[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

[BigEnos]

There's those that want to be very competitive, and for those these rules are made and debated about. In order for the rulebook to not resemble an unabridged websters, the rules are written generally and there's always some situations that aren't as clear. AFAIK this situation did not result in a protest at all so if you are staying away from autocross because there's a debate about the rules, then I'm not sure what to tell you. I'd rather debate it and come to a solution then have paper flying all over the place with protests.

If you are just running local events you can "get away" with minor infractions usually, especially if you talk to your fellow competitors and let them know what is going on and ask for their blessing.

Sounds to me like you just want to do whatever you want with your car and show up to an event and magically the ruleset will match what you have done. Would be nice, but is unrealistic, no? If you don't care about being competitive and don't want to think about whether you are legal, just run SM or EM and you will have no worries. If you want to be competitive and have lots of fun doing it, pick a class and build your car to it.