questions concerning christmas tree

[bill dedman]

Originally Posted by Alan Roehrich

Bill, do you own a car?

Why would you ask?

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Do you drive one?

Again, why would you ask?

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Do you even work on one?

For the third time, why do you want to know this.

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This sounds like "KILL THE MESSENGER!!!"

It looks like you can't effectively deal with the issues of the subject at hand, so you try to deflect attention away from these issues by attacking the "Messenger," which is, in this case, ME.

Exactly what does my personal "car" status have to do with an antiquated system of racing that victimizes the first-to-leave by exposing them to red-light jeopardy 100-percent of the time, while removing, COMPLETELY, any red light jeopardy from the second car to leave, IF the first car redlights?

I don't know what earthly connection my cars, and what I do with them, could have to do with this software problem..

Maybe you could explain that to me; why you would rather use bandwidth here, to discredit me, than to discuss the issues involved in the worse red light problem.

You want to do anything BUT talk about the fact that 50-percent of the handicapped races run, give the advantage (the possibility of not having the potential to red light) to the second car to leave, whether it's an AA/SA car, or a V/SA car... it can and does happen to both, depending on whom they're racing against.

Your litany of advantages/disadvantages of slower/faster cars is not pertinent to this discussion. You can't try to "equalize" things between classes by "awarding" certain perks to this class or that; it would never end!!!

This worse red light system gives an advantage to NOBODY. NOBODY!!!

What could be fairer than that?

To be fair to you, though, I should give you a little personal background, because I haven't had a "class" car for a long time.

My drag racing started in 1955 (I was 17) at the Carlisle, Arkansas Drag Strip, where, 3 years later, I started working the Stocker tech line, and eventually was made an NHRA "Area Tech Advisor" by the Div. IV Division Director of the time, Dale Ham. It was an unpaid position, but I was given the responsibilty for keeping the Stock Car Classiication Guide keeping it updated, keeping all the tech sheets, and keeping them updated, and ruilng on protest decisions. I worked the Stocker Tech line there from 1958 'til I moved to Des Moines, IA in 1964. I worked the Stocker Tech line at that strip (Des Moines Dragway) until it closed in 1968. My race car at that time was a '57 Chevy sedan delivery Stocker, one of the never-never Hydramatic cars. Previously, I had run several Gas Coupes, (one a blown SBC/Hydro), and, sometimes in partnership with others.

My current ride is a '72 Valiant with a 360 Magnum/904 combination, a street/strip car with a Vortech centrifugal blower. It turns 106mph at our local 1,000-foot strip, (we don't have any quarter-mile strips in Arkansas, unfortunately). I keep the boost at a maximum of 10 pounds to preserve the head gaskets...

It makes me smile...

I have a couple of close friends who run Stockers; one in A/SA and one in H/SA... I keep current by hanging around them as much as I can, subscribing to Nitro Joe's Stats, and reading the results on Summit's FAST NEWS every time there's a race.

Is that addicted enough??? I'd race a class-legal Stocker if I could afford it.

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Hell, there's a possibility that I might drive a Top Fuel car. That doesn't change the way I think, either.

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I don't know "the way you think." I present you with what ~I~ think are good, legitimate reasons that this flawed system needs to be changed, and you respond by asking questions that makes it sound like I have NO IDEA what I'm talking about, and then, bring up 101 reasons why this or that is an advantage, and so what???

The things you mentioned are things we cannot change.

This is something we CAN change..

Look, Alan, this is in no way MY IDEA. In fact, I raced and watched racing religiously, for many, many, years before somebody clued me in as to the skewed way things are run, with regard to red lights, in handicapped races.

It took this guy about four or five tries, explaining it to me, for me to finally "get it." I am not the sharpest knife in the drawer...

Once I thought about it for a month or so, it finally sunk in, and I could not BE:LIEVE that I hadn't realized it, before! I believe in tradition... and have always thought that way... but, tradition, in this case, needs some shaking up.

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I don't HAVE an advantage. I raced a SLOW G/S car last year. If I drive next year, I might race something else slow.

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With the current system, you have an advantage every time you race a G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, and so on, car... That car might red light, giving you a free ride!!!

Overall, there may be a 50/50 split between your chasing and being chased, but you are still at a disadvantage any time you're the first to leave. Why should ANYBODY be at a disadvantage, regardless of when they leave (relative to the other car)???

This is something that can be fixed, but like I said, NHRA isn't going to bust their collective *** to do the right thing, because it will cost them a few bucks thay don't have, right now, and won't make them a plugged nickel.


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Of all the things that can be done to improve the condition of sportsman racing, if that improves it at all, that would have to be all the way at the bottom of the list. Of all the things that are wrong, the same people keep bringing up the red light thing. That's like treating a hang nail on a guy with a sucking chest wound. People need to stop growing pearls.

That's because:
1. It's been going on for 36 years... THIRTY-SIX YEARS!!!! And, seemingly, nothing is being done about it.

2. It's an easy "fix" that requires nothing in the way of driving adjustment or changes, and no new hardware ($$$) is required by the associations or strips; it's just a software re-hash.

3. Some people still don't understand how it works (took me a LONG time to "get it") and the more they read about it, the closer they come to understanding why it's a good thing...

4. The other things that need fixing (schedules, P.A's for the pits, the AHFS-system, re-structuring the classes to de-fuse the Mustang/Drag-Pack Dodge situation, and about two dozen more,) are generally so complicated that they will take a long time to correct. This read light deal is something that could be done tomorrow.... so-to-speak.

5. I just like to run my mouth....

Hope you'll think about this, and if you can think of any rational, lgical, legitimate, reason that it wouldn't be an improvement in the "level playing field" aspect of handicapped drag racing. please tell me; I'm all ears!!!

