I may as well chime in, although I think everyone else
has made great points already. I'll start with what
I've come to really appreciate about the ST class
(apologies if this comes through twice, I'm having
subscription issues):
-- I find Street Tire as it is (was?) to be one of the
most competitive groups in the region. The PAX aspect
of it really keeps you on your toes. Perhaps you're
ahead of somebody in raw time, but you don't know if
you've really beaten them! It really pushes you to
drive your best. True, there are a lot of
"convenience" entrants, but to dismiss the entire
class as a hack is, I think, a big mistake. Does
anybody think Barry's Neon was "underprepped"?
-- The size of the group also makes things very tough.
In Slush Round 6, one cone dropped me from what would
have been a large 1st place margin of victory to 8th
place. I don't know of many other classes (STS does
comes to mind) where something that dramatic would
happen. Bitter as it was for me, I think that's good
competition. Why bust that up?
-- One nobody else has mentioned: Because it's all
PAXed, you can drive many vastly different cars over
the season and still compete for a trophy. I think
this is a great social mechanism, being able to
co-drive at a whim with somebody else and experience
other people's vehicles, setups, and techniques
without effectively forfeiting an event. I talk to
people from other regions and they're usually envious.
We now face the potential for a large number of new,
really small classes. What's the fun in winning DS-ST
if there's only 2 cars? Charlie pointed out that a
lot of the ST heat exists in GS, so maybe for me, I'll
still have some sizeable competition in a new GS-ST
class. I also suspect ST-SM would stay large. But it
could be argued that the message of this move -- and I
don't say this confrontationally, but some of the
messages written today seem to confirm it -- is
"people who don't buy race tires aren't real
competitors". I feel that isn't really fair. I
prefer "people who don't buy race tires aren't rich".
That said, I do understand that both before, during,
and after the event, the Street Tire class is very
high-maintenance, and it underscores the great amount
of work that Pat and Jerry do every other week. I'm
just hoping we can find a better solution than blowing
the group up.
md
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