[Fot] Fwd: Re:FOT GRC standard ...thankyou Cary, ..and foot in mouth disease ...

Tue Oct 9 09:48:14 MDT 2007

Sorry, 
    forgot to click reply to all ... so here goes...

Note: forwarded message attached.

Tom

http://www.fot-racing.com/spit/caption/tom_strange.htm

#4 white spitfire
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  Tue, 09 Oct 2007 08:43:10 PDT
Date: Tue, 9 Oct 2007 08:43:09 -0700 (PDT)
From: tom strange <tstrange at sbcglobal.net>
Subject: Re:FOT GRC standard ...thankyou Cary, ..and foot in mouth
  disease ...
To: Group44TR7 at aol.com
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    Thank you cary for a very well written letter .. 

    I thought that the FOT was all about camaraderie, promoting triumphs (in all venues), working together to solve problems, promote reliability and safety; and most of all to HAVE FUN.
  Please bear with my rant, and forgive blunders committed here. 

   Vintage cars are going away. Racing is getting more expensive; becoming a deterrent to many people all by itself. As much as we may not want to face it, the older cars are getting harder to find, and more expensive to maintain. We have to decide if we want to have vintage racing just for us, and be an exclusive club that outlaws all new members and ideas or if we want to let the sport grow as things change. People racing 2008 BMWs will one day find that they cannot compete with the "new cars" but will love their car, and will want to continue to race it. Yes, it will then be a "vintage car".  
   Eligibility talk came up after a bad accident at Road America. Many people expressed the sentiment that the accident happened because the cars were not "vintage correct". Wrong. The accident happened because "driver attitude" was not period correct. Everyone wanted to "clamp down" on the mods.. Very little comment was pointed toward clamping down on drivers with a bad attitude, or a record of causing accidents. Sorry folks, but guns do not shoot people, and cars do not cause accidents. People do.  
   There are solutions. Midwestern council has an easy out. We have a class that can (and is) applied to all groups, classes etc. for cars that do not comply. They race with cars of comparable lap times, power / weight (in other words  in their proper class) but display the letters UNR  unrestricted. They cannot win points to take wins away from legal cars, but they do get to race, have fun, and play with their proper competitors.  
   Drivers with Council who do not race in the spirit of their run group, are put on probation, or simply asked to leave.  
   I dont think any current SCCA triumph is going to come to a national FOT event with plans to WIN against cars prepared to a 30 year old GCR. I dont think any properly prepared vintage car should have to compete against them either a simple UNR would fix that For that matter, any vintage driver who comes to a national FOT event simply to win, is not there in the spirit of vintage racing anymore than the SCCA driver who wants to use his advanced mods etc. to win and gain bragging rights.  
   The bragging rights come from the fact that we all ran, we all had fun and we all went home safely.   
   The cars should not be sent home from such an event because they are not completely eligible, but the drivers who race to win "at any cost" should be.
  Sorry for the long post and the rant, but I fear that we could tear a great group of people apart if we start arguing about eligibility at this event. 
  Lets all play and we all have fun. Since it is a vintage group, those of us who do not fit in completely should respect the vintage spirit what we can do to fit in, we should do. If we are not completely eligible, lets leave the trophies to those who are, and most importantly, lets race in the spirit of vintage racing, whether we are vintage legal or not.
  My understanding is that the Kastner cup goes for promotion of the spirit of vintage racing, and thats the way it should be. I doubt that it will go to a current SCCA car, that races to win at any cost. Kas, please correct me if I am wrong
  Two notes to leave you with  

   at the Morgan festival at RA, there were brand new Morgans running because they were the featured car.  They did not detract from the vintage morgans in any way this is the way it is at many events.  
   Every year from the beginning of racing to today there are cars running that do not comply with the rules they just havent been caught at it I believe Kas has said that finding ways to make the rules work for you, and finding the things that are NOT specifically illegal, are the edges that many winning teams use to get where they are 
  Lets not spend time arguing lets race.
  Thanks for listening .

Group44TR7 at aol.com wrote:  Amici

Philosophically, there is also a very big difference between drivers. On 
one extreme there are people who simply want to have fun driving as fast as 
they can with their car and the opposite extreme of someone who wants to win 
a competition. It would seem that we should have an agreement amongst FOT for 
those who want to compete as to the level of preparation allowed, a sort 
very basic of FOT GRC for the Kastner Cup that preferably references an already 
existing GRC. If you are in not in compliance, you simply are not eligible - 
but you can go on the track (if accepted by SVRA) to have fun driving your 
car. 

Thanks for listening, Cary

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Tom

http://www.fot-racing.com/spit/caption/tom_strange.htm

#4 white spitfire