Tech Inspection stories?

[BRETV]

Getting torn down at Indy and we are almost done. Tech guy comes over and starts looking under the dash wiring and asking me where the 2 step wire was going to, stupid me trying to make the wiring look clean and neat had all the wiring in conduit. I told them it's not hooked up I don't use it anymore more I tried it car didn't like it. I even showed him where it was unhooked. Tech guy said didn't matter pull the dash out and show me where it goes and he walked away. I was like are you kidding me.Travis came over to me and said pull the wire from one end and if I can see it move on the other end it will be fine. I had to pull some tape of the conduit in spots but I did that and they were good.



Bret Velde
2003 I/SA

[Mike Gray]

I was in a long slow tech line at the old Las Vegas track and Danny Garcia is helping. He walks up to my car and nervously I hand him my tech card. He looks at me and says nice car and signs the form without opening a door or looking under the hood and walks away to the next car.
Easiest tech I’ve ever been through!

[Tim H]

Back in the early 1980's at Cayuga (now Toronto Motorsport Park) my father was racing his 10 second bracket '69 Camaro. It may have also been a divisional points meet for class cars as well as a Pro Stock show can't recall. Tech inspector checks our car and is pleased with everything except advises that we had too much rubber hose used in fuel line for connection purposes. I believe he said we had more than the allowable 6 inches. Had to scramble and make corrections or not race, okay fair enough. Later that day when looking at Bill "Grumpy" Jenkins Pro Stock Camaro we saw about 2-3 feet in total running from his regulator to his twin side mounted Holley carbs. He was not the only pro plumbed that way but ... he was a legend and we were bracket chumps ... fun times, great memories.

[Billy Nees]

I was bracket racing at an NHRA track and I'm waiting my turn in the Tech line when the Racer in front of me is confronted by the Tech Inspector because he wants to run Pro but he has a delay box in his car. At the time, boxes were only allowed in S/P. The Racer in front of me drives away and I asked the Tech Inspector about him taking out his box. The Inspector told me that the Racer told him that he wasn't going to use it and the Inspector was OK with that. I told the Tech inspector "lock me in a closet with your wife, I promise that I won't touch her!" He got on his scooter and rode away, came back with the Racer's box and told me, "you've made your point now get out of here"!

[Chuck Norton]

There are several that fit into this category. How about the Winternationals that first generation SS Camaro hood trim became in issue? There were several cars in both Stock and Super. Stock thst competed with non-color matching hoods. Never mind the documented fact that a few early '68 Camaro small block cars came with "finned" hood inserts instead of "stacks." We had blue cars with red hoods lining up against red cars with blue hoods that year.

One of my personal pet peeves were the years when camshaft duration and overlap were measured by wrapping a strip of masking tape around the balancer and marking the lobe opening and closing points with a Sharpie or the stub of a hand-sharpened pencil. After the marks were made, they peeled off the tape, stretched it out on the fender and measured the distance between marks with a ruler? Never mind the fact that, on a small balancer, the width of each Sharpie mark covered at least two degrees one way or the other.

[Bill Ringer]

My experiences included 8 teardowns across divisions 3, 4, 5 & 7 from 1987 to 1994. However, 3 of those were self-imposed from National Record certifications. I understood that this is just part of Class racing. It is what we signed up for so like it or not, all of us had to deal with it.
Most memorable was Indy, at Paul Harvey Ford. As the rigs left the track at sunrise to go into town there were two guys at the gate mocking everyone singing as loud as they could- "Paul Harvey Ford!!" Thanks a lot guys. Lots of cars at teardown and it went faster than I expected. My crew chief, Dwayne Scheitlin was there and his help was crucial to get me in & out on time since a second group was coming in the afternoon.
Pomona in 1988 also had a good building for teardown at the east side of the complex. D6 tech director, Jerry Valentine politely pointed out some things I needed for the future, plastic trim in the front valance was missing and the fog lamps too plus, the grills in my shaker scoop. Tech was not going to accept shakers without the grills going forward. At that time they weren't disqualifying anyone over this but telling us to get the grills back into the shaker scoops ASAP.
Quickest teardown was a points meet after the finals in Denver, winner & runner-up both. They were on time and the weather was really nice so why not? Done in just over 90 minutes since we didn't have to put things back together, just button everything up enough to stay clean and put it back together at home.
One issue came up during a National Record certification in Division 4. I got to know Red Anderson and yes, he was a thorough tech inspector but me and others feel he was always fair. The issue they questioned was sent to the national tech office and after some communication with Dave Danish I did get my National Record cert a couple months later. After getting to know Red Anderson I really liked him. More like him would be good to have today.
My experiences with the NHRA Tech officials were good, all were professional, reasonable and courteous. Back then there were stories where that wasn't always the case but fortunately all my encounters were positive.
I wish that after successful teardown we would have been given a little 2" sticker indicating the certification, the NHRA emblem with "tech" a wrench and a caliper would have been great to have on the fender or hood.
I am happy to see the push for more teardowns in the future. Teardowns give our classes credibility. Performance based sportsman racing is an essential part of the sport. I am happy to see that there are still many that feel that way.

[Dan Bennett]

Not a stock or super stock story, but might be of interest due to the circumstances.

We were running pro stock at indy and after the last qual session tech rode up and told us we needed to go to the barn. We all needed to be wearing depends when we heard that. As far as we knew, we were 100% legal but the thought of tearing things apart and getting them all back together was scary beyond belief. Seems like the other ps car was Yates.

Jenkins was building our engines and the team owners always paid for him to attend races to keep the engine tuned. It was a huge relief to have him there during teardown.

Luckily, we were only asked to do things we knew how to do, like pulling the engine. Lots of attention in tracing wiring went on. But I was totally confused that Jim Collins spent close to an hour inspecting our mid plate with a magnifying jewelers' loupe.

At the time, the news had not come out that the Gliddens had just admitted to the NHRA that they had used nitrous - and that it fed from a pinhole in the midplate to the supports for the hood scoop. When I learned that, the "we don't need to go into your engine, we just want to look at other things" approach became clear.

Yes, we passed. It was something we were proud of since it was the beginning of the nitrous fiasco. We were one of two cars who could absolutely state we were legal in every way.

[goinbroke2]

Great story Dan, mine too is not from S/SS but from stock car racing. The rules were 8" rim, 4" of clearance and 160psi cranking pressure.
I was running a 351C and seemed to always get 3rd (top three checked) As they slid the 4" angle iron on a rod under the car and checked rim width, I'd pull a plug etc. Always front left cyl (#5) and always 130psi or so. After a few races there were complaints (of course) and they wanted to check the other bank (1-4). I already had a plug out, nope, but I, nope. Checked #3 and it was 220 or something like that. Wwwwhat?? I said, that's weird! (I was running one open chamber and one closed chamber, lol)

Edit: Just to point out...I was a kid with several "influencers" in my circle at the time.

[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.

[Bob Shaw]

One year at the U S Nationals we were going through tear down at Paul Harvey Ford. I was in the cylinder head line to get the head checked and asked my wife to get in the carburetor line to save some time. The tech guy told her to pour the gasoline out of the carb. She dumped the gasoline and all the internal carb parts in the nearest trash barrel. It's hard to get good help.