Fictional Health warning:
To all the newcomers to Bay Area autocross, this email
along with the others in this thread show the
cumulative effects of over exposure to sunlight, new
tire smells, concrete dust, strained bank accounts and
stress hormones caused by taking the sport way too
seriously. This sometimes called "Chronic Autocrosser
Syndrome"
Here are a few warning signs that you may be suffering
from CAS
1. You can recite paxes for all classes that your is
eligible to compete in, but have stop and think to
remember your own age.
2. You think 450lb springs in a Honda Civic give a
nice comfortable ride.
3. Kansas has become vacation destination.
4. You know who Howard Duncan is and have strong
opinions on how he has done his job.
5. You purchase new cars more often than new
underwear.
6. Your tire shop knows you on a first name basis.
7. You write or respond to long email about the
unfairness of inner politics of largely volunteer
organizations that organize your favorite sport.
This should not discourage you from participating in
the sport, but please take precautions. Wear sun block
and be sure to drink plenty of fluids at every event.
Keep tires in reasonably air tight containers, such as
garbage bags, when not in use. Use dust masks on
particular windy days. Make sure your rent/mortgage
is paid, your children have clothing and the
refrigerator has sufficient food before purchasing car
parts or embarking to an autocross event. And finally,
Just Have Fun!
These measures should minimize your risk and provides
years of satisfying driving and socializing.
Alan
--- Andy McKee <andrewmckee@yahoo.com> wrote:
> As the event chair for the Atwater Tour and a member
> of SFR, I wanted to admit
> that Dennis is correct. There *was* a conspiracy.
> No, not by the SCCA and not
> by the SFR region. Rather, as the head honcho of
> the SCSL I'm coming forward
> now to claim responsibility. What's the SCSL you
> ask? Why, it's the Stock
> Class Supremacy League!
>
> The SCSL was clandestinely formed years ago in a
> strategic effort to eliminate
> anyone competing in SCCA events that didn't realize
> that Stock Class drivers
> were truly the greatest. Any SP, P, or Mod car
> driver going faster than a
> Stock driver was obviously doing so only because of
> *car* preparation. In
> certain instances however, the more prepared class
> drivers were going so much
> faster than the stock classes that people were
> losing sight of reality (stock
> drivers are the best).
>
> In response to this blatant attack on truth, the
> SCSL has employed the arcane
> SCCA rules system to drive outstanding non-stock
> drivers out of the club. You
> wonder why Dennis is still pissed, well we screwed
> him real good! Anyone seen
> Craig Nagler at an SCCA event recently? Frank
> Stagnaro is just the next on the
> hit list!
>
> Ever since we subverted the organizers of the PAX
> system, our power has been
> growing. Witness the election of Charlie Davis to
> the SEB! Do you actually
> think he has CP's interest in mind? Hah, he's our
> point man! And Charlie,
> thanks for the tip on Stagnaro, I knew we could get
> him on weight. Good thing
> we put that remote "offset" into the scale system.
>
> And to our companion organization in NASA, the NSDR
> (NASA Stock Drivers Rule),
> "Climb Mount Topeka!"
>
> -AM
>
>
>
> --- Josh Sirota <josh@sirota.org> wrote:
> > Katie Kelly wrote:
> > > I think the scales are SCCA property, but I
> could be mistaken, and they
> > travel around from Tour to Tour,
> > > Pro to Pro. Someone please correct me if I am
> wrong. At any rate, chances
> > are, they bounce around a lot,
> > > and are dead wrong, as they were at this event.
> This is pretty obvious. I
> > think rather than pointing fingers at
> > > SFR shouting conspiracy, I think there's got to
> be a way to protest the
> > scales or something.
> >
> > There *IS* a way to protest the scales. I did,
> when I was found (initially)
> > 9 pounds underweight after the first day at
> Nationals in 1993. A protest
> > was filed against me by the chief of protest (the
> guy who drives an FP 240Z
> > from Texas ... tall guy ... can't think of his
> name right now). He HAD to
> > do that, it's in the rules. Didn't make me feel
> any better though.
