Sebring in August

[Flyinglizard]

Tim Mincey drives the CRX. The car was classed in ITB and should be ITA. It has a few other issues also but the builder and crew chief have built a very nice ,fast car.
I told Tim that we were going to have to protest due to the wrong class etc. He was not violent, just pissed ,like any one would be. Paul talked to him and Tim decided that he should talk to the Stewards, yada yada.

That was resolved and Tim withdrew his results. He manned up and took his trophy over to Mike McCormick(#22 ITB Jetta). Mike brought the 3rd over to Michael Ogren( #171 ITB Golf). All is well. Tim needs to read the rule book a little better but turned out to be a nice guy that SCCA should keep around.
Sun race; we took the tires off of Mike's street car for the race, as we did not have any valid rains. The Yoke front and the Falken rears made a nice balance and Mike ran only 1 sec off of the Hoosiers time.
The race was busy for the first few laps as he got stuck in the slower Toyotas. As for shoving you off of the track, Mike has many laps of very close racing,insisted that he gave you enough room.... waiting for the video.. I can under stand the ugly respect room tho as the car was severly damaged Fri, twisting the whole front end about 3 in along with the drivers side. BUtt ass ugly for sure.
Had a great time all in all. Mike did a great time as a driver, first time on the long course. Well, other than wrecking the car in practice.

I believe that minor rules infractions should be discussed with the driver of the car. Be nice and talk about the specific rule and allow some discussion about interpretation. Maybe its a misunderstanding or simply misinformed.
There is no money in this stuff, just racing experiences. The more the merrier. IMHO. MM

[quadzjr]

The car shouldn't be classed in ITA, ITB, IT anything. Not saying the guy was a bad guy.. just say that it has a Japanese spec motor that never came in the US that makes 30 hp more than the classed motor in ITB, and 15 more than in ITA. so with that alone it cannot be an IT car. Actually I talked Tim a few times during the weekend and we had good fun joking about what we needed to do to cath the VW contingent in front of us and just joking in general both before and after the legality issues were brought to light.

I chuckled a bit about the slower Toyotas.. Can't really help that. I have the same hp as you guys with 3-400lbs more weight..

he said he thought he gave me enough room "on the other side of the curb". that isn't the same curtsey I gave him in the previous corner. we went into turn 4 side by side. I kept a gap between us to give wiggle room, He turned in removed wiggle room, and I had two options hit him, or check up and go over the curb. I chose the second option. Like I said it wasn't a big deal. He was way faster than me and I wasn't going to block him to keep him behind me the whole race. (see the courtesy I gave him going into turn 3 when he got a his right front even with my left rear).

100% agreeded with the more the merrier.. Paul approached him with the about the half dozen or so things worng wwith ethe car and Tim did the right thing. I am not saying I want Tim to stop racing.. but from now on if he is racing for position and points make a effort to make the car legal.

[Chip42]

Michael - it was nice to meet you and your son - he did a hell of a job!

Mr. Mincey certainly came around after his initial hot tempered responses. He stopped at our trailer and apparently many others to appologize - that's a bigger response than I could have hoped for, and says a lot about him. The car doesn't belong anywhere in IT with that motor, it's not a US-offered motor and never came in that car. the only reason I would ever protest him is if he continued to run it in ITB as if this weekend never happened - the other stuff is just silly - rear tie bars, aluminum control arms, plates over light openings, etc... looks like a nice SPU car (being JDM only it's not allowed in ST by proposed changes). I don't want to scare members off - that type of build attitude is really what ST is supposed to be targetting. I like his energy but he needs to get to the reading.