10-02-2006, 02:19 PM
Apoc Wrote:Interesting question,Evan Wrote:2nd largest fields only to 944 cup.
Woo wooooo.... good luck closing it out.
I went back and looked at my finishes after we talked about podiums at the BBQ. I've had a podium in 6 and 4th in another 6 of the 13 points races so far this year. That's not bad considering some of the guys I'm racing against but it's not nearly as good as you're doing in SM. I've often wondered how I'd do in HC but never really gave SM much thought. Do you contribute your success to being a quick study, natural talent, n00b fields or some other intangible? Obviously the easy answer is natural talent but I'm curious what you honestly think is the main factor in your success.
There were about 4-5 rookies this year in SM, so it wasnt a huge group of n00bs out there.
Overall I think that nasa SM has a typical distribution of talent comparable to any other well subscribed class.
You have your slow people, mostly midpack guys, and then just a handful of really fast people. Our really fast people have stacked up admirably to the SCCA fast people when they show up for our races but usually not quite enough to beat them. We (me, tyler, and doug) can usually match their laptimes. The DC SSM champ has shown up to several races, and I have beat him once and he beat me once (with some great battling). But overall while we arent too far away, I dont think our field quite matches the SCCA fields, but that is expected.
I use SCCA as a benchmark because it is one of the most competitive SM playgrounds in the country with some VERY fast national champ caliber drivers. Unfortunately this leads to the arms race of $8k engines which skews the comparison (thankfully we dont have that arms race in nasa yet)
Unfortunately my motor is sick right now, I was looking forward to comparing my laptimes this october to the scca october race.
Id actually love to race in a 944cup race sometime, I love big fields and Im curious how the driving and competition is in your class. Didnt one of the Zalner brothers race 944cup for a season or 2? Those guys are crazy fast.
I actually dont believe in natural talent in a purely "natural" sense. There is nothing natural in our DNA about piloting a vehicle. I believe that the percieved "talent" of a driver is really how fast they learn, how fast they can process the data coming at them and how quickly they can interpret that and use it to be faster. End result is of course the same so "call it what you will" but I think the difference is that if you think of it this way, you can improve and work on your "natural talent" as opposed to just thinking its something you are born with. (so call it "quick study")
Id like to think I have more of this natural ability than most racers, but I dont have any delusions of grandeur of being the next Senna. (but hey, I am pretty good in the rain so who knows
)so rambling aside and to make a short answer long, I think my success this year has been mainly to experience combined with a little of that talent stuff. Im a rookie racing, but had done about 30 DE weekends in a miata before I started racing so that really helped with the learning curve.
I do think I still have much to learn in the area of racecraft, passing, defending etc. I can turn some of the fastest lap times on the track, but getting by someone ahead of me is definately a challenge.
(this is what happens when you get me thinking about something, you get pages and pages of response
)