Good Job, Tom!!!
And everybody on this list thought I was on a rant a few weeks back
when it was announced there would be grey and black market cars, and
kit cars added to the class next year (Y2K - - at it's best).
Look for more of the same at next years Nationals - - high dollar exotics,
tube chassis fiberglass bodied kits, etc.
Don't know about you, but I just want FP back again.
G
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> Date: Sat, 18 Sep 1999 13:12:10 -0500
> From: "Tom Holt" <tholt@ccsi.com>
> Subject: AP as viewed from fourth place
>
> I havn't seen any of the post on the AP protests, but figured I would
> give my point of view since I probably have the most to gain. I finished
> fourth, but I think I am technically in third right now.
>
> Before we ever made a run, Peter Fehn and David Butler (of Dallas)
> protested the Porsche 911 RSR of Greg Fordahl. If you don't know what that
> is, it is a Porsche factory "Works", world class endurance racer. Jodi
> Fordahl told me it was the back up car to the second place finisher at
> LeMans. Greg Fordahl is one of the mechanics for the team and was loaned
> the car for the weekend, so it's probably not an issue we will have to
contend
> with in the future. The car probably cost about $250,000 new, if you could
> buy one. (someone told me that that car was available for $125,000, but I
> didn't see a for sale sign on it). It was beautiful and had more high tech
> cool stuff in it than all of the other ~800 cars combined. The engine was
a
> 3.8 liter monster and therein lies the first protest. The rulebook lists
> 911s up to 3.6 liters in AP. That was basically Fehn's protest. The car
> was, declared legal by the protest committee, because there had apparantly
> been a rules update that made the car legal for GT1 roadracing, and
somehow
> that gave it a backdoor into AP. Fehn has appealed that decision.
>
> David Butler's protest was based on the preamble in the begining of the
> Prepared rules that stated the rules should discourage the use of high
tech
> components and be geared towards the amateur racers and that the Porsche
> violated that concept. I don't know what became of that protest.
>
> The second place car in the class was Craig Nagler's 99 BMW M3. Robert
> Huffman of Dallas wrote up the protest because the car had a belly pan
> running from the front air dam back to the front cross member. Nagler was
> disqualified but has appealed that decision.
>
> So... I finshed fourth behind Fordahl's co-driver Leeds Gullick, but
> with Nagler probably out, he's in second and I'm third. Fehn says his
> protest became very complicated and that he still had a good chance of
> winning. We'll see... hopefully before next years event!
>
> Personally, I don't feel like the Porsche should have been allowed in
> our class. It was more comparable to the fastest EM cars and would have
> won there but only by about .5 seconds, rather than the almost 6 seconds
> in AP.
>
> The Nagler protest was chicken shit, and at worst he should have been
> penalized 1 second. maybe even just told to remove it for next year. That
> would have left the results as they were. I think Nagler should be the AP
> champ and I would proudly claim second and i told Craig that. Since that
> probably won't happen, I just wish we could go back in time and throw out
> all of the protests and let me walk across the stage and get the fourth
> place trophy (my first Nationals trophy) I earned, in front of my friends
and
> the rest of the crowd. Now I can only look forward to shaking the
mailman's
> hand when he hands me the big envelope with some undetermined trophy in
> it. Of course if it says first place on it, I will damn sure claim the
four new
> Hoosiers that come with it!
>
> Tom
> AP 29 - I'm number ?!
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