Paul Brown <racers@rt66.com> wrote:
> As both a former GS competitor and a current SCAC type, maybe I ought to
> say something here.
And as another former GS competitor, and a "rules comittee wannabe" let me weigh
in too.
> GS was also looking extremely healthy, with an unusually wide variety of
> vehicles showing promise. Team Butt Meat (oh wait, that's CP - insert "Heat"
> back there) and I swapped back and forth all year. It looked like the MX-6
> and A4 were very well matched, with any advantage one had on any particular
> course being pretty minor despite the differences in the cars.
Out here on the other coast, it seems to me that it was an all-Probe/MX-6 show,
with the occasional V6 F-Body thrown into the mix.
With one notable exception - in Detroit in '97, there was a lone Talon being
driven by a local road race hotshoe (Kevin Royce) who was cleaning up the
regional events against some pretty tough competition. There was also this
Canadian, in his first year - and on street tires - in a Talon whose whole
purpose in life was to beat a race-tire-shod car at least _once_
Foreshadowing of things to come....
> The Talon clones were discovered, partly by accident
_entirely_ by accident! Had John McIver's MX-6 made it out of the shop in time,
we would have driven that in Peru. I would have attended exactly one Pro, and
the Talon would still probably be an unknown car.
Even though Ross & Paula Fortini have been driving one (and doing well
Divisionally and Nationally) since '97. Go figure. I don't know why they don't
get more attention - they deserve it.
> and that pretty much signed the warrant on the MX-6, especially for Pro Solo.
Ahh, the shock and suprise from the gallery at my first ProSolo run against Jeff
Fields, when I cranked 'er up to 6500, droppped the clutch, and LEFT is a
treasured memory. :)
But might I point out that the '98 ProSolo Club Challenge at the finale - in the
RAIN, no less - put an MX-6 (Barbara) against a Talon (me) and the MX-6 won.
Yeah, I got greedy, made a mistake, and nearly spun the car at the end of the
first straight. So what. Barbara didn't, and so drove better than I did and thus
earned the win fair dinkum. The MX-6 may be somewhat outclassed, but the
difference in performance potential still falls well within the range of driver
performance potential for all but the top drivers.
> If not for silly cones, two of the three drivers in Type R's would have been
> first and second.
No cones are silly, IMHO...
> That's with almost no time to set up the cars or to learn to drive them.
> Yeah, that was Neal Sapp and Bob Endicott, but the class had a LOT of depth.
But Bob had been driving Type R's in road racing for quite some time. Road
Racing is not Autocross, but it's not like he was unfamilliar with the car. Neal
I don't know about.
Incidently, the Talons hadn't had all _that_ much more setup or
famililiarization time than the R's.
> I retired the MX-6, purely for performance reasons.
Heh, the knife you had taped to the side of the car was a nice touch. :)
> Now that people have had time to do a bit of development on the Type Rs, I
> think GS a one car class.
Out here, it's the other way around. Oh yeah, GS is kinda-sorta a one car class,
but that one car is the Talon.
The only Type R I've seen get close to a Talon was Frank Ailieo (OK Frank, I
can't spell your name) at our Divisional, all the more remarkable because it was
Frank's first time in the car. (He took second to Ledford, in a Talon) But Tom
Birchard, Frank's clone, and certainly an equal driver, also in a Type R, was
over a second back.
Every time I talk to a Type R driver, all I hear is bitching and moaning about
how fast the Talons are. Mind you, I haven't talked to The Team Formerly Known
As Team Butt Heat this season... :)
> I really don't think they are going to threaten to win at Topeka. The Type
> R just works too well.
I beg to differ. I can think of at least 3 Talons that I think are threatening
to win this year (although one of them has been kinda off his game for a while)
If I was a betting man, I'd be tempted to lay my money on the ex-Butt-Heat R -
but that has more to do (in my opinion) with TBH being super-hyped to win, and
then the class changed mid-season, and they got spanked in Kansas. I think that
experience lit a fire (heh - get it?) under the good Mr. Bauer and co., and what
we're seeing there is a determined driver, in a good car, working all year
towards the goal of redeeming himself in KS this year.
If Ron wins, that's driver motivation and hard work you're seeing, not car
overdog-ness.
Incidently, I attribute Mark Allen's Championship to the same thing - hard work,
determination, and a will to win, coupled to a good car.
As vastly different in construction as they are, the Talon and the Type R are
good matches for each other, and out in the "real world", the Talon and Type R
are as natural enemies as the Mustang and Camaro.
I say there's no problem. Leave 'em both be in GS.
DG
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