Loren Williams <Loren@kscable.com> wrote:
> Roger Johnson wrote:
>>
>> As Dennis Grant might clearly tell you Loren, I have NO
>> negativism about any class - unless the participation numbers
>> show it to be unworthy of inclusion as a National class.
> (Note to self: Always consult with Dennis first.)
Man, there's a lot of people taking my name in vain today.
Yes, if the world lived by the simple rule "What Would Dennis Do?" the
world would be a much better place. :)
Anyway, Roger's "negativism" serves a useful purpose. Coming up with
solutions to the problems Roger notices usually serves to make a class
stronger. Polyanna he may be, but ignore him at your peril. ;)
I do do wish he'd give us a little more credit though... HEY ROGER! WE BEAT
YOUR PARTICIPATION TARGET IN OUR FIRST YEAR AT NATIONALS!!
*ahem* Damn that felt good. :)
>> Some of my best friends run SM. I have run it myself. I would
>> NOT, however, welcome an SM driver as a son-in-law.
Lucky for you Roger that I'm already married.... :) :)
> How (or why) did SM enter this discussion about STS tires?
He's an old guy. His attention wanders. Cut him some slack.
>> This entire discussion began with a hue & cry to have STS as
>> a full National class. I do have strong reservations about this
>> ONLY from the standpoint of the inherent, unworkable, unenforceable
>> "140" treadwear rule.
> You've made that clear. And I think everyone understands where you're
> coming from. I even accept that you may be correct in that there's
nothing
> we can do to make it better. I don't, however, feel that we're more "at
> risk" of falling victim to an unscrupulous tire manufacturer than any
other
> class. (not saying it can't or won't happen)
Actually, you're at tremendous risk. STS and SM are, for the time being,
the SCCA Marketing Department golden children. We get the lion's share of
what little coverage we get. And given how restrictive STS is with most of
its rules, and given that tires mean more to performance than any other
modification, STS is ripe, and I mean RIPE, for exactly this kind of tire
company manipulation.
This isn't an imaginary monacled villain we're talking about here, this
stuff has ACTUALLY HAPPENED in the past.
> Now, rather than just telling us that our rules won't work... perhaps
with
> all of your experience in the Protest Shed you could offer some
suggestions
> on how we could try to make it work. It should be obvious to you that
> we're going to try to make it work anyway. If 140 treadwear and an
> exclusion list won't work, what will?
As I see it, you've got two choices:
1) Eliminate STS, and keep STR
2) Run a spec tire for National events
>From a simplicity standpoint, option 1 is probably the easiest and least
painful. However, I also think it's the most likely to fail in the long
run. Why? Because Street Touring missed the mark as far as attracting the
Import guys went. It was a great idea, the people who designed the class
were 100% hearts in the right place, but the rules for the class were
written by people outside the demographic they were shooting for and they
didn't/don't understand the mindset of their target audience. Import guys
don't "get" STS, trust me. A large chunk of why SM exists at all is that
it's a better (but still not perfect) match for the Import Drag
demographic.
STS is succeeding right now because (for better or for worse) there is a
group of people who want to compete on street tires at National events.
THAT is your core constituancy right now, not the Import guys. So if you
eliminate STS and keep STR, then you remove the one feature that's keeping
you alive.
So you'll probably wind up with a spec tire. That's an opportunity, because
now you can open up bidding from a manufacturer and actually make some
money for the class. You also eliminate the non-stop chase for the
"ultimate street tire" that you have now, and actually may reduce costs for
everyone in the long term. The downside is that, initially, you force
everyone to buy a set of spec tires.
I don't see that you have much else in the way of choices. But "status quo"
is gonna cause a LOT more pain in the log run.
DG
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