I have given the email messages I have received (somewhat delayed from being
in digest mode) a lot of thought. I guess I can get a bit carried away on
the safety thing and I certainly didn't check my facts too closely in a
couple of instances. I've gotten quite lazy since I retired. In particular
my apologies if I offended anybody by calling them a hypocrite.
The current rule appears to be a lot more ambigous than I had been led to
believe by a thread a few weeks ago on wheeltowheel. I thought there was a
hard and fast limit of 65. I remember reading the change from 70 in Fastrack
but I didn't remember the details. So I glommed onto the number from that
thread. And it appears that at least Rob Pickerel agrees with that
interpretation. But other (more or less reasonable people :) ) have
different opinions so it looks like an area that needs to be cleared up.
Thanks to all those who pointed it out to me. ;-)
However, I gotta take a stand with this "we can't tell how fast we are
going" stuff. If you are hitting the rev limiter in a gear you should know
exactly how fast you are going. In some cars that's not over the limit but
in others it clearly is. I'm certainly no expert at this sport so during the
course walkthrough the speed I think I will be running is often off the
mark. I can certainly see where reasonable people might misjudge a
particular course to be slower (or faster) than it really is.
As Mark Andy pointed out, what do we do if we find out in the middle of the
event that a course is too fast? I guess we have to change it and try to
restart the event if there is enough time. Or declare the completed run
groups to be done, change the course, have a mini-walkthrough and run
everybody that's left. I dunno. It's awkward. But I think we have no proper
choice other than to change the course or change the rules in the rulebook.
And if we judge the course to be too fast when it really isn't? I guess a
Boxster S won't be winning SS that day. :)
Thanks to all those who discussed this important matter (at least to me) in
a reasonable manner.
Paul Foster
No valid opinions because I never go out anymore
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