Well, alright, so I've been reading all the recent stuff about national
tour events and too much participation and all that jazz.
As a preface before I get into the main point, I see the need to point
out what I've tried to point out in a post or two here. This is that
apparently quite a few people who get involved in some of the
discussions/regressive cyclical flame wars here take their own bad
selves WAY too seriously. Even if you're at the top of this sport, try
to bear in mind that this only means that you're at the top of a sport
that just about could not be lesser known to those outside of our little
society of summer pavement slab inhabitants. Keep it in perspective.
ESPECIALLY the ProSolo people. Don't grump at me if you don't like that,
either. I will tell you that there are a lot of people who read this
list passively who express similar opinions in far less complimentary
terms.
That said, I'm in agreement with some of the comments I've read, and
baffled by others. Why would you care why I think about it?
It's simple, I think. I think that there _should_ be some sort of
prerequisites involved in entering a national level Solo II event, and I
say that as one of the people who should NOT be there. I'm not going to
squall on about the bad elitist snob people keeping me out. There are a
bunch of us who don't belong at such an event. "Huh?" you say?
For the people who spend insane amounts of money, time, travel miles,
and concerted effort at running national level events, I can't imagine
it's a great thing to find some huge mob at every such event, with all
the logistical hassles that go with it. It seems not only reasonable to
me to insist that some minimum levels of quality and commitment be
maintained for entries, but it seems to me a fairly bad thing to not do
that. By all means, be reasonably exclusive.
Yes, autocross is definitely a grassroots sort of sport, allowing
participation even for those of us who cannot, or choose not to, commit
major time and resources to the sport. But I don't understand the
comments lately against "shutting out us little guys" however it may be
phrased. That's why there are regionals. If you want a "taste of the Big
Time" (such as THAT may be), do a divisional event when one comes near
you. When there's a national level solo, stay out of the way.
Myself, I think I am a decent enough driver that I wouldn't have people
there wondering how on earth I got into a national event, but I'd
probably be well down the results even with a suitable ride. The car I
run would be way out of place. I decided at the last minute to run last
year's CenDiv round at Daimler-Chrysler in Perrysburg, just because it
was a home event, and after I went out Saturday evening to check things
out I walked the course and decided it looked too fun to pass up. Even
then, at a Divisional event, I wondered if people were wondering what
the hell the deal was with the goofball running HS in a ratty old Sentra
on lame street tires.
Granted, I might not be all that driven to put myself into a NT to see
"what the big kids are like" because I already can do that. I only run
NWOR regionals, but then that already puts me in interesting company.
Jack Burns, Scott Hearne, John Fessler, Debbie Fessler, Roger (the
famous) Johnson, Phil Schmidt, Mark Sommer, Rick McDaniel, etc., etc.,
and then there are Detroit Region folks who wander down occasionally,
and so on. Maybe I don't have such a great urge to go to a Big Show when
the last few years have found me in HS lining my crappy little Nissan up
in grid in the middle of Jack Burns and Scott Hearne and Rick McDaniel
and Todd Swenson and so on. Incidentally, this is not recommended to
those with delusions of grandeur and a delicate ego. On the other hand,
it is recommended if you want to run with and learn from some serious
runners who also happen to be a good bunch of guys, and can handle being
humble.
Alright, so yes, I'm in a fortunate situation in terms of my usual
playmates, but even if you aren't in such circumstances, at least doing
a divisional event anywhere should put you in pretty fast company. Don't
raise an uproar about how national level events should be open to every
peasant like me just so you can say "look, ma, I'm in the big time!".
What's the point? All it does is make it more of a pain for the people
who might have travelled 1000 miles or more to get there and might be
spending deep into five figures a year to do this stuff.
On a final note, I've grown a fairly healthy respect for Dennis Grant
over recent history, but the bit about wanting to make a living as a pro
autocrosser strikes me as blowing right past "extremely optimistic" with
throttle stuck wide open and shooting deep into "delusional". Sorry, DG.
(Maybe them there Canadian boys don't take the summer heat well? Maybe
it's the drum and bagpipe music having some strange psychological
effects?)
JLE
"I don't want to join the kind of a club that accepts people like me as
members."
-Groucho Marx
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