In addition to announcing their 97 schedule, CSRG has also released the
new car classification rules for 97. CSRG is one of the smaller clubs
facing rising costs and declining entries. In order to keep the events
affordable, they opened up the grids to some later cars prepared to the
"point in time" style. It seemed to work well enough, but the owners of
the older, more original cars started grumbling. As a way to try to
keep everybody happy, they have completely revised the classifications.
It looks like a workable proposal, and I present it here for discussion.
Basically, there are now 2 groups of car classes. The Classic cars are
ones built before 12/31/62, and prepared to mostly original specs. The
Historc cars are those made up to 12/31/67, or those prepared to a point
in time beyond 62 but not beyond the 67 date, with specific exceptions
for various Formula cars going as far as Formula Fords up to 72 (per
Monoposto Register rules).
Within each group there are 3 classes for Sports Racers, Formula and
Production/GT cars. I'm mostly guessing, but it seems likely the
classifications would work out as follows. The Classic Formula cars are
mostly Formula Juniors, early F1,2,3 cars built prior to 12/31/62. The
Historic Formula car group would include Club Fords, late Juniors,
FVees, FB's, etc. The Classic Sport Racer group would include Lotus 7,
11, Elvas, early Ferraris, etc. The Historic Sports Racer class would
include later Loti, and the big-bore Can-Ams, etc. The Classic
Production class would likely include early Alfas, Porsches, Vettes,
Triumphs, etc. The Historic Production class would likely include all
the GT350's, Stingrays, Cobras, Alfa GTA's, etc. They also state that
early cars with modern tires will get pushed into the later Historic
class. Ultra-modern tires are still not allowed, but they didn't
specifically say anything about soft Avons or Hoosiers.
I think this is a very interesting proposal that gives everybody a place
on the track with cars prepared to a similar period. As with all such
changes there are bound to be some shortcomings and compromises. I
would like to hear what the netizens of this forum have to say on the
subject. There are a couple of issues that come to mind. It seems the
pre-war cars would mostly be lumped in with the Classic Production
class. There are so few of them in CSRG, that I think that's where they
run now. The other issue that comes to mind is that you could still
have small and large displacement cars on the track together. In some
cases, this is happening today. The difference with this proposal is
the more careful attention to what period the cars are prepared to. In
general, I like the idea.
Lastly, as an owner of a clearly Classic Formula car, I wonder where
they will get more such cars to fill the grid. The stated intention is
to have cars in the 6 classes run separately. In recent times, the one
open wheel group was mostly the later cars. With all the Vees, FB's and
Fords in the later group, who's left? I would definitely appreciate
having more early cars to dice with, and hopefully this will draw them
out of hiding. What I'm afraid of is that if there aren't enough early
cars, we'll get lumped in with the later ones again, and there will be
more of them now that they have been legitimized.
---
Simon Favre
'58 Bourgeault Formula Jr.
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