"Janice Sansone Rick" <janice@wcsllc.net> wrote:
> I started this thread to because I felt that I wanted to raise the bar of
> competition in women's classes,
The problem is that you have history working against you.
While I think it's probably true (I'd have to check the stats to know for
sure - might be an interesting exercise in itself) that the Ladies' classes
have been getting faster with time, that's been true of _all_ classes of
competition. It's not at all clear to me that the improvement in the
Ladies' classes has been keeping pace with the Open classes.
Certainly I'm not aware of a case, not weather-related, where the Ladies'
class beat the Open class at a National event.
This is not at all suprising, and it has nothing to do with differences
between males and females. It's just a manifestation of the fact that
people only drive as fast as they have to to win. Classes with tight
competition and a large number of talented drivers improve much faster than
classes with a single dominant player and a small bunch of backmarkers.
It comes as no suprise that women seeking better competition move to
running Open - the Ladies' classes just don't have the participation
numbers and the intra-class talent density to promote improvement.
There have been exceptions - ESPL for one had a clump of very talented
drivers, in competitive cars, who were all pushing each other very hard -
but these exceptions are rare and transient. (Roughly half of ESPL from
99-00 are now running Open, either full or part time)
> I still think that women's classes are good for the sport and encourages
> couples to work together and both have a chance to win something. The
growing
> number of lady drivers in the last 29 years proves that. I point out that
the
> first Nationals had about a dozen ladies doing this, and look at us now.
Note, however, that the sport itself is growing as well - Nationals this
year is capped at 1250 cars. In order to meet the good Mr. Johnson's
proposed "make this participation number or go away" class elimination
value of 3% of the total entries, a given class must pull 38 entrants in
order to survive.
You cannot use absolute numbers as a reference for growing popularity.
Instead, use Ladies' class participation as a percentage of total entries,
and track that value over the last 10 years. Is it growing, or shrinking?
> In many prepared and modified classes it is easier for the drivers to be
> separated by the classes. Ladies class provided that for that in those
> classes too. Many men and women are too different in height, weight,
etc. to
> make the change over to run head to head easily.
This is a problem no matter what you drive, and is independant of sex.
There are small men too, and some of them are co-driving with men of
more... heroic... proportions.
> The ladies classes suffered when they lost the some of these great gals
who
> really could show them how to excel at this sport. Many of them still
help
> and try to encourage, but they have left their ranks and are in fact no
longer
> "one of them".
This could be presented as a natural evolution, not as a problem. "Lead by
example". Or rephrased, "Hey gals, we CAN run in the Open class and still
be competitive! We don't need to be molycoddled in an 18th century
throwback, separate class"
Certainly the percentage of women running in the Open class has increased.
Why?
Why not ask them?
> Some of them may have left to gain the respect of the guys and I hope
they
> realize there are men in our sport that view a win as a win, have respect
for
> good drivers no matter what class they are in.
Yes, but there's respect, and then there's RESPECT.
Some classes are just naturally harder to win than others. Which classes
those are tends to change with time, but there's no question that a win in
certain classes commands more respect than others.
SS this year is an absolutely brutal class. It has attracted most of the
top talent, has a new "A" car (so everyone is pretty well equal in availble
time to learn car setup) and there are a LOT of drivers in it. AS is
similar, to a lesser extent. FS is also very deep and well-subscribed.
ESP's participation numbers have dwindled somewhat, but the top cars are
riding a long-overdue developmental wave, so the bar has been moved much
higher this year. You win a jacket in one of these classes this year, and
you have Accomplished Something.
It's hard to equate a win here to (say) a win in a class with three
participants. Yes, it's a jacket, and yes, that jacket carries with it a
certain measure of respect. But _no way_ is that level of respect
consummate with the amount of respect that comes with a jacket won in a
class both very well-subscribed and talent-rich, like SS, AS, FS, or ESP.
Respect comes with overcoming obstacles. The bigger the obstacle, the more
the respect. If it's respect you're looking for, then you need to go
looking for a bigger obstacle to overcome. It cannot be legislated, it can
only be earned.
DG
****************************************************************************
The information contained in this transmission, which may be
confidential and proprietary, is only for the intended recipients.
Unauthorized use is strictly prohibited. If you receive this
transmission in error, please notify me immediately by telephone
or electronic mail and confirm that you deleted this transmission
and the reply from your electronic mail system.
****************************************************************************
/// 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
///
|