Colin makes some interesting points and the in class vs in group racing question has certainly been discussed at leangth and should continue to be. I now have the interesting perspective of having seen the problem from just about every angle possible from the seat of a racecar.
1) I used to race in Group 5 in a car that was originally mid to back of the Group and over a couple seasons developed to pretty close to front of the Group. In these situations you have cars that can be very similar in overall lap times that cannot really get away from each other but are not competing in the same class. This could get frustrating some times because although the lap times were similar, the cars were frequently fast on different parts of the track. This can lead to some good racing, but ultimately can lead to mismatches that slow BOTH cars. A car that slips by on horsepower down the straight but can't maintain as high mid-corner speeds slows down the handling car. A car that brakes and corners better gets inside the horsepower car and forces him to take a non-preffered line and kills his exit speed so he can't get onto the straight as quickly and pull that pass down at the far end.
2) Driving in a stock car in Group 1 has been quite an experience and points out the absolute best and worst that drivers in cars with vastly different performance potentials can accomplish. With Pro-3 putting so many competitive cars on the grid at every race we find ourselves with 40 and 50 car grids and over 10 seconds per lap between the faster cars and the slower cars. In the beginning when there were few Groundpounders, we used to be extremely careful about getting into Pro-3 battles. They often get 3 and 4 car clusters battling for position all around the track so we would zoom up, let them contest a corner, then squirt by with the least amount of impact down the straight so they can fight it out. As our numbers have grown the Pro-3 guys for the most part have returned the favor - now when one of us comes on a battle we wait until the next straight so we don't scramble their order. When they see two of us coming and they are fairly well sorted, they try to yield the fast line so we can go through quickly without scrambling our race. In the absolute best example of cooperation I think I have ever seen, I was racing closely with another fast mover at Pacific. A group of 4 Pro-3 cars running nose to tail through 5b saw us coming and ran the outside line through 6 and 7 allowing us to shoot through without them lifting at all, and without us lifting at all. Bravo - and it is a testament to great awareness of both windshield and mirrors.
3) I got a chance to see how te other side lives at the last IRDC race. I have been too busy travelling for work and simply didn't have time to prep my car. I came out and was assisting the rest of our fine IRDC volunteers, workers, comittee people, and Board members in putting on the race and realized I didn't want to pass one more long cold winter without having gotten on track at the IRDCs final race of the season. Bob Mearns was standing nearby and offered to run home and load his Pro-3 car and have it ready for me first AM on Sunday morning. After a bit of hemming and hawing, I took him up on the offer and Boy! was it an eye opener. When Manfred Duske drove one for the first time earlier this year supporting the Nascar race at Portland he was asked how it compared with his stock car. His response was "apart from having no power and no grip it's really a lot of fun!" I know exactly what he means now. Let me assure you - the guys who are going quick in these cars are squeezing pretty much all of the performance available out of the envelope. At the front I'm guessing one mistake probably costs 3 or 4 postions in the blink of an eye. At some point in the second half of the race Randy Blaylock and Ron Rouse were having a nice high speed battle and caught me on the backstraight. The car I was racing with and I immediately moved drivers right and I gave an early point by out the window. Randy and Ron moved left, mashed the throttle and were headed by when suddenly Randy caught hard brakes and dropped behind me again. What he saw was a car that was moving slow entering the 5a on drivers right and if he and Ron had stuffed themselves in there it would have caused a potential furball that would have certainly caused kaos in several good races and potentially contact in a bad area. THey had the line and every right to take those spots onthe track but instead they dropped in line, everyone single filed past the slower car, the Pro-3 resumed drivers right out of 6 and the Groundpounders resumed their run with no more than a safe breath of air and a moment of relaxation. Yes, I have been in positions that were stupidly risky, pointless, or even potentially dangerous because of bad driver judgement but for every one of those I am in 20 situations where I am amazed by the skill, awareness and consideration of those racing around me.
So, I guess what I am saying is that while we would all like to be abe to be racing door handle to door handle with the guys we are closest to in class points battles or measuring ourselves against those in our class its hard sometimes to ask others to suspend their race to make that possible. From what I'm seeing most drivers appear to be making a genuine effort to not only help keep their fellow drivers safe but also to allow them to pursue in-class races as best they can. In the end I think it is kind of like big time mixed class championships you see on TV like Rolex or ALMS. Yes - racing head to head with people in your class is a measure of your abilities, but how you manage non in-class traffic and your abilities to qualify with your class so you don't end up starting the race among out of class cars are also a fair test of the skills required to win championships. Last but not least - a really close race long battle, even if it is with a car that is not in your class, is a heck of a lot of fun isn't it? Especially if you cross the line ahead of them of course ....
Thanks to all who supported our IRDC races this year - get out there to ORP, win some Championships and we look forward to seeing you all again next year - maybe it's your Championship year!