Ways to check on the use of illegal devices

[TOSTO RACING]

Originally Posted by Don Kennedy

The thought occured to me that just maybe there are many ways to check on racers who are using illegal devises to have a advantge of other racers I will start first have a camera Zoom into the drivers compartment showing the tree plus the driver to see when the release the button ,any other suggestions ??

Have NHRA quit getting rid of all the good tech guys and just have tech again!



But wait, that's a dumb idea that'll never work , what am I thinking!

[Doug Hoven]

Unfortunately the only way to enforce it is for either NHRA to have tech inspectors begin randomly pulling racer's cars apart. Something like that will probably never happen, so until a racer lets his guard down and makes it obvious of something "fishy" going on, I'm thinking there won't be any action to enforce electronic rules. I think "traction control" is given more credit than it deserves. Unless it's a heads up situation, 9 times out of 10, if a car begins to break tires loose to the point where "traction control" would kick in, there is no way that they are going to run close to their dial-in. Starting line timing retards, while a form of "traction control" would be a losing battle to try and outlaw them. You'd have to deem every aftermarket ECU illegal, as well as all "programmable" MSD ignition boxes capable of using a trigger to cut timing and ramp it back in over some time. This coming season will be my 4th full time season, so my experience is limited, but I remember spectating the late rounds of a race at Numidia, where a driver did not once look ahead or over at the other lane, then proceeded to "spot drop" and run within a few thou of their dial. Kind of suspicious IMHO, but with enough practice, and the right car, I suppose you could spot drop and be almost dead on every run.

[Hacksaw]

Have had this play out more than once in SS. In high gear and around 800' look over and the other driver has his head looking down towards his crotch, then at the 1000' marker his head pops up and looks over to me as if he is gauging what the gap looks like. ??????? Timer ???????

[JP1738]

Originally Posted by Hacksaw

Have had this play out more than once in SS. In high gear and around 800' look over and the other driver has his head looking down towards his crotch, then at the 1000' marker his head pops up and looks over to me as if he is gauging what the gap looks like. ??????? Timer ???????

Did he beat you? Win the race?

[Doug Hoven]

Originally Posted by Hacksaw

Have had this play out more than once in SS. In high gear and around 800' look over and the other driver has his head looking down towards his crotch, then at the 1000' marker his head pops up and looks over to me as if he is gauging what the gap looks like. ??????? Timer ???????

Are there ways of doing it? Probably. I took a class in the spring semester last year at school where we had to learn how to program a microcontroller, in our case called an "arduino."(look it up, pretty neat stuff). With a basic program, I wouldn't be surprised if you could take some sort of frequency based input, i.e. abs tone ring or driveshaft rpm sensor, and, through a series of programming "tricks," cause a certain output from the board(possibly illuminate an LED) if the graph generated by the sensor signal is either faster or slower than a baseline graph. Now the real question is whether or not anyone would be so clever, or go through the amount of effort for the lousy purse we have, and something like this. My personal guess would be no, but ya never know.

[Billy Nees]

Originally Posted by Doug Hoven

Now the real question is whether or not anyone would be so clever, or go through the amount of effort for the lousy purse we have, and something like this. My personal guess would be no, but ya never know.

Ya know, to certain types, winning at any cost is everything!

[1320racer]

Originally Posted by Don Kennedy

The thought occured to me that just maybe there are many ways to check on racers who are using illegal devises to have a advantge of other racers I will start first have a camera Zoom into the drivers compartment showing the tree plus the driver to see when the release the button. Some devices available are wireless traction control, although this is not yet refined ,a way to trip the beams at the finish line , a tree reader ,a wireless delay box ,plus by the way lock up convertors are Being used which are illegal, a remote way from the line by a crew man to release the trans brake via a camera looking at the tree .a person at the finish line to trip the beams with a very simple device similar to your garage door opener. any other suggestions ??

Yes, stop worrying about what you think your competitors might be doing and focus on your program and what you need to improve to be more competitive. Unless your car can run dead on every pass, you can put together .015 packages at will and close up the stripe to .003 everytime, you need to focus on improving your program!

That said, IF a tree reader exists, the racer(s) using it is competing in Big $ bracket racing not stock/super stock.

[Don Kennedy]

Originally Posted by 1320racer

Yes, stop worrying about what you think your competitors might be doing and focus on your program and what you need to improve to be more competitive. Unless your car can run dead on every pass, you can put together .015 packages at will and close up the stripe to .003 everytime, you need to focus on improving your program!

That said, IF a tree reader exists, the racer(s) using it is competing in Big $ bracket racing not stock/super stock.

I am not worrying one second about what the competitors are doing never have never will just making a comment on the possiblity that might exists out in racing as a whole the tought occued to me especially at the big money races

[1320racer]

Don, do you compete at BIG $ bracket races? We do and it's a non concern.

[Don Kennedy]

Originally Posted by 1320racer

Don, do you compete at BIG $ bracket races? We do and it's a non concern.

I do not attend big$ bracket races but if i did I would make darn sure that my devices that are being used work ok as there is no rules at the races concerning devices ? or is there ?