Interesting thread.
For those of you who don't know me, here's part of the long, boring story of my SCCA life: I have dabbled in IT since the late 80's. Back then, when IT was young, I saw some inconsistencies in the rules and wrote the National Office about them. The result was that I was asked to serve on the newly-formed IT Ad Hoc Committee in 1990. I became Chairman of that committee in 1994. Later I moved to the AS Advisory Committee, then to the Comp Board (sorry, CR
where I served for four years. I drove a few IT races in an ITA VW GTI (A2, 8-valve, they were in ITA back then) in 1991 and then purchased an ITC Rabbit which I raced a few times at IRP, Grattan, and the old Gateway in the mid 1990's. I have been an SCCA Club Racing steward since 1993. I've been Chief Steward for several Regionals and Nationals at IRP, Mid Ohio, and Gingerman. And I've been a Tech Steward and Operating Steward at the Runoffs. I say all of this not to impress you with my background or to imply that I have any special insight, only to suggest that I have some passing familiarity with the IT rules and with managing big events from an operations and rules enforcement perspective.
I think this IT Festival at Mid Ohio has merit. Mid Ohio is one of the premier tracks in the country and it presents some unique competitive challenges to the driver and set-up engineer. And, it's easy for an organizing region of a regional at Mid Ohio to look at the entry list (typically heavily weighted towards IT) along with the cost of racing at Mid Ohio and conclude that maybe an IT-centric event would draw more entries thus making the bottom line more palatable for the region.
I saw a couple of comments in this thread about this race counting for the Great Lakes Division/Area 4 Regional Championship Series. I believe the series rules require that series events include all series classes. An event which bars some classes from competing probably can't be part of the series.
I like the idea of creative formats, but I think the suggested race lengths may be a bit too long. The ITC lap record at Mid Ohio is a 1:48. Simple math says that a 45-minute race for those guys would be about 25 laps. That's 5 laps and 11 miles longer than the Runoffs races. For a race in August, I'd be a bit concerned about driver fatigue because I'm guessing most of you guys are not used to racing that long. But, if everybody knows this going in, then everybody's in the same boat.
Because this will be a Restricted Regional under the SCCA sanctioning rules, you can pretty much roll your own format. I like the idea of a couple of short qualifying sessions so that the guys new to the track have an opportunity to wash, rinse, repeat before things start getting serious. Follow those qualifying sessions with short races on Saturday. The finishing positions from the Saturday races could be used to set the grid for longer Sunday races.
How about an enduro to finish the weekend? There have been a few enduros run at Mid Ohio in the past, but it seems like they were always crammed into a regular Double Regional weekend. With the restricted event being considered, a 2- or 3-hour enduro would be possible.
Tech is obviously a big issue. From reading between the lines of what the Cincinnati people have posted here, it sounds like Tim and Bobbi Ross are supportive of this race from a Tech standpoint. They are both good, competetent Scrutineers and I trust their judgement. What made Runoffs Tech at Mid Ohio work was the big tent which provided plenty of space to do teardowns. There's one thing you have to consider about Tech--our rules and procedures don't normally allow for your competitors to know what you are doing with your car. That's why Tech is supposed to be an "eyes-only" affair. If a guy's car is found to be non-compliant, the only official public statement is that the car is "go" or "no-go". The extent of the rules infraction is generally not made public. On the other hand, if the organizers, stewards, and scrutineers go into this event with an "open hood" policy like is used at the Solo Nationals, we can find ways to make that happen under the rules.
All of the points about teardowns are valid. I would prefer to not do engine teardowns, but that's the only way to get to the truth. Runoffs teardowns are invasive and the competitor is left with box of parts at the end. Non-invasive devices like the Whistler seem to have inconsistent results. Unfortunately, the time constraints of a two-day weekend force us to find quick answers, but the IT rules, particularly with regard to camshafts, don't provide quick answers. This will require more thought. Rulz iz rulz and a steward can get into hot water by not enforcing them. On the other hand, my philosophy as a Chief Steward is that the penalty should fit the infraction.
I don't know how much of an issue doctored fuel is in IT. Fortunately, fuel testing is getting fairly consistent at a National level. On the other hand, I have some strong opinions about the validity of our dielectric constant rules that are probably best left for another conversation. The reagent testing, however, is pretty conclusive.
Starting on the back stretch. Wow. I never cared for it at the Runoffs, but it does change the nature of the racing and it's almost a necessity with a big field at Mid Ohio. It requires some Pace Car juggling to keep the fields in check and it does require more Starters.
I'd like to see this event happen. The ARRC has been very successful for Atlanta Region. An old race promoter once told me that it takes about three years for a new event to prove itself. It sounds like Cincinnati Region is taking a long view of this event and that's A Good Thing. It may not work out the first year, but there is great potential.
Bob...
