I heard a complaint yesterday, I'll leave the person unidentified, regarding the NEETS rules...and frankly I agree with him.
The complaint was that the NEETS Rules are getting out of hand and the COST to build and maintain a car with stock features by OUR rules is sky rocketing and it's "Getting ridiculous"..."We're building race cars"...
I agree that the costs to build/maintain cars is going up....both economically and by what our rules mandate...but, where do we find relief?
First and foremost, this DOES NOT INVOLVE SAFETY REGULATIONS!!!!
Safety comes first and that is that....
The biggest issue here is that I believe WE the officials are going about creating the RULES the wrong way... The past two years we have held a rules meeting at the end of the season to let drivers discuss and suggest rules...typically 25-35 people would attend... Since we started letting the DRIVERS opt-in and opt-out certain regulations/specifications, we've seen a decline in car counts and an increase in car construction/maintenance costs...
Should WE, the officials, re-write the rules as we see fit and hand them down once and for all...no discussion?
- or -
Continue to hold a rules meeting allowing drivers to alter some rules as they are the ones who are primarily affected by the change?
We've always tried to work WITH you the driver to allow whatever idea you may have a chance to fly... Secondary radiators...trans coolers...rims...vacuum...ride height...etc... I want to see that you're happy with the rules and not just say "it is what it is...". Remember, you have to abide by them!
The rules used to be VERY general and left wide open with gray areas...we've been slowly trying to weed out some of these gray areas, but every now and then Rick, Tech Official, will come up to me and say... "Driver of the #XX Car is running whatever part and it's not stock...but it is not in our rule book to say otherwise...this is giving him a big advantage...before he had this he was finishing top 15 each race, now he won two in a row...his lap times have increased by a few seconds and nothing else has been changed on the car". Rick will approach drivers with caution almost negotiating legality of the part just to prevent a DQ even before the race, however there is a limit on how much can be done.... When a part is not legal...it is not legal. When the car pulls 14 inches of vacuum...it is not legal. We've given drivers the opportunity to make things right in the car after a race...as in, bring it back to the way it ran on the track...NOT A CHANCE TO MAKE IT LEGAL...
All of this can go away and we can make the rules a one page rulebook again and just say "Cars must be stock - legality determined by Tech Official"...period... A lot of people will be complaining about who is running what part off of what other car and there may not be anything we can say about it since the rules will be so broad....ask Uncle Petey about abuse of those gray areas!
As always....it is YOUR series, you choose how you want the rules to go for next year. One thing though...no matter what happens, we will NOT be putting rules in place that will force everyone to change their cars around......
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