As the event chair for the Atwater Tour and a member of SFR, I wanted to admit
that Dennis is correct. There *was* a conspiracy. No, not by the SCCA and not
by the SFR region. Rather, as the head honcho of the SCSL I'm coming forward
now to claim responsibility. What's the SCSL you ask? Why, it's the Stock
Class Supremacy League!
The SCSL was clandestinely formed years ago in a strategic effort to eliminate
anyone competing in SCCA events that didn't realize that Stock Class drivers
were truly the greatest. Any SP, P, or Mod car driver going faster than a
Stock driver was obviously doing so only because of *car* preparation. In
certain instances however, the more prepared class drivers were going so much
faster than the stock classes that people were losing sight of reality (stock
drivers are the best).
In response to this blatant attack on truth, the SCSL has employed the arcane
SCCA rules system to drive outstanding non-stock drivers out of the club. You
wonder why Dennis is still pissed, well we screwed him real good! Anyone seen
Craig Nagler at an SCCA event recently? Frank Stagnaro is just the next on the
hit list!
Ever since we subverted the organizers of the PAX system, our power has been
growing. Witness the election of Charlie Davis to the SEB! Do you actually
think he has CP's interest in mind? Hah, he's our point man! And Charlie,
thanks for the tip on Stagnaro, I knew we could get him on weight. Good thing
we put that remote "offset" into the scale system.
And to our companion organization in NASA, the NSDR (NASA Stock Drivers Rule),
"Climb Mount Topeka!"
-AM
--- Josh Sirota <josh@sirota.org> wrote:
> Katie Kelly wrote:
> > I think the scales are SCCA property, but I could be mistaken, and they
> travel around from Tour to Tour,
> > Pro to Pro. Someone please correct me if I am wrong. At any rate, chances
> are, they bounce around a lot,
> > and are dead wrong, as they were at this event. This is pretty obvious. I
> think rather than pointing fingers at
> > SFR shouting conspiracy, I think there's got to be a way to protest the
> scales or something.
>
> There *IS* a way to protest the scales. I did, when I was found (initially)
> 9 pounds underweight after the first day at Nationals in 1993. A protest
> was filed against me by the chief of protest (the guy who drives an FP 240Z
> from Texas ... tall guy ... can't think of his name right now). He HAD to
> do that, it's in the rules. Didn't make me feel any better though.
>
> Then it went to the protest committee, who weighed the car (with me in it,
> this is CM) every which way from Sunday. Forward, backwards, etc. They
> also used test weights, 300 pounds worth (6 50 pound weights, testing each
> of the 4 pads). Two of the pads were shown to weigh slightly low, and with
> a correction, the best we came out was 3 pounds underweight (but never more
> than that initial 9 pounds). During this process, lots of other folks
> suggested that I drink a ton of water, but that was discouraged by the
> protest committee (and hey, I really was apparently underweight.)
>
> Oh well, that was the end of my ability to claim that the equipment was
> faulty.
>
> Since there are lots and lots of weighs to LEGALLY make sure you are
> overweight, such as adding fuel before your last run, it's obvious there's
> no malicious intent here (not like some protests with clearly illegal parts,
> etc). I know that Charlie Davis was on that protest committee, so he can
> chime in on how this worked.
>
> Short story: protest committee, at that time, had a philosophy of "no
> illegal car can finish in front of a legal car", so they made me tied for
> last place (36th, if memory serves), which was a whopping 15.2 second
> penalty (and this was just a one-day penalty!)
>
> Naturally, I appealed. My appeal was based on two major points:
> 1) 3 pounds (or even 9) could not possibly equate to 15+ seconds. I'll
> stipulate that maybe it might even be a whole second (though I doubt it) and
> offered that they should double that and make it a 2-second penalty. Or:
> 2) The whole wording of the weight rules is bogus. After all, the car is
> supposed to be weighed as the car comes of course, but with two drivers like
> we had, the car comes of course *6 times*. In addition, the two drivers
> weigh different amounts, and I was lighter, so every time I drove, I put
> ballast into the car. We remove it for my co-driver. I also put the
> ballast in when I get on the scales, of course. Clearly anyone can cheat at
> this -- I literally modify my weight ON THE SCALES by adding ballast -- who
> is to say I used that same ballast on my runs? Any of them? I was also the
> first driver ... perhaps my co-driver used those last 3 pounds of fuel on
> his last run. Maybe when the car came off the course with me in it, it was
> legal! It almost certainly would have been overweight had we weighed it
> after my first run, and therefore, at least the first run should have stood.
