In a message dated 05/30/2005 8:10:25 PM Central Daylight Time, BillB@bnj.com
writes:
> Ridiculous stuff. No one says anything about featherweight guys. When I was
> racing bikes I realized that the 125 pound guys I was racing against had
> some advantages--like 87 pounds less weight (I was a svelte 212 pounds for
> 30 years, then BOOM.) Didn't mean I couldn't beat them.
>
> Jeff Gordon says he weighs 200 pounds. What! That little weenie, does he
> have his fishing weight collection in his pockets? Take a look at Gerry
> Marshall, still racing tin-tops in the U.K. and thrashing everyone. He's got
> to be pushing 280. Pretty much always did.
>
> There's a funny article somewhere on the web about all this--says that IRL
> is going to have to test for doping now--looking for Phen-fen in driver's
> blood.
>
Bill:
As you can imagine, as a long time super heavyweight contender, I have
thought about these matters as well. Many years ago SVRA was going to start
'weighing cars sans drivers'. At the time I could still keep up with John
Harkness,
and we had great dices at most events. In light of the fact that I weight
twice as much as John, I thought weighing the cars without the drivers was
ridiculous. However, my wrench, Kevin Potter, says it is not critical, as even
if
they weighed the cars with the driver, lighter drivers would still have an
advantage in that they would have an opportunity to place extra weight in the
car
at critical positions to meet minimum weight.
What'd think?
Bill Dentinger
PS
I can't think of his name, but in the 1970s wasn't there a TR driver in SCCA
that was pretty much big as a house, and he did great.
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