JW, between letting you drive his car and Jack's explanantion that it was a rule reference.. I fully understand Carl's statement now!
Carl, I'm certainly noone to speak of smarts... I run an inefficient yeared OE Harley motor(like there was ever an efficient one) in times of great technological advancements of motorcyling history, guess I took it personal and guess for good reason - lol. Within the first hour that I had met Scott Guthrie, he asked what I had brought to race and made the statement that "Harleys are for the street, and Metrics are for the racetrack" - I've never really forgotten that. Hell even my wife has moved on in that respect and got herself a japbike to improve herself on.
Back to your question,
I don't have the history(experience) or the speeds(for any given class) that most of these guys do under their belts, but here's my weight philosophy(or theory) if it means anything to you.
I call it the wiffle ball theory. If using the same person(consistant horspower) to throw 3 similiar aerodynamically shaped balls(cda) of different weights - IE: a wiffle ball(holes taped over), a softball and a duckpin ball... it's fairly reasonable to assume(or perform for proof) that the softball will not only travel the farthest, but also have a greater speed at the greatest distance of any of them. The wiffle ball will only triumph in the very shortest distance from the throwers arm as far as acceleration, and the duckpin ball will only triumph if there is an extremely excessive side wind and the balls must stay on a straight line. I'm not sure if this is coming across correctly(easier spoken then written I suppose?)), but it's my thought that there is a happy ratio of horsepower/frontal/aero to determine best weight of a vehicle(or thrower/size/shape to determine weight of a baseball if you will) that is best for any given situation(be it Maxton to Utah, or the pitching cages to the baseball diamond).
You having an adjustable amount and positioning on ballast is probably as good as it gets as long as the data of it's positioning in relation to the rest of the vehicle and it's results are logged for all the runs you ever do and a baseline is established in regards to the weight and it's positioning. Like fuel adjustments for air density changes... every change made elsewhere on the bike should constitute a change in ballast once dialed in correctly to be able to use the weight to it's utmost advantage.
So summarizing I'd say weight matters alot, and that the lightest amount of weight needed to obtain traction and overcome the current air-density in relation to your cda versus your attempted speed is the best amount of weight to have.
And my final answer is... that the less porkrind blizzards you concoct and consume, the longer you'll be around to find out and teach those of us that only think we know what we're talking about.
Todd(that used up 3 of my coffee breaks today)
PS: I've only ever ran on the concrete and not at the salt yet... but I have had both a fat wife and a skinny wife in the past... and currently have a perfectly proportionate size to weight wife(like I'm gonna say different?) that makes life better then I could of ever expected... so take my words for what they're worth.
