pro or clubman

[barriesmalley]

hi sciro. sorry to hear you have been injured, hope you recover soon, i have to say i fully agree with you with your comments about close racing, jack has had some great races with gary and yourself and a couple of other lads,its just that i wonder why some of the lads that race here don't come any more. could it be they dont like the constant changing of the layout, jack doesn't like the reverse carousel for instance but it does'nt stop him coming ? hope to see you in september.

regards barrie.

[Heavy-35]

Hi Barrie and jack glad to here you are all repaired and ready for the next round.
Just to comment on pro/clubs this topic is quite a heavily debated one amongst a lot of the drivers some say that they should stay in clubmans because if they go into pros they can't compete because of the money spent on engines by the front runners and wont go home with a trophy, well boo hoo!! Most clubs get up to practice Thursday nights so no excuse there! Most have spent money and have very good engines with dyno readouts 5.3 etc or if they havnt spent the money I know they have had very experienced people sort out there engines, so are these people really novices or do they like collecting CLUBMAN trophys instead of trying to win a PRO trophy and only getting 5th but no trophy. I know that if I was 20kg lighter I would be sighning in as a pro no matter where i finish, as I just come to enjoy having a race with someone, yes we all would love to do well and to do well consistantly but it's not I don't think about taking a trophy home.

With regards to losing genuine novices/clubmans I have noticed and have previously commented on this and feel the reason is exactly the same as the clubmans at presant and this is they can't compete and don't bother coming again, they have said they can't compete with other clubmans doing eg: 31.4 whilst they are around the eg: 32.00 the times most clubmans do at presant should be considered pro times and rated accordingly. An idea for Nick could be that if you havnt registered as pro on the day but get within eg: 4 tenths of the fastest man then you become a pro for the day . Cheers Gaz

[Heavy-35]

just finished watching the F1 and just realised what's wrong with the way it's ran, after seeing the inconsistancy and the lack of being able to compete with the front runners Schumacher should ask F1 bosses if they can run a clubmans class because when he raced before he always use to get a trophy sorry had to have a dig cheers

[Kart60Crew]

Hi Gary

I know we disagree on this and have resisted commenting but suppose i should add my (friendly but differing) thoughts:

Re the F1 - the natural extrapolation of that view would be to say that we only have one race one class. So would have to do away with Clubman's & Pro's altogether?

I would also disagree that the number of karters is linked to difficulty of racing in the Clubman class. I use PFI as my basis for that view. They regularly get around 30 - 40 on the grid in Clubmans . This seems steady year on year but less than last year. I put this down to either them introducing a Novice class or the economy as I know we aren't spending anywhere near what we spent last year. So, where we raced at 2 clubs we only really race at one now. The difference from front to rear of Clubmans is around 2 - 3 seconds at PFI . This doesn't seem to be putting off people from racing there.

For us we can only get to Stretton once a month for practice and occaisionally twice so can't get the same practice, and therefore consistency, in as others that have more time or money to get there more frequently.

One thought though - not sure if this is relevant but at PFI they tend to start the races later in the morning. they run a few corporates first then start race day. This makes it far easier for us that live further afield. Stretton is quite an early start and maybe that puts some people off? Also, the cost at Stretton is very similar to PFI but PFI is an international class track with all mod cons etc. So you can see why it would be good at attracting good grids. I do actually think Stretton is better as the atmosphere and race is great but I can see why some peoples heads are turned to PFI with similar prices.

Lastly, if you force people into Pros that aren't ready then you create the same situation as for the novices. I guess what you really need is some rules. i.e the top x karters in the championship have to move up each year. Or may be so many wins / 2nd places etc if not doing the whole year. Some clear black & white rules would be good that everyone agrees to and is aware of. (unless you are Ferrari of course and then you can break rules as you want!!)

Looking forward to the next race!

[barriesmalley]

hey gaz, as you and jack are always near the back of the grid, does that mean on the reverse carousel we should get a trophy , i'm sorry i stirred up a hornets nest, i just wondered how they distinguished the running at stretton. i believe that if anyone gets consistant lap times that are above the average clubmans lap times then they should be classed as pro's.or the first three places in clubmans last year should automatically go up to pro's this year.

[sciroccokarter]

Wo wo wo, re pfi, I'm in Clubman, and the difference from the front to the back of it, is around 1 - 1.5 second - if you look at the results (which never get published in a timely fashion - that's where Stretton is top). I'm actually thinking of dropping into the rookie class - not to get trophies, but because I think the racing will be better - I like making my way through the pack rather than trying to hang onto the back of other drivers! And I don't think you can compare the circuits, if you make a mistake at Pfi you can generally carry on...Stretton on the other hand. F1 in monaco compared with F1 in KL - yep completely different.

I think the pace at Stretton from the front pro's to the back clubman's is very close :)

[Crazy Chris]

I hate to chuck a spaner in the works but ..................................................................... if you had subaru engines then its jus down to the driver and not how much money spent im not the graetest but still manage to get mid field :) and spent about 200 quid so far this season and thats only chains hubs sprockets etc and a couple of cans of oil