S800Racer@aol.com wrote:
>
> In a message dated 1/18/01 8:30:56 AM, John.Desantis@inficon.com writes:
>
> << If you really believe this, read Mark Donohue's book "The Unfair
> Advantage". Here is a man who rose to the top of our sport with the
> philosophy of making himself and his cars "BETTER" than the next guy. He
> mentions going toe to toe with SCCA on rules several times as well, so he
> must not have been "within the rules" at all times. Or may be he just bent
> the rules.
> >>
>
> Donahue and Penske pushed the rules to the limit, but the book is makes
> it clear how offended they were wheneve anyone suggested that they were
> "cheating". They generally felt that they won by working harder than the
> next guy beginning with reading the rulebook and carrying through to
> polishing the car before the race.
"Bending the rules", properly understood, should mean carefully parsing
the language in which the rule is written and producing an
interpretation of it which, though plausible, may not be what the rules
writer really had in mind. The English language is unusually susceptible
to this, because it has so many synonyms and imprecise constructions
resulting from its origin as a melange of Anglo-Saxon, French and Latin.
Rules bending isn't cheating, but it has to be done carefully and with a
modicum of good faith.
There never was a 1275 Bugeye; that's not bending the rules(at least in
SCCA). But when first tried, was ducting brake cooling air through the
headlight buckets, when the rules allowed the headlights to be
"removed"?
Grant Reynolds
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