I made this reply to an individual on the vintage net and suggested he
might want to share it. Went of to Hawaii for two weeks vacation and
found he did not wish to do so, so I have removed reference to the
person and offer my comments on a subject that is often discussed on
this net. Just what is vintage racing and how should the rules be
established and inforced??? Here is my reply.
I have been a Chief Steward in SCCA since 1967 and Chief
Steward for SOVREN in Seattle for 14 years so I have a little experience
in these matters and some pretty pointed opinions that are sometimes not
popular.
I think vintage started out of control the minute it started being called
"Racing". When Joe Marketti started the Chicago Historics I was his
early Chief Steward. They were Called Vintage Exhibitions and passing
was allowed only on straights, no dive bomb passes in the corners. I
black flagged Joe Buzzetta 4 times for hard deep passes in corner 5,
under braking, dive bombing bank presidents and other race driver "wanna
bee's" with lots of money and enthusiasm but no real driving experience.
Now I was not concerned about Buzzetta for gods sake, but I was
concerned about the rules and their uniform enforcement, and I was
concerned about the poor soul he was passing who had not looked in his
mirrors for two laps and thought they owned the corner, which by our
rules, they did.
Vintage has evolved nicely in terms of driver skills and license
requirements and things are different now, but many problems have moved
from the driving arena to that of car preparation, although driving
still presents many problems.
SOVREN has been roundly criticized for enforcing its prep rules and not
allowing 365 engines in Trans Am cars that originally had 302's punched
out to 304, etc. You get the idea.
The reason these things happen are several fold, not the least of which is
"Vintage Racing". As soon as you call it racing you bring out the worst
in otherwise honest people that simply want to win and if a NASCAR
engine is the way to go, so be it. He passed me and I am only a little
over bore, so I better get the next size up. Sound familiar?
Another factor is the lack of availability of good parts for the old
rules limits, but that is mostly just an excuse, I think, for cheating
to go faster. There is no easy answer, but I always admonish my drivers
at the NorthWest Historics several things.
1. The cars are the stars. If you want to be known as the next Dale
Earnhart there are venues such as NASCAR and SCCA where you can
accomplish this. Vintage is not the place.
2. Vintage is a zero contact sport. If someone spins in front of you
and you hit him I consider you just as guilty because you were 10/10ths
and unable to avoid. Drive defensively and leave room for your
neighbors error.
3. Solo spins and off tracks are just as much a breach of our rules as
is hitting someone, because you were out of control and over your head
and only luck prevented contact.
When we get 100% compliance with the driving aspect of zero contact we
will have gone a long way toward minimizing the "cheating" results, even
though only firm tech. inspection is the answer to the mechanical
cheating problem. Incidentally I like to refer to these cars as "out of
specification". I mean, gentlemen don't "cheat", now do they????
Larry Dent, Chief Steward, SOVREN, National Chief Steward, SCCA
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