How to tell if your in the middle of a VEE battle

[InstinctRacer]

Dave, i ask you for help. It seems that a lot of the ford guys have no idea that they are breaking up a FV race. I ask for help in educating these guys, that a FV is NOT A FF, CF, SF. Usually the puff of smoke, the slow acceleration or a group of 4 or 5 cars nose to tail is a good indication that they are Vee's.

I am not sure why these guys accelerate past 3 of the 4 Vee's in a line and then brake early into the corner, coast through the corner separating the Vee's and then well after the track out of the corner, accelerate.

Basic Vee theory- No acceleration, decent braking, good cornering speeds, so therefore if you pass us on the straight, and then throw out the anchor in the corner, the vee behind is screwed. Cornering speeds are everything.

So i ask that you talk amongst the FF web site and see if there is anything we can do to help. I would love to get our races close together again and not let the results be determined by incompetent drivers. If not i am going to award the Golden Anchor award to the driver that throws it the best, and blows another vee battle.

[qposner]

Good luck, Colin. This battle has been raging for years. The guys in the slow fords will never get it. I have approached some very diplomatically just to have them jump down my throat about how the vees are too aggressive in the corners and jump inside of them (although that will happen when you lift at start/finish at THill). Also, I find alot of these guys really do know they are slow but they have egos that make them believe if they are in a ford (no matter how old and beat up) then they are better than any vee. Just my two cents having been screwed by these guys too many times to count.

[smsazzy]

qposner said:

I have approached some very diplomatically.....

Diplomatically? Sure Quinn.......... :-)

Your version of diplomacy is similar to Maverick and Goose "keeping up foreign relations" with a mig..... :-)

[qposner]

The guns only come out when the guy I am talking to clearly doesn't get it.

[sweenrace]

On the one hand, there's the stick approach with this thing: For the most part i want to wield the stick and punt slow fords off the track (but i and we havent..yet)

Then theres the carrot approach. Frankly, there arent a better group of people in the world than the racers at the track ...regardless of car. That makes me believe that we could actually work together with the fords and actually have some fun and *maybe* increase car counts.

How? If you're a slow guy dont you want to go faster? wouldnt you love a little inside info and coaching from Mr Mccarthy, Mr Cross or Mr Jalen?

Everybody shot me down last year when i suggested it, but here goes again. I think there should be a Vee and Ford Team championship. For fun, lets say we have a fast vee, a slow vee, a fast ford and slow ford on each team. The team get points based on the finishing positions of all their drivers. Do you think the slow ford will stay out of the vee battle when he sees his team mate leading the vee battle? of course he will. It'd work the same way for the slower vee too when the fords come through. All the while they're getting advice from their fast team mate which is making them go faster.

Its a win-win and best of all, because drivers have a little skin in the game it raises awareness. Camaraderie is bound to grow as well.

I probably wont be racing much next year, but I will offer to administer this for a race to see how it goes if there is even a hint of interest.

Ian

[hardingfv32]

Derek and I personally talk to EVERY non Vee driver among the the Vees before each race. We ask if they are having problems with the car or with the track and what they are thinking about for the race. I can say that every CF driver racing among the Vees knows exactly what they are doing. They had been warned the Derek was not going to put up with much and that a Vee is much stronger and cheaper to fix than a FF. Derek and Brian Swanson beat on the same CF both race last weekend. A little physical contact on and off the track is going to be necessary to reestablish respect between Vees and FF. I'm going to start re issuing these warnings on pre grid from now on.

How to deal with slow FF's is just a new skill set every Vee driver must learn. Its not the end of the world.....

Brian

[qposner]

Perhaps we need to bring back the No 440 stickers from 20+ years ago. Only this time a photo of a slow CF with a circle around it and a slash through through the circle. Every time you punt one, you get a sticker! ;-)

[hardingfv32]

That is a fond memory.....Did you have them on your skateboard?

Brian

[qposner]

Was never much of a skater. Was more into RC cars, dirt bikes and my kart. However, I do recall them being on a few vees!

[dave FF 50-aka "Harm"]

OK, guys, I'm not feeling the love.
I really like Ian's approach:
"Then theres the carrot approach. Frankly, there arent a better group of people in the world than the racers at the track ...regardless of car. That makes me believe that we could actually work together with the fords and actually have some fun and *maybe* increase car counts"

If we can work together and increase car counts, it's a win-win. That said, it is an uphill battle because of the huge draw of SM. We all know you can not go any faster for as cheap as you can in a Vee. No dispute. This year in FF, we have tried to increase car counts and reduce racing costs by going to a "spec tire". It's a good, durable tire for as fast as it is. We did not want to slow our cars down OR have to make major changes to run a National. The GY R430 has done that. No suspension or driving technique changes required and we can get more cycles than with a R160. Sadly, we did not increase the car count.

Anyway, back to Colin's original post: I would love to have all racers be more aware. At Sears, Brian's son went to a CF driver and offered help with lines, technique, etc. I think it was well received. The are still some slow CF/FF/Vees/F5s that need coaching. One of my buddies was asking for a point by so we would know if we were seen. The slower driver stated he was not comfortable removing his hands from the steering wheel at speed. For some drivers, I think that the awareness that they are in the middle of a pack of racing Vees is beyond their ability to understand because they are still in survival mode.
I think we should have another driver's meeting @ Laguna and go over some of these points. What do you think?
dave
ps: Colin, what are you doing online at 23:50? What's that, like 11:50 PM? Don't you sleep?

[Bruce]

I go with both Ian and Dave on their suggestions.

[InstinctRacer]

ps: Colin, what are you doing online at 23:50? What's that, like 11:50 PM? Don't you sleep?

you know i have been on a rant the last few days, i love the class and want to be involved, but when the thoughts of selling everything is in my mind, i feel i have to express my opinion first. Plus "cocaine is a hell of a drug" -Rick James

[sweenrace]

"Plus "cocaine is a hell of a drug" -Rick James"

...and its not nearly as addictive or as expensive as racing!