Well, I'm viewing from one out of the trophies, so I hope at least one
of the protests is upheld so I can get my first Nationals trophy like
Tom. I am very happy for Tom and would have liked for him to get his
trophy on the stage as he wished. Tom and I have joked for years about
being mid-pack finishers and the year he out drives me and others to
finish in the trophies, he doesn't have it yet. Good luck Tom.
Richard Holden
AP 77 (6th on the track, hoping for a trophy)
--------
Tom Holt wrote:
>
> 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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