Re: Rules
 

I'd be OK with that. Just can't show either.

Re: Rules
 

Dave - I agree ............never / ever in NHRA ............IHRA is a whole different story .

Joey D - Please put your phone back on the hook .......i'm tired of hitting redial .

Re: Rules
 

Jeff Lee posted:
Lets start with that...seat belts. If it's SFI approved once, it's SFI & NHRA approved forever (or until an obvious problem)! I would count sun faded as a problem. I've replaced frickin' belts that had dozens of passes on them and they sat in my cool garage the remaining times.

And I've always been a proponent of "traditional" aluminum roller rockers for Stockers. That or take away any modified lifters. That means NO MODIFICATIONS. Take your pick.

I dont think I go along with you idea about belts. Good properly working seat belts played a part in saving me and I was told bad belts and plastic seats played a part in us loosing Lee Shepherd. Seat belts are abused by more than just the sunshine. They should be removed and checked. I don't agree with some of the prices charged to recert.
The rocker arm/lifter deal I agree with.

Re: Rules
 

Adger, didn't Lee's helmet come off?

Re: Rules
 

Lee never had his belts buckeled as it was a GoodYear tire test day. The wind caught the chute on a full pass instead of the 60 footers and he was thrown thru the windshield.

Re: Rules
 

The car they were using was the Alston test mule. OSBI confiscated all the wreckage and equipment for their study of the accident. OSBI is like the Oklahoma version of the NTSB and FBI combined. The story I got was the belts were chafed on the 2 layer plastic seat, remember them, from all the ins and outs of the test car and the belt broke on impact. It was all because the crosswind pulled him off track. His head hit the cage bar across the windshield and he had an open faced helmet on. Lee raced at my tracks quite a lot and I even opened the track for some testing. He was not the type guy to make a pass without the belts on or his chin strap fastened. He was a person of routine, right down to unloading his car and sitting on his tailgate eating his brown bagged sandwich. Check out this link, it shows helmet & intensity http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BShCWWe8VPc
Why do you think SFI came out with the belt rules after that and a couple other incidents with the plastic seats? Also if you see those seats now the belt openings are cut with a milling tool, not a hot knife that leaves sharp edges. It is a shame we have to loose people to further the safety rules. It is also a shame we have racers that are more concerned with the money and the inconvenience the rules cause than their purpose of safety.

Re: Rules
 

What tracks did you have, Adger?

Re: Rules
 

Adger, you missed my point that if a visual inspection revealed a problem, even sun discoloration, then they need to be replaced.
That could mean replacing every race if there is something wrong!
A brand new set of belts, if improperly installed, will not be fully functional and are subject to failure.
A set of belts that look as good as new, are as good as new in my opinion.
Anything less, needs a replacement set.

I may be wrong but I think belts for fighter planes and sprint cars are not replaced on a calendar, only on poor quality.

Re: Rules
 

Unless something has changed, in the '80s we had to have new belts in our sprint cars every year. May have just been local, but I don't think so.

Re: Rules
 

Here's what I'd like to see....scale, fuel check 1st pass.... then the only way you go back is if you go quicker or have a heads-up run! Would speed things up so much!

Re: Rules
 

ED, every time I set a record (60,70,80) I went to the barn..............:confused:

Re: Rules
 

You have to go through teardown to set a record in IHRA. Only difference is that you typically go through teardown on Friday *before* setting the record, seal the motor, then set the record, and you don't have to come apart again that year (that season, not a calendar year. The following year you'd have to come apart again) as long as the motor is sealed.

Re: Rules
 

Bobby,read my response to J Ryan.

Re: Rules
 

here's what i would like to see:

tech once a year

scale, fuel once a race
heads up to scale and fuel

everone gets torn down once

check for driveshaft (alum) once

batterys check once a year

spools and axles check once

brake pedal check once (pull back on it)

do spot check in stagging lanes once a race

if got cheating out for 2 years

any body saids anything about nhra out for life and off this board

Re: Rules
 

Wow,hey Vic.Get up on the wrong side of the bed this morning? :>):>)

Re: Rules
 

yea ed your gone
don't have to listen to your bull***t no more

by the way i am joking
don"t ask me why i like you and billy
must have lost my **** mind

Re: Rules
 

Ed, do not worry, Vic is always in some kind of unusual mood. At Bradenton last year he had a real bad attitude about the weather, go figure, it was only 48 degrees. If it was'nt for Billy, I believe he was going back up to his winter wonderland where it was cooler.

RULE CHANGE: Scales and fuel if liked class cars compete.
The fuel that I want to buy, not the high priced crap I have to run.
Qualify the fuel cars at night to give sportsman more time runs.
No more eliminations at 8:00 AM and again at 10:00 PM.

