[F500] Solo Nationals Downer

[Jeff Blumenthal]

Hard to believe it happened...I've been reading about the Howell Jones
Sportmanship award but it seems that not everyone in the class
understands what Sportsmanship means.

We just completed the first day of the Solo2 Nationals in Topeka. And,
for all practical purposes, the last day too.  After running our heat I
spent the next 6 hours in Impound and Protest hearings. At impound we
heard there were protests being filed on approximately 8 cars, for
various "technical" problems. One way or the other, only 3 protests were
finally filed (by the same individual(s).  Two of the protests were for
length of exhaust and one was for width violation. The width violation
was thrown out, having no basis in fact. The two cars protested for
exhaust length violations were upheld. The only reason they were
*illegal* is that the owners had both installed silencers and the
additional length extended past the legal 24" limit. Gee, these guys
only did it to be less offensive sounding...certainly they did not gain
any performance by adding a muffler! Regardless, the SCCA protest
committee ruled them illegal and disqualified them! After appeal, both
drivers were given a 10 second penalty....sounds like the appeal board
just rubbed salt in the wound! Certainly a 10 second penalty in
autocross is just about the same as DSQ.  The two drivers affected by
this were John Whitling (current National Champ, and Stuart Phipps (who
did a great job and was in 2nd place by only 0.001 seconds after the
first day of competition). Instead of enjoying themselves and the
competition, both are now on their way home.
   Since my car had a mechanical problem, I took my last run in Stuart's
car. And my co-driver to his run in John's car. Both of us received the
same penalty as John and Stuart. No sour grapes...just reporting the
sorry facts.
To me, the most unfortunate part of this story is that, in the spirit of
Sportsmanship, earlier in the day I urged the protestor to simply advise
anyone he felt was "illegal" so they would have an opportunity to
correct it. He said he did but I later found out his statement was
false. I know that John Whitling and Stuart Phipps installed their
mufflers purely as a sound control. It is not likely they gained no
performance advantage (if anything, they probably lost performanc), nor
were they aware of any rules violation. They were severly penalized; in
my opinion, excessively penalized. And, had the protestor been truly
interested in serving the good of the class, he simply could have
advised John and Stuart of the rules infraction while we were in grid,
prior to the competition. Each of them could have corrected the problem
in less than 2 minutes by simply removing the silencers. Instead, they
are on their way home and the rest of the competitors wasted hours in
impound/protest, as well as questioning why we made the effort to travel
accross the country for this event. There certainly will be fewer top
F500 competitors at Topeka next year. Maybe that's the only way Clint
McMahan will be able to win his championship.
  I think Howell Jones understood what Sportsmanship means.  I hope this
experience at the Solo Nationals doesn't ruin a class that I previously
enjoyed participating in.

Congratulations to Chuck Voboril for an outstanding performance today.
He and Stuart would have had a great battle for the Championship. Since
I spent the day in impound/protest, I'm sorry but I don't have the other
meaningful results. I do know that Gary Kramar was also very close to
the top.

I hope that the Runoffs next week are filled with fun for everyone and
void of the type of petty vindictiveness we experienced in Topeka today.


Also heading home early....
 -Jeff Blumenthal
   FM14  KBS Mk7
   soon to be Rotax powered.....