Frustrated
I went in my first "big" competition recently. I'm a newbie with only part of a season under my belt. My best laps at the track are a couple behind the fastest guy, who always wins, and usually by a couple of laps over the rest. Best case scenario I'm a bottom quarter of the pack runner at this point in my skilz and experience. I try my best not to mess him up and give him and anyone else faster an opportunity to pass. In six rounds of qualifying I never managed to get in my usual best times. I got hit so many times by impatient drivers that I was always being marshalled or running on chunked tires. They'd overshoot the first turn, crash, be marshalled, then run me off the road trying to get back to where they think they belong after they are a lap down. For the final race I qualified next to last out of a small field. During that race I was battered and hammered by cars jumping the rails, pushing me into oncoming lanes, basically trashing my car. It seems to me that if you are not the leader, no one gives a shit what others do to you on the track. Everyone thinks they are the fastest and they just need to drive right through the pack to prove it. Desparate drivers overdriving their abilities predominate and create a negative environment. I spent a lot of money, days of time, travelled a good distance to have a lousy time. I have no problem with running last if everyone is faster than me, but not being able to run one clean race becasuse others can't take one second to find the right time to pass means there's no point even running unless I want to throw away a $400 car and waste $100 worth of entry fee and tires to have a lousy time. To be honest, I'm considering not even returning to the competitive part of the hobby. There's no room for beginners when guys that have been at this for years can't show some cooth and allow for a fair run on the track. You'd be pretty desparate to spend $2000 to buy all the stuff you need to run competitively to face that kind of senario. Are there no gentlemen at the track?