Quote Originally Posted by Greg Amy View Post
I reject this statement. I had to work my ass off to get there, whereas as Jon made several big mistakes (missed shifts, overcooking corners/braking) and was able to easily move back to the fore and pass without issue. Just compare my front and rear views of him coming up on me and going into corners, versus my unable to come up on him on the straights. Had Jon not made those mistakes he would have been right up there in the front, possibly for the win.
Your fast lap bested his?

That aside...it's a trend Andy, anyone paying attention can see it. Kirk is not using single examples to make general conclusions, he's using general trends to make single conclusions.
What trends? The fact 2 really well prepared full-on STL cars are getting to the podium against 3 other cars? What about Shanfeld's Civic? No mention of that performance yet. Qualified .002 behind Drago in Q1 and ahead of him in Q2. Drago won race 1 by .290 over Shanfeld (who ran a faster lap time). In the second race, Drago again bested Shanfeld this time by 2.987 seconds and also had the fastest lap just over .2. Your fast laps in both races were faster than the 13B Miata.

How is it that Spec Miatas are able to fill out the middle of the field, to the point where they're beating almost all non-Miatas (the few there are)? Hell, Gorriaran was chewing on my ass on Saturday at WGI, despite my easy 50hp advantage; only reason he wasn't doing it Sunday is because he went home (along with a large chunk of the other SM'ers, leaving the top third of our class pretty empty).
At the Glen there were 4 non-Miata. 1 got crashed out and 2 were in the top 4. Trend?

2400lb SM's with 120whp too fast? You out qualified him by a second each day. Shanfeld's Civic was 3 seconds quicker in qualifying than any SM and 2.5 seconds quicker per lap in the race.

And if double-dippers (who are not serious about the class such that they're leaving before the race) are taking away positions from legit STL competitors, how is that good for the class? And if it's not good for the class, why should we promote it? I'd gladly give up the 4th in participation numbers in order to improve the competition among legit, serious STL competitors. And I've been quite public that I'd rather the class stand or fall based on legit competitors, versus falsely riding a wave of double-dippers.
You can't take away a spot from a legit competitor if you don't show up to race. Looking at the numbers, STL is third in participation behind SRF and SM. If 20% of the fields were real STL cars and ZERO double dippers, STL would be 2nd from the bottom with about 61 entries Nationwide. I'm ok with that but hardly a ringing endorsement of success just above B-Spec.

GA, always amused at how "most competitors have excuses on why they lost...Miatas always have excuses on why they won."
AB, always amused at how fast 'some give up when they see a Miata on grid no matter what like cars are doing'

Seriously though, I see a wickedly fast Miata and a wickedly fast Civic right on top of each other battling for top Q spot, fast laps and race wins. And I mean RIGHT ON TOP OF EACH OTHER. A trend it is not in my mind. Will I always think that a light, balanced and DW-equipped car will make a better racecar than a FWD car? You bet, but that's why they currently weigh 5.5% more than good FWDers and 8% more than strut FWDers.