Matt, forgive me for picking your post out. But you (among many others who have
also said this) totally miss the point. ST was originally developed to give
small sedans with beyond stock modifications a place to play without getting
thrown into SP. They also had STS for street tires AND STR for the same prep
allowances but run on RComps.
Most critics on this forum were positive that STS would die and STR would
survive. But, just the opposite happened.
The argument you give sounds, to me, like the perception is that ST only
survives because some people prefer running on street tires and if the Stock
category (or SP and SM for that matter) were forced to run street tires that
those ST drivers would just go back to stock. But, it looks to me, like lots of
people like the prep allowances in ST so they run there. Now, I understand that
lots of time at the regional level that people who show up in a stock category
car with street tires opt to run in ST since they would be more competitive but
that is a whole different argument.
I don't follow your reasoning that doing away with RComps in Stock (or SP/SM)
would create a "mess." It would simply mean that everyone would need to start
over on their setups for the different tires. Is this a hassle and potentially
expensive for some competitors? The answer is YES. And some cars that are quite
competitive on RComps might not do so well in the transition. If you call that
a "mess" I guess you have a point.
However, the SEB creates similar messes every year when they sit down and
reclassify cars and create new "cars de jour" at the stroke of a pen.
I believe that ST has shown that allowing only street tires is viable in any
category, not just in ST. Of course the drivers with tire contracts won't be
happy.
Incidentally, several marque clubs have classes that only run on street tires
and those classes have the largest fields. I've seen regions develop street
tire classes that mirror regular classes and they are popular too.
Now, Matt, I'll disclose that I run a SP car. And I wouldn't care if we had to
run on Street tires, also. Tires wear out every year anyway. The transition
would only be painful for one year then everything goes back to normal.
Flame away!!!
*
From: Matt Murray <mattm@optonline.net>
Subject: Re: Matt's question on Street tires
So if we take out "R" tires and go to a "Street Tire" and keep the ST
classes, we got a ???
Mess?
Matt Murray*
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