>Forget the PAXes, Todd Green beat Charlie Shelton on actual times at
>the San Bernardino ProSolo. And Todd was 1.2 seconds behind Bob
>Tunnell.
Yes, and I've had my car in SP for two years. It is 98% sorted out, and
by Nationals I hope to have it prepared to the level of Bob's. Cuz
clearly that old man Tunnell has no talent, it must be all car ;) ;) ;)
Charlie's car is virtually brand new to him, and he didn't even have it
*aligned* for that event. (Not that I didn't have my own problems at
the event.) Of course those little details are lost in time, and we
find it convenient to just look at raw results if it supports our cause.
For example, when people look at the Lemoore results two years from now,
how many will remember that a large percentage of people ran on corded
(or backup) tires?
>> [ Mark says that Charlie ran a 54.175, I ran a 54.383 ]
Again, it's those little details that get lost. Let's not forget that
Charlie ran a 52.9 on scratch. (Which still wouldn't have beat me in the
PAX due to our outrageous index. I look at it as karmic justice for the
Dark Years(tm) in CSP.) My best raw time was 54.383. Also, let's not
forget that Charlie took passengers for *every* run.
>> [ Todd's a newbie and he's beating up on people because he's been
>> moved to ESP in the UberM3bile ]
I'll freely admit I'm fairly new to the sport (Just ask Randy Chase ;)
However in the little over two years I've been doing this, I've gone to
countless driving schools, put well over 12,000 track miles on my car,
run everything from Solo II's to door-to-door races, read every book on
racing (from engineering to chassis setup to driving) that I could get
my hands on, and incessantly bug Bob about how to go faster <smile Bob>
My point is not that "I'm all that", (I've signed up for both phases of
the Evo school when it comes to Wendover. You can ALWAYS learn more!),
but that I have more experience than what would appear for someone who
just started playing in motorsports. I've also been involved in
athletics since the 2nd grade, and that experience transfers over.
While I don't mean to be thumping my own chest, I don't think you can
just take Joe Blow off the street, drop him in an M3 and have him
dominate ESP.
I'm sorry Jeff, but I have to give you a little Tough Love(tm)...
Dude, you were 5.9+ seconds off the pace in SanBerdo and 7.9+ seconds
off the pace in Lemoore. If I were you I'd be spending every cent I had
improving my driving, not worrying about trying to get that final
horsepower or pound out of the car. No amount of work on your car,
short of adding a time machine, would make up 8 seconds.
While I don't mean to discourage you from doing what you feel is best
for the SCCA as a whole, I would stop worrying (so much) about the M3's
and focus on my driving. Even if we are moved out of ESP next year, you
are still 4-6 seconds off of Eguina. There is plenty of room for tuning
the nut behind the wheel.
Oh, for the record my car weighed 3045 lbs at Lemoore with ~2 gallons of gas
in the tank. It makes around 215 HP at the rear wheels.
Todd
|