Well,
Mark weighed in and i have written articles before on much the same
subject and now I can add some views as a tech inspector and as a race
co-chairmen. it amazes me what I will see when I tech a car and the
aggressive answers I get when I ask some one to change or fix something. If
it was just your neck I would say have at it and hang a sign on your
hospital room door "Stupid". But you risk the life of everyone on the
track. I see people bring stuff to the track that would not pass a safety
Insp for a street car in Pa.! Seems once something is fixed no one ever
thinks about it again! Most mechanical failures could be stopped with a bit
more time spent in going over your car on a regular basis. Nothing has an
infinite life span. And no that should not be up to the tech inspectors to
do. We are looking for the obvious, you were supposed to pre-tech the car.
I prepare pre-war cars and have raced with them and there seem to be less
failures there than in the more modern cars and do not think they are not
pushing them. Ever have Ben Bragg scream by at 125+ or Dave Milling tuck
that big SS of his inside of you or wave bye-bye as Bill blows by in his
ERA. They just pay a bit more attention to their cars and seem to care more
about the race itself than who wins it. As to drivers? Beats me. At
Pittsburgh we pull someone in and say you are going just a wee bit to much
for this track. Now we do not just randomly due this this is reports coming
back from the corner workers. The safety steward talks to him I talk to him
and then what happens he does it again. Even adds a spin and next thing we
call him in and send him home and we are the "bad" ones in this incident.
Should we have waited until there was a wreck? I talk to some someone who
took a tour over the curb and through the grass and ask "What were you
trying to do" The answer "Well Tivvy goes through there just about flat out
and I figured I should be able to do that too" I later told Tivvy that he
was causing accidents and repeated the driver's words. Tivvy's response was
perfect, And I can catch Schumacher!
Is there an answer probably. But are we willing to do it? Answer is to
send people home. I can not remember the last event I went to that if a few
people were told to go home the event would not have enough racers. At the
events that are supposed to make money, SVRA, HSR, etc the fans come to see
the cars not the drivers. Face it guys we are not household names. They do
not come to sit around waiting for the mess to be cleared up. I do not like
rules and I do not like telling people what to do but if we do not start
cleaning up our act someone will do it for us. And usually no one is happy
with that.
A lot of it boils down to some need to win and go faster than anyone. If
that is your real desire buy a formula Atlantic car and have at it! If on
the other hand you like old cars and like to play with them stay vintage
but try not to make your MGA re-write the history books!
Ralph Steinberg
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