[QUOTE=davidhuff;341887]
Quote:
Originally Posted by Phillip marvetz
You can't deny he is one of the Dirty dozen though, That will stick with him forever.[/QUOTE
Who is the Dirty Dozen?
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The Dirty Dozen were a group of bracket racers from northern central Ohio. Usually raced at Norwalk, and other tracks. Here is the story, as I have heard (and confirmed with others).
In 1999, Rich Matty was going rounds at the Moroso 5 Day race. Running dead-on the dial every round. Even had a race where his opponent broke off the line...Rich ran flat out to the stripe, never looked over, and ran dead-on. Trackside observers noticed he never looked over on any of his runs. Instead, he stared at his tach the whole run. When asked to teardown, he refused. He packed up and left.
Rich had taken out a patent on a device later known as "The Matty Box". Basically cruise control for a racecar. It contained controls for a throttle stop and nitrous. It used sensors on the driveshaft and front wheel(s). Once the car made a certain run (say, 7.93 seconds), the car would repeat that number over and over. If the car was running slow, nitrous would speed it up. If the car was running fast, the throttle stop would engage. The car would repeat that run every time. Just slightly illegal.
Anyway, Bill Bader (owner of Norwalk) banned Rich and several other drivers from competing at Norwalk, and, later, competing at ANY IHRA event. I don't remember the entire list. I know Matty was on it, as were Ray and Dave Connelly, Bill Webb (or Bill someone), Ron Erks, and several others. One had done transmissions for the grup, one had done carburetors, etc. Nitro Joe could probablyfill in the blanks as to who some of the others were.
To my knowledge, NONE of the other Dirty Dozen were ever even protested, let alone found illegal. I think a Mark somebody may have been protested at Norwalk, and passed (though rumor is it was illegal in some way, and tech couldn't find it, and may or may not have been a part of the DD).
So, Dave C will, unfortunately. have the stench of the Dirty Dozen controversy the rest of his life--even if he never did anything illegal in his career.
And, when Bill Bader switched Norwalk to NHRA sanction in 2007, he was told he had to let the DD compete there during the new NHRA National Event there...which I have heard, he was none too pleased with. And, when Dave C (or his dad Ray) won that year or '08, Bill B wasn't even there to present the trophy to the winner (still upset over the deal, I suppose).
That, is the short, easy version of the story, which should be about 95% accurate, the way I have read/heard about from several others.