Thread: IMSA USCC in 2016 and 2017
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Old 22 Mar 2017, 14:14 (Ref:3720651)   #5248
jimclark
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Originally Posted by Maelochs View Post
Sometimes this place reminds me of an IndyCar site, where everyone lives in the past, and everyone’s favorite era is the only “Real” IndyCar racing, and was far and away the best. IndyCar fans spent so much time living in the past they nearly lost the actual series which (shocking news to many) exists in the present.

Surprise, surprise, once some IndyCar fans started appreciating the rpesent, the series started to do better financially and was able to make small improvements—a long way from what fans ultimately want (I think we all want Can-Am back) but steps in the right direction.

We have the opportunity to do the same here with sports cars.

The old guys can just walk into the room and start spraying urine in every direction, because that’s all any part of sports car racing is good for any more, compared to the glorious past (by which they mean either when they were nine and impressed by the cars and simply didn’t know about the politics, which has always been there, or some later age, usually late teens to early twenties, where they have chosen to forget all the politics, the dull races, the two-thirds of the grid filled with cars unlikely to finish and totally without a chance to win.)

The people who grew up watching sports cars on TV have forgotten that for most of its history, “sports car racing” was sitting on a hillside overlooking two corners and waiting, and “Timing and Scoring” was your pen and notebook.

people who complain about the lack of close finishes (who also complain about artificial close finishes) forget that in the various “Golden Eras” it was not unusual for the top three cars to each be three laps apart. That was “The Real Stuff’ but somehow a 13-second margin of victory after 12 hours is just too much. The race sucked.

People who find that they are no longer as interested in racing shouldn’t keep trying to find interest here. Take a break. YouTube old races. Get together with other people who dimly remember some imaginary perfect pass and you can all p!$$ on the present together. It’ll be fun!

We all can pretty much figure what kind of season this will be. There is a range of possibilities, sure ... IMSA could go heavy-handed and frequent with BoP, teams could drop out .... or, it could be “Which Cadillac?” or every other team might suddenly find the answers and we might have the whole field in each class GTLM-close.

GTL—who knows? Maybe Ford won’t get all the BoP breaks. Maybe Corvette and Porsche will find the right set-ups. it is hard to beat a bespoke prototype in a GT, though .... Reminds me of NASCAR in the ‘60s when manufacturers were building “specials” with giant engines and slick bodywork.

Anyway .... for those who have not figured it out, there will Never be “The Perfect Race” unless it has already happened and you have videotape. otherwise, we all have to live in dirty reality, full of compromises.

There is a fine line here, between criticizing with an eye towards improving, and using racing as a target for all of life’s disappointments.

We had a da**ed good race last Saturday (and Friday as well.) It was not perfect but it was a good race.

None of us are going to be happier because we refuse to enjoy what is there, just because it is not perfect.

I'd say more except for that Non-Disclosure Agreement I signed.
Yaddi, yaddi, yaddi.....
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