[Rob Hood]

Not sure who the letter writer is pointing a finger at, but he's definitely pointing a finger...perhaps at NASA?

[teamDFL]

Here's a little piece of SCCA vs NASA:

I had raced with Midwestern Council in a class that I helped form that was based on SCCA ASedan rules. The purpose of the rules were to allow racers to run either AS or in MC's AGS class. After a few years my teammate and I were ready to move up to AS as we wanted to run tracks that MC didn't run. Since SCCA is a national organization it seemed like AS was the perfect class.

I posted a question on the ASedan forums about not running race gas and their testing procedures. I run 93 pump gas and didn't want to run expensive race fuel. I was only going to run a few races and didn't care about points. If they tested my fuel and I failed then (which I would have) then I was fine with loosing points and being dq'd. I just want to race at different tracks.

However, the Central Division Chief Steward said that if I was tested before a race, that I could be DQ'd and not allowed to race. Since it's their playground they can make the rules but I chose to play somewhere else. We looked at the American Iron rules and felt we could be competitive with our cars and the more open rules would actually be less expensive then AS should we want to upgrade to be faster.

So far so good!

Sidney

Dunno....rules are rules.....I AM SURE NASA's are more relaxed, but SOMEWHERE, even they will draw the line....if I show up in a Ford model T with paper mache frame rails and a 454 blown Chevy stuffed in it, I bet they would quote me some rules... (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif) ...

Not to mention a "relaxed" outlook on rules can be good or bad....

I think that the difficulty most people have with any sanctioning body is that if you are a casual competitor, as long as a variance is not a performance advantage, the common belief is that some leeway needs to be given. The idea is often referred to as "the spirit of the rules." If a spec 100 octane gas is required, the spirit of the rules is to limit the amount of octane and/or specific gravity of the fuel. Now, if someone shows up with a fuel that confers no advantage in either case, while they may have broken the letter of the law, they have in no way compromised the spirit. Should this be allowed for someone who is at every race and accumulating points? Probably not. But someone who is no threat to win anything, my opinion is that it lenience should be afforded.