[Fot] State of F1

[Jim]

Ed,

What you describe sounds like several of the recent racing efforts.  Despite
the rules.. most teams find ways to work around them.

Causing the other teams to toss more $$ (or their native currency) at the
problem... Or to concede defeat and bow out.

Can Am went that route and it looked good.. until Porsche dropped the 917K
on the competition.

IMSA GTP tried a similar formula... and in it's last years we had first a
Nissan domintation (which I cheered for at Daytona in 1991 ;) then a Toyota
domination.

There are some drivers that do well only in a tightly controlled setting..
And others who shine no matter what the machine.

I still miss seeing Al Holbert drive.  Despite all the handicaps put on the
962s, the Lowenbrau team was always a contender in the early days of IMSA.
Right before the plane crashed in '88 he was talking about a transmission
setup to let him shift under load to keep the boost up on the 962s.  Don't
know if it was just talk or something real in the pipeline.

My brothers were fans of his team, and knew Chip Robinson from the next town
over from where we grew up.  I guess Kas probably remembers Chip.. be
interesting to hear his views, offline.

Still, Mr Holbert basically put the nail in the coffin on the Group 44 Jag
effort.  Still the prettiest GTP cars ('83/'84 vintage) I've ever seen.

But back to Ed's concept.  Nascar is basically IROC for rednecks.  IRL...
Same idea for educated rednecks.

F1?  Snooty european rednecks?  Is there such an animal?  ;)

Anyway, this makes a great diversion from changing diapers.


Cheers,

Jim
Dallas... sometimes

-----Original Message-----
From: fot-bounces at autox.team.net [mailto:fot-bounces at autox.team.net] On
Behalf Of EDWARD BARNARD
Sent: Wednesday, October 22, 2008 4:38 PM
To: Bill Babcock; Joe Curry; KasKastner
Cc: 'Friends of Triumph'
Subject: Re: [Fot] State of F1


Group: Perhaps I'm a stranger bird than I thought, but, I haven't heard
anyone showing a desire to see a totally unlimited or minimally regulated
class of racing like the old Formula Libre. A real "run what you brung" type
racing. Perhaps rule out telemetry and/or electronic driving aids so the
driving talent can be seen and appreciated. True, money will always be a
factor, but a great driver in an old design may still beat a bad driver in
the most modern set-up. A great example of this would be the Formula Libre
race at Lime Rock where Roger Ward beat everything the factories, including
Ferrari, Maserati, and Jaguar had to offer with an Offy powered midget.
Truly a function of the car/driver combination. I have been trying to
discern whether he ran it with a multi-speed tranny or a simple in/out box
which would really have showed his skills. This is the complete opposite of
the  (now defunct) IROC idea which has everyone running similarly prepped
cars, chosen in a draw, to find the best driver. Anyone's thoughts on this?
Kas, since you were running at that time, what were the opinions of the
Formula back then. Am I just wishing for the good old days?
-Ed-

____________________________________________________________
Click here to find the perfect picture with our powerful photo search
features.
http://thirdpartyoffers.netzero.net/TGL2241/fc/Ioyw6i4s80Zzw2ixP2yFWMgJrQMlzi
NDE2JHj02d2efvkEjoAeXPWy/