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CBUZZ, Norris
As you may remember Im quite intimate with the ITE Rules. The Comp Committee wrote the current version in 2000 when I was Chairman from 98'-03'. We worked closely with the 8 or 9 drivers of the class at the time. I also think today they could be altered to open it up......
Uncle Joe is not the only one with concerns on spending and at the time we wrote the rules the climate was to at least try to keep costs down. Over / Under was mentioned by JW Hall as an option when the class grew or shrunk eventually in the future (as classes do) to appeal to the membership.
To clarify the Fuel Cell issue here is what happened. When CSCC invented ITE it was running in the ITA & ITS run group at times. Eventually the cars outgrew that group and we put them in with GT. When Colorado ( Now Topeka) got wind that the cars were in the GT group, "Patsy", I believe her name was, said, "Get Fuel Cells in the cars by the following year". We followed their directions to get sanctions through for our races. It was quite a task getting IT guys to actually be safe and run fuel cells but we got every driver to comply. Tech was begged not to turn away cars on inspection and to notate in the log books if they came back and raced in ITE to comply within 2 races. However W/C cars with logged races could run W/O Fuel Cells.
The Theory behind Fuel Celling a car that is in a GT group was/is quite simple. 70% of GT cars are homemade Tube structures and not Factory "Tub" Cars with built in Crush Zones like the entire IT group is comprised of. I realize that WC cars all have very safe gas tanks from the factory blah blah blah, but, ITE has cars older than 5 years running in it unlike W/C. These older cars do not have the upgraded engineering that the newer cars do.
Example: A side impact between Porterfields GT-1 car and an average ITE car would produce a much different impact and ensuing fire than any two 3 series BMW's in a side impact. A GT car may be fiberglass on the outside but underneath it looks like a porcupine with many points of attachment. Colorado had it right then and in my opinion it should stand today.
If ITE ran only with ITE cars then thats fine but it does not down here in CSCC.The fact that the Honda Cup cars are allowed to run in the GT group with no Fuel Cells does not mean it's a good idea, it only means that someone is very very stupid and not manning their ruling position correctly or paying close attention.
Tom Neely
This is where I found my information.