[jensend]

Just finished reading the whole LT4 epic and I can actually feel my blood pressure rising. Damn, just when I was beginning to think it might be fun to bring the '02 Z-28 out to my first autox in 3 years, it looks like things are just as out of perspective as when I decided it wasn't fun to deal with politics in a hobby activity. I have a number of friends who are still very avid autoxers and devoted SCCA people, so I know it's not just an SCCA sort of thing. So, why can't people catch onto the idea that the vast bulk of folks who autox are hobbyists interested in affordable amateur motorsports. Sure, I'll give 8 hours out of a nice weekend day for a few minutes of track time, work a station, and pay for the opportunity as well, but I want the experience to be relaxing, social, fun even.

To me, bringing the intensity and hair splitting politics of "for profit" professional style racing into a supposedly "everyman's motorsport", just defeats its whole purpose. Some drag strips have "run what ya brung " nights where anyone is welcome to run, to test, to tune, or just run for the fun of running. Autox is too sophisticated for such an approach? Given, there might be a need for a system to balance the differences between unlike cars, but, isn't there some less cumbersome approach to events? With all the time and effort and frustration of what the typical autox seems to entail these days, I'm inclined to think my time might be better spent watching TV sports or (God forbid) yardwork- even though I'd much prefer to flog the car and murder defenseless cones. As they put it in the movie, Stripes, "Lighten up, Francis!" (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/banghead.gif)

This post has been edited by jensend: Feb 23 2006, 11:00 PM

[pknowles]

You can be as compeditive in nature as YOU want to be. Who says you have to be one of those people that obcesses over everything? I think one of the great things about the sport is that you can "run what you bring" or build a super compeditive car; ITS YOUR CHOICE. Any sport that I have played from football, band, compeditive downhill skiing, whitewater kayaking, mountian biking, and curling all have a compeditve nature; I mean you are competing against people. Even at OT events how many people are comparing times? Most people from what I see or at least they come home and say, "I ran XX.XXX lap at YYYY track". Some people can tell you their track times faster then their wedding date!

In Washington DC I would say we have one of if not the largest group of autocrossers in the US (big claim I know). Heck the DC Pro is already full and it's still 4 monthes away! The clubs that run a compeditive series atract more people then the test-n-tune groups. Considering a lot of the clubs run on similar lots I have to say that part of it is the competition.

I'll get off my soap box after this. If I read too much of what people say on SCCAFORUMS.COM then I start to not want to autoX anymore either. Some of the people on the net are so anal about every little thing, but when I go to local events I don't see that kind attitude. At national events where money and tires are on the line, if your car is not legal for a class and you are sitting in a money spot you better believe you will get protested. And honestly I have no problem with that.