Potomac-Greg

I only get to the track two or three weekends per year, and I have no more than one or two days free for track prepping the car. That's the time element. Maybe I'm wrong, but 6 to 8 available days a year seems too few to make the leap to racing. And I'm not saying I'm too important to make more time. I've got three little kids and that's my first priority. Swim meets, soccer games, etc. The good news is that little kids become big kids.

From a mechanical/logistical standpoint, I do not have garage / driveway space for a track car or trailer, and I couldn't imagine having a track car that sat idle 355 days a year. So, my track car is also a weekend car or backup car, and I like it that way. When I'm ready to go racing, I'll either need to be renting the race car or relocated to an area where owning/storing a car and trailer is more feasible.

PS: Why does it make people so uncomfortable when a thread goes on so long? It's a conversation. This topic allowed some folks to vent, and others to consider their positions. It's all good from my point of view.

gums

Because in the grand scheme of things, DE just doesn't matter.
And neither does Club Racing.

BlueRiver86

In that case maybe you should give Ron Dennis a call.

C.J. Ichiban

lol

DrJupeman

Sounds good to me. I think the more dedicated car thing is the biggest factor. If you weren't too hung up on ultimate preparation, I think you could do racing without any more of a time commitment than DE.

C.J. Ichiban

or you could just sell the car and go arrive and drive racing. it's the least amount of physical time requirement and headache. you fly somewhere, practice, race, go home. very easy but can get costly depending on how optimistic you are about your skill level.

Brian P

Maybe this thread is simply titled incorrectly, as I don't know many people who "put down DE". However, I do know MANY racers who would choose to do a CR over doing a DE even though the CR costs significantly more. And, if you ask them why, you may get an answer that sounds a lot like they are "putting down DE" if they don't have the time to discuss it in detail...

Basically though, it is this...
1) No passing zones. Passing someone who is slower than you who doesn't want you to pass is not a skill you can learn at a DE
2) Better competition. I firmly believe that only the top 5% of DE drivers would be better than DFL at a race.
3) More equal competition. In a stock F class car, there is almost nobody at a DE driving a car similar to mine.
4) Race starts. ('Nuff said)

I'm sure there are other reasons that people choose to race rather than do DE's.

Bull

Brian, you are changing the question again so that you can give your answer. But thanks for letting us know "why Brian races"!

I'm fairly certain the original poster knew exactly what question he wanted to ask...and did!

Matt

For the life of me I can't make any sense out of the initial point of this thread.

I've done more than 150 DE days with a number of diffferent organizations. Some of the people I run with are racers, some are not. Plenty of folks I have instructed with for years are seasoned club racers, and beyond. Many are not. None of them, not one, not any, has expressed any opinion that I've heard of that DE is some inferior form of life. If someone did, he/she would be roundly discredited and ignored. Nobody I know gives a **** about that kind of attitude or anyone who might have it.

In this case, maybe some insecure ******* who happens to club race said something derogatory about DE. The only reason I can think of for anyone to respond to that with anything other than "try to grow out of your childhood some day, you immature git" is insecurity on the part of the person who felt slighted by the remark.

This is the diplomatic version of my response. If you want the straight talk version, let me know.

BobbyC

Mark in Baltimore

I vote straight talk!

ZAPmobile

Bull,

Indeed, you are absolutely right! Hit it right on the nail head!




Matt,

There are many reasons why I started this thread, but one of the most important is indicated below...



I had detected a disturbing trend on some of the answers to assorted questions on the forum. Many people ask about tires, cars, brakes, etc. and are looking for answers. Unfortunately, a lot of times, those answers come in the form of a thinly veiled put-down of "You're only doing DE; why do you need R-compound tires, upgrades to suspension?" etc., etc. "I'm racing, so I am all-knowing, and because you're just doing DE, you don't need these things."

I thought it was time to open up a discussion and hopefully make people more aware that we need to help each other out, not put each other down. Again, as I have stated before, we all started out somewhere, hopefully with the mentoring or kindness of one who knew more than we did. Now, it's the turn of those who have experience to mentor and help out those who are now starting out.

It doesn't matter if you race or do DE. If you can help another RennLister out, do so with knowledge and experience, not with put-downs. I was hoping to change a few attitudes with this discussion. With the numbers who have viewed this thread, clearly, I struck a chord.

BostonDMD

Amen to that...........

Larry Herman

Arnie, I think that there is another underlying truth here, and that seems to be that a significant number of DE drivers ask how to make their car faster, while it seems like it is the racers who more often ask how to make their driving faster.

Part of the problem is that we are dealing with a very ego-centric sport, and we are all guilty of some degree of egotism. Everyone wants to be fast. With DE's, it is hard to separate the driver from the car and so car mods seem to take on a greater purpose than it should IMHO. With class racing, it is easy to separate the driver from the car, and so there is much less BS as to who is quick, and who is not.

That certainly could be another reason for friction between SOME racers and DE guys. I do agree that MOST put-downs are unwarranted.

Veloce Raptor

Larry makes a good point. This past weekend, we had an unusually large number of 997TT's, 997GT3's, and GT2's in our White (most advanced student) group. these folks--nice guys all--were F1 World Champions on the straightaways, but were surprisingly slow in the corners, especialy the fast sweepers for which TWS is known & loved. I was out with them--it was remarkabls. These cars all had a variety of go-faster and handle-better modifications....but the DROVERS were a bit short of resources. Unsurprisingly, they also chose not to show up for any of our White classroom sessions.....which ALWAYS focus on the DROVER.