SPEEDSHAK":1l1q44yw said:
But all the comp adjustments just handed out should be rescinded.
And you LBC's need to lobby for some help to get your cars up to speed again. Alt motors, whatever. More power and more weight. Its not the same H prod anymore, it wont ever be. And it shouldn't be. We need to structure it to welcome more new cars.
Oh yeah.... Good point... Many track records, including Hussey's in a LBC, still stands at Laguna. And Sargis's at RA... No one has ran a 39 since and it got a weight break????
I'm a hardcore LBC guy and I agree with you 100%. I can remember back in 2005 at MO, there were like 80 Spridgets there at the runoffs in three prod classes, now what are we talking about, maybe 25 on a good year. There are still a lot of guys racing in the regional events in their Spridgets, you see a lot them at MARRS and SARRC events. Every dog has it day in the sun an Lord knows the Spridget has had one hellva run. I think everyone in HP needs to band together to help the LBCs, it will continue to dwindle in numbers in HP, but keeping it competitive for a awhile longer is healthy for the HP class overall. There are options, but outside the normal realm of SCCA thinking, well for prod anyway, larger bores size, as you can convert a 1275 to 1380cc, as well with stroker cranks to as much as 1490cc, so this engine does have displacement options. I think the first logical option is to up the CR one point to 12.0 to 1, this would be easy adjustment for most, just surface the head.
Spridget racing is still very much alive and well, just not in the SCCA as used to be. I've been to several vintage races where in we have 20-25 Spridgets and Spitfires in group 1 FP, when is the last time any of you have seen that many LBC in a single class in a SCCA race. You look around the paddock, and you see the same folks you did at the runoffs a few years back, now vintage racing. I think some think of vintage racing as parade racing, but it has changed greatly in just the last few years, you want to run up front at a big vintage race, you better bring your A game. Also while vintage is way more limited in things like suspension, or body mods, it allows more you can do do to the race engines, so I do things now on regular basis to vintage engines now, that I never could to SCCA prod motor, bigger valves , longer rods, more carbs choices, think of a vintage LBC motor, more like a GTL wet sump motor. For me it is more interesting engine formula to work with. I love the SCCA and always will, but my business, and personal racing in now deeply seeded in vintage racing, as it should be with a car that quickly is approaching being 50 years old
The other thing that astonishes me is that the SCCA did not have the foresight to see how big vintage racing would become, and plug into that, as they already had a ready made market, it has to be one of the biggest blunders of SCCA management of all time.
In closing, you cannot slow down the evolution of what now has became the HP class. It is crazy to keep pounding, and slowing down the new era of cars, all this will do is discourage new blood from entering into the game, at best you can try to speed up the old LBCs, and help them hang on for a little longer. The LBCs have had a 45+ year run, that within itself is almost freaking unbelievable.
