Brian, First, my letter reflects the frustration on the part of myself and the other 40+ drivers who sent in a survey listing all of the needs that would benefit the F500 community. Apparently you never saw this survey that took over a month to compile and submit to the CRB. In my comments submitted to this survey about the longer rubber pucks are my concerns about safety; other drivers mentioned the same thing and I believe all of the comments are in the body of the survey that unfortunately you never saw but the CRB did. I based my comments about Mike Quadrini's not driving to his statements several years ago that he was not interested in ever driving - obviously out of date and for this I apologize. But, I suspect that he has never suffered a suspension failure at speed which I unfortunately have - a most scary experience to lose control of your car. The survey is in the hands of the CRB as far as I know. The F500 community reacted to the BOD decision with dismay based on the assumption that it had ALL of the evidence - obviously you do NOT have the overwhelming evidence as shown in the survey. I truly believe that you will change your vote once you know all the information. One other note - Jay Novak has done a study on longer rubber pucks which I hope that the BOD will also include in their review of this issue.
Thank you for your consideration. Jim Murphy -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Fri, 6 Oct 2006 12:37 AM Subject: RE: F500 - Longer Suspension Puck Change Denied Mr. Murphy, First of all, let me say that I resent the tone of your letter. Your strong accusation that we voted against a safety issue regarding this request has no basis in fact. I find your accusation at the end of your letter to be uncalled for. This was never presented to the BOD as a safety issue. Nowhere in the proposals published in Fastrack, or in the recommendations that were presented to the directors, was a concern of suspension failures ever mentioned. In addition, I received no member input in favor of this proposal. I did receive letters against it, including one from a nationally competitive driver with a Runoffs podium finish. In addition I received a letter and had a personal conversation with Mike Quadrini who, by the way, has driven in competition. While you might not agree with Mikeâs opinion in this matter I find the assertion that he is not to be listened to very puzzling since he prepares or provides support to some of the fastest F500âs in the country, including Mike Brent, Dave Lapham, Jim Schultz and 2002 Runoffs champion Elivan Goulart. Finally, I was not aware of any vote or a count of drivers who were in favor of this change. Can you tell me where I might find this information? It wasnât until just recently that the safety issue was brought to light. Faced with a seemingly lack of support from the F500 community, and strong opinions against this proposal from people who race and prepare these cars, I voted against it. Brian Holtz Area 2 Director From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, October 05, 2006 9:38 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: F500 - Longer Suspension Puck Change Denied BOD, I have just heard that this change was turned down even though there were over 42 drivers in favor of this improvement. I have been running F440/500's since 1982 and I have had multiple suspension failures at all four corners over these many years where the supporting metal has broken completely with one particular rear failure at speed that lifted the rear of the car 4 feet in the air (I was looking straight down at the road!). My heart, needless to say, stopped momentarily; to say that this kind of failure at speed is a SAFETY issue and you DENY IMPROVING the suspension just stuns and flabbergasts me. I was there in 1983 when the rubber puck suspension rule was first written in as a SAFETY item. Were any of you around then and remember this? Do you also remember during the discussions for this rule that the puck dimensions of 1" thick and 2" diameter were considered only a starting point - to be reviewed periodically for the appropriateness only to be forgotten about all these 20 years until now - we are human and do forget! I urge you to immediately reconsider your vote, remember that this is a SAFETY issue and vote your conscience to help the F500 community. And last, do you want to risk going on record denying this safety improvement when a suspension point metal failure at 125 mph seriously hurts or even kills a F500 driver? I await your response not your acknowledgement of receipt. Jim Murphy 3R93012 Check out the new AOL. Most comprehensive set of free safety and security tools, free access to millions of high-quality videos from across the web, free AOL Mail and more. ________________________________________________________________________ Check out the new AOL. Most comprehensive set of free safety and security tools, free access to millions of high-quality videos from across the web, free AOL Mail and more. ________________________________ FormulaCar Magazine - A Proud Supporter of Formula 500 The Official Publication of Junior Formula Car Racing Subscribe Today! www.formulacarmag.com or 519-624-2003 _________________________________ _______________________________________________ F500 mailing list - [email protected] To unsubscribe or change options please visit: http://f500.org/mailman/listinfo/f500 *** Please, DO NOT send unsubscribe requests to the mailing list! ***
