Tech Inspection stories?

[GTS340]

inspections happen a lot in division 7 at the scales after a run. At National events officials roam through the staging lanes checking belts, helmet, blinders and what ever they have on their minds that day. They come in out pits, say hello and check stuff. Maybe its just me!

Paul

[1700camaro]

We have tech inspections in Div 7 for bracket racing, some tracks are more stringent than others.

[Alan Roehrich]

I have a couple of favorites from the not too distant past. We were a Memphis with the 69 Camaro I worked on for Kevin Cradduck. One of the tech guys spotted the metal line attached to the intake, for the vacuum modulator on the transmission, it had auto 1-2 shift at the time. He asked me what the lines was for, and I replied "it's for the nitrous oxide". I thought Kevin was going to pass out on the spot. I also had a few "Kilroy" pictures drawn in various places, like inside the valve cover, under the intake manifold, etc. Wesley found one that had Kilroy giving "the finger". Wesley thought that was hilarious. The tech guys are my friends, I enjoy hanging out and cutting up with them.

[prostockpete1]

won class at the 1979 Columbus Springnationals & got invited to teardown at Paul Mayos transmission shop & was the first time nhra started cc checking unported superstock cylinder head volumes of intake & exhaust ports guessing to see differences ln the oem same castings numbers sizes .. would of been interesting data gathering

[Stewart Way]

This is about a teardown that didn't happen. 73-74 working tech with John Biedenkapp at the Blaney Points meet. Back then you couldn't race on Sunday so this was a one day deal and back then you ran Stock thru TF at points meets. Busy long day. Usually we just tore down winners because of how late the race went. I think it was Ronnie Traffenstedt asked me if we were going to tear down the RU and I said no. He said the other car in the final who I won't name was cheating so we went and talked to John and he asked how Ronnie knew he was cheating and he said he was catching the other cars and riding. Ronnie said he would prove it. He was going to leave in 3rd in his, I think SS/P Chevelle, and the other car would not pass him. Sure enough the Chevelle left in 3rd, back to 2nd or 1st but the other car never went around him. When they got to the scales John told them both to pull a head. The unnamed racer was not happy. They both went back to the pits and Ronnie tore down but the other car kept arguing. Jonh sent me to find Buster and Buster told him he would get a year off if he didn't tear down. He loaded up and left. He got his vacation.

[Lyn Smith]

Originally Posted by 1320racer

isn't the biggest tech story the fact that their is no tech inspection any longer?

Make a trip to the US Nationals and you will find out.

[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.