Andrew, thanks for that. Since I griped about the Prather comment in the
first place, I should say I very much appreciate your
comment/retraction/clarification.
And then, moving on, you now raise a legitimate point of discussion. Perhaps
a bit in error regarding Prather, as his MGA is not limited prep. They've
been in the class since the late '70s. Mostly, I suspect, because even with
the 1622 engine, it was a slug that had all the suspension characteristics
of a brick. Prather's had his for decades, and is about the only person in
the country who's been able to make one quick. (I must admit a fondness for
the MGA, since the first car I ever drove in anger was my brother's. That's
when I came home and bought my own sports car. That was 1966. It happened to
be a Spitfire, same one I race today).
But re Limited Prep, I am of two minds. First, I see it as the salvation of
Production, which was slowly dying for lack of new cars. We have been the
beneficiary of arrested development for years, decades even. The reason our
mid-'60s cars are still competitive is there are no new ones. If Standard
Triumph were still around and still building 1147 Spitfires, and Donald
Healey were still rolling 1098 Sprites out his door, our '64s would be in a
junkyard someplace because we'd be racing the superior 1997 or 2002 models.
Name a sports car built in the '60s still built today: Corvette. Seen many
'60s models racing lately? So these new tintops coming into our classes from
I.T. at a limited level of prep are repopulating our dying classes and
giving them new life. This is good for Production. And eventually the normal
trends of evolution will hold sway and the newer cars will supplant the
older ones.
But in the meantime, I still have a bit of problem with the execution of the
concept. The problem is that although the newer cars and the older ones are
doing similar lap times, and the older ones maybe even just a tad better for
a full lap, the characteristics of advantage vary sharply and tilt to the
limited-prep cars. My current example is a very nice limited-prep MGB I am
racing hereabouts, driven by a guy fairly new to the game but he drives
well. He does good lines, he races fairly, and I have had five good and fun
races with him this year. Problem is, he's won all five of them and
primarily for one reason: straightaway speed. The best race we had -- we
traded the lead four times -- nicely illustrated the problem.
He has more raw speed. I have better handling. He is faster on the
straights. I am faster in the corners. The problem with that is, I get him
by a tenth or two on each corner to have maybe a second or two advantage
over an entire lap (I always outqualify him). His entire advantage comes in
one place, down the straightaway, where he can just drive by and then be in
front at the corner (four out of five races he won the drag race to turn 1,
the fifth time I had pole and was able to hold the inside line). For me to
pass him, I have to work several laps to set him up, find an advantage,
wedge myself inside on a turn, try to get a good enough launch to hold him
off to the next corner, etc., etc., and if he drives a good line even if a
tenth slower there, the turn is his. OTOH, for him to pass me he needs only
to stay close enough coming onto the straight and then drive past with his
1800cc to my 1147. Damn hard to "steal" a straightaway.
For me to get him, I need him to make at least a tiny mistake. For example,
the best pass I did on him at Heartland Park was because he was taking a
defensive inside line at 6, so I took the "proper" line, got a good launch,
got up beside him, and was able to hold on all the way to 8. I still had a
nose inside his taillight, so was able to *complete* the pass there. Whew!
Was able to pull away a bit for a couple of laps, but then he just powered
up to me again, stayed close enough through the esses, and drove by on the
straight. I'll credit him this -- he still had to stay with me in the esses
and did a good job of it. But what I "won" in that pass was a road racing
moment. What he "won" on the straight was a drag race.
We neither of us are top-line contenders in GP, but all of the other Limited
Preps I've raced so far -- a VW, two Datsun 510s -- all were the same way.
The V-Dub is awesome and will be a challenger to Prather. I haven't had the
opportunity to chase him through a corner yet. The 510s both hold me up in
turns and run away on the straights. The biggest disadvantage seems to be
that for some reason SCCA insists on starting our races on straightaways.
;-) I don't know the solution -- more weight for them? -- but it is
something that IMHO must be addressed. However, I do believe it is necessary
to make the concept work, not dump it, because the latter will just leave us
right back in that spiral to oblivion.
--Rocky Entriken
----- Original Message -----
From: "andrew stark" <whitedog72@hotmail.com>
To: <fot@autox.team.net>
Sent: Tuesday, September 24, 2002 8:03 AM
Subject: Prather retraction 2
> For some reason my home PC fails to send text in hotmail. ;o(
> I wanted to say I have no issue with Prather himself. He is a talented
> mechanic and driver. I don't like the rules of the limited prep big bore
> cars in G and H production. It is not right to have 1800cc MGb's and MGA's
> etc... competing against small bore cars. Even with limited engine
> improvements and weight penalties there is a serious imbalance.
> Prather is fine. His car should be in a different class.
>
>
> _________________________________________________________________
> Join the worlds largest e-mail service with MSN Hotmail.
> http://www.hotmail.com
|