Does anyone race to finish 2nd?

[Redracer77]

My Uncle is racing in the Classic F3 Gold Cup at Oulton Park next week and he has been asked not to race by the organiser!!!

The organiser (not going to mention his name) said it was because he was too quick and he had had complaints from other drivers that Rob would walk away with it and make everyone look bad...

He also said that Classic F3 is not about winning but about the event - Does anyone race not to win? All but one don't win but it is everyones goal is it not?

They think Rob is just coming out to pot hunt. That is not the case he has just been very busy with work this year and Oulton is his home circuit so he doing this and Djon (not sure how it is spelt). You can't stop someone from winning if they are good. The other drivers just need to drive quicker!!!

I hope Rob wins by miles

[kickstart]

The Classic F3 club is a strange beast. They must either be the rudest club around or the most inefficent. I and my mechanic have over the past year e-mailed nearly everyone on the website (some more than once) in order to see if we could run our 1982 F3 car on an invitation basis in the odd race - never even had the courtesy of a reply.
Oh well we will have to suffer racing the car out in the South of France instead.

I find it strange that they think a legal F3 car should not race even if it might run away with the race - I saw Richard Trottman (spelling ?) at Castle Combe and he was no slouch.

On your point about trying to win - I'm not sure I agree most of the races that I take part in I would guess that excepting a big accident maybe only 5 cars could win irrespective of the drivers - hence the rest just enjoy their own battles. Personally I couldn't care if I come 5th or 15th provided I have had a pleasant weekend.

[Redracer77]

Originally posted by kickstart


On your point about trying to win - I'm not sure I agree most of the races that I take part in I would guess that excepting a big accident maybe only 5 cars could win irrespective of the drivers - hence the rest just enjoy their own battles. Personally I couldn't care if I come 5th or 15th provided I have had a pleasant weekend.

I do agree with above.

I also emailed them to get an entry for the Gold Cup but I mentioned Rob in the email so that maybe explains why I also didn't get a reply!!!

See you at Pau and Spa etc

[Al Weyman]

I don't think it matters too much about winning (just as well as I would ever have started) but I think what is important is that you are in a car that had a chance of winning. There is nothing as depressing to enter a race knowing you don't have a candle in the winds chance of a result and are there to make up the numbers, you just end up think, why bother. If the fact is your uncle is a better driver and gets results that way I agree with you 100%, if however it is by virtue of vastly superior machinery maybe the organisers, instead of asking him not to turn up, slowed his car down a little with some ballast or what ever as it is a historic series after all.

Some friends and I have fallen foul in the past to these 'invitation' events (saloons but same difference) and I am not sure such events should be sanctioned. They should either be open to everyone who wants to compete and to a set of regulations or not run, there is after all too much racing formula at the moment or so we are told.

[Slippy Diff]

A friend of mine was once asked not to drive too quickly in a race so as not to embarass the ferrari drivers at a high profile historic meeting. I think he told them to shove it where the sun don't shine and went home.

[Slippy Diff]

Why not tell them that he will not race too hard, but then go out and get his foot in the fan?? That would annoy them even more, great!!!!

[Redracer77]

Originally posted by Al Weyman
If the fact is your uncle is a better driver and gets results that way I agree with you 100%, if however it is by virtue of vastly superior machinery maybe the organisers, instead of asking him not to turn up, slowed his car down a little with some ballast or what ever as it is a historic series after all.

He is a good driver but not as good as he used to be. The car is just very well looked after. He has owned it since Derek Daly raced in the British F3 Championship in it in 1977. It still looks new today. It is his little baby and preped perfectly with a great amount of attention to detail.

I am sure a lot of people would be quick in it but Rob has developed the car for the last 28 odd years!!!

He won the Pau Classic F3 Grand Prix in it last year

[Redracer77]

After the phone call he did just what I would have done....

Rang Avon and ordered a new set of tyres!!!

[diz]

Cheap Race Meeting 4/5 December Anglesey.
2 races there for Open Single Seaters upto 2000cc. Rob would be very welcome to take part.
Must remember to ballast Pikey.

[D-Type]

He should just go out there and race. And then on the finishing straight pull over and let the world go by.

[zefarelly]

the other way of dealing with the problem is to vet the race entries accordingly . . .it seems to be happening right under my nose.

[ianselva]

I think there is a difference between accepting that except under bizarre circumstances you are not going to win, but will try and beat everyone you can , and not trying to win.
In the car I race this year I don't expect I will ever win until the class changes next year , but I stil make every effort to be as far up the finishing order as possible.
I don't think I have ever not tried to win even,if I only had a small chance. The nearest was when a timekeeping error gave the class win to someone else at Nurburgring , but as the other guy was celebrating racing the same car there for 25 years , I didn't bother to protest.

[zefarelly]

Agreed Ianselva, My cars never going to win an outright race against certain others in our field, I should however be able to compete for class honours, all things being equal, for me to get a top ten is an achievement, a class win even better, and I'll always attempt to do that, even (as my last race) if it means a DNF rather than dropping down the field (although I could have calmed down and not killed my engine !)