[Fot] Midwest contingent May race?

[Tony Drews]

Didn't really mean to start a SVRA bashing session.  Summit Point 
would be fun but is a bit far - I'm doing VIR in April (Wild Hare, 
FANTASTIC race) which is a 2 day tow, Summit would be another 2 day 
tow.  Gingerman is looking like the contender at this point.

Now that I said I hadn't planned on this being an SVRA bashing 
session, I'll mention specifically my issues with the last SVRA 
event.  I've race with them before and was fine with them - a bit 
expensive but we're not in this because it's cheap.  At Tech 
inspection, they found a possibly serious issue with my car.  I was 
very grateful for that.  But the also nitpicked the heck out of other 
stuff, said my 2.1 year old belts were expired and I'd need to 
replace them before running with them again (that cost me a couple of 
hundred for "FIA" belts which I hate, but have the 5 year 
SVRA-approved life), made me get my HANS device recertified ($140 for 
nothing that improved my safety), made me plug up a water drain hole 
in the floor of my car because it was a firewall fire issue (this is 
very outer edge just behind front tire, would have to have a frickin' 
bonfire going before it made it to THAT hole).  It was an SCCA 
inspection, not a Vintage inspection.  Multiple guys in white 
coveralls for good visual effect.  He had to check with the chief on 
whether they thought my fuel cell was OK (it was).  To be fair, they 
DID supply me with tape to cover the firewall holes and did stick 
around a few extra minutes for round 2 of tech so I could actually 
race (at 8 am the next morning).

One of my buddies at the track was going for "Era Correct" 
certification (or whatever they called it) and they said his gauges 
looked too "modern" and they would all have to be replaced to get 
that rating.  They are correctly sized gauges, nothing notably 
"modern" looking about them but not white faced jaeger gauges.  While 
it didn't directly affect me, it angered me - why make someone spend 
$500 or more on gauges that work the same and look slightly 
different?  And, the scheduling of the sessions made it clear that 
our group was not what they wanted to feature.  We were first or 2nd 
out, racing was done very early in the day on Sunday.

They did do a "podium" for the top 3 in each race, I was going to 
make that in one of my races before I broke a rear axle.  That was 
cool (the podium, not breaking the axle).  What's interesting is the 
tech guys who I didn't take a real shine to stuck around and were 
part of the cheering section for guys who made the podium.  The party 
they had was fine, the head of SVRA (Tony P) wandered around and 
seemed to be a decent fellow.  So it was an odd mix of high hassle 
factor upon arrival, weird scheduling but some extra touches that 
were nice.  I guess it proves the old "first impressions" saying.

Wow, I wrote a book I hadn't intended to.

Cheers, Tony Drews