Do you believe that the NHRA techs are doing their job?

[Stewart Way]

I started working in Div II and at Nats in 1970. Don't have my 70 rule book handy but the 71 book for S and SS says in the body section "Alterations or customizing to gain class advantage prohibited." I took that to mean that if someone, for example, changed a 70 duster grill to a 71 but still ran the car as a 70 then it was not to "gain" an advantage and it was OK. But if you were going to change the year of a car from 70 and claim 71 everything needed to be changed to be correct. This view was not shared by everyone in Tech especially at Nat events and my "reading" was not allowed. Sometime later the rulebook was changed to read "Alterations or customizing prohibited." At that point the incorrect tail lights, grills, louvers and other body parts needed to be correct, advantage or not.
I could not do tech today. I still know the older cars pretty well but 76 up I would be in trouble