jimpastorius wrote:
My advice to these "novices", get some balls and let the other new people have their day in the sun.
WOW Jim.....I'm sure the ladies in Novice (Gwen, Vicki, Rebecca, Kate, Judi, Lisa, Beth, and Leslie) really appreciate this useful advice, especially coming from such a senior member. Perhaps you can tell them where one might go to get the "balls" that you advocate.
You really put a lot of effort into your performance at the autox events (except for the 3 runs in the M-Roadster at the Novice school
). Not sure why you can't do the same with your posts here on the forums. (WUWT?)
I will go on record and say that my balls
have never influenced my driving at an autox event.
jimpastorius wrote:
I have an issue with the leadership ruining a perfectly good novice program.
I can respect this statement if you will constructively show what has changed that "ruins" the novice program. If the only bad thing is that people coming to events later in the season might not come back because they didn't do well against other drivers that started back in March, I personally see that as having unrealistic expectations, NOT that the leadership ruined a good novice program.
Background
I bought my M3 in Oct of 2004. Prior to that, I drove a Nissan 2WD pickup (for 10 years to be exact). I've never owned any type of sports car prior to the M3. I bought the M3 based on the recommendation of a very good friend of mine (and a club sponsor) Chip Stabler, who I have watched race with the SCCA for the past couple of years. I told Chip that I wanted to start racing with the SCCA and he told me (based on the fact that I had no experience) that I should really spend a few years doing autocross, work in a few HPDEs, and then consider SCCA Club racing. As a matter of fact, he made me promise him that I wouldn't take the M3 and go straight to road course racing. I didn't know much about autocross. The little bit I knew was thanks to Mark Musser and the pictures he had posted at work. So, a week and a half after I bought the car, Mark talked me into going to the Laurinburg event (Oct 2004). He told me to ride with him on his first 2 runs. I thought I was going to crap on myself during his first run. I had no idea the sport was anywhere near that intense. I made it through the day thanks to a lot of help from Mark (3 out of 5 runs where DNF and after PAX, I finished 3 secs behind the 1st place in Novice). That in no way discouraged me, it made me focus on what I had learned from the experience and what I could do to improve my performance. The only discouraging thing was that it was the last event of the season and I had to wait until Mar'05 for the Novice school and the next event.
Why use race tires?
I'm fortunate that I get to attend lunch with several of the club members every Wed in RTP. I quickly started asking questions about the rules and things that I could do to my car (realize that I'm an electrical eng by degree and working on a car is all new to me). I told the guys that I drive my car to work everyday so I had planned on having a different set of tires for autox. I had planned on getting Azenis, but Keith Q said that if I was going to have a dedicated set of tires for autox and I didn't mind changing tires at the event, I should get R-compound (and that's what I did). I had no idea that this would actually cause people in the club to question my intentions (novices aren't suppose to be on race tires). I didn't even know what R-compound tires where until I joined the club and started eating lunch with these guys and talking about car setup. Why not take advantage of something that is legal for my class?
Why stay in Novice?
- First (and this isn't an excuse), it's what I was told to do. Remember, I'm new to this and have no idea how it's been run in the past. Now that I've made it through 5 events, I've considered moving into BS, but (call me selfish) I can't see an advantage. Out of 5 events, there was 1 BS entry at Sanford and 1 BS entry at Danville (no entries at the other events). Let's see, drive in a class with maybe 1 other entry or drive against a class of (on avg) 30 entries.
- Second, if I move to BS after 4 events, I would have next to no chance at competing for a season long trophy unless I'm the only one running BS and where's the satisfaction in that? PJ and I are neck and neck in the points for Novice class this year and it's a blast. It's only for one season. Who knows if I will ever get to compete in the same class with most of these guys/gals in the future. This has actually caused us to develop a friendship that may not have occurred if we did compete against each other in Novice. I'm sure some will say, but it's a Novice class, does it really mean anything to win a season long points event for that class? DUH...if you are new (i.e. a Novice or rookie to this sport) it sure as hell does.
If there is a negative to staying in Novice for the season, it's the fact that I can't ride along with these guys/gals. I do fully respect the reason and rational for why this rule exists. The first event that I run as a non-Novice entry, I plan on jumping in the car with about 1/2 of the people that are currently running as Novice (and hope they do the same with me).
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). What actually works is to find people and cars that are comparable to you and your car and then guage yourself and your progress against them as part of your "self analysis". What really counts is how you do against the talented drivers anyway.
pretty crazy to have people talking about me in a honda forum.
