NZ Tintop future?2017-->

[Icarus_nz]

Originally Posted by Mark Petch

Icarus, I agree with your entire post including the paragraph in Bold even though it may be aimed at me, but I am OK with that, and hey if in 3 years time its uncompetitive so be it its still a bloody nice piece of kit to own.

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In truth, no. There was no specific target for my comment, just a personal observation about what I can see happening across the water and in small part here.

What I was referring to, was the people with lesser ability who wish to build or buy a better tool than everybody else and give themselves a leg up.

Plenty of folks see it differently but you've been a guy who has always tried to tick as many boxes as possible.
Quality equipment, Good engines, sufficient consumables, a good standard of people supporting the effort. But most critically, you've always ensured you had high quality drivers.

As history shows, doing more things right than your competitors equals achievement.

Before I get beaten to death for that statement and various (bitter) versions of history get rehashed, can I say that the view above is generic.
You could say the same thing about T8.

The GT model is worth looking at however.
Obviously the great unwashed on the banking like them but they don't pay the bills so I'm less interest in trying to understand them for now.

What is interesting is the fact that many people are prepared to spend large and have a crack.

Some observations:
They look cool, they sound cool and its always nice to tell someone you own a superwhizbang$$$ than a FalcodoreCivicibishi

The driver aids mean the difference between a gentleman racer and properly skilled race driver is less than in a full 'analogue' car. So to say 'I was lapping within 3 seconds of SVG' feels better than having to admit to being 7 sec slower than some spotty kid.

The Pro-Am format is attractive because of the chance to talk rubbish with real stars and name drop away from the meeting

The compulsary timed pit stop was the best trick.
Instead of spending your day driving round the back, at the end of the pit stop cycle, despite knowing the reasons why you were suddenly up the race order, you'd just feel great about yourself for a while. And hence you'd come back again.

Humans are funny old animals. We respond to emotional inputs far more than hard facts and logic.
Administrators and organisers would do well to remember this and ensure competitors feel loved and wanted - even (especially) when they are behaving like spoiled childeren.

I see the CMC guys (and others) having a BBQ and a laugh at the end of the day, creating an inclusive environment.

We're all doing this because we want to. Lets create more reasons to want to do this instead of something else.
There is your path to bigger grids and more interest for spectators.



PS - Mark, do you still have that Viper? How would that go against GT machinery?