"phone a friend"or Tech

[Charlie Yannetti]

Originally Posted by Don Eckel 111

This part makes no sense Charlie. The way I read it, the protest was lodged and found to be legit. If the scoop was too tall, whether it's 1/2", 1/4", whatever, it's illegal based on the rules. Plus they were allowed to make it right. So said team stomps their feet and stops running events because they were illegal, intentional or not? Why should someone apologize for being right if the protested car was in fact not in accordance with the rules?

Well Don, when the Tech official was asked if a legitimate protest was lodged, and the appropriate fees put up, we were told "NO, NOT YET".. it was then a word of mouth complaint, and actually held no validity, in my opinion, at that point.. and yes, we were then allowed to make a quick adjustment, probably because the protest was not valid at that point, and we were placed back on the ladder, instead of at the bottom of the sheet, or DQ'd, as requested by the whiners..

I believe that an apology was necessary for the inconvenience to a team that was a mainstay in Comp Eliminator for better than 30 years, whether the hood scoop height was correct or not.. that simple jesture may have kept that team around for a while longer.. like I said, that's when who you are, and who you know kicks in.. we were apparently not a part of the right clique at that venue..

While I will not argue whether the car was actually legal, or not, a 1/2 inch height discrepancy on a hood scoop could easily have been someone misreading a ruler.. maybe the crew guy from another team who actually compelled the whiners to complain.. maybe even the Tech guy.. and I don't even believe that those particular whiners even had the funds to lodge a legitimate protest, without help.. maybe the Tech guy knew that they were trying to raise the funds, and told us to fix it while he waited.. in the end, the Tech guy may have actually helped everyone (RIP RC).. we took care of the problem, and the whiners saved their money.. and then the whiners went red in the 1st rnd.. maybe KARMA??

The bigger fact in this matter, is probably the part about people not wanting the owner, or the driver, of said team to win another championship, and that race happened to be important toward that goal.. just like the guy in the original post didn't want another racer to win his race.. but that's a whole different cliquish kinda story..

My original point is that there are rules pertaining to protests, and those rules, more often then not, are not even followed by the governing body (NHRA).. how can you accept a protest via text or phone call??.. and reportedly, the person was not even at the venue at the time.. how are the protest fees then collected.. and in the case I referred to, how do you send your wife to complain with NO MONEY in her pocketbook, and on an *** Clown's say so??.. I will say that that wife had more balls than all the men involved in that particular scenario though..