Quote:
Originally Posted by MattR
Also, just to clear up what went down with Paul Jensen in the TFS Mitsubishi. It was brought to my attention by Kevin that Paul was running an illegal intake on his "Stock" class Mitubishi. Dean made it very clear to Paul at the last race that this part needed to go, well, Paul didn;t change it, and we felt this is a glaring rules violation, and called him on it.
The result, Paul was classed in RNP (run no points) today, and will have two options for future events, he can either take off his intake and go to stock, or he can run in the proper class which should be TBSP maybe. Otherwise, I will be protesting him, as will others in Street tire I'm sure. It's important to me that we have consistency when it comes to rules enforcement, unfortunatley, it's an honor code based system, and Paul chose to sidestep the system.
What are your thoughts everyone? Scott, Mike K, Dean? I'm curious.
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I've always been under the impression that Paul's simply a good driver. To find out he's been running an illegal car ever since forever is really dissapointing. All the hard work that I and the rest of the street tire drivers (and anyone going after overall PAX) have put forth seems to be for not, since we've been getting beat by a cheater car. It really leaves a bad taste in my mouth to realize how many points I've missed out on over the last 2 years because Paul can't play by the rules.
Not knowing the mods on your car or the rules is inexcusable for a driver that consistantly places in the top of his class. And moreover, Paul had been specifically warned at the Divisional 3 weeks ago that his car wasn't legal, even if he was truely ignorant of the situation beforehand. Furthermore, I'm hearing from people that know these cars that he's likely got additional mods, as those 3000GT's shouldn't be as quick as Paul's seems to be... but that's not something we'll ever know unless someone that knows what to look for is willing to spring for the protest.
The more I think about this situation, the more furious I get. This is not the sort of thing that happens in the Reno SCCA. Cheating like this simply doesn't happen in our region... sure there's good competition here, but it's *always* within the rules. To find out that this is and has been going on makes me feel betrayed. It's unfortunate that the rules require a protest to be entered during or immediately an event, because Paul can basically tell all of his competitors to fuck off and keep all his undeserved points. The honorable thing for Paul to do would be to vollentarily reclass himself properly, not only in the future, but retroactively for the 1st half of the season. Anything less than that is selfish and absolutely contrary to the environment of friendly competition that Reno SCCA has worked extremely hard to foster.
What I can't understand is why anyone would continue to compete when in clear violation of the rules. What goos is winning a trophy if you broke the rules to get it? You might as well just go on down to the trophy store and buy a bunch. There's no value to victory if your competitors don't recognize your achievement. I really don't care if Paul or anyone else beats me... as long as they do it withing the rules. Placing less than 1st is just incentive for me to go faster next time... But getting beat by someone that's cheating just makes a mockery of the sport. Why should I bother trying so hard, working so hard, spending so much money, only to attempt to match someone that doesn't even have enough respect for the sport to play by the rules. What a waste of my time.
Situations like this really burn me up. It's one thing to be a newbie and simply not know the rules. It's also not such a big deal if someone's clearly not competative to have some minor things done. But in this particular case, the driver is a class leader with modifications that clearly give him a huge advantage. There's a reason that the 3000GT goes from FS to BSP... it responds *very* well to power modifications (especially exhaust mods, or so I've heard, which is why I think there more going on here than just the intake). Imagine racing against a Street Prepared C4 Corvette with a .779 PAX instead of the correct .812 factor. That's a 2 second head start on a 60 second course! That essentially what we're up against when Paul runs his TBSP 3000GT in TFS.
Ugh. Now I'm all worked up. I hope we can get this resolved painlessly. I'm hesitant to believe that Paul will take the high road on this considering is was his lack of ethics that got us into this situation, but perhaps he can prove me wrong, step up, and re-class himself so we can compete on a level playing field. 'Course it doesn't ease my mind that he showed up late, ran out of class, and didn't bother to work... that's not exactly an example of someone that's here for the group. Oh sure he said he'd help clean up... but at 4:30 when I'm the only one out at the bus in 105 deg weather on an aluminum ladder tearing down the timing displays, he was in his car on the freeway heading home. :roll:
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