Originally Posted by Mattmac05:
Go spend two weeks with a new team that is trying to keep up with the teams that have been doing it for 20 years. One more constant really helpes those new teams. But, you may not like leveling the playing field both on an economic and experience scale. So you will probably just end up complaining and wondering why so many teams stop doing it. When those teams work 50 hours a week on their job, then spend all weekend at the track learning,struggling, and burning through money they might eventually call it quits because it isn't fun anymore. I have a hard time calling any racer who pays for, works on, and drives their own equipment lazy....
I've been racing for more than 30 years and I think its sad that a new generation thinks they shouldn't have to pay their dues, to put in the time and effort to learn, like those that went before them. Its totally fair for someone with experience to have an edge over someone who doesn't, that's why its called experience. Everybody starts out new(green), you make your mistakes, you learn your lessons. Too many young people these days expect they should be ushered to the front of the line, just because they are young. What I love about racing in contrast to other sports, we don't give trophies out to everyone because you showed up and participated... Maybe the new teams you mentioned should take your advice and spend 2 weeks with the guys who've been doing it for 20 years instead of rewriting the rules to accommodate their lack of knowledge and motivation. I've been the new guy, everybody has, but I didn't ask to have the rules rewritten to accommodate my skill level, I read, I asked questions and I took the time to learn. One thing that a very experienced racer told me when I was starting out, and its the same for most everyone, "If racing were easy, everyone would do it." - Leon Sells
You see racing is more like real life than the xbox games and sports this younger generation are use to. There are no do overs, no cheats to win the game or give unlimited lives. Racing as in life, requires hard work, sacrifice, dedication and experience to have success. The mistake most make in racing is not racing a class they can actually afford, I read an article several years ago that said a lot of teams are 2 sometimes 3 classes above what their budget would support. Everybody works in racing, 50 hours actually sounds like a nice week, let me know when you start having to do 6 or 7, 12 hour days and racing must stop completely until further notice.... Learn to be fast, learn about attracting and keeping sponsors, put in the time, it won't always be fun, but that my friend is life.
Back in 07' and 08' I was helping out on a crate late model team and we had an HOF driver, we raced 2-3 times a week and won at least 1 show a week and ran 2nd or 3rd in the others. I had a younger guy come up to me that was racing against us that was furious about his tire expenses, he said that the tires were terrible and he was having to put on (2)new rears every race and that it wasn't fair(this was with a tire rule). I looked at him and told him, you may want to look at your setup or how your driving the car because we were getting 2 races out of our RR tire and 3-4 out of the other 3 and winning, he was barely in the top 5 and running new rubber every race... Just because having an open tire rule makes it where you can run "new" rubber whenever you want, doesn't mean its always an advantage or necessary.
Budget minded teams learn how to maximize their resources, use different grooving techniques and grinding to extend tire life. You learn you don't leave tires out in the sun, don't wash tires with "simple green" type cleaners because it pulls the oils out of the rubber and on and on. If your a new team with limited experience, instead of trying to, "monkey see-monkey do" what the experienced guys are doing, put yourself on a tire rule, focus on learning to drive and setup the car correctly instead of trying to match components. A go-pro would have been a God send back when I was coming up or video on phones, you can learn so much. Compare what your car looks like going around the track compared to the fast guys, if you or your driver isn't driving the car correctly tire rules won't fix your issues. Now I'm not saying its a talent issue, its a technique issue, which takes practice to get it right, "perfect practice", not doing it wrong over and over. If your the driver find someone who'll be honest with you and watch you drive and tell you what your doing wrong. Don't make excuses, be honest with yourself.