Friends and Family Speech

#1

Between all the threads around about how to measure camber angles, HP, shock valving to control cheating, the threads around what is contact and incidents and appropriate penalites and now the threads around how to handle a couple of off-road excursions which impacted race results… I’ve got a concern.

When I joined the SPEC E30 group 4 years ago, it was my first entry into big-time racing. From the start, I was amazed at the overall friendship, camaraderie, willingness to help and general attitude that racing should be competitive but fun.

Granted the group was small and certainly the numbers of entrants that we have now makes for much more excitement during the race. I do however want all of us to remind ourselves that we are here as amateurs and likely no one is getting a NEXTEL CUP ride out of a Saturday/Sunday performance. I would hate to see the group lose that good stuff we had early by putting to much emphasis on the WIN if it means cheating, overly agressive driving or generally exhibiting poor sportsmanship. If we find ourselves involved in a situation that is your fault either by making a poor decision in the heat of battle or purely by accident, do the right thing by admitting your mistake. We should also all try and utilize our series directors as defined if we have a situation that needs attention rather than backroom discussions, random forum barbs, etc.

Sorry to get on the soapbox (which I rarely do) but I really want to try and keep the stuff that was good early on going. I don’t want to get to where we have 4 different paddock locations because one group can’t stand the other group.

Enough said for one post.

Brandon and I had a GREAT time this weekend. Hope everyone has fun at Roebling!

Keith

#2

Well Said. And nice lap in Sunday’s race:P
I’m sure Brandon loves letting you take the credit for his work. :wink:

#3

Well said, although I do believe as the numbers grow we will experience growing pains it just the nature of racing and it happens to nearly every successful series. Hopefully we can all try to keep it grassroots and keep the big family, helping hand type atmosphere around. We’ll just have to see.

#4

Quoting from Kieth, "The group was small…"

I think that about sums it up.

While we all wish for everyone to "Just get along," the growth of the series equates to more chances for disagreements. Wish I had an answer.

Regards, Robert Patton

#5

yep, i agree with Patton (as much as i hate to do it :stuck_out_tongue: )…as the series grows you will definitely see more "drama"

my advice is to not worry too much about the off track drama, especially on the interweb…you’ll still be racing with the same fantastic group of people that will do everything they can to help you at the track, then have fun racing you on the track, and then share beers and tall tales after the races…

most of you know how much off track drama we have with bmw club racing (especially in certain classes, lol!), including the forums and email lists…i hate all that crap but i know that as soon as i get to the track, usually all of that BS is gone…

#6

I think we are doing pretty good for the amount of growth, I really dont think we have attracted anyone with the win at all cost attitude. I also think the amount of checking done to the cars is about right, we dont want people looking in and thinking they can come to the series and get away with anything. A cheater car would be pretty obvious with how familar everyone is with shift points and brake points at the tracks. With as close and hard as we run there is going to be contact but hopefully it will not get to the point where cars are disabled, that should be dealt with pretty harshly. Overall I have had a blast at every Spec e30 race this year, and will keep coming back.

Al