Thanks Steve, my opinions align with yours. Yes I am very concerned about escalation of costs too. I am equally concerned about the LOSS of the class & it will happen if we are not willing to make big efforts to change.
I AM A CAR MANUFACTURER we design very competitive cars & I am not afraid to design for shocks or ANY OTHER engines whether they are 2 stroke of MC if that happens. In fact I will design new rockers for ANY OTHER CAR BUILDERS FOR FREE if we get shocks. Now that my "agenda" is out in the open, all I want if for F500 to survive & I suggest that those who are not concerned should look at the car counts. I have raced in F500 (F440) since 1985 & have made a very serious committment to this class. Mike Quadrini is a guy I have a huge respect for & if he does not want to change his cars I completely respect his option to do what he wants. However as everyone knows the concept is to improve the class while keeping current cars competitive & or convertible to newer specs. If the current modern F500s stay competitive & we have alternatives that bring MORE COMPETITORS to the class, then where is the loss? Thanks ... Jay Novak -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Steve K. Thompson Sent: Friday, March 23, 2007 3:54 PM To: [email protected] Subject: RE: [F500] From the April Fastrack and other things Art, > > Both feel that MC engines and shocks are not the answer if we are to keep > this class relatively inexpensive for those who can't afford F1000s. We > already have classes for MC engined cars, we don't need another. > There are already those classes, true. F1000 was born out of a lot of the same desires we have now and was not sufficiently restricted to keep it to form. Whether we could do better is debatable. > The F5 folks need to get out and race if they really want to have this > class > stay a national class. But what I'm hearing privately is, this is not such > a > big thing in the minds of many. So, F5 becomes a regional only class, so > what?. Less expense, more local camaraderie, and more cars at > regional/divisional races. Only a relative handful of the F5 group need or > want to go to Topeka every year. There are far more F5 racers that just > don't care about that and are happy with what F5 is now; a low cost > formula > car they can race that isn't built specifically to run only at Heartland > Park. By making the class more expensive and changing the original > philosophy of this class, and surely that will happen no matter what the > proponents of MC engines and shocks suggest, the folks that don't go to > Topeka due to the financial burden it imposes, will be forced to go > MC/shocks and they will, most assuredly, probably just choose to go away. Personally I couldn't care less if the car is powered by a snowmobile engine, motorcycle engine, steamship engine or sunshine. What I do care about is car counts of serious people who want to race. Your point about people not being concerned if we are just a regional class demonstrates the point. There are a couple of fundamentally flawed things about this statement. 1. If these people are concerned about the cost and don't want/care to go to Topeka why are they racing nationals to begin with? Why haven't they been racing regionals with the legions of other F500 racers who feel the same way? Waterford hills often has car counts upwards of 8 and great camaraderie and I've yet to see National CenDiv guys flocking there. 2. If there are masses of F500 regional racers who exist who don't want to spend the money to go to Topeka why aren't they showing up to National races to race against more developed cars? Where are the increased car counts, mentioned above, at divisional/regional races coming from? There aren't many regional F500 guys out there to begin with, at least not here in CenDiv. I've attended a few regionals in the last 5 years or so and saw about 3 cars per weekend. Same as Nationals last year unfortunately. So in effect losing national status will just demote us all to regionals with the same car count with the added bonus of not being able to gather for a race against the few in each region who are serious at the Runoffs. Personally I want to race against the best people around in relatively equal equipment at a level of investment I can afford. It's why I'm in F500. I couldn't afford to do it in my FC. I am nervous about the increased cost of m/c engines and shocks and if we had car counts I'd be content to stay where we are. But we don't. If we don't need new/different people where are those car counts going to come from? > But, I caution you that it is not just my opinion and reflects the real > concerns of quite a few, including QRE. And, they are not real happy > campers > with the direction some of us are espousing :-). > > Art Everyone is entitled to an opinion. I don't see the manufacturers you've quoted posting here and I also don't see them offering up any solutions. If a manufacturer doesn't want to develop a new car for rules changes because it isn't worth their time doesn't that pretty much mean it's because they don't feel anyone is racing in that class? How many cars have the two manufacturers listed above sold in the last 2 years? As of yet no-one has suggested making the current cars obsolete, just allowing for other variations. I realize this is much easier said than done but it may not be impossible. I am more than happy to be corrected. If there's a better way or if this is just a temporary reduction in car counts for some reason yet to be explained I'm open to hearing it. Steve -- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.446 / Virus Database: 268.18.15/728 - Release Date: 3/20/2007 8:07 AM -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. 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