[Shotimes] OT: Ebay discount coupons ...now SOLO

[Ron Porter]

Don,

It sounds like Leigh has been running competitively at the regional &
national levels. In doing that, it sounds perfectly reasonable that a set of
race tires would/should be burned up in a weekend. Actually, that sounds
cheap compared to doing competitive track events where you would go through
a few sets in a race weekend. I don't see this as being anything close to
what we "occasional weekend warriors" would experience. Having fun at auto-x
or on a track is one thing, but competitively racing is a whole 'nother
ballgame!! Don, if you were trying to run competitively even in occasional
track events, asset of race rubber would not last for many seasons. Tires
are the consumables for track work, even for the best drivers.

All that said, there is one thing about auto-x that doesn't sit well with my
analytical mind. At least with a dragstrip or road course, the track remains
the same. You can get repeatable results. I'll use an example like Mark,
Kurt, or Dave who time their laps. Let's say they take a Bondurant course to
improve their driving. The next time they go out (assuming the car setup is
the same), they can judge whether they got better or not by their times. How
can you do that in auto-x where the course changes each time?

I remember discussions in years back with SHO folks who ran SCCA auto-x.
They said the cars weren't competitive unless the "good guys" didn't show
up. How do you know if/when your driving skills improve when your finishing
position is dependent on who might show up and run in your class? As we
know, the "butt dyno" can be unreliable. You may be finishing in the top
three for a whole season, take some driving lessons, think that you are
better, then get your butt whomped the next season when some other drivers
show up. How do you know if you improved or not?

Granted, the only meaningful competition is amongst your fellow competitors
at a given place in time, but as a driver trying to improve your skills &
techniques, I can't see where competitive auto-x can give you the feedback
that people like me require to know if I'm really improving, or just running
against a bunch of hacks.

To me, auto-x is fun for the few times that I've done it, but I'm not sure
that it would sit well with my analytical mind like events that can be timed
on a road course or dragstrip if I were considering trying to do it
competitively.

Ron Porter.