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.