Originally Posted by
Trips
I hadn't given a lot of thought to the intimidation factor, but reading some of the excellent posts here has made me think of it... while I pretty much want to run against the fastest people, even it means getting beat, I can see where someone new to racing would want to have a class to race against people of similar skill level.
Years ago, the LIMRA club ran a series every carpet season with three classes... Stock was for newcomers, after a racer won three A mains he had to bump to modified class at the end of that season. Modified was for the faster guys, then for sponsored drivers (and non-sponsored racers who relished the challenge) there was "Expert" class.
It seemed to work well, I don't recall many guys dropping out from frustration back then, and the pits were packed pretty much every weekend.
--off topic alert--
You don't see much mod racing at the club level, even at the big events mod class seems to be very small. I think it's a shame, I really miss mod racing. Back then making eight minutes with 1700mah nicads was no small feat... making eight minutes and going fast enough to win was an accomplishment.
Stock class racing with 4600 NIMH's or LiPO's seems to be a matter of driving as hard as you can from tone to tone... It seems to me like something has been lost here, and in my opinion, most folks don't even know what they're missing...
--rant mode over--
I missed this earlier, so thought I would comment.
Your post reminded me of the other thing I remember from
back in the day that a lot of places had two stock classes: "Box" Stock, which was self explanitory; and "Hot" Stock.
Box stock was for the new guys, crappy batteries, closed endbell motors, and many ran mechanical wiper-style speed controls. When they wanted to go faster, and dump some more money into their cars and modify them the got the forced bump up in classes. Many did it as their box stuff crapped out. Hot stock you could literally do anything other than using a mod motor; all the goodies and doodads you cared to put into it -- and many hotstock guys were competitive in the mod class if not enough hotstocks showed up to fill a field. A little slower down the straights, but usually ran the same number of laps as the mod class.
I guess what that brings me to is the sudden jump in the number of what they're now calling
"spec classes." I'm all for them, but what I see them is being used as an excuse for the more experienced racers to get more track time, and the obligatory additional podium finishes, while promoting the idea that the classes themselves will attract new racers -- and I just, again, shake my head at the whole "intimidation" factor you mentioned before, and I'm sitting at tracks not seeing an increase in actual racers but marginally in car counts as these new classes dilute the fields.
I guess my whole point, as it was earlier, is that to increase participation in this hobby we have to have somewhere for the new guy, the inexperienced, and the lesser funded individuals to race -- and the rest of us leave them alone and stay out of their class(s). If they're good enough they'll be along soon enough, and if not they won't be forced to run against better drivers where their motivation to come back each week and get killed is nill to none.
--off topic alert-- Ah, the good old days -- where men were men, boys were boys, and getting 1200s (let alone 1700s) to last a whole heat and watching your competitors puking was part of the game. Luved it! Left the hobby for a few years and suddenly what had been such an issue was no longer even discussed, worried about, or even contemplated.
--back on topic--