No tech penalties.

[Denny Steward]

Here is a copy of the letter sent to me after I e-mailed Peter Clifford about my concerns with a no pre race tech.



Denny,
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My name is Glen Gray and I am the Vice President of Technical Operations. Peter Clifford has asked me to respond to your concerns about the elimination of pre-race technical inspections. There are many rumors about the new technical inspection program floating around and these rumors are causing some people to worry about inspections at NHRA National Events. I hope I can eliminate your concerns about this new program that will go into effect next year at the first Pomona event.
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Some people are concerned that eliminating technical inspections the day before racing starts will mean that cars will not be inspected as well as they are today. This is definitely not the case, and in fact we hope to improve technical inspections with this new process. This process will help eliminate the possibility that a racer will swap out safety or performance related equipment after the pre-race inspection. The practice of switching safety and performance related equipment after pre-race inspections happens more frequently than you would expect. Unfortunately, the car that is pre-race inspected is not always a true representation of the car that the racers run down the track. This new process will allow the tech department to check safety equipment as well as other performance related items periodically throughout the weekend.*
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You will see several of the tech department team in the staging lanes, at the scales, and at fuel check at various times during the weekend inspecting cars. When necessary we will follow up on something we have found by going to the pits to perform further inspections. As always, it is ultimately the racer’s responsibility to have the correct safety and performance related equipment. For racers who demonstrate over time that they are not capable of having the proper safety equipment, there will be penalties including, but not limited to: (disqualification from an event, suspension, fines, etc.). We will work with racers whenever possible, but when it is apparent that they can’t or are unwilling to follow rules we may have to levy penalties.
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Besides improved technical inspection, the racer should also benefit in other ways. For instance, this program will allow racers that work full-time to take one less day off from work to participate in an event. Additionally, racers will benefit by waiting in fewer lines.
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Because this process is so drastically different from how things were done in the past, I understand your and other racer’s concerns. The NHRA tech department plans to provide more educational information about this program to all racers via NHRARacer.com before the 2017 NHRA National Event season begins. Please feel free to email me if you have any further questions or concerns. Thanks for your interest and participation in NHRA Drag Racing.
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Glen Gray
NHRA
Vice President Technical Operations
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[novassdude]

Originally Posted by Denny Steward

Here is a copy of the letter sent to me after I e-mailed Peter Clifford about my concerns with a no pre race tech.


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I think one thing that is going to be a big question is what happens when a racer is found illegal half way thru a race? Just for conversation sake say the racer is found to have a performance enhancing or electronic enhancement that helped him win a few rounds. Now you have a couple racers that lost to an illegal car. Do they get put back in the ladder some how?

[Jeff Stout]

My guess would be tech is done before first round. That way a dq will only require a change on ladder. Fuel and weight should stay during elimination.

[Marty Rinehart Jr]

Thanks for sharing that Denny

[Adger Smith]

Jeff,
I disagree with you assessment that the wrong engine, carb & tranny makes no difference in the Shoe polish rounds. I think it could. If a guy has a small engine class and he has trouble making it run the index all he has to do is up the engine size or cheat it up someway and he is in the program instead of out. I would be pissed if a guy that was not even capable of running the index legally got in the program and beat my honest/legal car.

[Chris1529]

It could/would affect qualifying positions in general.

[Jeff Stout]

Originally Posted by Adger Smith

Jeff,
I disagree with you assessment that the wrong engine, carb & tranny makes no difference in the Shoe polish rounds. I think it could. If a guy has a small engine class and he has trouble making it run the index all he has to do is up the engine size or cheat it up someway and he is in the program instead of out. I would be pissed if a guy that was not even capable of running the index legally got in the program and beat my honest/legal car.

Valid point on a car not qualifying. Also Adger thanks on the high altitude adjustments a couple weeks ago it worked.

[Bob Don]

I think this is all a tempest in a teapot. From what the NHRA put out, there will be ample opportunities to give everyone a once over either in the staging lanes or at the scales. The bottom line (for them) is there will be one less day in a national event with one less day of salaries and overhead.

[cmracing]

Originally Posted by novassdude

I think one thing that is going to be a big question is what happens when a racer is found illegal half way thru a race? Just for conversation sake say the racer is found to have a performance enhancing or electronic enhancement that helped him win a few rounds. Now you have a couple racers that lost to an illegal car. Do they get put back in the ladder some how?

Will never happen. We face this same problem with normal Bracket Racing also. The cheater will get tossed, and anyone that lost to that person are spectators. Can't undo it........ But depending on what the violation was, that cheater can be fined, banned from that track for a month/year, or banned from NHRA racing for quite sometime.........

Back in my roundy-round days, that type of thing was handled off-site if you catch my meaning..........

[Jeff Stout]

Originally Posted by cmracing

Will never happen. We face this same problem with normal Bracket Racing also. The cheater will get tossed, and anyone that lost to that person are spectators. Can't undo it........ But depending on what the violation was, that cheater can be fined, banned from that track for a month/year, or banned from NHRA racing for quite sometime.........

Back in my roundy-round days, that type of thing was handled off-site if you catch my meaning..........

Depends on what the cheating infraction is. Lied about helmet expiration has nothing to do with outcome of round. When 2 cars are classed in different classes and 1 has (wrong carb, trans, motor) has nothing to do with outcome of round. Shoe polish round. If 2 cars are in the same class and heads up race is in play and (wrong carb, trans, motor) then outcome of round could be over turned if winning car is caught cheating.
These are 3 ways of cheating and only 1 scenario could change the outcome of the round. The other 2 ways of cheating should have a fine depending on how bad the infraction is.
There are 2 ways of cheating. Safety infraction and performance advantage infraction.