A letter of concurrance...
Would it not be wise for all proponents of the Geartronics system (or the like) to formulate an articulate letter to be signed by many and forwarded to the appropriate parties to save people's investments and perhaps even save this great new racing
catagory?
I know this will be a little like the writing of the U.S. Constitution (there'll be endless quibling over the fine points and verbiage, etc.), but at some point -- if the letter is logical, well thought through and the suggestions are as fair to as many people as they possibly can be fair to, the splitting of hairs will ultimately stop and people will sign on.
A letter with the signatures of the vast ponderance of the actual show-up-and-race participants in the catagory can't help but carry some weight.
I think it's probably very hard for the CRB or the Board of Directors to understand the idiosyncracies of Formula B cars and their inexpensive but hard-to-shift stock motorcycle transmissions. It should also be pointed out that D/SR is probably not a good precedent to follow (in reference to gear changing systems) in that the D/SR powertrain prep rules are wholly different from our catagory -- and that those differences have far-reaching ramifications that aren't fully apparant on a cursory
look.
Although it's been tried before and has met with something less that total
success, I would hope something like this might help in getting this terrible
hiccup to go away. It's so damned unhealthy for this cool but still fledgling class.
The powers need to know: FB is a unique class with unique needs.
No one knows those unique needs better than those on the front lines in the catagory. A letter should be carefully written and signed by those folks.
Christopher Crowe
Wording and sentence structure
I was going to stay totally out of this, but since the subject of wording has finally been brought up:
Let's look at the wording and exactly how it is presented:
D. All gear changes must be initiated by the driver. Mechanical gear
shifters, direct-acting electric solenoid shifters, air-shifters and
similar devices are permitted. Devices that allow pre-selected gear
changes are prohibited.
Now break it into its parts according to the manner in which it is punctuated:
The sole "must" item:
- All gear changes must be initiated by the driver.
What types are allowed:
- Mechanical gear shifters
- direct-acting electric solenoid shifters
- air-shifters and similar devices
The sole "must not" item:
- Devices that allow pre-selected gear changes
Now analyze the parts:
All gear changes must be initiated by the driver
- Since the driver has to flip or trigger a switch to initiate the shifting sequence, the Geartronics is legal.
Mechanical gear shifters
The geartronics is not "mechanical" in the sense being used here (linkages, cables, etc), so this portion of the sentence is irrelevant.
direct-acting electric solenoid shifters
The Geartronics is an air shifter arrangement I believe, so this portion of the sentence is irrelevant.
Further, this portion of the sentence indicates that ONLY electric solenoids can be "direct acting" since that allowance/restriction was not extended to air solenoids in the next portion of the sentence. The Geartronics also does not violate that restriction since the signal generated by the driver at the paddle goes to a CPU that in turn generates the signal that triggers the rest of the sequence.
For an air shifter system to be "direct acting" the driver controls would have to consist of air valves plumbed directly to the air solenoids.
air-shifters and similar devices
The Geartronics is an air shifter system, and therefore legal per this portion of the sentence.
__________________________________________________ ___________________
I believe that this is how the Board of Appeals would most likely break it down when presented with a protest appeal, and if so, is the same manner in which you need to look at it yourself, never mind when actually writing the rule.
Obviously, some would insist that the caveat "direct acting" applies to all solenoid types. In that case, the guiding principal has to be the manner in which the Club has interpreted similar sentence structure in the past. Unfortunately, since the Club still does not see fit to provide a "Legislative History" library to guide us, we are at the mercy of the ever-changing individuals that make up the Stewards and Board of Appeals.