The problem with the age 8 and even older is not every child that age is
large enough. Nor do most people spend the money to buy a properly fitting
helmet for children this age. Then we make the local safety stewards, and or
tech people responsible for ensuring: The helmet fits properly, and the child
is of sufficient size to not be hurt by a air bag. I do not like the 8 year
old age. In many cases a child of 12 could be to small. First we had twelve, now
some people want 8 then they want 6 and so on. I have not seen anything that
convinces me we should lower the age to 8.
Yes I do know about children and autocrossing. We took our kids all over the
country for years, not to mention our dogs as well. Yes it would have been
nice for them to be able to ride some, but they were still there all day if we
were out of town. we made the trips fun and when we could we included side
trips for the kids.
Rob
"Stolz, Ken" wrote:
> I concur with Loren. I have an eleven year old daughter and a 9 year old
> son who are going to be disappointed. Plus our local club was going to
> "adopt" our cub scout den and introduce them to AutoX. While children 8-11
> can "behave" well for 1-2 minutes, they aren't willing to sit in a parking
> lot or airport runway for 8 hours just watching. We want our children
> involved.
>
> As children come in many sizes (my son and daughter are both taller than
> their mother), the age becomes somewhat arbitrary from a safety standpoint.
> I think the age of eight is a good number. Let's make AutoX a family sport.
>
> ~ Ken Stolz (A Fiero Guy)
> Missoula, MT
> kstolz@selway.umt.edu (The University of Montana)
> 84 2m4 SE FOR SALE - SOLD!
> 86 V-8 GT (an "Archie") FOR SALE - Best Offer.
> 87 GT Auto (with 50K miles 88 V-6 by Ed Parks) - getting complete original
> paint
> 87 Coupe - it was FREE - "Formula Fiero" AutoXer or Spec Racer?
> 88 GT Auto, only 51,000 miles, SOLD!
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Loren Williams [mailto:Loren@kscable.com]
> Sent: Thursday, September 28, 2000 6:32 AM
> To: autox list
> Subject: Re: Fw: October Fastrack
>
> John Lieberman wrote:
>
> > Now that Nationals are over, both the SSC and the SEB plan to re-visit
> > Item 1 and put it back out for member comment once we're done. If you
> > or any other team-dot-netters have any suggestions, I'd be more than
> > happy to present them to the committee.
> >
> > Hope that helps.
>
> All I can say is that my 9-year-old son is going to be very disappointed if
> he doesn't get to ride with Dad next season. If there is no law
> prohibiting an 8-year-old from riding in the front seat of a car on the
> street (and there isn't, most laws are for 4-years-old and younger), I
> don't believe there should be an SCCA rule prohibiting it. Nothing is
> going to happen on that autocross course that couldn't happen on the
> street.
>
> I do think that the rule should be carefully written. 8-year-old kids are
> mature enough to sit still for the average autocross run without
> distracting the driver too much. (unless you're distracted by "Wow!"
> "Cool!") I would stipulate, as we have in our regional supps, that if
> there is a minor passenger in the car that there can be only one passenger.
> (actually, we made this an across-the-board rule: only one passenger at a
> time in any car) This will eliminate the possibility of a pair of young
> kids whooping it up while the driver is trying to concentrate on driving.
>
> To recap:
> a) Allow 8-year-old passengers with proper belts and helmets
> b) Only one passenger per vehicle
>
> That's my 2 cents.
>
> --
> Loren Williams | Loren@kscable.com
> '94 Saturn SC2 | Wichita Region SCCA - http://www2.southwind.net/~scca
|