Quote Originally Posted by Flyinglizard View Post
GA, please explain the logic of ; inviting a successful class to come and race with SCCA and then changing one costly parameter of that class...
Easy:

1) It's not inviting "a" class, it's inviting a category - a mindset - of significantly disparate vehicles from multiple, disparate, disorganized "organizations". NER is inviting "crapcan" cars to come play in, and experience, a different culture, and not to a specific set of regs from any specific other orgs; and

2) They're not changing any costly parameter; they're saying "come run with us, whatever your configuration, whatever you got, as long as it meets our minimum safety regulations."

Herein lies the major difference between how you see this and how I see this (and this is *NOT* a personal attack): you see possibilities of competition, I see possibilities of access. You're thinking in terms of how you can be competitive in a particular class at a minimum of cost; I'm seeing how we can get someone who's not raced with SCCA to come race with SCCA.

And you can race on street tires if you want to. We don't care. Just give everyone else the right to choose what they want to do, too.

A lot of people just gloss right over that whole "no guarantee of competitiveness" thing (the whole basic concept of Improved Touring - the original crapcan series back in 1984!). Some will see that and think "oh cool, a place to play" while others see that and think "oh good, I can be competitive 'cause no one else will try to be". When it comes to ITEZ, I'm the former ("hey, go play and have fun") and you're the latter ("I'm'a gonna win that race!") I could be wrong, but I suggest that ITEZ's intent is "go play" and that means "by whatever means you choose to do, but keep in mind someone else is gonna spend more money than you".

THIS is why I keep teasing you about the "jumping the shark" thing with crapcan racing. It's gone beyond the "let's go have fun stage" and is well past the "I'm'a gonna win that race!" stage. Right now, NER SCCA is all about "go play". That may change later, but for now...

Greg

P.S., Non sequitor, I'm still trying to decide what to do about Sebring and PBR - still trying to find a hitchhike space for my Integra - and I'd really like to get a couple STL finishes under my belt. If you have a car that'll run two weekends without issue, might need to meet up.