That's one of the reasons why I argue with the traditionalist
viewpoint, though not all that hard--I don't have the energy for it.
In my view, vintage racing is probably the only real hope for racing
in general. No one has figured out a way to have competitive racing
with modern cars. I don't think it's a lack of imagination, I think
it's a practical barrier. You either have cars that apply every trick
modern technology can provide (with some artificial limitation to
keep speeds rational) so the racing is stratospherically expensive
and not representative of anything humans can aspire to, or you have
spec racer cars like IRL, which are easily as entertaining as a spec
racer ford club sprint, but without the personal drama.
Vintage racing applies a completely different template--anyone can do
it, the cars are cool, and the race for fourteenth is as interesting
as the race for first, because you hung out in the paddock with the
guy in fifteenth. The question is, who are the cars cool for? If our
target will only ever be the current crop of guys turning 60 right
about now (like in perhaps a couple of weeks) then what we're doing
is just fine and stabilizing the racing at the "golden years of
sporty cars" is just fine. But just like an advertisement I wrote
years ago for one of our tech clients: 50,000 COBOL programmers will
die this year", the geezer supply is limited
People don't like change, as evidenced by the furor over my wimpy
little data acquisition system that apparently was sold to me by
lucifer himself. But I'd be completely comfortable and happy racing
Peyote against some thirty year old punk in the Rice-burner he lusted
after when he was 18. IMNPHO (in my not particularly humble opinion)
that's the real vintage spirit--people racing cars they love, racing
because they love to race, and doing their best to kick the other
guy's butt regardless of what he brung. Everything else is just
people jacking off with words because they don't like being passed by
a car they don't personally respect.
On Dec 18, 2006, at 9:48 AM, BillDentin@aol.com wrote:
> In a message dated 12/18/2006 11:18:15 AM Central Standard Time,
> BillB@bnj.com writes:
>
>
>> . Like the Brass age cars,
>> most of the people who are really nostalgic for them are dead.
>>
>>
>
> Bill:
>
> And, as a matter of fact, a similar phenomenon is affecting vintage
> racing.
> Aficionados, especially for the Golden Age cars, may not be dead,
> but they are
> 'graying,' and starting to pull back and/or leave the hobby. The
> issue is
> further complicated by the myriad of Alphabet Sanctioning bodies
> attempting to
> hold way too many events. I can remember when there were a half
> dozen vintage
> racing events per year, now some week ends have a half dozen events
> listed.
> If there is not a significant influx of fresh blood, along with
> additional cars
> for them to choose from, it is going to get pretty bleak out there
> in Vintage
> Racing Land.
>
> Bill Dentinger
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