Tech Inspection stories?

[bkraft]

Arrived at 2009 Dutch with a new SS/AH Barracuda. FJ did the cage and chassis. We did the balance of the work. This is back when 30+ cars would show up in our class. Get word that I'm, along with a few other AH cars are to report to barn before Q1. Mike Booker from the west coast arrived with his new car too. AH was now bumping under 8.50 so 25.5 cages required.
I recall they wanted to see the wiring and other build details. No humps allowed on inner front wheel wells was new. All checked out OK.
Didn't do well in the class runoffs. Had bought used crossram motor from Jim Pancake for steam. Dreamed about having a Barton or Westcott "tunnel ram" motor. That took another 5 or 6 years, before getting a good one from the Howes.
Regardless was asked again to bring car to the barn. They said to park the car next to the NHRA trailer. It was then I was told we were awarded "Best Engineered". A proud moment for sure.

[Nick Heath]

I'll throw one on here. It is not controversial, technical, or even unique - but it's the best one I got!

Brainerd Nationals 2002. This was the first year without the altitude factor. My dad's car was running "OK" but somewhat off the pace. It never seemed to like Brainerd. We could go to Earlville 3 weeks later in similar air and pick up two tenths. Then again, this was a backyard built stocker with a stock computer, stock block, "both" of his speed secrets, and years before every piece could be replaced with something aftermarket.

1st or 2nd qualifying session (maybe both, can't recall), Bruce Bachelder is waiting by the scales. He smirks at my dad and gives him this little wave.
After the class (single) run-off, guess what. Bruce is at the scales again. No wave this time, he walks over and says, "I would like to invite you to a little party in the teardown barn."

Here's one of the "stockest" cars you could build and run under the index with, qualified in the bottom half of the field, with probably every one of the same parts they already looked at when he set the record in Fall 2000 - getting called to the barn. But that's what I thought was so cool about class racing. Didn't matter if you were #1 or #128 - you could be spending the afternoon at one of those "parties." And with how many cars were there - maybe the word party was appropriate!

He passed teardown that day. I remember Bruce antagonized my dad a time or two after that with that wave. Never got invited to another party though. And now I wonder when the last party was in that barn in Brainerd...

[Mark Yacavone]

I wish to exert my 5th amendment rights on this one ;-)

[bigshow2966]

Had my Valiant at a bracket race at RT66. Went through tech and was waiting for the line to move to go back to my pit. My old friend Animal Jim Feurer stopped by to look at my "new" car. Car had been thfough tech at 66 a bunch of times. Jim just happened to look at the battery tray and saw the retaining bars with J hooks.

He was nice enough to tell me to fix it before the next time out.

He teched the car the next time and never looked.

[Bill Bogues]

We were at a nhra divisional back in the early 80's at the old houston international. We were testing and after a baseline pass we swapped the heads to see if their was any difference. After that we put the old set back on to run the race. After qualifying red anderson comes over and invites us to teardown. We liked to have wore the head bolts out and my back that weekend. Oh the good ole days.

[Lyn Smith]

Originally Posted by bigshow2966

Had my Valiant at a bracket race at RT66. Went through tech and was waiting for the line to move to go back to my pit. My old friend Animal Jim Feurer stopped by to look at my "new" car. Car had been thfough tech at 66 a bunch of times. Jim just happened to look at the battery tray and saw the retaining bars with J hooks.

He was nice enough to tell me to fix it before the next time out.

He teched the car the next time and never looked.

Lyn comments.
My Tech moment happened at a RT 66 bracket race also. The tech there was just as strict as any big races I go to. As I was leaving tech with my Stocker I was told by an older tech official that I had to put my "dial in" on before I left the tech area? After a few quizzing moments asking how I was going to do that since I had not run the car yet another tech official came over and waved me on. Later I figured out that it was the class designation he wanted on the car(Super Pro, Pro, or Sportsmen). Not the dial in. LOL.

[Mark Yacavone]

Okay, here's one:
If you ever got teched by Marty Barrett it was worth the price of admission, alone.

We're out at Amarillo for the 73 finals, with the 66 Chevy II SS/J car.
Tech was in some God-forsaken vacant lot they picked out.
Marty comes walking up , pulling up on his pant legs,,,"gotta watch for the snakes" he says.
He goes around to the back of the car, still on an open trailer. He's looking underneath but not saying anything. This was before weight boxes, ballast bars, etc. You had to run your natural class, only. No dropping down a class...Spare tire, jack ,full tank of gas...whatever it took.
We had moved the springs in ,which was legal. We took a 3x3 piece of angle iron and ran it from one side to the other, and hung the shackles off that...Finally Marty says " nice way to add some ballast back there".
He then puts his hand on the big SS plate on the deck lid.Glad you've got that in place
We told him..of course...Nice and heavy too.
Marty says.."well, you boys have a nice day" We told him to watch out for the snakes,...and off he went.

The good ol' days...

[John Winslow Jr]

Almost got tossed in St Louis for bumper brackets and dash cluster my first year in super stock 2006, was not a fun experience, had to get Danny to let me back in. Lots of drama not gonna mention names but all worked out in the end. I got to race, main thing after a 2,000 mile drive. John

[Mike Schwartz]

A new bracket racing sanctioning body with its own bespoke rule book held a "national event" at Atco Raceway. You had to pre-enter and pay by mail if you wanted to race. On the morning of the event I drove the 100 miles from my home in North Jersey in my 1969 Mercury Cougar.

I had never had tech problems at any of the other tracks where I had raced the car previously. However this group's tech inspector bounced me because a portion of the car's slapper bars extended below the rear wheels' rims. I had never heard of such a thing, but it was in their rule book. I never thought to look, because NHRA had no such rule that I was aware of and no one ever questioned the setup before.

Mind you, the car was running stiff-wall DOT tires. The bars wouldn't touch the ground even if all the air was let out. Nevertheless, I didn't want to waste the trip and entry, so I unbolted both traction bars and left them in my pit space. The amount of squat in the rear on subsequent runs was unnerving. After the race I put the bars back on and drove home. I never had problems with tech again, and I never raced with that organization again.