Dan, I'm with Andy on his whole premise, too. And I agree with you and Ben. I, too, have a bias against allowing non-IT cars into a series designed to showcase IT cars, unless it's of value to the series.
But let's not try to justify our biases with silly illogical excuses.
I've been around long enough to where I'd heard the same things before. Seems to me I heard a lot of grousing about the Bus Stop Chicane at Watkins Glen (and this is someone who almost got killed there before the Chicane after completely losing brakes at ~130mpg: me.) I seem to recall someone saying it would destroy the character of a key area of the track and take away one of the most challenging corners in racing. No lie. And I personally remember - and personally said - things about how the dogleg at Road Atlanta (10A/10 would decimate a defining characteristic of that track and make Turn 12 a piece of cake, no-lift pussy corner. And of course, though I've not driven them there's the "variantes" at Imola, the neutering of Hockenheim, and of course the cutting off of the balls on the long LeMans straight, among other historic tracks.
But, you know what, in the end I still hear people talking about all those tracks with reverence and awe, and as far as I can tell they're not hurting for competitors to show up.
And I challenge anyone to call the Carousel at WGI or T12 at Road Atlanta "easy".
And here's the really cool thing about this proposal at Lime Rock: It's optional, you can always run it the other way any time you want. You can't do that at Imola or Hockenheim...
Try "cowgirl", it's fun and not too traumatic.
GA
But let's not try to justify our biases with silly illogical excuses.
Here's something funny ("ironic" funny, not "hah hah" funny).One driver's opinion: I will never, ever run Lime Rock in the Pro configuration.
I've been around long enough to where I'd heard the same things before. Seems to me I heard a lot of grousing about the Bus Stop Chicane at Watkins Glen (and this is someone who almost got killed there before the Chicane after completely losing brakes at ~130mpg: me.) I seem to recall someone saying it would destroy the character of a key area of the track and take away one of the most challenging corners in racing. No lie. And I personally remember - and personally said - things about how the dogleg at Road Atlanta (10A/10 would decimate a defining characteristic of that track and make Turn 12 a piece of cake, no-lift pussy corner. And of course, though I've not driven them there's the "variantes" at Imola, the neutering of Hockenheim, and of course the cutting off of the balls on the long LeMans straight, among other historic tracks.
But, you know what, in the end I still hear people talking about all those tracks with reverence and awe, and as far as I can tell they're not hurting for competitors to show up.
And I challenge anyone to call the Carousel at WGI or T12 at Road Atlanta "easy".
And here's the really cool thing about this proposal at Lime Rock: It's optional, you can always run it the other way any time you want. You can't do that at Imola or Hockenheim...
Try "cowgirl", it's fun and not too traumatic.
Ok, that got a laugh...I have a new name for Andy's proposed ProIT...
GA