> >
> > Then it went to the protest committee, who weighed
> the car (with me in it,
> > this is CM) every which way from Sunday. Forward,
> backwards, etc. They
> > also used test weights, 300 pounds worth (6 50
> pound weights, testing each
> > of the 4 pads). Two of the pads were shown to
> weigh slightly low, and with
> > a correction, the best we came out was 3 pounds
> underweight (but never more
> > than that initial 9 pounds). During this process,
> lots of other folks
> > suggested that I drink a ton of water, but that
> was discouraged by the
> > protest committee (and hey, I really was
> apparently underweight.)
> >
> > Oh well, that was the end of my ability to claim
> that the equipment was
> > faulty.
> >
> > Since there are lots and lots of weighs to LEGALLY
> make sure you are
> > overweight, such as adding fuel before your last
> run, it's obvious there's
> > no malicious intent here (not like some protests
> with clearly illegal parts,
> > etc). I know that Charlie Davis was on that
> protest committee, so he can
> > chime in on how this worked.
> >
> > Short story: protest committee, at that time, had
> a philosophy of "no
> > illegal car can finish in front of a legal car",
> so they made me tied for
> > last place (36th, if memory serves), which was a
> whopping 15.2 second
> > penalty (and this was just a one-day penalty!)
> >
> > Naturally, I appealed. My appeal was based on two
> major points:
> > 1) 3 pounds (or even 9) could not possibly
> equate to 15+ seconds. I'll
> > stipulate that maybe it might even be a whole
> second (though I doubt it) and
> > offered that they should double that and make it a
> 2-second penalty. Or:
> > 2) The whole wording of the weight rules is
> bogus. After all, the car is
> > supposed to be weighed as the car comes of course,
> but with two drivers like
> > we had, the car comes of course *6 times*. In
> addition, the two drivers
> > weigh different amounts, and I was lighter, so
> every time I drove, I put
> > ballast into the car. We remove it for my
> co-driver. I also put the
> > ballast in when I get on the scales, of course.
> Clearly anyone can cheat at
> > this -- I literally modify my weight ON THE SCALES
> by adding ballast -- who
> > is to say I used that same ballast on my runs?
> Any of them? I was also the
> > first driver ... perhaps my co-driver used those
> last 3 pounds of fuel on
> > his last run. Maybe when the car came off the
> course with me in it, it was
> > legal! It almost certainly would have been
> overweight had we weighed it
> > after my first run, and therefore, at least the
> first run should have stood.
> > Of course, we'll never know.
> >
> > The whole appeal was laughed out of Kansas. Oh
> well. I did make up a few
> > spots the second day and finished 31st (instead of
> 3rd). And the rules have
> > never changed in any way.
> >
> > Josh
> >
> > PS: Back on topic, Katie is right, of course.
> There's no conspiracy,
> > everyone plays by the same bogus scale rules, and
> Frank (and John and Pat,
> > and me, and everyone else who runs in or who has
> ever run in a "weight
> > class") should have known how to make sure he'd be
> fine when he got to
> > impound (which really means, he should have
> weighed first on those scales on
> > that day, *and* had a larger safety margin to
> account for the likelihood
> > that the scales might have a large variance when
> he goes back during
> > impound.)
> >
> >
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Kelly, Katie" <kkelly@spss.com>
> > To: <Kevin_Stevens@pursued-with.net>; "Dennis
> Hale" <dhale_510@yahoo.com>
> > Cc: <ba-autox@autox.team.net>
> > Sent: Thursday, May 09, 2002 3:08 PM
> > Subject: RE: pros and tours
> >
> >
> > > You know what's weird? If only knew them by
> e-mail, and you changed the
> > name Dennis Hale with Paul Foster, it's almost as
> if they were the SAME
> > PERSON. Far out.
> > >
> > > National Tours are actually run by SCCA, chaired
> by members of the local
> > region. I'm not an expert on this by any means,
> but it's just what I've
> > seen. There's a traveling staff of the same core
> group of people, like
> > Howard Duncan, Paula Whitney, and so on. They are
> usually very well run, and
> > a great opportunity to get to know the nationals
> staff,
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