I disagree that this incident has set a precedent. With Fridays Stock qualifying run cancelled due to weather, it looks like everything had to be done on Saturday. Qualifying and class runoffs in Stock became a one shot deal Saturday morning. With two complete rounds of pro qualifying scheduled, I can see where tech felt there was plenty of time for the tear down to happen and the car be put back together in order to make first round late in the afternoon.

On the other hand if some idiot wants to protest a competitor 30 minutes before 1st round, he should be told to go pound sand!!!

So where is the invisible line in the sand??? Is it 1hour...2 hours...3 hours...before first round???? I would think that the rule book was written with a cut off of the day before first round was to afford plenty of time (at each persons own pace) to reassemble thier motor. Now some tech guy has power to determine how long you should take to pull a rod and piston??? And oh by the way, if you're in a hurry to make first round and link some fluid on the starting line...there's another $250 out of your pocket!!!!

When the event schedule has to be modified due to mother nature, so too should the protest procedure.

As for weighing the rod/piston assembly, how often are the scales that bounce around in the NHRA trailer calibrated??? For that matter, how often are the scales at the engine builder calibrated??? Is the calibration method the same, i.e., is there a standard????

I think this could be yet another NHRA slippery slope. NHRA must stick to their rule book. It is written and published for a reason. Gracia was wrong!!!!


Randy Running

This is a no-brainer (for those who have a brain). It is written in the NHRA rulebook:
"Contestants protest must be filed with the proper officals the day prior to eliminations (class and/or eliminations) of that category.....NHRA reserves the right to reject any protest filed that it determins, in its sole and absolute dicretion, is frivolos or intended to harass another competitor or to other wise gain some unfair advantage".
Unless this rule has been recinded of changed and is published for all to see it must be enforced. This is not the kind of rule any NHRA official can abide by if he feels like it that day or modify for a "friend" or a racer in his divison. It says " Contestants protest MUST be filed the day prior to eliminations". It doesn't say pending weather conditions or if one contestant has more money than the other. If not, then why have a rule book?
If you think a guy is illegal then make your protest within the time frame alloted. If that isn't possible then you will have to wait until the next race! Fair is fair! Rules are rules! The rules are for EVERYONE! Not just a few!

Jim Wahl
6 Time National record Holder
2239 BF/S
I miss Buster Couch also! 'cause Div.2 will always be "Buster's Rebels"

Ditto Jim Wahl

Whats that old saying " Rules are made to be broken" , guess it doesn't matter what side of the fence your on.

Robyn,

I don't know what scales nhra has, but most of their equipment are pretty nice. The scale I have will weight a hair off of your arm. Its goes to .0001 of a gram and has glass doors on it to keep the a/c from blowing on it. And yes it is calibrated every six months.

Greg

Everyone that has mentioned the rule book is exactly right. Either we go by it or throw it out the window. I would say since the "crankshaft rule clarification" came out that it might as well go out the window. How many other rules are there in it that can, or need to be "clarified"?

Apparantly several yrs. ago when the rule book read "combustion chamber modifications prohibited" that should have been "clarified" to mean: Anything goes as long as you don't leave a detectable weld and they pour correctly.

Anything else ???

did they send pual.s piston and rod assembly to the home office to be further reviewed ??? dennis dunlap 3332 j/sa

ROCKETWORKS

Well Mr. Pendarvis...it appears you are enjoying the fruits of a bad decision by Mr. Gracia...which it does not surprise many of us because it is not the first time for Mr. Gracia to make such decisions contrary to the rule book and at the spur of the moment. Although the other racer was found illegal, the main issue is your protest right before eliminations, contrary to the rules, and NHRA siding with your protest, contrary to their own rules.

So you better educate yourself on the rule book and I would suggest Mr. Gracia to do the same for the sake of the racers. You just got lucky just alike when a pitcher throws a ball and the batter is called a thrid strike and everyone knows it was a ball. I would not be surprised if the racers got together and collected money to protest you at every race they can...wait a minute...them you would finally read the rule book and go crying to NHRA and tell them to enforce the rule about frivilous teardown protests. Remember the saying: Every turkey eventually will experience a Thanksgiving.

A little history.


I thought as soon as I began reading this thread.......it has to be Mr. Pendarvis.

No surprise.

I met him in Memphis at his first points meet with a car he had just bought from some good friends of mine. He rolled it out of his new trailer and put a circled R on the window. I thought now thats ballsy, since the previous owners had never run the car with that in mind.

He proceeded to run a record time. WHOEEE!
Except the car flunked tech. Some problem with the heads.

He pulled the motor right there in the pits with no lift, and sent it home with the engine builder(unnamed here). I know this because I helped him get the motor out. It was clear to me that he was on a mission to run stock and spend the money to set records.

Which is perfectly cool. Isn't it?

Fast forward, and here he is, expecting the same thorough inspection that he submitted to. And was willing to front his cash to do so. Now maybe the "victim" didn't know his car wasn't legal? But neither did Mr. Pendarvis in Memphis.

And I'll wager big bucks that his stuff is legal.

I don't know Mr. Pendarvis. I only met him that one time. My interest was to keep him from hurting himself getting the motor out of his car.

But as an observer and fan of stock racing, I say that he is willing to "put up" instead of prattling. And he was right.

And some here condemn him for demanding that the rules be enforced??

Very strange.


RIP


If you really care, my name is Mike Van Winkle from Lake Charles La.

Mike...I am not talking about the legality of the engine...if you cheat, you pay the price...my complaint is the timing for the protest and NHRA conceding to his protest in violation to the rule book. We all are subject to the rule book, however, how can NHRA deviate from their own rules at their discretion just for the sake of it?

One rule was broken: illegal weight rod/piston/pin assembly weight.

Another one was broken: time of protest vs. rule book wording.

As much as I don't like to see an illegal piece I also don't like to see a random application of the rules which is the norm when it comes to the rule book lately.

I don't think that the protesting racer did anything wrong at all. Actually he did everything right. Whoever allowed the protest to procede irregardless of the rule book wording is who dropped the ball.

PS: you will never know if your bullet is legal or not unless you built it yourself or measured it yourself as it was being assembled. Then you still may be tossed by a "judgement" call beyond you or your engine builders control. Example: I recently freshened a current record holder only to find that a 55 pass piston had lost a small piece of the skirt. Just to see what would have happened the assembly was .542 of a gram light. The others were a little over 6 grams heavy. Had it been torn down it would have been illegal. Same as an intake valve leaving a mark on a piston top from an over rev coming out of the water box. Beyond anyone's control.

SS Engine Guy...good post...it is the discretionary application of the rule book that is the problem here. Also, you have a great point rregarding engine building, unless you do it yorself, you are at the mercy of the engine builder.

Regarding brows in the piston, I have seen NHRA pass engines that it is obvious the valve kissed the piston either due to over revving or due to a broken timing chain or camshaft pin. At the same time, I have seen people put an old cylinder head on the short block with old valves and smack each valve with a hammer to put an indentation on the piston and claim it was due to over revving the engine.