And the whiner award goes to ......

[Jeff Lee]

Chuck, just to be clear and to provide the entire statement I made and it's not taken out of context, here's EXACTLY what I posted on the subject:

NHRA never had a rule that blinders were OK. Racers just adopted it. Now NHRA is just clarifying that they are not allowed. And when racers took it to the extreme and people are getting run over in the staging lanes, I'm all for it.
Look, racing involves dealing with distractions of all sorts. Those that can deal with them prevail more than those that can't. That's just a part of the sport.

Not the least of my concerns are safety and as it has been proven, somebody is going to get hurt. Secondly, my thoughts are there is some degree of ineptness if you need to shield yourself in a cocoon in order not to be distracted in a race. Sorry to offend some, but that's just my .02 on the matter.

[joe176]

Then I guess the pro stock drivers are really inept....take a look at their shields and custom helmets with minimal race view. And also giant hood scoops that grossly block their vision from seeing the tree while staging to looking down track while on the run. Maybe Koretzky never saw Bruce Allen coming......should NHRA do away with modified visors and hood scoops in pro stock also?????????

[Jeff Lee]

And they finally made the P/S drivers shift themselves. Funny, it didn't seem to hurt performance...

Fast cars have an advantage in that they chase a slow car down. Slow cars have an advantage in that they get a clean tree and get to leave first. Some build a fast class car because they favor chasing. Some build a slow class car because they want the fast cars to red light in anticipation. Blinders narrow that slow car advantage.
Maybe MLB players should have little slits in their batting helmet that only shows the path from the pitcher to the batter? Would hate to imagine they can't hit the ball if distracted!

[rustbucket79]

What stops a racer from taking a pair of dark sunglasses (or mirrored) and doing a little "duct tape magic" on the inside where the NHRA gods can't see? If you only put them on just before staging, only did one lens and closed your other eye once you saw the tree start, it would be safe and "big brother" would never be the wiser. Back before the LED's I used sunglasses to slow my R/T, and for the night races, they came off briskly before the 1-2 shift, one fluid motion from reacting to the tree to grabbing the frames, then off to the shifter......food for thought.

EDIT: I just read Pat's thread on patented glasses, rats, someone had the idea before me!!

[burton5809]

This once again prooves another point that no matter what NHRA does there are still people complaining...cant make everyone happy but preach on chuck i agree 100%

[Jason Oldfield]

Originally Posted by rustbucket79

What stops a racer from taking a pair of dark sunglasses (or mirrored) and doing a little "duct tape magic" on the inside where the NHRA gods can't see? If you only put them on just before staging, only did one lens and closed your other eye once you saw the tree start, it would be safe and "big brother" would never be the wiser. Back before the LED's I used sunglasses to slow my R/T, and for the night races, they came off briskly before the 1-2 shift, one fluid motion from reacting to the tree to grabbing the frames, then off to the shifter......food for thought.

I can guarantee this WILL be done. I'm not sure if the person will get caught or not, but I'm sure people WILL do it. If they're smart, they'll only wear their sunglasses during the day, and rely on their "skill" to win any races at night, if necessary.

Of course, they could also just wear a pair of these at night too:

[Michael Beard]

>> Maybe MLB players should have little slits in their batting helmet

Why aren't corked bats and steroids permitted in the MLB?

[moparornocar]

i wanna make sure i got htis strait

leveling the hp playing field is bad but leveling the rt playing field is good? dosent the same logic apply?

[Greg Hill]

Don't anyone take this personally, but if you can run 1.3 something under your index at Indy on Labor Day weekend you need horsepower. My car is a 70 or 71 Camaro Z28 wsith the horsepower ratings at 325 and 315. There are no better legal parts you can buy than are in my motors. I have one of the top engine builders in the country. I think I have a pretty fast car for my combination. My best et ever is 10.79 in E/SA. This was in Memphis in 2006 with below sea level air. I'm telling you all this because my engine builder told me that one of his engines from a combination that is rated at 285 made within 5 hp of my 71 motor which is rated at 315. Both had similar parts,. Same engine builder did both sets of heads, although they were differnt makes.
I have tried numerous camshafts over the years numerous converters, 5 or 6 diffferent carburetors,several different ring packages, dyno time, headers and lots of other things trying to improve the performance of my car so don't tell me that all it takes is money and work because I have spent the money and done the work. I realize that I picked this combination and I like running it, but let's face it the AHFS is designed to level the playing field and provide each and everyone of us that race an opportunity to compete on an equal footing. Yes some people are not going to do the work or spend the money it takes to get the maximum performance out of their cars but those of us that do should expect the horsepower ratings to be fair.

The combination I mentioned above that is at 289 now has to weigh 3060 for E/SA my car with the 71 motor has to weigh 3320. I have to give him 260 lbs for motors that make roughly the same horsepower. I'm not complaining, class has gotten less and less important to me over the years and going rounds in eliminations more important, however with the fuel injection cars coming into our class next year it's more important than ever for the AHFS to work properly. There are going to be a lot of heads up runs in 2008.
If this makes me a whiner so be it.

Greg

[Jeff Lee]

Originally Posted by Michael Beard

>> Maybe MLB players should have little slits in their batting helmet

Why aren't corked bats and steroids permitted in the MLB?

MLB slits to block out distractions just like drag racers that can't handle distractions. Cork & Steroids....different catagory!