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Dwight Southerland · 02-17-2024, 09:54 AM

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.

02-17-2024, 09:54 AM	#4
Dwight Southerland VIP Member Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Arkansas - In the middle of everything. Posts: 1,999 Likes: 63 Liked 772 Times in 192 Posts	Re: Tech Inspection stories? 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. __________________