There are always two sides to a story and I would like to hear both
sides.
SVRA Technical Director, Jack Woehrle, and Competition Director, Carl
Jensen, both monitor this list. Perhaps they would ask their
counterparts at their sister organization to weigh in on this topic. If
necessary, they could relay to this list.
If you want to see a Competition Director's worst nightmare, look at the
HSR classification list: http://www.hsrrace.com/pdf/classes.pdf
To further compound the nightmare have a look at how these classes are
grouped together for racing purposes, with class group numbers having
little to do with race group numbers:
http://www.hsrrace.com/events_sebring.htm#results
My sympathy goes out to the Competition Director who inherited this
convoluted mess. As much as I want to try the new Birmingham track in
two weeks, I am having trouble understanding what types of cars I will
be on the track with.
Pat Ryan
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-vintage-race@autox.team.net
[mailto:owner-vintage-race@autox.team.net] On Behalf Of Hugh Barber
Sent: Tuesday, March 11, 2003 9:19 PM
To: vintage-race@autox.team.net
Subject: Question about HSR
I recently had an "experience" with HSR and I was wondering if this type
of
experience has always been a part of HSR or is it indicative of new
leadership at HSR. I flew out to FL from CA to crew for my Dad at
Sebring.
He is racing a 1964 Jaguar XKE with a Chevy 327. It is the actual
car/same
configuration that he raced in SCCA (A Sports Racing) during the late
60's-early 70's and he has documentation to prove it. He has raced in
HSR
for the past three years with no complaints or problems. Anyway, at the
end
of the Thursday test day, this guy shows up at our paddock area, says he
is
the "new" competition director, and says that "we" are putting him in a
tough spot with the car. He was then quite insulting (ran a safety check
on
the car - even though it had already passed tech) and claimed that HSR
has
no place for "mongrel cars". My father pointed out that this is an
actual
vintage race car (not a new build),that he asked for and received
approval
to run from Joe Pendergast (previous Comp Dir), that he had run this car
for
the past three years in HSR, and that he is more than willing to run for
no
points, since he just races for the fun of it. All of this fell on deaf
ears. The new Comp Director's decision was that if we wanted to run that
weekend, (1) we would have to get bias-ply tires (even though tires in
class
3A- Sports Racers from 1967-1974 are "free") ,(2) if we had any problems
"of
any kind" (his actual words) in practice, he would not let us run the
race
(nice how he invented a rule "just for us") and that (most important of
all)
(3) we would not be allowed to run any other HSR events this year.
Needless
to say, we don't run where we're not wanted, so we packed up and went
home.
I find it very interesting that this same weekend had a Panoz LMP
entered
(since when is a current ALMS car "historic"?) and a Ginetta with a SB
Ford
(but hey HSR doesn't allow mongrels and kit cars, right?). By walking
through the Sebring paddock, it appeared that HSR caters primarily to
the
very wealthy or folks with Porsches and does not want folks who just are
racing for the joy of it.
Hugh Barber
Hollister, CA
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