Finish Line Beam Height

[Michael Pliska]

Originally Posted by Chris Williams

But why? It's the body that hits the beams in T/F, F/C, P/S, TAD, TAFC, S/C, T/D, etc., etc.

Haven't looked at track specs in a while, but as I recall, the starting line beams are spec'd at 1" off the ground, the rest of the beams on the track are spec'd at 5". The starting line is different because, remember, it's the BACK of the front wheel leaving the line that starts the clock. If it were at 5" like the others, it'd be the back of the car...

The rulebook has very explicit ground clearance requirements. If you want to have a body that is in front of your front wheels and is over 2" off the ground, you can do that, but the length is limited to 30" in front of your front wheel centerline (see the rulebook). Again, this is "fair" because it's been that way for years. As I noted previously, every dragster made for years very carefully follows, and exploits, these rules. Just because some S/G full body car makers are slow to pick it up, there's no reason to punish every one else.

The problem is that in brackets, S/G and S/ST you can never be sure which part of the car will trip the beams. You will find many cars that will trip them for sure with the body, some (like mine) that definitely won't trip, and a lot of cars that are questionable (and probably trip with the wheel when on the throttle and body when off the throttle). I personally think that it would be most fair when judging the stripe if all cars tripped with the wheel.