racingspridget":1cr5nvye said:
As I said in my earlier post....Glen Cameron readily admits he leaves something on the table in the driving department. So lets look at Harold Fletcher. He and his car are as developed as any Midget/Sprite in the country. Can we agree on that point? Now look at his times versus the fast lap times from every Runoffs at RA. The closest he ever got was 4.4seconds off the pole. The worst year he was 9.6 seconds off. And I think 2010 demonstates his willingness to drive at or beyond the car's limit.
It's amazing how convincing you can make it look, when you fail to tell the entire story, or really even an accurate one. Where do you even come up with these numbers? But yes, ok, lets look at Harold then. I have been fortunate enough to spend a little bit of time with Harold over my couple of years in FP, as he's always been more than willing to talk with me, invite me into his paddock for a beer, and I've always enjoyed just listening to anything he is willing to share with me. He's a class act and a legend in the class, there's no doubt about that, and there are few racers out there that I respect more than him. So yes, lets...
At the 2009 Runoffs, Harold made his first ever trip to Road America. The first session was a down pour, so he didn't go out. The second session he had an issue, and only turned one lap, for a 3:12.213. On the third and final session, Harold turned 8 laps, and his fastest of a 2:37.033 came on his final one. That was 5.4 seconds off of Sargis' pole time, a guy who was on his home track, while Harold had now turned
maybe six laps at speed there, ever. Harold lined up 12th for the race, and finished 7th, getting beat to the line by Bill Wessel for 6th by just 0.059 of a second. He ran a fastest lap of 2:35.164, on the 13th and final lap of the race,
only 1.113 seconds behind the fastest lap of the entire race. It was faster than my fastest lap that year. And at that point, he had ran 20 hot laps around Road America, at best. A damn fine showing, IMHO.
He came back in 2010. He went out in the first session and did five laps, but it was wet and no one went quickly. In the second session, he ran six laps, with a fastest of a 2:39.544. Unfortunately, he spent much of that session looking for some clean track, and he went for it on lap seven. He has even said himself that he had a great lap going, at least into the 2:34's, so he kept his foot in it through the kink. As we all know, it resulted in a crash. He hasn't ran another lap there since. So yes, Harold did show on the grid sheet as having qualified with that 2:39 lap time, 8.755 seconds off the pole that year, but that is completely meaningless. By that time, he had shown good promise to get into the 2:34's (what if he had finished that lap?), and had done maybe 25 laps at speed around that track - that's less then two race distances. Lets also keep in mind that Sargis' pole time that year was 2.5 seconds faster than
anyone, and was the driving reason for why it was given weight over that winter, and that time has not been replicated since. Just for fun, lets say Harold did complete that lap for a 2:34.5 - that would've put him 6th on grid. Had he been able to do that during the race, he very well could've ended up on the podium.
It should also be known that during that time from 2009 through 2010, Harold had only been able to run about 4 races per year, just enough to get qualified for the Runoffs. He was incredibly busy with work, his service to the IEEE, and traveling a lot. He was the first person to admit that he wasn't able to commit much time to racing, and when he did get to the track, he was more concerned with just getting his finishes in, then actually racing hard and continuing his development of both the car and the driver. It's unfortunate, as that's the reality of life sometimes, but that's quite the contrary to what many of the guys who've been and have become front runners in FP over the past couple of years, were doing over that time. They were running a lot of races, many of them on Road America, and were doing a lot of development to their driver & car combos.
Last week, I qualified 6th for the Runoffs at a 2:34.7, and there's no doubt in my mind that had Harold been able and willing to continue his development and time with Road America, to the same level that he was able to when he was winning Runoffs Championships, that he would've out qualfiied me. But, I also wasn't around then, so I guess I can't honestly say that. But I'd be willing to bet it.
