Spec class doesn’t change any rules. The course stays the same, and the penalty for a hit cone stays the same. There is no relationship with the recent attempts to change the original 100-cone course rules.
The ideas behind the Spec class are: to equalize the field and to attract new people to slalom racing with an inexpensive set-up.
The idea behind changing the 100-cone rules is to rewrite the history by declaring and eventually recognizing (exclusively) a new winner. The fastest racer in the world has little or no chance of making the course clean during the official 2 attempts.
Anyone can fool around and post his unofficial clean times on the net. It's the official times that count.
Trying to change the existing rules in one slalom discipline while leaving rules in the other slalom disciplines untouched is a double standard.
Another issue with this debate is that most people who argue in favor of clean runs have never run a 100-cone course. It appears that most of them argue for the sake of the argument. If I see them run a 100-cone course, I would at least respect their opinion.
Vlad.
Wesley Tucker
I'm in the mood for being argumentative (me? when?)
Here's a neat little conundrum that relates to another issue that also got a lot of airplay with the DC Crew. Remember when Vlad suggested a 100-cone challenge? Sure you do. It wasn't that long ago. Well, my contribution to the event was the suggestion that only a 100-cone clean run should count. (It's all coming back to you now, right?) Well, that was slapped down immediately by the more aggressive racers in the group. A cone penalty was preferable to any demand that a racer SLOW DOWN in order to make the course. 'nuff said about that.
Now here is the definition of a spec class race: get on a board that's just like everyone elses, little wedge, 78A wheels, ride through a course and record your times. So who here is going to SLOW DOWN enough to make the adjustment to a piece of equipment that may not be cheap, but certainly isn't on the same par as a Roe or a Turner? Or are racers going to charge the hill with the same abandon on the spec board as they would on their usual, high-tech powerful racing board?
This isn't a condemnation of spec clas racing. Far from it. I think it sounds like a blast. My question, though, is why are racers willing to adjust to a spec class board but completely unwilling to adjust to a unique type of 100-cone course? Is anyone going to pump as hard, turn as hard and push as hard on a Black Hill board as they would on a Bottle Rocket set up with TTCs, RTXs and Cambrias? And if the adjustment is made to ride the Black Hill, why is it then impossible to consider an adjustment to ride a course under certain conditions? (i.e., 100 cones clean?)
It just sounds like a double standard. Adjustments are expected to ride in a spec class, but it's completely out of the question and unmentionable to suggest an adjustment in a 100 cone course.
(It's raining, my shoulder hurts and I have nothing better to do . . . that's why!)
