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!"

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.

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.

Just go to track days instead of autox. More speed, more time, more fun (at least IMO) no class/rules worries.

No competition, no timers. Open lapping is great, but auto-x provides the cheapest competition out there (event cost wise).

I do as many O/T events as I can afford. The thing is, I miss some of the people I used to autox with. I've always run the Camaro in SM, but some people, just assume that you're there with some agenda. Who needs it. I don't care about points or trophies. Wish they had an open non-comp class where you could just run, scrub in your tires, and hang with your friends. No competition/no points/ no protests. I'm too old to take autox so much to heart.

Some regions do have a class like that. I forget what they call it...NT (Not Timed) or something like that. Different organizations probably call it different things. But it's basicly what you said. Cars can run the same as any other class, but their times don't mean anything. They're not added into the rest of the compitition.
If your club/region doesn't do this, you should bring it to their attention. I can't think of any reason why they wouldn't be ok with it.

Howdy,



They do. It's called EM.

:-)

Mark

I was at an Atlanta Region event a few years ago that did the noncompetitive class thing. I had to google the results because I couldn't remember what they called it. It was the TO class (Time Only) And there were 34 people in it.