Jamie Sculerati wrote:
>
> I normally stay out of these food fights, but this one's an undeserved cheap
> shot, Paul. In fact, while Dennis probably put in more of the front end
> work than most (and taken nearly all the flak), he hardly dictated the
> structure and rules for SM. If you go look at the history piece Dennis
> keeps on the SM website (http://www.wincom.net/trog/stu/rules2.html), there
> are nearly 50 people identified as contributing something to the pot --
> which sometimes took things in a direction Dennis (by his own admission)
> hadn't anticipated. The additions of a 4-liter allowance for blown pushrod
> engines and a 6-liter allowance for naturally aspirated engines are good
> examples -- these came from pretty obscure (as in Not Nationally Known, even
> on team.net) people in the discussion and were adopted by the group. And
> yes, the exclusion list was a point of discussion -- *lots* of discussion.
> But hardly a one-man development, and subject to further revision. The
> philosophy was "start small and expand," which seems to be working so far.
>
Sorry but that's the way I see things. I remember Katie making similar
comments awhile ago too, but she appears to have changed her opinion. I
haven't. The philosophy appears to have been to use 15,000 words when a
sentence or two would have sufficed. I have no idea what transpired
beyond team.net but based on what I have seen on this list that Dennis
wanted a class where his car would be competitive so he created one.
Furthermore, I believe what happened after that is what you are talking
about. i just remember being excluded because someone who was not on the
SEB, the SPAC, or any other recognized SCCA committee decided that the
944 Turbo was just too much car for their class. I call BS.
> As for a means for Dennis to keep *his* car competitive at all costs, DSMs
> were hardly obsolete in GS or ESP in 1998-99 (or '00, for that matter).
No, the DSM is not competitive in ESP. It has never been competitive in
ESP. It is cannon fodder. Everybody knows the ESP results this year are
tainted by the presence of the M3. It may even be the first time the DSM
has every trophied in ESP.
This year I only see one DSM listed in GS which finished in 19th nearly
3 seconds back - not exactly a large sample to draw conclusions.
Paul Foster
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