Ways to check on the use of illegal devices

[Doug Hoven]

Unfortunately the only way to enforce it is for either NHRA to have tech inspectors begin randomly pulling racer's cars apart. Something like that will probably never happen, so until a racer lets his guard down and makes it obvious of something "fishy" going on, I'm thinking there won't be any action to enforce electronic rules. I think "traction control" is given more credit than it deserves. Unless it's a heads up situation, 9 times out of 10, if a car begins to break tires loose to the point where "traction control" would kick in, there is no way that they are going to run close to their dial-in. Starting line timing retards, while a form of "traction control" would be a losing battle to try and outlaw them. You'd have to deem every aftermarket ECU illegal, as well as all "programmable" MSD ignition boxes capable of using a trigger to cut timing and ramp it back in over some time. This coming season will be my 4th full time season, so my experience is limited, but I remember spectating the late rounds of a race at Numidia, where a driver did not once look ahead or over at the other lane, then proceeded to "spot drop" and run within a few thou of their dial. Kind of suspicious IMHO, but with enough practice, and the right car, I suppose you could spot drop and be almost dead on every run.

[Hacksaw]

Have had this play out more than once in SS. In high gear and around 800' look over and the other driver has his head looking down towards his crotch, then at the 1000' marker his head pops up and looks over to me as if he is gauging what the gap looks like. ??????? Timer ???????

[JP1738]

Originally Posted by Hacksaw

Have had this play out more than once in SS. In high gear and around 800' look over and the other driver has his head looking down towards his crotch, then at the 1000' marker his head pops up and looks over to me as if he is gauging what the gap looks like. ??????? Timer ???????

Did he beat you? Win the race?

[Doug Hoven]

Originally Posted by Hacksaw

Have had this play out more than once in SS. In high gear and around 800' look over and the other driver has his head looking down towards his crotch, then at the 1000' marker his head pops up and looks over to me as if he is gauging what the gap looks like. ??????? Timer ???????

Are there ways of doing it? Probably. I took a class in the spring semester last year at school where we had to learn how to program a microcontroller, in our case called an "arduino."(look it up, pretty neat stuff). With a basic program, I wouldn't be surprised if you could take some sort of frequency based input, i.e. abs tone ring or driveshaft rpm sensor, and, through a series of programming "tricks," cause a certain output from the board(possibly illuminate an LED) if the graph generated by the sensor signal is either faster or slower than a baseline graph. Now the real question is whether or not anyone would be so clever, or go through the amount of effort for the lousy purse we have, and something like this. My personal guess would be no, but ya never know.

[Billy Nees]

Originally Posted by Doug Hoven

Now the real question is whether or not anyone would be so clever, or go through the amount of effort for the lousy purse we have, and something like this. My personal guess would be no, but ya never know.

Ya know, to certain types, winning at any cost is everything!

[J.R. Haddad]

To the under educated, what type of starting devices do we think are
being used. I would like to know what to look for in a competitors
car.

Thanks,

J.R.

[SS3860]

As a long time bracket racer that just started running stock last year, I can tell you with the quality of tourqe converters, tires and knowledgeable carb builders today. Making a car run dead on is not near as difficult as it was years ago. I've left the same dial in on my bracket car for several weeks. Catching someone using a delay box is just a matter having eyes watching. My advise is, if you think someone is cheating pay attention and put up the protest money and have them tore down.

Tom Flowers
3860 E/SA

[bigshow2966]

Seeing when someone lets go of the button is easy. Have 1 reverse light wired to the button.

Of course, it they bottom bulb and only have .03-.10 delay in you'd never see it.

Anybody else remember the infamous 'Willy Raymond' thread? It created a big stir, and was all crap.

[Henrys Toy]

Originally Posted by Billy Nees

Ya know, to certain types, winning at any cost is everything!

Good afternoon Billy & Doug and to all,
I couldn't have said that any better myself !
I'm sure we've seen it already to may times.

Respectfully,
Henry Kunz 1534 H/SA

[1320racer]

cheating in motorsports is nothing new and has been done in every venue probably since the very first time 2 cars or a group of cars lined up. Many of the biggest names in motorsports have won numerous championship and millions by either exploiting the grey rules or outright cheating so say what makes you feel good about yourself on an internet forum but some of your heroes wouldn't be if they didn't cheat. No one who has is going to hell no mind going to prison and/or paying restitution. We all know the Dodge Boys/Wayne County cheated yet nothing was done because of who their sponsor was but Jerry Eckman was ostracized.

Some of the stock guys that say they would never cheat are the same guys that have their heads and manifolds ported(I've seen their heads and manifolds being ported years ago at a big name shop) and then justify it in their mind by saying there's no way racer x is running what he does without porting so I'm going to do it too.