Greg, you are right about taking the high road....one semi-objective comment.

I typically drive a TR8 in ITS. A friend and I built a SM to run this enduro, and to try and rent out next year to cover the cost of doing an enduro each year.

First time this weekend driving an SM. As an IT driver, I've always wondered why these cars always seemed to be bumping and banging off of each other.

I think, after 2.5 hours in the car on Saturday, I can make two perhaps helpful non-driver specific observations for non-SM drivers:

1. An SM makes you feel like superman. I'm not kidding. It is underpowered, handles great (and predictably), and stops well. You can do things in that car that would get you killed in your IT car. Case in point: when I get the Uphill Esses exactly right in my TR8, I am much faster through there than I am in the SM. BUT, if I am even a few inches off, I'm toast, off the track and possibly in big trouble. WIth the SM, I could go flat out through the esses using a couple of different lines. The SM would recover just fine.

2. Lifting in the SM is death -- the car just comes to a halt and the rest of your competitors sail away. As an IT driver in a car with torque, I can back off, and then get back on the throttle and not totally kill a lap. In the SM, any lift would have dire implications for several corners at least. I think this encourages, at least it did with me, trying to find ways NOT to lift at all.

My first session I was certainly guitly of playing Wreck Pinata, puttin gthe car in the tire wall in Oak Tree with an ill advised pass of an ITS car that was just going to run me down on the backstraight. After seeing the cost to my team (2 laps pulling out the right front fender) of that move, I settled down and just tried to be consistent.

So, while I like and respect the car, I think I am going to put down teh crack pipe and stay with my TR8, which requires me to be more precise and stay out of trouble to go fast. The Miata, on the other hand, just tempts you and tempts you to do things you shouldn't.

The solution? An SM only run group. Let them have fun in those cars because I do think they are/need to be driven differently than most other IT type cars.