Tech Inspection stories?

[Jack McCarthy]

twice ive been tossed both by travis an hes good friend

85 sports class teardown was 5-7# over valve springs travis was laying carpet in my house on tuesday .... he says as i push outta the barn still doing carpet ?? im like sure you didnt f&*k me did you he replied i tried all 3 spring testers you got bounce 3 times

like 89 ? indy at paul harvey ....
he says lets check #7 dont think weve done that cylinder yet (car has passed several teardowns) and damnit 3degrees over intake duration that lobe only ...
nhra drops duration rule jan 1st so i was LAST guy to take the duration DQ.

travis once carried a concrete block in his van to reach his short *** over the 60 fenders !

capt

[Jim Caughlin]

A few years back, I was at a Divisional and the tech guy told me I couldn't run because the rod end support on the front of my ladder bars was below the height of the top of the rear wheel. I tried to explain to him that what the rulebook actually said was that the attachment point on the rearend housing couldn't be lower than the top of the wheel. He said that I was wrong and that no suspension component could be below the bottom of the wheel in case a tire went flat. I pointed out to him that on a tube chassis car, the entire frame was below the top of the tire. Anyway, he said cut them off or don't run so I cut them off. A few weeks later, I went to the next divisional race and the tech guy not suprisingly told me that I couldn't run because I had no ladder bar rod end supports. Go figure...

[Rick J]

So I'm at a Phoenix NHRA divisional back in the day, Max Wedge guy had just set the A/SA record, I happen to stroll on by when tech guy is trying to measure the stroke with a dial caliper ..... he looks up and yells at the other tech guy - Hey, does a Max Wedge have a 4.250" stroke? 😆 🤣

[Rob Petrie E395]

Originally Posted by 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.

From 88 until 94 or 95 I worked for a small Nascar team. It was my side gig. During the day I went to college or worked at the dealership. But at night I worked for this team. We also occasionally did work for other teams. The stuff they did was nuts. At times I thought they had more cheated up parts than legal ones. Only one time did we fail inspection. And it was not for cheated up parts. After practice and before qualifying. Somebody forgot to fuel the car. So we were light after qualifying. I absolutely positively hated going through tech. because of the stuff they pulled. Pretty sure it was around that time that I had to start taking blood pressure meds. I was a kid back then too. Was 18 when I stated there.

[goinbroke2]

Lol, cousin was running a 292 chev in the “6 cyl charger class” and had lapped the field in each qualifying heat as well as the main feature. Tech wasn’t looking at him. Finally enough complained when he won the main and he refused to pull the head. “It’ll warp, still hot” etc, etc. as they are arguing I’m like, let’s just pull a head and he smiles “I got 2.02 valves to start with” then goes back arguing. Told to pack up, no win. He laughed when we got home, I asked what’s the point if you can’t win? “I just like hammering the xxxx boys” (forget names now)
Never saw the point in that but it was just a local track and nobody travelled at that time.

Oh and later at his place, we’re all drinking and a car shows up with some guys in it, one of them was the tech guy, they were all friends, that’s why tech let him go until everyone started complaining.

Did I mention I hate stock car racing? Lol!

[Rob Petrie E395]

Originally Posted by goinbroke2

Did I mention I hate stock car racing? Lol!

I don’t hate it. I just hate what it’s become. I’d go back to working a 40 hour week during the day. And 50,60 hours a week at night when cars got tore up. In a heartbeat if my body would allow it. If they’d stop the reasons I quit. The intentional wrecking of people. And the fighting that ensued afterwards. It was childish and stupid. And it was always the crews that paid the price.

[55 Chevy]

Here is one I heard;
Years ago I had a friend on the "more east" side of the U.S. purchase a car which had been a very fast one from a distant "western" division.

The first race the friend attended was a divisional at Indy. I guess either Wesley Robertson or Travis Miller headed things that day. During inspection he said everything was fine except that he couldn't remember front fenders being quite that thin. As they were friends he "suggested" that perhaps it be best to find another pair before the next event.

Those now hang in his garage.

[Dwight Southerland]

How far back do you want to go? I was asked pre-race to replace a sway bar on the front of a '65 Chevelle because it had been installed upside down!

I was one of the first users of Cam Dynamics stocker cams. Being from Arkansas, I was in the thick of Lunati territory and Joe had lots of friends. SO during teardown after a class win, I was asked by a long standing tech director the brand of cam I was running. I told him the truth. A friend of mine who was using the exact same cam was also being torn down next to me. He lied and said he had a Lunati. My cam was measured with the "masking tape around the balancer" method while he got a degree wheel. The tech director working on my car put a little extra effort into pulling the tape off and stretching it flat on my front fender. The cam was proclaimed to be .7 degrees too much duration. Then I got in more trouble by telling the TD that he couldn't even see .7 degrees of duration if it were written on his eyeballs. That started a little tech-racer challenge that lasted for a couple of years. My friend skated through tech without a hitch.

At the National race at Memphis, I was teching in the SS/C Corvette and was informed by the Div. 2 TD that my battery had to have a metal enclosure even though it was attached to the frame behind the passenger compartment, and that a ballast bar that had been installed between the frame rails in front of the radiator (the 50 percent weight rule was in effect then) had to be welded to the frame, not bolted in. So I loaded up and wen to Kenny Faulk's place and spent most of the day building a battery box. I showed back up at tech about 4:00pm to get approved to find all the tech people in their trailer drinking Ice tea n BSing. The TD who had thrown me out just signed my tech card and never moved from his chair. I don't know if he just trusted me or was satisfied he had hassled me enough. However, NOBODY ever checked either of those items the entire time I raced the car. I could have gone to coffee shop, visited with friends, eaten a good meal in a restaurant and gone sight-seeing and no spent the time and money.