I don't know if Cannondale made a short wheelbase SR frame in 1986, but their first frames were definitely long wheelbase, and you definitely have one. They're not that useful for racing.
Worried about crashing? You can drill now and be totally comfortable by the spring:
http://sprinterdellacasa.blogspot.co...-crashing.html
Have an experienced rider on your team lead some riding clinics. Focus on bumping, touching wheels, bunny hopping, and etiquette on riding in a group. If the experienced rider tells you it's okay to elbow or push someone else in order to gain position, stop listening to them immediately and start doing research on your own or PM me or something.
Contact may not always be avoidable. For example, if there's a crash in front of you, and everyone starts to swerve to avoid it, you may end up tagging someone pretty hard. In such a case you need to know how to deal with your front wheel hitting the back of another bike, or your arm/shoulder/hip/thigh getting shoved, etc.
But if you resort to contact voluntarily, that means you failed as a bike racer. This does not mean you shouldn't know how to deal with contact; it just means that if you initiate contact that means you're in a weak position in the field and you've lost that moment. You need to learn enough tactical savy and patience to realize that you can almost always control your position in the field, and you can almost always maintain at least a position in the area of the field you're in. If you can't, you need to drill.
Other important posts on field riding:
The SPHERE (this has to do with you and protecting yourself - think condoms)
http://sprinterdellacasa.blogspot.co...scenarios.html
CONTACT (this has to do with contact)
http://sprinterdellacasa.blogspot.co...ontact-ok.html
I feel very strongly about contact for two big reasons:
1. It's bullying versus using proper tactics.
2. A guy bullying in a training crit I did took me out Aug 11 of this year. I broke my pelvis in two places, wrenched my shoulder (it hurt this morning), lost 6 weeks of work, $7000 in various expenses, and the guy that took me out does it all the time. Someone relatively important in the area joked that NE-BRA (New England Bicycle Racing Assocation, the local arm of USAC) should start a medical fund for all the racers he's taken out. In my crash another guy broke a bunch of ribs and a few riders sustained reasonably significant damage to their bikes. This doesn't include all the road rash etc. Problem is that the bully rider is also connected in the system so he got no penalty, no effective suspension, nothing. He was taught 20 or more years ago that contact is not only acceptable, but a preferable way of dealing with other racers. This means that he gets himself into tactically weak positions (like getting boxed in) and then pushes/swerves his way out. Based on his behavior before, during, and after my particular crash, it appears that taking out a half dozen riders is totally acceptable for him, as long as it's not him.
Normally you wouldn't need to deal with such riders as a new racer. You'll deal with riders who just don't know better. And that's why you need to drill, to learn how to handle contact between you and other riders.
Race the Scott. Ditch the Cannondale, it's worth more to a vintage bike collector than to any racer (and even to a collector, prob not worth much).
If I were to make just one change on the bike, I'd get a close ratio freewheel. A second change, the stem. Third, the pedals. But as pointed out earlier, the best change for that Cannondale would be to get rid of it. I say that with all good intent - I owned the first 5 generations of Cannondale race frames as soon as they came out (long wheelbase road, the short wheelbase road, 3.0 - later called the crit frame, 3.0 road, 2.8).
But I'd get rid of the Cannondale first and either save for a new frame (even a cheap one, but with modern geometry) or something else.
cdr