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Impound inspections are different.  Competitor protests are open to interpretation, while maybe impound protests maybe more black and white.

It was a impound DSQ.  Not a competitor protest.  I believe these are handled differently, right ?

Maybe like if a car was underweight for a class. 

 

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Trying to get faster

Surferjer:

If this was truly not a performance-enhancing mod, then Andy should have appealed instead of giving stuff back.  How many other protests in recent years were upheld but no penalty because the violation was not performance enhancing?  GS last year comes to mind, and that was questionable.  This is an over-reaction and Andy will probably walk away from the sport, which is a shame.  My 2 cents. 

You have to consider the emotional state I was in, and the time pressure.  I was devastated and not thinking very clearly, but I had one hour to decide and the banquet had already started.  And I really wanted those guys to have their moment on stage, so I needed to figure out where I thought this was going to end, as opposed to fighting for my life. 

Given where we are today, I have now had second-thoughts about the decision.  Still, the one measurable stack, of the two checked, was slightly too large (.008") so I was already over the line on that one.  I'd like to have measured all 16 of them to see if this was an outlier due to the scoring/scraping affecting the measurement, or if they were all slightly over the line.  I seriously considered staying another day and even discussed impounding the car with Doug since we had to leave the site.  With the benefit of hindsight (and emotional clearing) the best approach would have been to do both (give everything away and impound/inspect the whole motor).

As for walking away, no chance.  I love the pure essence of autocross too much to do that.  We already decided to not travel next year (we usually do 2-3 years hard, then two easy), so this just confirmed it. That said, I'm getting all kinds of interesting ride offers so who knows?  Being a car-ho is kind of appealing.

--Andy

Andy,

Thanks for the correction to my aging memory. I turn 50 next Saturday...at least I sill remember how to turn left and right.

 Was that the "cone" shaped one? I did get that one.

 Hope this works out in the end with some reasonable reflection from the forum participants.

 Alan

I'll pm you.

amccrispin:

 Was that the "cone" shaped one? I did get that one.

 

Yes, that's the one.

--Andy

amccrispin:

Hope this works out in the end with some reasonable reflection from the forum participants.

 Alan

I'm guessing you believe in Santa, the Tooth Fairy, and the Easter Bunny, too.

 I'm pretty sure that those people have thought all along that Andy has been cheating, and just finally got caught. If they concentrated more on their driving than wagging their mouths (or their fingers on keys), they might be better drivers. 

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David Avard
89 Honda Civic Si black (STS)
07 Mazda 3s (HS?)

http://sccaforums.com/forums/permalink/322182/322182/ShowThread.aspx#322182

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"Understeer is when you hit the wall with the front of the car and oversteer is when you hit the wall with the rear of the car.
Horsepower is how fast you hit the wall, torque is how far you take the wall with you." --Anonymous

Nit picky Solo 2 protest do nothing but hurt the image of the program. This is the EXACT type of BS that keeps a lot of people from competing in the Solo 2 community, the message we are sending to outsiders is the Solo 2 program is full of a bunch of whiners who will protest their way to a victory.  There is one thing to enforce rules that provide an unfair advantage over the competition but to strip Andy of his victory over a non factory approved repair is beyond silly and unnecessary. Unfortunately for Andy his previous protest over a head gasket sets the precedences for his jury and trial in this matter, but that's irony in this case.

Those running the solo 2 program really need to step back and give some discretion in cases like this. I'm sure between a few level headed officials they can easily come to a conclusion if a modification/repair gives any performance advantage. If no advantage is apparent the competitor needs to be issued a requirement to fix the issue before the car can compete in the next event or the car WILL be DSQ before it even runs.

The program does not need this kind of social black eye. Everyone is too busy reading the letter of the law and not looking at the spirit of the law. THe rules are there to make sure people don't develop a unfair advanatge thru loop holes. The rules aren't there to lynch it's competitors.

AndyB:

Nit picky Solo 2 protest do nothing but hurt the image of the program.

Not arguing with you on the nitpicky protests, but afaik this wasn't a protest. It was a mandated check by the SEB of the top 5 cars in STS. Had it been another class that had this check done, no one would have ever known the difference on Andy's car. I'm not saying Andy's car was legal, but I do believe that this "check" was a valid check, though an unfortunate one for Andy.

 

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buy my book
project350z.com

In one of the two protest threads I made a comment about the class relationship of Tim Herron and Andy Hollis being direct competitors. It has been brought to my attention that they do not compete in the same class. So -- sorry about the factual errors on my part. That said, I'll stand on the rest of what I said about Andy and Tim. Thank you, Steve.

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Bob Buxbaum
Lee's Summit, Mo.

Can't wait for Lincoln 2010 !!!!!

I'm not trying to throw fuel on the fire, just posting my observation from the Pro Solo Finale Super Challenge....

In fairly dry conditions Andy's STS civic was keeping up with Chris Travis' SM civic in a straight line at the start (I was working corner 1). I would have thought a SM civic would be faster in a straight line.

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Chapter 11 Racing
Win or Go Broke Tryin'
www.chapter11racing.com

Interesting observation Aaron.

But the really interesting thing here is that you are able to obviously function with more salt in your body than the Dead Sea.

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Trying to get faster

David Lehman:

Interesting observation Aaron.

But the really interesting thing here is that you are able to obviously function with more salt in your body than the Dead Sea.

And the Salt Lake and Bonneville Salt Flats combined.

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Chapter 11 Racing
Win or Go Broke Tryin'
www.chapter11racing.com

Wow !!!!  You hit the nail right on the head, i couldn't agree more

AndyB:

Nit picky Solo 2 protest do nothing but hurt the image of the program. This is the EXACT type of BS that keeps a lot of people from competing in the Solo 2 community, the message we are sending to outsiders is the Solo 2 program is full of a bunch of whiners who will protest their way to a victory.  There is one thing to enforce rules that provide an unfair advantage over the competition but to strip Andy of his victory over a non factory approved repair is beyond silly and unnecessary. Unfortunately for Andy his previous protest over a head gasket sets the precedences for his jury and trial in this matter, but that's irony in this case.

Those running the solo 2 program really need to step back and give some discretion in cases like this. I'm sure between a few level headed officials they can easily come to a conclusion if a modification/repair gives any performance advantage. If no advantage is apparent the competitor needs to be issued a requirement to fix the issue before the car can compete in the next event or the car WILL be DSQ before it even runs.

The program does not need this kind of social black eye. Everyone is too busy reading the letter of the law and not looking at the spirit of the law. THe rules are there to make sure people don't develop a unfair advanatge thru loop holes. The rules aren't there to lynch it's competitors.

Bob Seelig related a story to me one night at dinner, where Salt Boy Boltman also was in attendence. (Salt Boy---because like I said before---Aaron puts a crazy amount of salt on his food)

 

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Trying to get faster

 

I don't know the history everone speaks of but would like to just out of curiosity.

 

My understanding is that everyone knew ahead of time that the valve covers would be pulled. If Andy knew of the illegal parts why not remove them ahead of time? Logic might seem to point that he simply didn't know about it.......?

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DSP 325IS.