For what it's worth... I can tell you that as Katie Kelly said,
running open tends to push -everyone- in the class to run better. In
open class the competition is typically -ALWAYS- better. This is
nothing against the ladies' class, it's just that the ladies' classes
tend to have real issues when it comes to having enough competitors -
even for the more popular classes. This can leave ladies without the
competition necessary to justify running in ladies. Understandably,
there are clearly times when the ladies' competition is BETTER than
the men's - but not often enough. Anyone that has run against Paula
Whitney or Patty Tunnel or others like them should know what I'm
saying. Certainly to compete against the best, against either sex,
can be wonderfully challenging. That's what it's all about, right?!
If not for issues regarding a more 'family friendly' setup, what other
reason is there for making the difference at all? We all know that
fundamentally women should be better drivers because smoothness
typically comes naturally to women as aggression typically comes
naturally to men. And, at the very least, there is no reason one
should be better than the other on course. Yet how often have we seen
a woman take an open class championship at Nationals? Once?
If you don't care about the head to head competition then fine. Maybe
what this means is that we should have 3 classes - open, women's and
men's. I don't believe that the majority of men or women will meet
their true potential until they run against the best in their class
and that means running against the best competitor. For them - this
means one thing - run open.
/// autox@autox.team.net mailing list
///
/// To unsubscribe send a plain text message to majordomo@autox.team.net
/// with nothing in it but
///
/// unsubscribe autox
///
|