Hi All:
I generally keep a low profile, but please excuse the upcoming rant - I feel
the need...
I was at the tent area in the upper paddock assisting with the concours
final judging, which is located about 200 feet from where the wreck occurred.
I
heard the big noise from the big engines, turned to a friend and said "Hey,
the Vette-Camaro-Mustang group is starting, let's go watch" and then there was
a bunch of really bad noise. I didn't see any of the incident, but saw the
aftermath. It was ugly.
I would agree that the start at RA is more difficult than other tracks. But
we do know that if the grid isn't formed up there can be a wave-off of the
start. The VSCDA stresses this in their drivers school and in the VSCDA
school sessions I've attended, you even have a practice of a wave-off.
I believe the big problem is a lack of comprehension among some
participants: THE RULE IS THIS IS NOT REAL RACING. Yeah, I know we're trying
to go
pretty fast and we want to pass the car in front of us, but there is a world
of
difference between that kind of attitude and the mindset of real racing. If
you're in a vintage racing event, then the start of the race should be looked
at as the most dangerous part where you need to leave a good margin and take
no stupid risks. You're NOT REALLY RACING.
If you're in an SCCA event (or another group where it is real racing), the
start is a place where you can try and sandbag, lay back to create a gap, hit
the loud pedal coming up to take the flag and hopefully seize an advantage
and make a pass. This is very risky when everyone is doing a similar thing,
but it is an acceptable risk because you're REALLY RACING.
The incident at the BRIC is a result of the mindset of participants who
treat our vintage events as sort of a cheap rule-less formula libre version of
the SCCA. They over-prepare their cars well beyond their historical ability
because they think they're REALLY RACING, and drive their cars in the events
as
if they are in REAL RACING. These people, and the tolerance of them and
their attitudes are responsible for the deterioration of our vintage events.
Do
you notice that fewer great old race cars no longer participate? The owners
will tell you that they feel their cars are too valuable to risk if their
car is going to look slow and have to mix with cars that are over-prepared and
owners who are willing to smash them up because they are REALLY RACING.
Augie Pabst still races the Scarab. He must really love it, because the
Scarab was just about the premier front engined sports racer of it's period,
and
now it's a mid-pack car. It's being trounced by a bunch of cars (and I'm
excepting the later rear engined 23's etc..) that wouldn't have come close in
the period. There are similar examples of this in almost all of our race
groups. This is wrong. It's hurting our events by driving out the good cars
and
participants we want in our events.
I think it's time for us to come to the assistance of our various vintage
racing clubs to support them to reverse these trends we've all observed over
the
last 20 or so years of vintage racing. We know what needs to be done -
tighten up the rules allowing modfications and then police them. If some
participants don't like this - send 'em an SCCA Club application.
TuTone
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