Indy Tear Down

[B Parker]

I agree with Dave 200%. What if I take my bogus car to Indy next year. I have a roller cam in it and the heads are bogus as all heck. Now I know they only pull apart the faster cars or class winners so I sand bag and run just fast enough to get in. Now in round 3 I have a heads up. I out run the guy who one class and went to tear down by 2 tenths. Lets keep everyone honest even the slower cars.

They should tear down anyone that affects a class or HP rating for an engine combo. But as we all know it's easier said then done. Barry

[Larry Hill]

Who should go to the barn?

All factory showdown cars, If the ahfs does not apply to them, they need to pay some kind of price to get into the race.

#1, #128, #1 alternate, winner and runner up of classes of ten cars or more. New parts cars; cars that were given new parts: heads, carbs, the forty year old cam find, or what ever else in the way of new parts.

The worst sandbaggers.

[Wade Mahaffey]

I don't have any experience in the "teardown mode", but will have before to long I think. I have requested the ability to sit in on some teardown operations. I would like to become familiar with the proper techniques and procedures on "what to check" and "how to check". I believe that tech officials only have a limited amount of time and resources, and should direct their attention toward the most likely offenders. To me that would be the faster folks. An example would be: a police officer pulling over someone that looks like they could be a bank robber, while the bank across the street is actually being robbed:. In other words, if there was a prize to be found in an illegal combination, would you waste your time looking for it in a slower entry? I have never heard anyone say about a slow car "that SOB is cheating", but that would be funny! Of course the most fair way is for everyone to be checked, but is not realistic here. It seems to me that if you are real fast, then you probably can teardown in your sleep.....everyone thinks you're cheating....go to teardown, and confirm that you are "THE MAN". Then you should'nt be subjected to the barn again until your combo finds another 3-4 tenths somewhere. That way you're not in there every year while others skate by. I think there should be a value on how far under you are....say -80...that would be used to determine if they would like to look at you. Any time you achieve that, you are placed on the list for teardown consideration. If you're the 3rd or 4th fastest car in class in the country, you probably don't care if the 9th or 10th fastest car is cheating or not......BUT YOU DO CARE IF 1 and 2 ARE!

Wade Mahaffey

[John Duzac]

Wade, I can tell you that if you applied that thinking on your bank robbery theory, that would amount to Profiling. And if an arrest was made, No Probable Cause exists. Result: sued for false arrest.
You are right in your thinking that the fastest folks should be takin apart. All class winners should come apart.

[Pedigo Perf]

Originally Posted by John Duzac

You are right in your thinking that the fastest folks should be takin apart. All class winners should come apart.

Why would anyone want to run class if you had a tear down for the prize? It already pays nothing. I agree that random tear downs should be done on the faster group of cars or with any protest, but when was the last one of those.

[Rick Schilling]

The fastest cars would naturally be more suspect, but if the slowest car in a qualified field such as the U.S. Nationals is cheating, and someone who is perfectly legal does not make the field as a result, then that changes everything.

[Chad Rhodes]

If you are going to do limited tear downs, why not use the average for a combination as a guide. For example, if you have 7 396/375 cars; 3 are slower than the average, 3 are slightly faster than average, one's off in his own zip code of fast. That's a good indicator that he should be looked at.

[Alan Roehrich]

For what it is worth.

I talked to 3 good friends, who also happen to be current or former NHRA tech officials, all of them well liked and respected, who said they found more illegal cars in the bottom 10 of the field than in the top 20. A lot more.

If you think about it, being really fast is just inviting a tear down. There are a few cars that are extremely fast that have been torn down by respected tech guys and found legal, more than once, but are still accused of being completely illegal, even by guys who you'd think would not be fooled.