Ed, I could name a couple that you don't know about that were caught and aren't racing anymore so there is no purpose in naming them. Also, I'm too busy building stuff for racers to actively partricipate in the racing game much these days, so I'm not about to waste my time and money going out looking for racers who may be cheating with a device of some sort. We're pretty much racing the local circuts around here which pay better than NHRA does anyway, and there are FEW repeat winners. I'm pretty sure nobody is cheating here. But if I see someone cheating, I'll be sure to let him know.
I do know that sometimes things are EGO driven, and rules go out the window (politics - Big business). So it would be ludicrous to assume that it wasn't happening in drag racing. Here's an example for ya'. Not the light deal but EGO driven just the same - you can fill in the name. Past World Champ! When delay boxes were no longer allowed, NHRA's rule read something like "not allowed in car". Soooo, they stuck the box in his jacket pocket and hooked it up with the seat belts. Of course they didn't reason that HE was "in the car". He won a WDRS meet at the time and was tossed for the event and had to count the event as entered with ZERO Points. The runner-up was then checked for legality, and his '64 Mustang (I believe) was tossed to for the wheelbase being TOO LONG.
I can give you another example of a well known racer I caught, shall we say, less than legal, and I confronted him about it. He changed it right there. Another racer was caught ON TAPE last year releasing his button VERY early. NHRA didn't even want to look at the tape. But his lights were less than stellar the rest of the year. I guess I'll have to call those HERESAY, because I'm not giving names.
Michael B. Catching the Comp guy was quite by accident. A guy took a photo and the fighter pilot like cross-haired sensors showed up very clearly in the photo. Pure Luck!
So it all comes down to cheating. Why would I think anyone is cheating? Hell. Everyone in Stock has a completely legal set of heads -- ?? Nobody in stock had to purchase new pistons this year -- ?? Nobody has lightened cranks in Stock -- ?? The combustion chamber and crank rule in SS just had to be made to "EVOLVE" rather than to "make legal" the cheaters that already had them. Jim Skelley just thought he'd poll the racers about delay boxes because he didn't have anything else to do!!! Yeah! I'm wrong. NOBODY WOULD CHEAT to satisfy their EGO.
Jerry
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