----- Original Message -----
From: "Kelvin Palmer" <KelvinPalmer@worldnet.att.net>
To: "list" <vintage-race@autox.team.net>
Sent: Wednesday, July 11, 2001 9:01 AM
Subject: Pedigrees & Exclusivity
> Gt6steve@aol.com wrote:
>
> >Personally I see this whole argument as a case of elitism. Naturally if
> >you've got a Logbook you can raise your nose and sneer at the
> >Johny-come-latelies without your particular pedigree.
>
> I agree completely. Here in the Midwest, we seem to play well together.
> I race with VSCDA and Midwestern Council's vintage group.
>
The elitism is already there. Always has been, probably always will be. It
doesn't mean you can't have fun. I always did, even though there were many
who thought I wasn't worthy to use their outhouse, let alone race with them.
The question is: do you race old race car or do you race old cars? Are you
there to drive an old warhorse for another lap of glory, or there to drive
an old car? Are spectators there to see cars build last year, or cars raced
in the Glory Days of Racing? Are they there to see John Greenwood's Stars
and Stripes Corvette, or one that Bubba built last week? (Granted, most
don't have a clue, but if they figured out you were selling them a ticket to
watch 2000 built race cars, instead of '60s built ones, I bet you'd see a
difference.)
If you want to preserve history, then require history on everything. If it
is about real cars, then they need to be real race cars.
You may need to re-evaluate history requirements, as aren't the F5000 cars
and the Can Am cars of the late 70s and '80s worthy? What about the last of
the real car Production cars before they turned into tube-framed GT cars?
Maybe '72 isn't so great of a cut-off date. Maybe you need to run out the
Production cars to the end in 1980. (nice even year and decade) And what
about FSV? ASR, BSR, 5 liter FA, FB, etc?
If you want to eliminate the elitism, then cut out all history requirements.
It isn't about real cars, just about cars that look good. (Go NASCAR) (Of
course, that is elitist, too, in that if one car looks better, it gets in,
the other doesn't.)
After all, logbooks only started in mid '72 with SCCA. If a car raced a few
years but then didn't race that season (no one has ever sat out a season,
have they?), then they got a '73 log and aren't eligible. Sure, all you
have to do is "prove" previous history. But outside of logbooks, how many
ever passed on result sheets, and such? Back in the '70s, those were
meaningless and usually trashed. And with SCCA's fine record keeping,
looking back 30 years is nearly impossible.
So no history required. If you have car, and it has all the necessary
safety requirements, then it can race. Right?
Guess what, you have reinvented SCCA or MWCSCC. It is really strange, but
you can take any car out and race it today in SCCA regions all over the
country. No history required.
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