The “crazy things” I just don’t understand
7/7/06
here have been some crazy things going on lately in the bracket racing world as well as good old NHRA. Here are some crazy things that I just don’t understand – hey, maybe it’s just me.
I have read comments on different forums and talked to racers who were at the recent big bucks bracket race at Tri-State in Ohio. It was a great race and everyone was having a great time, then “YOU KNOW WHAT” happened. A racer’s car sounded “funny” on a bye run. Racers asked the event promoters to check it out and they did. What they found was a poorly wired car with unmarked wires, some running nowhere and most were one color. Does this throw up a red flag…OH YEAH, YOU CAN BET ON IT. Does it mean that guy was cheating? NOT IN THE SLIGHTEST! So what happened you ask. The event promoters and track owner got together and disqualified the car and driver because he MIGHT BE CHEATING! Huh, did I hear that right? He MIGHT be cheating so he is thrown out at three cars in a $10,000 to win race? Is that CRAZY or what?
The main problem wasn’t the car or the poor wiring identification, some strange sounds going down the track or, from what I read, his delay box having a wire that ran to the ignition. It is the GENERAL LACK OF A TECHNICAL INSPECTION at most bracket races. In NHRA and IHRA bracket racing you can run a wire from the ignition to the delay box. That is WHY the Mega 450 has a playback tach feature.
Why not have a real world tech inspection? It can be ongoing all day. Check the cars before time runs, during time trials at random in staging and any time they want to look at one during eliminations they can. The problem is finding a guy who has the knowledge to know what he is looking for. At the very least have an MSD tester to make sure there are no MSD #7531 Digital ignition and the #7561 that hooks up to MSD 7 or 6 analog ignitions. Have the racer step out of the car and look at the delay box settings. ALL WIRES SHOULD BE MARKED OR COLOR-CODED. No raggedy-ass wiring in an electronics car, period.
THEN NHRA CHIMES IN
NHRA is hounded by racers wanting a decision on wiring for ET races. They issue a statement (that you can find on NHRA.com, that says: (to paraphrase) no ignition wire can be run to a delay box and this renders using the delay box as an RPM shifter illegal. It also means no tach replay if you have a Mega 450 delay box, or the others that have the replay feature like thousands of racers do. Up until now I have run an ignition wire to my delay box – hell, I can’t even guess how they could cheat with it. If they use throttle controllers, throttle stops and nitrous I guess some genius could do something. In the real world, though, would a guy that smart really need the tach wire hooked to his delay box to cheat? NO WAY, they would do it some other way.
My response to all this is simple. No throttle stops, starting line enhancers, nitrous or throttle controllers allowed in bracket racing anymore. Those are the only things that can effectively control changing your ET, so get rid of them.
If you want to run throttle stops and such, put them on when you run your Super Class events. Take them off or disable them for bracket racing. Simple enough.
THEN THE NEXT CRAZY THING
This time it is something that shouldn’t really surprise me. I have a friend that had an opportunity in his schedule to get to a NHRA national event at the last minute. He knew he had missed the deadline for entries but they had dozens of openings as the fields were not even close to full. He said he would like to enter two classes and would do so immediately IF they would waive the $100 late fee for each class. (Which is ridiculous anyway in my opinion). They told him to forget it. Evidently they don’t need his money! Nice way to treat an NHRA member who supports them. Sure, rules are rules but where the heck did they come up with a $100 LATE FEE when the field is still not full? I can’t believe it takes more than a couple strokes on the computer to enter his car number into the event.
The other crazy thing about this whole NHRA deal is this: Maybe this whole procedure is what they want. If they make expensive enough (make that prohibitive) they will get the same guys at about all their events. The same guys bringing two or three cars to every event -- and why wouldn’t they, a six to seven round race for about $15,000-18,000 to win!!! Can you imagine if some of the very skilled foot-brake racers got good Stock Eliminator cars and Comp cars, they would make a shambles of what seems to be the same old Top Ten every year. I think it would be great, some of those National Dragster legends might not have a waltz into the National Top 10 at that point.
One last crazy thing that has been on my mind and it doesn’t have to do with drag racing. It is something I hope you all do if you are in the age group of 50 years old or older. PLEASE call your doctor and schedule a colonoscopy and get a good physical with a PSA check. I have been through some medical problems and I know a lot of you have as well from the letters I received. If you don’t want to do it for YOU…..then do it for your FAMILY.
That’s it for this month. The “Project 4-Link” and myself are still leading the Summit Series points at Cedar Falls Raceway but there is a skilled group of racers knocking at the door. I hope your racing goes well and the “CRAZY THINGS” in your life are at a minimum during the middle of summer. 
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