> Of course, we'll never know.
>
> The whole appeal was laughed out of Kansas. Oh well. I did make up a few
> spots the second day and finished 31st (instead of 3rd). And the rules have
> never changed in any way.
>
> Josh
>
> PS: Back on topic, Katie is right, of course. There's no conspiracy,
> everyone plays by the same bogus scale rules, and Frank (and John and Pat,
> and me, and everyone else who runs in or who has ever run in a "weight
> class") should have known how to make sure he'd be fine when he got to
> impound (which really means, he should have weighed first on those scales on
> that day, *and* had a larger safety margin to account for the likelihood
> that the scales might have a large variance when he goes back during
> impound.)
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Kelly, Katie" <kkelly@spss.com>
> To: <Kevin_Stevens@pursued-with.net>; "Dennis Hale" <dhale_510@yahoo.com>
> Cc: <ba-autox@autox.team.net>
> Sent: Thursday, May 09, 2002 3:08 PM
> Subject: RE: pros and tours
>
>
> > You know what's weird? If only knew them by e-mail, and you changed the
> name Dennis Hale with Paul Foster, it's almost as if they were the SAME
> PERSON. Far out.
> >
> > National Tours are actually run by SCCA, chaired by members of the local
> region. I'm not an expert on this by any means, but it's just what I've
> seen. There's a traveling staff of the same core group of people, like
> Howard Duncan, Paula Whitney, and so on. They are usually very well run, and
> a great opportunity to get to know the nationals staff, and meet some
> "national caliber" drivers.
> >
> > I should also state that "national caliber" REALLY means you go to
> national events. It doesn't matter where you finish. If you go to the event,
> you're running with the best, you're opening yourself up to huge
> improvements, so you should feel good about attending, period. It's a great
> step. It's like your ticket to competing at the Olympic Trials. Hey, if
> someone told me I could, I would in a second just to be around all that
> talent. It wouldn't matter to me where I finished. Just to say I warmed up
> in the same POOL would be enough. Here's your chance to drive in the same
> parking lot with the Janet Evanses and Carl Lewises of autocross. Why miss
> it?
> >
> > Enough of that. The only reason why I'm going on here is because I worry
> that there are new people who have no idea who Dennis is, and might
> actually, yikes, BELIEVE him and think that SCCA is as scary and evil as he
> says. Just to assuage any fears, every year at the Solo II Nationals in
> Topeka, they have a Talent Show, where people get up on stage and sing and
> dance, sometimes well, and sometimes not. How can anyone call that evil, I
> don't know, but it seems to really be the heart and soul of what all this is
> about: having fun. National Tours are no different.
> >
> >
> > Again, this post is not really for Dennis, or even to Dennis, but for the
> others out there who are reading his conspiracy theories and are feeling
> confused and/or depressed wondering what all that is about. Please come run
> our events, ESPECIALLY the Tours and Pros, and judge for yourself. I think
> you'll have fun.
> >
> > Katie
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Kevin Stevens [mailto:Kevin_Stevens@pursued-with.net]
> > Sent: Thursday, May 09, 2002 10:50 AM
> > To: Dennis Hale
> > Cc: ba-autox@autox.team.net
> > Subject: Re: pros and tours
> >
> >
> > On Thu, 9 May 2002, Dennis Hale wrote:
> >
> > > >The scales person was not an SFR member, but from
> > > another state. Please choose your targets more
> > > carefully, Dennis.
> > > - --Pat K
> > >
> > > Oh, that makes a difference? It was the SFR Tour,
> > > right? Who do you think was responsible? Who do you
> > > think should have worried about the problem? The RE of
> > > the Arizona region?
> >
> > Well, but you do need at least a TARGET for the conspiracy, Dennis. Is it
> > the (new) SFR chief? Is it the guy running the scales, from the East
> > Coast? Is it whoever was chief of protest? The national office? The
> > PAC? The rulebook? If you have a specific issue, bring it up.
> > Otherwise this nebulous hinting and posturing is starting to get really
> > old.
> >
> > KeS
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