Me too.
Personally I like both approaches a great deal. I'm trying to come up with
ways to attract both camps to the Columbia River Classic. I don't think it's
necessarily separate races, but it could be handicap scoring. The tradition
in vintage racing is that finishing order doesn't matter. That presumes that
there is a racer somewhere on the planet that doesn't have an ego--or
perhaps more nicely stated, a lot of pride in their car and their growing
driving ability. I've never met him/her.
Last year as the first step in that direction for the folks that treasure
historical accuracy, we built up the "show" part of the weekend, and for
those like me that want to go as fast as they can in an old car, we
preserved the high track time aspect.
Steve Earle does an amazing job for the historical accuracy contingent,
reinforcing the concept in the trophy presentation with a random drawing to
determine the "winning" place and awards in each group for vintage spirit,
etc. But you are on the track three times in three days, one practice, one
warmup, one race.
I understand why he does it--he can group more cars appropriately so you
don't have disk-braked home built specials dicing with Maserati Birdcages,
and he has 450 entries to deal with.
It might be too much trouble for the end result, but I'm looking at a
handicap system that considers the nature of your car and your previous
performance. Always room for sandbaggers, but I'd like there to be a way for
a real TR3 race car or a real Testarossa to kick Peyote's ass (and anyone
else that is squeezing the last tenth of a second out of their car). The
"Battle of Britain" last year came close. If Mark York hadn't wobbled at the
end he would have won the thing.
This year the Battle of Britain is going to be more authentic--we're
including the Germans! No Spandaus allowed though (I know that's a first
world war reference, I just can't think of an appropriate WWII aircraft
gun).
_____
From: Group44TR7@aol.com [mailto:Group44TR7@aol.com]
Sent: Wednesday, January 04, 2006 10:12 AM
To: larry.young@pobox.com; Bill Babcock
Cc: fot@autox.team.net
Subject: Re: What is history
There seems to be two differ poles when it comes to "vintage racing" -
those who want to go as fast as possible in old cars regardless of whether
their car's setup is historically correct; and those that want to preserve
the historical accuracy of the cars. Whereas I can certainly relate to the
need for speed, I can also relate to the frustration that drivers with
historically accurate cars have with racing against modernized counterparts
in vintage body work.
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