Ron Ortiz
U/SA change, change, change

Re: Rules
 

I luv you too darlin'.

Re: Rules
 

Amen, what a waste of time scale and fuel is for the most part. When you need to get back for a second car its even worse.

Re: Rules
 

you can set an ihra record with a previously sealed mtr. saw this happen, tech man turned to me and stated, ( oh we tore this one down @ previous race.) when i tried the same thing , got told ( how do we know you didnt mix up the colors and paint it yourself) HMMMMMM i guess i didnt have enough of a southern drawl, is what i was later told.

Re: Rules
 

When and where did you tear down and set the first record, and when and where did you have a problem setting another record with your sealed motor in the same season?

Re: Rules
 

Was gonna ask the same thing myself Michael.......".Hmmmmmmmmmm"

Re: Rules
 

I'd like to see eliminations ladders set up so that all scheduled bye runs take place in the first round.

Currently, a driver can win a quarterfinal race in certain-sized fields and go straight to the final. A semi-final win can be worth thousands of dollars in purse money and contingencies, plus bonus points, and a free time trial or a parts saving easy pass. Why not make a driver work to advance instead? It also cheats spectators to see late-round bye runs instead of meaningful races.

Low qualifiers are actually being penalized now, because their 'free pass' in an odd-sized field only gets them to the second round, which usually doesn't earn them anything but points. The drivers down the ladder are the ones benefiting from the more meaningful byes as the race progresses.

Re: Rules
 

What do you do with a 65-car field?

Re: Rules
 

All bye runs can't be in the first round. What do you do with an odd number of round winners?

Re: Rules
 

Shoot them?

Re: Rules
 

Well, that's obvious. You give the top 63 qualifiers a bye and the bottom 2 qualifiers have to race. Then you have a nice even 64 cars left for round two. :)


-Toby

Re: Rules
 

Hey Toby,very good.Youse must be an college graduiat.

Re: Rules
 

Toby has the solution for Mike's case of 65 cars. My basic idea is to resolve the ladder in a way that there are no bye-runs after the first round. In some fields that means several singles in the first round, while most cars race; in others like 65, there will be, in effect 63 byes in the first round and one actual pairing.

You have to remember that in order to eliminate a 65 car field you are in effect going to need a 128 car ladder with 63 empty slots in it. Current practice is to manipulate the ladder into multiple "full pods" and "empty pods" to compensate for the scheduled odd car byes. If you look at the ladders at NHRA.com, you'll see that many ladders set up this way are 1/4 empty space. My plan takes all the mid-race empty pairings and competition byes and moves them to the first round.

Current format:
65>33>17>09>5>3>2
- - - Six rounds of eliminations to reach final. Seven wins needed for title.
- - - 9.2% (6/65) of starters have shot at title with only six wins needed

Proposed format:
65>64>32>16>8>4>2
- - - Six rounds of eliminations to reach final. Seven wins needed for title.
- - - 96.9% (63/65) of starters have shot at title with only six wins needed.

Re: Rules
 

I agree with Toby about the cylinder heads. The way the rules are interpreted now is expensive bullsh*t.

Chris Barnes
Wagons of Steel
Stock 6621

Re: Rules
 

While I admire your passion for this idea, there's no way in hell NHRA would do this. Here's a breakdown of their savings in purse if they have 65 cars vs your scenario of 63 byes round 1:

Semi 500x1=500
Rd5 450x3=1350
Rd4 400x7=2800
Rd3 300x15=4500
Total of $9150 saved by NHRA

Re: Rules
 

In addition, the race would take a lot longer to run. 63 bye runs in a race instead of 6. Multiply that track time by 5-10 classes, and you're looking at almost another entire day to run an event.

Re: Rules
 

The first page of the NHRA rule book.. THE BASICS OF DRAG RACING What is a drag race? ( The sport of drag racing is an acceleration contest between TWO vehicles racing from a standing start over a straight quarter - or eighth- mile course. A drag racing event is made up of a series of individual TWO -vehicle races called eliminations,) This is right from the front of my NHRA rule book. Page 6.. That is our money they are keeping by not paying out the odd check..Any ladder can be made to end up with even car counts at the end of the race. Add up the cash per class , per event and wow. If it is a "posted" payout, where is it? Where does it go? Who gets to keep it? Can i have it?....This is something i feel needs to be addressed with both the NHRA and the track owners? just my 2 cents

Re: Rules
 

I can only hope that the season gets here fast enough.I love beating up on NHRA when It seems they need it.But this discussion is getting ridiculous.Next some of you will be accusing them of trying to manipulate the fields so they get the maximim amount of bye runs.Let's beat them up on real issues.