Jamie,
While there maybe something in what you say, I have to take the 'pacesetter' claim with a pinch of salt. After all, as a NKRA champion there's a chance that you also have more talent than the rest of that grid (or had more talent even back then ).
The tyres seem to be a bit of a two way problem, since the compound hasn't changed since it was introduced. The rounder shape was introduced to prevent the shoulder on the tyres wearing quite so much. The old square tyres were faster on the opening laps but got a lot of wear on the inner shoulders. The new tyres are slower on the opening laps but don't go off in the same way as the old ones.
The trouble seems to come on the early laps. There is one school of thought which says that since the tyres remain more consistent throughout the race, some drivers are pushing too hard into the early corners because you 'have to make the ground then' because you cannot rely on it later.
On the one hand this is 'mad driving', on the other it's the fault of the tyres, it depends where you stand on the problem.
As for the muppets (like me) who make up the bulk of the grid, I have never noticed you having particular difficulties getting through the traffic without bashing people off, even on the round tyres.
As for dynamax and varying the size of the restrictors, the problem comes in the way teh restrictors work. At the top end the blue restrictors are the same size as the carburettor throat, there is no restriction. The size of the restrictors works back from there, the performance of the lowest senior class isn't penal, it's the same as it is across the board.
Yes, there have been a host of requests for changes to speed up the class. The introduction of the Maxi shifted the top weight categories upwards, because there were top weight drivers complaining that they were at a disadvantage, but their top restrictor is again the Blue 'straight through' item.
Without making major mods to the class, there doesn't seem to be any easy way to speed it up easily and fairly across all categories. It certainly wouldn't meet universal approval either.
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