FAST 2019 Rule Changes

[Loren]

Only one change for the 2019 season:

S5 will now be SCCA H Street cars with up to 195 width tires OR stock width, which ever is greater. Exceeding the tire limit, they can run in S4.

[jaball77]

Only one change for the 2019 season:

S5 will now be SCCA H Street cars with up to 195 width tires OR stock width, which ever is greater. Exceeding the tire limit, they can run in S4.

[03svtfocus]

I think I'll keep the svt focus in s4 for now. Want to fix some small things (rear o2 sensor, general tune up, new rsb bushings) to ensure I'm getting all of the factory power and get seat time. Forcing myself to try and get to Philip speeds/times will make me improve as a driver.

[Loren]

You can still target Philip's times... While trophying in S5. No shame in that.

[twistedwankel]

Street Tires?
Made it past all the “stock” qualifiers? Good, now let’s look at your tires. This is simple. If they are DOT approved and their treadwear rating is 140 or greater (check the sidewalls), we consider them street tires. (NOTE: A handful of cars come from the factory with tires that do not meet this qualification. It’s a big deal to us! If your tires have less than 140 treadwear, sorry, you can’t compete in a street tire class.)

This rule did not change. Last year I chose to run 100 wear tires simply because they properly fit my new wider wheels where 200q tires were not wide enough to even be safe. No biggie I ran in "R" as required.

So this year I found a set of tires that fit properly but are 140q. No problem I'll still be able to run in S1 for the rest of the season when/and if I get them.

Herein lies a potential problem running two heats per day a lot of us do not get to see what tires our class competitors are running. It's not even reasonable to ask the Safety Inspectors to have a list of cars and confirm the tire rules are being met. I rarely even know which cars are in my class as there are so many different ones and I don't see who's beating me from the morning anyhow. S5 has a 195mm wide rule which also needs to be watched?
S5 Class Rules
HS cars may “bump down” to S5 if they have a tire size no wider than either 195 or the widest factory-available size (whichever is greater), and have no limited slip differential other than a factory Viscous type. High probability a person read this rule to sign up for S5!!

So how do we monitor a random mistake? Any number of folks only casually run with FAST and don't read all the rules as they are not in the points and are there for practice and/or fun and otherwise are properly classed. Or I guess we can just not worry about it? What's one less point in an event (or 2 if a two driver car). One can only see that a car they saw in grid with under 140q tires is in the Results which is too late to do anything about anyhow.
Which is yet another rule.

[Loren]

I get what you're saying. In a "competitor policed" rule set with split-session events, it's easy to miss the random car that's running in your class that shouldn't be for whatever reason. But, it's really only a problem when the car in question (usually someone new) is actually finishing high in the class, which doesn't happen too often. And if it does, people are usually looking a little closer at their car. So, it's really only a true "problem" once or twice per year where something gets missed, and it might actually affect someone's trophy finish for the season.

We're open to suggestions, of course. But, the simplest solution is two-fold:

1) Watch the people in your class, make sure all of those cars are properly classed. Don't go overboard with it, we don't want to seem unfriendly and "all ate up with rules" to the noobs. But, you should be able to easily identify obvious misclassings and get them sorted out. Most people DO want to follow the rules.

2) Enlist someone in your class (or even not in your class) who is running in the session that you're not running to do the same. That way you have eyes on all of the drivers in your class in both sessions.

I think if the 5 drivers among our 80-90 FAST regulars who are worried about stuff like this do that... we'll be good to go!