Thanks for listening.

[Ed Fernandez]

Bill,buy a car,race it and then I'll take your wazooie ideas into consideration.Until then you're a keyboard racer who's constant meddling can cause grief to those who still chose to spend our hard earned money racing S/SS.Thanks for reading.

[bill dedman]

Ed, I have a race car. I told you all about it in a post about a month ago.

Do you remember?

I do...

I know you're not as old as I am; you should remember...

But, this issue doesn't require the owning of a car to understand it.

What aspects of this worse red light question do you think requires the ownership of a car to understand?

Enlighten me... please.

P. S. What kind of grief would it cause you to finally get a fair shake when racing a quicker car? You never have, you know...

[bill dedman]

Ed, This is the race car I don't have... according to you. The brown one...

[John Leichtamer Jr]

FIRST or WORSE Why is it that the starting line always FIRST and the finish line is always WORSE What the hell is this. If its first at the starting line it should be first at the finish line. double brakeout should be the one that took the strip.should be out.

Hammer

[Brandon Peterson]

i figured this one out last year.....DONT REDLIGHT

[bill dedman]

Yeah, John; it's that double standard that needs to be fixed....

[Rich Biebel]

We have a very good racer in our area and he is well known. "Big Bucks" Bob Mullaney. Bob is a pretty damn good racer and has won countless races over the years. He is best in a bottom bulb footbrake car and has driven all kinds of cars from fast to very slow. He once raced an old Nova in Pro bracket and the car was usually about the slowest car in the bracket. He won many many times with that car and did what anyone that races a car like that has to do...HIT THE TREE well first above all else.....Once people know a racers ability, the pressure shifts from the slow car driver to the faster cars driver. He knows he must also cut a good light and then try to judge a much slower car. This perceived disadvantage of racing a slower car is next to nothing. Very few races are double redlights where the faster car redlighted by more than the slower car, Just trying to block the slower car as it leaves the line is also a distraction for the faster car. A much slower car is not that bad...but a car that is about a bulb slower is tough to completely block from view and it attracts the faster driver to follow and leave early. To me the bigger disadvantage to racing a slower car is trying to look over your shoulder and also find the finishline. A slower car is on the track longer and usually has more ET variations than a faster car. You choose what you bring to the track to race. There are plenty of guys that win and have won with slower cars. I raced my street car 2 times in Street et and ran some mid 17 second times......I got to the semi's second time I raced it. I found a comfortable launch technique.....Lost by .001" at the stripe.....dragging the brakes....against a 13 or 14 second car......had the better RT.......That was way to friggen slow for me.......I'd sooner watch paint dry.....

I have to ad that Bob Mullaney drove an R/SA Chevy wagon (SLOW CAR) to the Division 1 Stock championship one year and came pretty close to winning the national event at Maple Grove as I recall. Billy Nees has won also with an even slower car......and Ed F. has won as well. Fast cars outnumber slow cars by a lot these days and that is probably because people like racing faster cars more than any other reason....I have had Stockers and would not race anything slower than a 10 second car, even in Stock....

[Ed Fernandez]

Originally Posted by bill dedman

Ed, I have a race car. I told you all about it in a post about a month ago.

Do you remember?

I do...

I know you're not as old as I am; you should remember...

But, this issue doesn't require the owning of a car to understand it.

What aspects of this worse red light question do you think requires the ownership of a car to understand?

Enlighten me... please.

P. S. What kind of grief would it cause you to finally get a fair shake when racing a quicker car? You never have, you know...

You own it,but do you race it in S/SS?I don't believe you have any grade points for 2008-2009.So you are basically an ex racer who is now a key board racer.Your constant blathering about every aspect of our racing can in fact be picked up by the wrong yahoos in Glendora and have changes that affect us.Key board racers will not feel the effects of these changes.
So reminiscing about the old days is fine but you don't have a dog in the fight anymore.

[Alan Roehrich]

It's not a "software problem", it's a "problem" in YOUR perception.

At best, it is a very minor "problem", if it is a "problem" at all.

Do you want to know why a lot of us don't give a damn about this mole hill you are desperately trying to make into Mount Everest? I'll tell you why. Because there are a lot of real problems, that are very serious problems for a lot of racers.

THESE problems are REAL deal breakers:

Increased purses and fees, with reduced payouts, which will most certainly be even further reduced next year. Nothing like spending more to get less.

Sportsman racers being held outside the gate, while tech is going on, and while their first time trial is being run, so that the "professionals" can park their rigs early. Nothing like driving all night and parking in a field, then being left there while the "pros" get their perks and your time trials go on without you.

Piss poor track preparation. Nothing like a wasted time shot because they are too cheap or too lazy to prep the track.

Absurd scheduling that makes it hard to keep on top of your plan for a day of racing.

Sportsman racing either canceled or rescheduled at ridiculous times due to weather. It's great to never get your shot at class because of a brief shower, when you had a great chance at the win. Never mind sitting around for 2-3 days missing work so the pros can finish first, when they have nothing to do but race.

Five day national events that could be done in three with decent scheduling and common sense, so people with an actual job wouldn't have to take a week off to go to a race and sit three days and race two. It's always cool to leave your business closed and not making money an extra couple of days, so you can sit and watch a dog and pony show on the three days of a five day event that you don't run.

I could probably list 20 more real serious problems that actually need attention, as opposed to the "perceived crisis" of "unfair " red light issues. As I said before, there are a lot of serious problems that Stock and Super Stock face, and yet here you are again, campaigning and complaining constantly about a hangnail, while we're all struggling to survive a sucking chest wound.