[John Moore]

UPDATE Received Today ......................... From Rob Park.................

Mr. Moore, I am sorry you had an unpleasant experience and disagree with our policy. I have copied Sportsman Racing Advisory Council representative, Clif Bakx, at your request, so that he may respond if he chooses to do so.

The decision I made was not really "my decision" but rather the policy NHRA has had for at least the last 19 years. (number of years I have been with NHRA)

In any performance based qualifying eliminator (TS-TD included) once a competitor is in the lanes and has a designated pair he/she must be prepared to fire and race. pg 41 of the 2008 NHRA Rule Book.

It is the responsibility of each driver to be prepared to run in their assigned "slot" or forfeit the session. NHRA Policy and Procedures.

If we allowed competitors to randomly pull out of the lanes and quote "fix" their problems we would face the potential of drivers trying to manipulate when they run in order to benefit their personal cause. (i.e. not running after an oil down, positioning on ladder, running the last of session etc) I have no doubt your intentions we to truly to fix your problem. Unfortunately NHRA must remain consistent in our ruling in that once you missed your spot in your qualifying session you have forfeited your opportunity to make that pass.

You made the comment that our Policy and Procedures Manual should be in the rulebook. And although that would be nice at some times, adding an additional 200 plus pages of Race Operation and Technical Policies to an already lengthy rulebook would be very cumbersome. NHRA hires officials such as myself to study and enforce the current policies so the racers do not have to police the procedures themselves.

I hope you understand our position and wish you the best of luck for the remainder of the 2008 racing season.

Sincerely,

Rob Park


And this from Sportsman Advisory Committee Representative..


John,

After reading through your letter, & Rob Park’s reply, this situation could really have gone either way.

Your shut down was, I’m sure, genuine; and combined with the positive nature of drag racing; you should have no doubt been given the qualifying run.

However, Rob has very valid reasoning in backing up the NHRA policy. I have seen it myself where ‘back in the lanes’ there has been some car juggling, for all the wrong reasons.

I also believe that if all the tracks had highly qualified ‘staging lane guys’ (I call them the same thing), then there could probably be some leeway allowed. But, & I’m sure most will agree, despite their best effort, these guys are not all highly qualified.

I will bring your Topeka ‘experience’ to some of the other division members on the advisory council to see what they think, & get a few other opinions.



Thanks for writing in, & don’t hesitate to respond to this, or any other issues you or fellow racers may have.



Clif Bakx

TD539