4) no requirement for arm restraints in
an
open wheel car. 5) No mandatory roll bars..only recommended). 6) no
mandatory fuel cells...only recommended.
...and one would have to be an absolute fool to actually go wheel
to wheel with those standards. Fortunately most drivers have a medical,
have
a roll bar, have a fuel cell and race in other organizations which
require
belts to be replace every 5 years.
Too bad...I really like the VSCCA...but worry about the liability issues
and
who/what I am actually racing against. For that reason, I have
limited my
racing with the VSCCA to just a few selected low keyed events.
Lee in his second posting (answering my reply) said:
> (Don Nattress
Bingo! A nice guy...but you said it all...we never got any information
from
your meetings. The newsletter was the only feedback. Thanks for your
well
thought out reply. Hopefully the VSCCA will take a few notes..wake up
from
their winter slumber and see that we are actually racing ( not driving)
into
the new Millenium!
As far as having a VMC license....there was very little value added for
me
and others. There was no need to have a VMC license to participate in
another club event.. 90% of all the vintage events are not sold out
anymore....entry is as simple as paying the increased non-member fee.
As far as I am concerned....there really needs to be some "vintage
standards"
for safety for every single organization ...it starts with current dated
helmets, belts/harnesses....the rest can be arbitrary and optional.
Grant Reynolds wrote:
I never doubted that VMC meetings are worth while. But why isn't there
some regular dissemination of information, by email, internet, or
article written for the few club newsletters, that tell the rest of us
what is up? In the East much of our racing is with SVRA and HSR, which
are businesses rather than clubs. Their publications have very little
information in them other than items about their next race. We certainly
don't have regular membership meetings where our representatives can
tell us what is going on!
My response:
There are at least two issues here and probably more.
First of all is that famous line from "Cool Hand Luke" <WHAT WE HAVE
HERE IS A FAILUR' TO COMMUNICATE> Both Grant and Lee have mentioned
this shortcoming either directly or indirectly. I have no doubt that I
am speaking for the VMC position when I say that it is up to the
individual member organizations of the VMC to communicate with their own
individual racers and NOT the function or responsibility of the VMC to
do so. However, I will say that in the VMC has made some efforts in
this area even though it is not part of its charter: as I mentioned,
there has been a newsletter several years which sometimes contained some
information and there have been periodic reports in Victory Lane (Dan
Davis always comes to the meetings) However, the VMC makes this
available to the individual member clubs who may or may not send out the
material to their members just as they may or may not send out
information about the VMC meeting discussions in a newsletter. The
member-run clubs I feel are probably better at this than the "for
profits' as their representatives have to be responsive to their
members.
Second: There has never been total agreement on any issue before the
VMC and this has kept many things from being instituted as a universal
national policy. As an example, during my term as president, I worked
long and hard on trying to come up with a National Medical Policy as a
reasonable activity and goal of the VMC. I proposed different periods
of time between exams based on age and a requirement for stress testing
every two years after age 60. This was changed (against my
recommendations) to "strongly recommended" and then ONLY TWO
CLUBS/groups adopted the VMC Medical--SOVREN and HMSA. VSCCA (by way of
Don) said that their club didn't see any benefit to medical exams and
therefore does not require them so they sure weren't going to require
stress EKG's no matter how old the driver! However, I was gratified to
learn at this meeting that CVAR, VARA, and CSRG have also adopted the
VMC medical AND two of these CVAR and VARA have made stress testing
mandatory at age 60. MY POINT IS THAT THE VMC can't mandate anything
since they can never get total agreement on anything, and in all
honesty, it is always VSCCA opposing any regulations. Their philosophy
is definitely "laissez faire" according to Don who says, "We are the
oldest organization in the USA putting on Vintage races and we are
getting along just fine doing things the way we have always done them."
I have always assumed that Don was speaking not only for himself but for
the membership of VSCCA, but obviously he wasn't speaking for you!
As for the VMC license: many clubs issue only a "Medical Card" and not
a license. Others have a license and not a medical card. Some had
nothing. The VMC license was an attempt to have a "National" uniform
license that would be honored by any member organization and the carrot
was that you could use your VMC license once per year to run with a
member club to which you didn't belong without having to join (if that
was a requirement--SOVREN doesn't require membership to race with us).
Most of the clubs will have a two tiered entry fee with the additional
fee for non-members being equal to the cost of joining. The number of
people with VMC licenses has remained fairly steady over the years, but
there is a lot of turn-over i.e. some drop off and others sign up. It
is up to the individual club to sponsor a driver for the VMC license and
some such as CVAR use the VMC license as their club license. There has
been a suggestion that all member clubs do this. There is a VMC
committee appointed to investigate this at the present time. I am on
that committee as is Peter.
A partial listing of other things that have been proposed but which have
never been totally initiated are: the "infractions list" to which only
about half of the members submit names. A "points system" so their
would be uniformity of reporting to the "infractions list." The VMC
insurance program, the VMC mechanical failures list, a national
license, a "super license," universal safety requirements, a national
tech form, acceptance of the VMC license at one club event without the
requirement for joining that club, etc. etc.
On the positive side, we do have an insurance program which has saved
those organizations using it a lot of money. We do have a VMC medical
form which more and more clubs are using, we are coming up with a
National flagging policy (which I think everyone is signing on to), we
do have an "infractions list" even if it isn't universally used and we
di share a lot of information about problem areas in running events.
I hope this clears up some of the issues and problems. My suggestion is
to contact your clubs/organizations and ask that they give periodic
reports on what goes on in the VMC, and if you have things that you
think should be changed (as far as safety requirements, etc.), I think
you should work within your own club to get this done because the VMC
doesn't have a "big stick" to ram anything down its members throats!
Dick Buckingham, Jr. MD
Race Chairman - SOVREN
Past President - VMC
>
>
>> (Don Nattress
>
> Bingo! A nice guy...but you said it all...we never got any
> information from
> your meetings. The newsletter was the only feedback. Thanks for
> your well
> thought out reply. Hopefully the VSCCA will take a few notes..wake up
> from
> their winter slumber and see that we are actually racing ( not
> driving) into
> the new Millenium!
>
> As far as having a VMC license....there was very little value added
> for me
> and others. There was no need to have a VMC license to participate in
>
> another club event.. 90% of all the vintage events are not sold out
> anymore....entry is as simple as paying the increased non-member fee.
>
> As far as I am concerned....there really needs to be some "vintage
> standards"
> for safety for every single organization ...it starts with current
> dated
> helmets, belts/harnesses....the rest can be arbitrary and optional.
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