Original poster here (tallguy).
I didn't mean to push anyone's buttons. Honestly. I've been to Bonneville
a few times, and may someday race there. I am very thankful to all the
volunteers, racers, crew members, SCTA, BLM, etc. for all the great racing
that goes on, and for keeping it all relatively safe (statistically, anyway). I
have no quarrel with any of this. And it wasn't my intent to appear that I would
want to -- or could -- DEPRIVE anybody of anything just by staying home.
I'll try to explain what my intended message was . . .
Watching a race vehicle begin its run doesn't seem as exciting to me
(because it's not that fast, near the start, and is going away), compared
to watching the vehicle go by at hundreds of miles an hour. I am aware
that the "barrier" kept me perhaps a thousand feet away from the race
lane. No problem there. I wouldn't want to be hit by a vehicle.
But if I can't watch from a similar place as before, then I won't have the
(perhaps historical) experience, for example, of clearly seeing a motorcycle
drive by at 400+ mph, the first ever to do so.
I never wanted to come across as a whiner in all this. And I was never a
poor sport: the type to say "it's my ball -- if you don't like the way I play,
I'm gonna take my ball home, depriving you all of the opportunity to play"
I made an assumption (right or wrong) that if the course is in good condition,
Speed Week doesn't change drastically from year to year (regarding what the vehicles
look like, and how they perform, with the exception of records being broken -- and
good luck to all the racers and crews!
For me, it would be particularly meaningful to watch the making of history that is of
specific interest to me. An example would be the first 400+ mph run by a motorcycle.
If I offended anyone by posting, I humbly hereby apologize. And I never meant to
demean anyone or their efforts. I appreciate it takes a lot of time and money to
go fast -- as well as a lot of discipline, sacrifice, problem-solving, etc. -- and I am
a mechanical engineer. I got into this field decades ago due to my interest in race
vehicles.
I also have seen, first-hand, how nice the racers, crews, SCTA officials, and spectators
are. I never doubted any of what I had read about this.
I am on a limited budget. I hope you can appreciate that. That is one reason I
might stay home next year, if the spectating experience isn't expected to be unusually
promising for me.
If it looked like a new wheel-driven record was about to be set, I'd want to attend and
watch -- even if I wasn't at a viewing spot even-with-the-5 when it happens. I'd prefer
to be there, though.
tallguy (Andy Lampenfeld, in Northern California)