Wes;
To add a few details;
"I'm guessing the reason they run these races in Nevada as
opposed to other states is the totally fenced long road stretches."
Actually, somebody was using their noodle here. There is an
obscure law on the Nevada books that states that a public
highway can be shut down (with permission) for the purpose of
ENCOURAGING TOURISM! Now, the good politicians that wrote this
envisioned parades & such, not banzai runs by speed crazies!
There are races in other states; Texas has one too. We almost
had one here in Arizona, in fact I was in charge of Timing
(just think, coulda been as famous as Glen ;-) ), But, a petty
burocrat killed it at the last minute. The race road crossed 3
jurisdictions, State,County & City. Each granted a permit for
the race. At 6:00 PM, the night before the race, the County
"idiot" sent a fax to race HQ (the local Elks Club) stating
the permit had been pulled because of "extreme danger" This
guy was so afraid for his life that he left for 10 days
vacation right after sending the fax! At least we got in one
"practice day" of 3-digit speeds on a public road with Police
blessing......
"There's been several fatalities. Often they are people who
have fast cars without good training to drive this fast."
Very true & very sad..Although there are exceptions. I took a
road racing course at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in 1991, and
years later, my main instructor ( a professional driver) was
killed at one Silver State race when the Porsche he was
driving under-steered on the first turn and he crashed at 200
mph. It was an easy accident to analyse because his in-car
video cam survived. However, if this car had been made to
comply with SCTA rulebook safety tech, I have no doubt he
would be alive today.
"One who died had only had his Ferrari for a month
before running it in the race. "
Yeah, this was pure idiocy. Again, if he had been subject to
the SCTA rulebook, he would be alive too. How do I know that?
Because tech would have sent him home. This guy and his wife
show up with a BRAND NEW Ferrarri and DEMAND to run Unlimited
Class. Tech said "NO" because the car had H rated tires on it.
(Rules required Z) His argument was "The car was delivered
with these tires, therefore they MUST be safe at high speed"
Well, this made sense to the meat-puppets running tech, so
they let him run Unlimited. When the RR tire blew at 200 MPH
he went off the road through the desert and flipped. His wife
died because she was thrown out BECAUSE SHE DIDN'T HAVE THE
SEAT BELT ON! Then he had the gall to sue the promoters
alledging she died because tech let him drive on H-rated tires.
You folks back east are prolly reading this thread thinking
"what in the hell are they talking about?" Well, if you have
seen any of the Mad Max movies, that's about what it's like.....
The Corvette Club I belong to loves this stuff, & we plan to
be out in force for the May race. Last time we saw you at tech
in Ely Wes, we had 30-something of us there......
Ed
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