[Cglrcng]

Upon wake up Saturday morning in Stk, there was at least 2 more Mopars eligible for a class trophy a Plymouth or a Dodge in EF/S (of which I can assure you, not on paper, but in reality would have been a toss up at the big end) ,for a 1 and done class trophy. But, class racing being a game of inches like it certainly is, in Q1 came down to just a couple of inches of Bill O'Connor pre-staging, putting the car in gear to inch his Plymouth Horizon forward the last couple of inches necessary to call it a qualified entry under the rules, into the staging beam, and super sadly while I watched from the ready line in the second pair back, his tyranny was completely locked up (suspect breakage was internal, and probably the pin holding the spider gears in the pinion housing slid out, locked the diff up completely, and only would allow it to roll reward, not forward. The gave the tree to the car in the other lane, and pushed him off, and had to tow it back to the pits backwards.

He withdrew, pushing my Daytona into my first Auto Combo later, and I had nothing at Vegas (lousy car struggles at Vegas with the altitude and lousy DA currently, but going to see Holley this week to tap tap tune in near future and see if we can fix thst), for the Fastest -.500 under car in the Auto Combo but a decent .015 light, so it was a game of inches, just in Q1 instead of C1!

It was heart wrenching and damaging for both of us for sure. 1 of our 2 Mopars would have taken home a Wally save for that really rotten timed bad break 2 or so inches from the stage beam. The rules are the rules, they are published, the shrapnel in his pan shows the carnage.

I offered to help him pull the Trans and see if we could get it fixed, but he did not have an official Q pass, it could not be completed by any means by C1 (which is also Q2), so withdrawal was his only option as racing on Sunday wasn't an option.

And the best laid plans of mice and men easily go awry!

Edit, Tuesday night 8:32 PM PDT

I just received a text thread from Bill O'Connor, and he went to Div. 7 Director in the tower after breaking Saturday AM, requested to withdraw, and was denied. Yet when I received the C1 pairing sheet he was not listed on it under EF/S, he was not on the Q1 qualifying sheet, he was on the Q1 Incrementals sheet (I have all 3 copies (secured from RFC), I assumed he was allowed to withdraw from Div7-4 race, then asked Ron the lane master since I was laddered into the auto combo, if he was allowed to withdraw. Yes was the answer, they laddered you in the combo. I ran under index C1, they should not have pulled him of the pairing sheet if not withdrawn, and should have just been a no show. He has again asked to withdraw and be refunded, awaiting that response, or I will appeal.

Bean counters cannot both keep his money, and the trophy IMHO. (At the track, I reviewed the published qualifying rule, he went to request the withdrawal, unfortunately they made a decision to both say no, and pull him off the class C1 pairing sheet and ladder me into the auto combo. (Those decisions just do not weigh out). Mistakes can be made, and be corrected/rectified.