[Scott231]

I would like to discuss some of your fact-based points below:

Originally Posted by Race Jace

The TSM class has been wildly successful. What is the definition of successful? The answer is participation. It has had the most participation of any class. Why have there been so many participants up to this point? Because the class was evenly matched. Half of the 24 car field was within a half of a second in e.t. and the e.t. that defined the class was at an achievable performance level. This meant that it could have been anyone’s day to shine.

You nailed that Jason! And as I recall, you were the man to beat in year one. Obviously you must have more of the times run that year available to you but what Lonnie and I have noticed over the last four years (attending 4 or more events a year) is that everyone is stepping up their game and going faster, and that the field is getting tighter every year.

Originally Posted by Race Jace

Until recently there were no mega dollar cars with unlimited budgets running outrageous untouchable E.T.s

I would have to respectfully disagree. Dave Bamford was one of the first three people to enter the innaugral 2002 TSM points chase. His first pass at Norwalk that year was a 10.20 that cut up a slick to the point that he was done for the weekend. Roy Garcia showed up the next year and started a 2 year stint of putting the TSM world on fire for iron headed cars. As I recall, he and Dave battled it out in Reynolds 2003, both throwing down some 9.50's. If you think Roy did that on a shoestring budget you are mistaken. In 2004 Dick Kearney joined the crowd. You wanna discuss whether his car is or is not "mega dollar"?

Originally Posted by Race Jace

Luckily there are a few people in higher up places <snip> that can see beyond the hood of one car. They are concerned with where this class is going and where the competitive performance level is going to be set.

I am one of the people concerned with the speed of these cars and was more than glad to memorialize the 3.5" downpipe rule in the point series as an attempt to "choke off some of the potential of these motors. What I hear from TSM Point Seris racers more than any other comment, is that they want the rules left alone. As such, the only thing different for 2006 for the point series was to clarify in writing that distributors are allowed (as they fit the original definition of Factory Stock Appearing '81-'87 Regal items, that the GS club wisely added to their heads up class rules a long time ago), I deleted some language regarding safety issues (it is not my job to tell a racer that his car is or is not legally safe to race) and clarified that CO2 is legal to use.

Originally Posted by race jace

If there is one incident that stands out that contributed the most on the decision of what to do with distributors<snip>

Yes there was quite a bit of discussion about the dstributor, but by year's end, the controversy had died down and no one proposed a ban on such piece. Add to that the fact that there are at least 6 people that have converted to distributors for next year's TSM races.

There are some things that really need to be addressed. The main one is TSM rule submittal and evaluation protocol. There is not a standardized way of submitting rule changes and having participants (all of the participants) contribute to each and every ruling.

Please advise as to whether you are referring to the rules at Bowling Green or the TSM Point Series. The GS CA did create a specific procedure this summer. Like its posting of the Heads Up rules prior to the BG event, its announcement of the new procedure was done over the internet. As the new TSM Race Rules Administrator, I posted in the GS Nationals Race section of the club's bulleting board announcing my selection as such and solicited comments about the TSM rules on the club's bulleting board (actually I just copied the post that the new TSS RRA had posted in the same forum.) For the point series, I posted the proposals for 2006 on T6P for everyone to see and comment thereon (instead of only including the registered point series racers as had been done in previous years.) I too have many phone numbers in my address book and talked to several TSM racers over the year on the phone. Some of those discussions led to clarifications in the rules for the Point Series...but no outright performance-effecting rule changes.

As the TSM RRA for the Bowling Green event, I did not receive any comments about TSM rule changes for that race. So when the deadline passed, I sent an e-mail to the Race Rules Chairman (as the club requested me to do) stating that there were NO changes submitted and, by way of courtesy, I included the TSM Point Series rules in a Word document to point out the clarifications that were being identified for the Series.

So the quesiton remains, if someone/anyone was interested in having a rule or rules changed, why didn't they say so? My phone number is posted on the old gnttype-TSM website, my e-mail addresses are well-known and lots of the Ohio racers know where I live (semi-annual get togethers). Not only am I not hard to contact, I love to talk Buicks with people.