Dick,
I disagree with Stephen's take on enduros (then again, many have said that I am a special case). Due to the seat time to price ratio, and the fact that my car is a mid-pack runner in the sprint races, I have funneled more of my race dollars towards enduros. It has paid Team Jagermeister back with 3 Enduro Championships. I doubt that I'll ever get a NARRC, NERRC, or NYSRRC Championship with the car I've chosen to race, but I do have the plaques to show that it can be a winner as a long distance runner. There are some out here that like how the number of enduros (and the lengths of them) have increased with each passing year. It widens the racing options to those of us at the regional level, and with better promotion, could draw more racers into our club.
Many drivers have commented that if the NHIS enduro were run on Sunday, they would do it because they didn't want to run the risk of hurting the car the day before the Regional. I can't say if that is a smoke-screen or not. My team enjoys the strategy and planning that goes into an enduro weekend. It draws more families & friends into helping out (prepping, pit wall assistance, etc). We find great satisfaction in the fact that we can flog our car for hours on end, and that she has been prepped well enough to just keeps pressing on. When I'm sitting at home watching the Rolex 24, or the 12hrs at Sebring, or any American LeMans Series Race, I can comment to my buddies that "yeah, I can kind of understand what those drivers and crew members are going through because I race in the enduro series up here in the Northeast". If you can't tell by now, I'd like to press for more enduros in the 2007 schedule. But then again, I AM a special case.
The ONLY reason that my team was not at the 6hr was because it was still in pieces on Smarty's shop floor. After turning my old race car into a Tricycle at the Pocono enduro, we decided to build a new car, and it wasn't until the Wednesday before the Fun One at WGI that it was ready to run. We hope that NHIS remains a 6hr next year, because we will be registered for it.
There is my $0.02
Regards,
Dave Austin
Team Jagermeister
ITB #1
Team Jagermeister
'03, '04, '05, '06, '07, '08, '09, '10 - ITB NESCCA Enduro Champions
Bookmarks