Originally posted by Knestis:
It helps me resolve the issue to remind myself that we started out as a handful of sportsmen - a "club" that was generally exclusive, in the sense that it had no inclination to allow in anyone who didn't adhere to its norms. I seem to recall something about applications for SCCA membership requiring letters of recommendation of existing members...
Whoa Kirk. Yes, this is how the club was formed some 50 odd years ago. But all that has been changed for some time. The club and the people in it has changed dramatically since that time. Live in the present, not the past.
Originally posted by Knestis:
The SCCA system of "competition adjustments" is based in a paradigm much like that of golf handicaps: A sociological approach to leveling the field. A formulaic system of classification flies in the face of that norm, since it is a technological solution to the problem.
A formula won't be accepted in IT because constituents raised in the handicapping environment are relatively happy with the status quo.
I think you are missing a very important fact here. IT has been wildly successful as a category. It still is. Membership feedback continues to tell us (the ITAC) that they (the members) are overall generally quite happy with IT and don't screw it up. Instituting a classification formula now, after 20 plus years of IT racing with great success would turn it on it's ear.
This is the reason Kirk. It may not suit you, and indeed there are others it doesn't suit, but IT cannot be all things to all people. The club is not going to risk totally screwing up a category that is
still wildly successful. That is the culture we are talking about. Not some weird elitest mentality.
Furthermore, there are people out there (myself and at least one other member of the ITAC that I know of) who would support the MT proposal of a year or two ago. I would be inclined to build a car for it. I think MT would be even more successful than IT. But someone has to start it. I'm not going to. I'm too far along with my IT car right now and I have devoted what volunteer administrative time I have to the ITAC. But if you were to make a serious effort at launching MT, I would not only get the word out, but support it strongly. Are you willing to make happen what you feel should happen? How strongly do you believe in this?
Originally posted by Knestis:
There are however other options emerging in the marketplace of racing organizations. (Note that I pointedly did not use the word "clubs.") Is the club going to adapt to this changing context? Does it WANT to? The answer might be "no" and that's fine if it's what the members want.
The club is working on listening much closer to not only what the members want now, but to try to figure out what they will want tomorrow. I've said it before and will say it again, Steve Johnson is changing the culture in the SCCA and while yes, some of the old culture still exists, change is happening. And it's very positive change.
Originally posted by Knestis:
Yeah, the top of the ITA hierarchy is going to LOOK a lot like IT2 would have but I still think that we missed an opportunity to fundamentally change the clubbie handicapping paradigm, if only in ONE class, at a time when a huge group - an entire market segment of cars - was marginalized by the existing system.
Kirk, all I can say is you put together a very workable set of rules for MT. If you believe what you write, make it happen. I'll go so far to say that if the SCCA didn't help, NASA would. I'd hope the SCCA would help put this together. I'd personally lobby the CRB to try to get the regions to support it rather than lose out to NASA. It won't happen overnight and you'd have to invest some personal time and commitment to making it happen, but I'd bet big-time that's how IT got started.
Originally posted by Knestis:
It's is not the case that a formula "can't work." It is true that this organization won't LET it work.
Oh Kirk, that is pure horsepucky. Put your money where your mouth is and do something. And so the literalists on this forum don't get the wrong idea, I don't mean for you to literally fund the creation of MT. I meant invest your time and effort.
A mathematical formula isn't going to happen in IT, not because a bunch of elistests in a smoke filled room hate it, but because the membership doesn't want IT screwd up. So launch MT already. I think it's a brilliant formula and lobbying for a mathematical formula in IT is no more than pissing in the wind at this point.
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George Roffe
Houston, TX
84 944 ITS car under construction
92 ITS Sentra SE-R occasionally borrowed
http://www.nissport.com
[This message has been edited by Geo (edited April 18, 2004).]
[This message has been edited by Geo (edited April 18, 2004).]
