"Due to a combination of factors I was unable to make even one race this year, that sucks but what can you do. I plan on racing again next year. If I go to a race and find my competitors all have disc's it will most likely mean I stop racing again until I can spend the money and time it will take to make the conversion. I'm not getting any younger and every year I don't race or race very little is one year of racing I'll never see again. Does anyone think I'm the only person racing vee's that feels this way? How about the guys that are getting older but still want to race? Even if they have the money they may not want to spend it on an upgrade that does not give them a performance advantage. Maybe that becomes the deciding factor to retire the vee and get something they can take to a car show instead?"
I totally understand everything you said (and been there many times over almost 40 years), but would like you to consider the following points:
1. You don't say exactly when you started racing but let's say it was 1990. If we had changed to discs in 1989 (over 25 years from the beginning of the class) that's all you would have known
2. Things that you probably have never known:
Fan cooloing
Z bar (non zero roll suspension)
Stock front dampers
non cambered front bushings
Stock valve springs (RPM limit 5800)
Treaded tires
3. Things you have always known
Fire systems
Proper fuel Cells
Forced air cooling
Adjustable mono shocks (zero roll)
Offset front shock mounts
Blueprinted gearboxes
The aforementioned custom brake pad material
Radios and telemetry (although not everyone uses them)
blueprinted manifolds.......
Slick tires (that for a while changed EVERY year)
Full roll hoop for safety
and other things I have forgotten
When these last thinks came out, they all had an effect on the racers.
If done right (a big assumption I admit) and the cars go no faster, then you will still be running with the people you are running with now.
I am sorry if the next bit offends some people - if you are 2 seconds or more off the leader's pace, disc brakes will not make a damn bit of difference and it would be a waste of your time to spend the money to make the change. There is something else holding you back.
Right now Michael Varacins is 1 second faster than the entire field at Indy. I hope that closes by race time, but it is not because he has anything different than everyone else. It is because he has worked harder.
You cannot "buy" a win in FV. You can buy new tires, you can buy a good engine, you can do more test days. But there is nothing you can "buy" that will guarantee you to be faster than everyone else. Guys with new tires and the best engine still finish 5th.
Next year some Spec Racers will have to buy a 15K kit to upgrade their cars. Many FF guys have spent 5 - 10K to convert to a Honda.
People race for different reasons. Formula Vee is the most inexpensive way to get on a race track and race wheel to wheel and be able to fairly compare yourself to other drivers. But it is not free. Here in the NE we treat every driver, from the fastest to the slowest with respect because they made the effort to be there - and that is more than 99.999% of the population.
ChrisZ