Pure Class

Read into it anyway you want, but one could see it as a classy move. One TAFC team providing free staging procedure advice to another team. Maybe all of the 4 letter words could have been avoided?

 

On who`s Part..???...The one doing all the swearing,.or the one`s (plural) who took their verbal abuse..

7 seconds is seven seconds...Its called auto start, if anyone car failed to comply after a bottom bulb is lit, its a no brainer rule.

 

class?

Hey Pat,

What exactly are you trying to imply? I have made about 1500 runs in alcohol funny cars and was "schooled" early on in my career by Bucky Austin who taught me how to be patient and hold my car at stage as long as he wanted to take. If anyone needs schooling it is Jay Payne. One of the keys to racing these cars is being able to stage the car and hold it on the line. He has redlit two of the last three times we raced, both times because his car was creeping in the beams. You also learn not to rev your shit up and pull it in until the other car is at least revved up which I was not. There is no rule that says Jay gets to dictate the pace on the starting line. everyone does things a little different and a good driver can adapt and deal with whatever comes up. Jay and Shelly both also need to be schooled in tact and class, anyone who would have a tantrum like that on TV in front of everyone does not deserve to be representing a sponsor and there is no place for that kind of behavior in our sport. As for the four letter words, I was the one being attacked by them both with the f bombs flying and the only thing I said was get the f out of my face as the fat man was right in my face trying to intimidate me.

If I have misinterpreted what you were trying to say, I apologize in advance. But if you are attempting to defend or rationalize their actions you should watch the video and see for yourself. No excuse for the abuse Shelly laid on my wife and crew. If Mr Payne wanted to come and talk to me in person afterwards with a civil tone and discuss it, I would have been happy to oblige.

 

Clint,

I have viewed the video on the supposed "incident" several times. You did not do ANYTHING wrong. Jay revved it up to fast and he allowed the clutch to pull him through the lights. Nothing more. An honest mistake. I do not know why he decided to take out his personal frustration on you. I have met you several times and you and your wife are quite professional and bring a quality team to the track.

See you on the east coast!

Mike

 

Clint,

No reason to apologize, since the original post was worded in such a way to see if anyone could possibly argue Jay's side. I'm totally on your side on this one and it was very impressive how you were able to keep cool. I'm sorry for the confusion.

Does Jay have something different in his staging procedure that wouldn't allow him to lower the r's if needed?

Pat

 

Class

Didnt see the gong show on the starting line or on tv.... BUT regardless on who did what there is no reason other than mechanical error or driver error for the car to pull through the lights at a 7 second stage. Raced both in the past Clint has had the odd issue with the odd team but Jay has had many... So do the math i guess fix your car jay and quit your whining!

 

Jay is staging with a clip on his throttle cable that acts as a detent to help find the same rpm each time. he could back off yes, but it is pretty hard to do when you are up there.Staging this way also prevents the driver from being able to rap the throttle like we all used to to indicate to each other we are ready to rev it up, if you try to you are likely gonna hit it too much and knock the clip out of the groove on the cable. After finally watching the video today, it is clear to me that his car just pulled through. Probably needs a little more air gap, or maybe he loads the clutch when he stages , I don't know. I heard he had a similar issue in qualifying but I didn't see it. He also redlit when we raced in Seattle at the nationals last year. Seems like he needs to adjust something? certainly could use an attitude adjustment! LOL.

 

Is there video of this somewhere on the internet?

 

i dont normally post much but I have to this time. i just watched it on espn3 and saw it. jay an shelley looks like an a$$ yelling at clint for jays screw up. i didnt even count to 2 before clint went in after jay. its the nhra not the jhra. dont hold your breath for jay and shelley to apologize to clint. jay has a history of screwing around when he knows hes in trouble against someone else and his car is slower than they are. everyone knows it and even expects it is goin g to happen. in this case no one screwed around only thing was jay screwed up. i hope its the old mans final fairwell tour so the alchohol racers can get back to racing and loose the drama and loose the witch in the pits.

 

espn3

All of Sunday's action can be watched on espn3. Here's the link http://espn.go.com/watchespn/player/_/id/1590723/size/condensed/

The race between Clint and Jay can be found at just after the 2:11.30 of the over 5 hrs available to watch.

Clint, I thought you handled yourself very well.

 

Wow, Clint you handled yourself like a true gentleman. I saw nothing wrong with your staging and definelty not your fault that Jay rolled the beam. Jay was the first car I ever paired up with and he was very nice and helpful. So was Shelly. I know how frustrating things can be.

 

Here is a race from 1993 in which Jay admits to having made a mistake on the starting line.

http://youtu.be/tzu17F6el1U