In a message dated 06/25/2002 2:26:40 PM Central Daylight Time,
hartw@plastekgroup.com writes:
> I'm stunned to hear that stuff was stolen from the paddock. When we were
> more active in racing and Mid-Ohio was our home track, I had never heard of
> such activity. Granted we'd lock our wallets and purses in the tow vehicle,
> but tools & such were usually left out in the open. Nothing ever walked
> away
> from us. A paddock on a race weekend is the kinda place we want our kids to
> grow up, if for no other reason than to learn from the camaraderie and
> respect racers have for each other. My guess is that since the paddock was
> open to spectators, folks were helping themselves to more than autographs &
> snapshots. I'm too optimistic to think the guilty party was a fellow racer.
>
Amici:
This VINTAGE RACING phenomena began in the early 1990s. I am aware of hits
at several circuits, in particular the Minneapolis Street Circuit and ROAD
AMERICA. It pains me to say so, but in my opinion it is definitely someone
related to the vintage racing community. They understand what is going on.
They know who to hit. They know when to hit. They are extremely
professional. Stolen credit cards are being used within hours. I predict we
will catch these people eventually, and when we do, we will be shocked as to
who it is. It is one of us. The reason I am convinced of this is for a
while in the late 1990s some of the clubs were trying to 'set traps'. When
this happened, the problem died down for a while. Now it seems to be back.
I agree that in the early days, you could leave your camera and/or other
valuables right out in the open all week end long and no one bothered it. A
dumb thing to do, but that is the way it was. Those days are over.
Bill Dentinger
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