Driver ejection,NHRA cover up at St. Louis

[Jim Kaekel]

I was presume this call was made by our brand new division 3 director who just started in his position this month, correct?

[kansas stocker]

Looked like a good call to me. When you cross the center line out of control it does not leave much choice.
Pete

[RKelliher]

No one who watched the video can tell when the tires locked up.This should have been handled much better by the division director.Like checking with people at the other end of track and not threats to the driver. The result may have been the same ,but doing your job right might have saved a lot of bad blood.

[Billy Nees]

Originally Posted by kansas stocker

Looked like a good call to me. When you cross the center line out of control it does not leave much choice.
Pete

Now wait a minute, if you are past the finish line and cross the "center line out of control" in a fuel car, you still win the race. And that also goes for hitting the guard wall, exploding your car apart, hitting the driver in the other lane or, oh yeah, smoking the tires.

[Lenny5160]

Originally Posted by Billy Nees

Now wait a minute, if you are past the finish line and cross the "center line out of control" in a fuel car, you still win the race. And that also goes for hitting the guard wall, exploding your car apart, hitting the driver in the other lane or, oh yeah, smoking the tires.

Nothing that you have stated here is incorrect. However, Section 2 Page 9 of the 2018 NHRA Rulebook specifically notes that boundary infractions past the finish line will be enforced if they determine that excessive braking was the cause of the infraction. Capitalization is in the rulebook; not mine:

Anytime it has been judged that excessive braking has resulted in loss of control that results in contact with the guardwall and/or light fixtures or crossing the center boundary lines, INCLUDING PAST THE FINISH LINE, the contestant will be disqualified.

[Mark Yacavone]

Bruce, welcome to the forum.
Have to say..it looked bad on video. crossing into the opponent's lane, even after the traps...Not good.
I was excited and put it in reverse is probably not a good case.
I'm afraid you'll just have to chalk this one up to experience. IMO

[Michael Beard]

This was obviously WAY past the finish line and not a case of excessive braking. I've had opponents hit reverse by accident in the shutdown area more than once. (once in eliminations, once in a qualifying run) On the elimination run, I got beat fair and square. I didn't complain, and my opponent busted his ***** to swap transmissions between rounds and continued on in eliminations, albeit on some slightly less than perfectly round tires.

A little common sense goes a long way.

[Lenny5160]

Originally Posted by Michael Beard

This was obviously WAY past the finish line and not a case of excessive braking.

I completely agree, but it depends on how closely the powers that be are watching and paying attention.

If you're in the tower eating a sandwich, and you hear Alan say "whoa!" which makes you look up and see smoke and a car crossed-up shortly past the finish line, it is probably easy to make the bad assumption here.

And no, I don't think any assumptions should ever be made in these cases. But we also know how much of a priority we can be in the NHRA world.

[Mike Fuller]

Originally Posted by Billy Nees

Now wait a minute, if you are past the finish line and cross the "center line out of control" in a fuel car, you still win the race. And that also goes for hitting the guard wall, exploding your car apart, hitting the driver in the other lane or, oh yeah, smoking the tires.

That is correct. Seems like the rules are different for this case. I have also seen certian racers smoke the tires during excessive braking on two consecutive rounds an only get a warning.

[FED 387]

After watching the video many times I feel the call was correct---My reasons are that the car did not "just smoke the tires a teeny little bit " but locked them up enough to disrupt the forward motion of the vehicle and cause the car to change lanes violently and at one point 100% of the car is in the other lane---It appears that he "lost control" and fortunately did not hit something whether it was another car or the wall--This is way beyond just smoking the tires by "excessive braking" --The driver openly admitted he put the trans into reverse or something of the sort something about his shifter ---The call was a safety issue and was meant as a punishment or deterrent not to do this again---I don't care if he was excited about the fact that he was going to the 5th round in stock that caused him to do this.He was wrong and I feel the decision is correct--- who the division director is or how long he has been the division director should have no bearing on the decision----The offender is wrong, it was the correct decision at the time , after either observing it in person or on a video rerun. You cannot convince me otherwise. I feel the DQ was correct. FED 387