First, I wasn't disagreeing with your statement that Stock Class
autocrossing can get expensive, just that you are misguided in your belief
that the hot Stock cars are trailered and for the reason that they are.
In the open class, there were 91 trophies in 1999 for Stock classes, 27 for
the ladies classes. Taking the ladies class cars out for a second (as many
of them are also driven in open class) you are saying that at least 45 of
the trophy winning cars were trailered to the event last year. I think this
is high.
Again, I dispute the reason that cars are trailered. Most of it has to do
with the amount of gear people bring to Topeka, especially those that live
more than a day's drive away and stay for the Pro and the entire week. They
have to bring at least a week's worth of clothes, coolers, tires (many bring
6 or 8) , E-Z Up, bikes or scooters, helmets, spare parts, children, pets,
and other things that might be needed along with them.
And yes, I have made the drive to Topeka (and other long trips) in
aggressively aligned cars. (Have You?) Never really had a problem with
them.
I also think that you will find that most of the Stock Class trophy winners
use their cars on a regular basis, even those that trailer them to
Nationals. Maybe not every day, but certainly enough to enjoy the car.
Paul Zahornasky
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-autox@autox.team.net [mailto:owner-autox@autox.team.net]On
Behalf Of Mike Lamfalusi
Sent: Friday, July 07, 2000 3:50 PM
To: Paul Zahornasky
Cc: autox@autox.team.net
Subject: RE: Stock class rules was (Re: Sequential Stock Cl
I'm not talking about "MOST" cars, I'm talking about the competitive trophy
winners. Obviously there are plently of people who are slightly less
competitive who go to a NT event or two and go to Nationals. But I'd bet
that at least half of stock class *trophy* cars are trailered. Or if the
cars aren't trailored, then are they the daily driver for the owner? That's
often not the case. If you have any actual data that proves otherwise,
please, make a believer out of me so that I don't need to go and buy a tow
vehicle and trailer. I'm sure you're aware of the simple fact that racing
toe alignment of a car often makes it annoyingly twitchy at highway speeds,
or the simple fact that if you are driving quite a distance to Nationals
with weird alignment settings, your street tires aren't going to last very
long. So once (for an example) a friend of mine set his alignment up for
racing, driving it on the road did indeed become annoying, and it would have
been cost prohibitive to continue doing it because most people don't have
the money to throw away on tires that just get chewed up driving to and from
events if that's what he did. Of course you could repeatedly get the car
realigned, but that costs money too. Maybe some cars don't have to have as
wacky an alignment as I've seen on some, but I know that a lot of cars
benefit from some good toe-out and it then greatly behooves the owner to
trailer the car. Face it, its simply not cheap to race any kind of car,
stock or otherwise.
-------------------
Mike Lamfalusi
'97 VW Jetta GLX
GS - Chicago Region
On Fri, 7 Jul 2000 15:20:46 -0400, Paul Zahornasky wrote:
> Where do people get this crazy idea that most stock cars at Nationals are
> trailer queens? Yes, some people trailer their Stock Class cars to
> Nationals. More probably have a small utility trailer that hooks to the
> back of the car. MOST simply throw their tires and gear into the back of
> the car and go. Hell, Matt Murray does it with his Porsche.
>
> I would bet that most of the people that trailer (Stock Class cars) do it
> because they want the additional room that a tow vehicle and trailer
bring.
> They may be bringing extra tires and rims to an event as rains, they may
> have additional family members coming along, they may have bikes or
scooters
> that they want to bring.
>
> Paul Zahornasky
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-autox@autox.team.net [mailto:owner-autox@autox.team.net]On
> Behalf Of Mike Lamfalusi
> Sent: Friday, July 07, 2000 2:39 PM
> To: rjohnson@friendlynet.com; autox@autox.team.net
> Subject: Re: Stock class rules was (Re: Sequential Stock Cl
>
>
>
> Not to mention that most cars are trailered because they are next to
> undrivable on
> the street. You better ban trailering stock cars to events if you're
REALLY
> devoted to keeping it pure and innocent as you seem to be. Better ban
those
> expensive lightweight wheels too (creating more disparity in classes
since
> some cars come with light wheels from the factory). Face it, anyone who
> thinks it is cheap to run a competitive stock class car is fooling
> themselves. We all do this because we like it, not because it's cheap.
If
> you want to truely race cheap, start slot car racing or something. I'm
not
> trying to be a jerk or anything, but I just can't see how this argument
> holds up.
>
>
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