I agree with most everything that has been said, but a few clarifications are in
order. My first reaction when hearing about the airdam issue (he couldn't prove
that they had used airdams on 1969 cars) was to get very indignant and go after
one of the Tech Committee members that I happen to know. Actually, he's a
current NWDE member and past President of the club who raced his 510 in vintage
until last year. He explained a few things to me.
The airdam wasn't the biggest issue, although there was inadequate documentation
on that. Besides, it isn't a BRE-style airdam, it's a big aluminum sheet, more
like what you'd see at the SCCA Runoffs.
The Penske remote-reservoir rear shocks were an issue, since those certainly
weren't available in 1969 and nobody else is running them.
The same goes for the Wilwood 4-piston calipers on the front. You aren't even
allowed to run those in SCCA or the regional Conference events.
The dash is a sheet-aluminum fabrication. While it looks nice, it is definitely
not a production item. A quick survey around the pits showed me that the other
cars were using original dashes (even the Porsches).
The class grouping is "flexible" based on how many cars show up to run. At a
small event like this, they just do a small-bore and a large-bore class; at the
larger events, they have a middle-bore class. While it is designed around engine
size, it is more of a guideline than anything else. There were probably 25-30
cars in his race group, so it was a pretty full grid.
They talked to Paul about all these issues on Friday, before they found out he
was going to qualify on the pole for the race group, so it really wasn't a
matter of "Oops, this Datsun is going too fast, we better fix that."
That's not to say there isn't any anti-Japanese bias in SOVREN - there certainly
is on some people's part. A very few of them don't even like the fact that
SOVREN allows production-based cars! They feel it should be only purpose-built
race cars. Kind of a "Let's go parade around in our expensive former race cars,
then go have brandy and cigars at the club" mentality. Fortunately they're a
minority, but some of them are in positions of power at the moment.
To finish the story, Paul was late getting to pregrid and they had blown the
1-minute whistle when he got there, so he had to start from the back of the
grid. He passed 12 cars on the first lap and 4 more on the second. He was
turning lap times that were close to the lead cars. In mid-race he found himself
in a big gap with no one to race and he dialed it back by about 3 to 4 seconds
per lap. Then towards the end he saw a Porsche up ahead and decided to go after
it, but by that time there were only two laps to go and he couldn't catch it.
Even so, his last lap was his best (a 1:41.9, if anyone is familiar with SIR).
"A pleasant Sunday drive" was how he described it.
Gordon Glasgow
Renton, WA
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