JDChristianson

This is very good perspective. It really only saves points. The cheaper radiator was always available but you had to choose between that and something else to stay in the 500 point limit.

Yep, this is the same broken record conversation that's been going on since we started in 2014. There are not always easy answers to the questions, but a good arms crossed NO would be a good answer more often than its used. So many things have worked through the system one at time, and like you said, they have all added up to faster cars than existed a few years ago. The bucket does fill up and overflow even if its only a drop at a time.

If you were to call out specific swaps, I'd agree. All swaps are not created equal some got special treatment via the fudge factor. Some allow old low power cars to compete. Some of the new cars allowed in at 500 or close to 500 points are pretty darn capable on the straights and corners, so you are not keeping pace with them with 100 or 120 wheel hp.

Any time from this afternoon until petitions are due for next year I suppose

Well lets take any car someone is building, and start adding up what they want to put on to make it fast and reliable. Start at 350 points Swap 100 blah blah blah including a radiator 50points Total 500 Team sitting around after first race "geez it be cool if we had an aero thingy...shush, those are ten points we can't take laps" a Week later TA DA we get 10 points back and can put on the aero thingy Its pretty basic math that even us simpletons from the Midwest can do, and its how we keep adding stuff to the car that has made it faster than it used to be. Troy its ok for you to want it to save money, it also be ok for you to admit it allows teams to put more go fast stuff on their car.

Agree, and everything will be ok. Now some of us sitting around the campfire want to poke at Troy a couple more times.

Free radiator...now more points available for speed parts. Some cars will benefit more than others, but for sure some will benefit.

Yep, I agree. We do not need to go anywhere near where the organization that many of us still belong and participate is. Champcar is about an ocean away from there so a step or so in that direction wont hurt...it could really help. About that other organization, a club does not exist for nearly 80 years by doing everything wrong. Many demonize it, but truly lots of motorsport fun has happened under the SCCA banner for a very very long time.

Chris, you seem to be getting a bit jaded with the idea that members have opinions on things. I hope its just that I'm missing your attempt to be light hearted and keep things in proper perspective. That being said I think you are onto a process that might be helpful. I think petitions should be filtered by the TAC before the BOD even sees them. There might even be a case for a couple more volunteer committees to help out. (maybe a committee focused on the safety issues, keeping TAC focused on the cars) Petitions could be sent to the appropriate committee and reviewed. Some would be denied and a note sent back to the member telling them why, some would go on to the BOD with a recommendation to implement. Delegate Delegate Their are members that are willing to help. Food for thought

Well the team that earned the #1 panel at the championship race smoked through plenty Yokohama's. Not a cheap tire. They are a truly good team and would have had a great finish on Hankooks too, would they have won? We will never know will we.

So should there be any limits? Your stance on tires would be consistent with a no holds barred run what ever you want we don't need no stinking rules series. If there are not limits on tires, why a limit on power? Why limit shocks to non adjustable? Why have a TW limit on the tires? You could still win on 600 TW tires against a field of cars on Hoosiers right? I see it as a good place to limit the cost of racing and maintaining at least a perception of competitive chances for much more of the field. You could bring a $500,000 car to the race and if its limited to somewhere around 10 or 12 to 1 weight to power and can only use (for example) 8 tires during the weekend the team with a well prepared and driven $10,000 car has a pretty decent shot at beating richy rich and his buddies.

Good question. Thoughts I have had are things like monthly, maybe quarterly, news letters (sent via email to all members) with messages from the Chairman of the Board, CEO, and the head of tech. Repeat the really important things that are catching teams out at tech. I'd also like to see an annual survey allowing the membership to give feedback on what they think is the performance level of management on everything from race management, tech, and general membership engagement. Just brainstorming a little. I've always been told that there is always room for improvement.

Yep, spot on Ed. There are tons of reasons that a large percentage are silent on many issues. They range from, they don't really care and just want to make noise with a car for awhile and then have a few cold ones with friends, to they are discouraged and don't feel like their voice is heard in a productive manner. Ultimately I think communication improvement is probably the biggest opportunity for Champcar to improve.

So back on tires.... It seems to me that the board should be able to agree that its in the mission statement to be an affordable race series. It also seems that they could agree that using 3000 to 5000 bucks in a weekend on tires is not consistent with the mission statement. There will ,as so gently stated earlier by a Board member, never be a perfect rule. I think I'm missing something on how we have an imperfect limit on radiators but not one on tire spending limits. It'll all be ok, we're going to go have fun this weekend at Autobahn, but I think it would be good to get out ahead of this issue. Dumping this on race directors to somehow shame a team that is using a truck load of tires seems odd.

@Gkuhn41 get signed up....come whoop our bits again.