1. People with tire warmers who are not ready to go when called by grid
personnel (having not yet taken off their tire warmers or brushed off
their tires) caused several delays of the event at Nationals this year.
It got so bad in a couple of heats that I eventually informed the grid
that if a competitor were not able to go when called, that person should
either call a mechanical or choose not to take that run. This improved
things to some degree, but there were still many, many times when the
grid person was standing there telling people to go and they were
unwrapping and *then* de-rocking. With 20 second intervals, 3-5 cars at
the line, folks really need to be ready to go when called--not ready to
spend a minute cleaning and unwrapping tires when called and then going.
2. Passive tire warmers are legal. What about the ones that wrap all
the way around the car trapping in engine and exhaust heat? Are they
violations of the intent of the rule?
3. Generators (except for really expensive ones) are loud, can be bulky,
and are much more of a safety hazard than piles of silvery coated
insulation. You'd probably notice hitting one with your car more, too.
4. Don't know if it will make Rocky's editing cut or not, but part of my
much-too-long story on BS talked about how all the guys in the trophies
had co-drivers. (Of course, BS ran 1st heat, and it was likely far more
important to them than groups that ran in the 5th heat.)
mlc
'91 MR2 NA
-----anything after this, I didn't write, and don't necessarily agree
with----
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