a few ways to look at this, and forgive me for not reading all of the posts above, but I did read many...

anyhow, as for my 2cents:

IMO any racer can learn to be good with either shift pattern, GP or Std.

For a noob racer tho, and this is coming from someone who is planning on a full 2006 Novice season, go with what's natural. Some people are used to GP style from their 3/4 wheeler days or dirt bikes. Take my good friend Jason Smith for instance, in his youth, he raced dirt bikes and GP is what he knows, likes and is comfortable with. Does that mean he can't learn Standard? Well of course not, but why bother when GP is what you know & are used to? Go with what is natural & comfortable.

For me, Standard shift is more fluid, comfortable & simply natural and will give me one less thing to even think about when on the track. I need to be able to shift w/o thinking about which direction to push or pull, "Just Do It" in a matter of speaking.

Sorry to bump this month+ old thread, but I figure'd I'd toss my cookies, er, 2 cents worth in there while I was thinking about it.

My General Opinion = Go with what's natural

GL, hope to see you in the grid for 2006!