Well, I guess we all have found an exposed nerve here! I don't want to
prolong the discussion any longer than necessary but I would like to
clarify a few more points. Jim makes some very valid points that I
agree with. However, I do feel it necessary to respond to some of the
other points.
First and foremost regrards VARA (which I am obviously very
protective of!!). We enjoy racing our cars. What I meant by that
comment was that a number of clubs seem to be gravitating towards the
idea of a "kinetic display" or higher speed track tours. The whole
idea of passing and racing is slowly being squeezed out of these
clubs. I think most of us got involved with vintage racing because we
love the older race cars and because we actually want to race them. It
is VARA's philosophy that we can still race and enjoy these marvellous
cars provided we use our heads and some simple common sense. And to be
honest with you, it's working!! We field the most number of races with
consistent fields over 200 cars. At least on the west coast people
seem to like what we are doing and what we are about.
As regards incidents, we started our internal crack down about 3
years ago on driver misconduct (Perhaps after this fateful phoenix
that Jim has spoken of!?!?). The result has been that we now enjoy fun
filled, close racing with few if any incidents.
While I partially agree with Jim, that the rare cars need to be
preserved for posterity, I also believe it is a travesty to not race
those cars! They ARE RACE CARS, they were built to race. A GT40
sitting in some rich guys garage collecting dust is about as good as
having the car not exist at all. Certainly extra care needs to be
given when racing these treasures, but by all means race them!
I would also like to clarify the fact that I was not mad or irritated
with Jim for what he wrote. I can understand as someone just attending
a race how he would have come to the conclusions he did. I just felt
that it didn't really do fair justice to VARA which has worked long
and hard to provide safe, fun weekends for its competitors. If it was
taken as an attack, I apologize to Jim. If nothing else we all need to
stick together.
Sincerely,
Casey Annis
Club Secretary VARA
1962 Triumph TR4
1968 Lotus 51A
and other various projects stored in rubbermaid totes.
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