Indy Alky Qualifying

This morning's US Nationals got hit with rain and qualifying didn't get underway until noon. To accomodate the delay, some adjustments needed to be made to the schedule. Both of the alky qualifying sessions got adjusted off today's schedule -- along with Pro Mod. (But we did get to see 170+ and 150+ SG and SC make their first elimination runs -- yipee!!! Congrats to Harry Holton and team on the Hemi Challenge victory!)

So, does anyone know (with certainty) what's going to happen now? Will the alky qualifying sessions be made up? Or will the this class get shafted by only having two qualifying sessions before Sunday's first round of eliminations?

 

you can see were the Alky class stands with NHRA.

Lanny

 

Thanks for the update. It is sad but true...NHRA does not seem to care that much about the second quickest class that competes in competition at the national events. I couldn't make it to the Big Go this year and therefore I am in the dark down here in Georgia as far as what is happening up there. NHRA's website and results page certainly did not say anything about bumping BOTH the alky qualifying sessions. I assumed they would probably bump at least one of them given the rain delay. Anyone of you that has the inside info of what is going on up there please post updates on this thread so all of us out here in internet land will know what is happening. Since NHRA does not care about the class they really do not update anything about the TAD TA/FC classes. I appreciate it!

George Turner
Team PTI Racing

 

Alcohol cars will get one session on Saturday, one on Sunday with first round now starting on Monday. That is as long as weather permits.

 

The alkys got one qualifying session today. They are scheduled to have one more qualifying session tomorrow (Sunday) followed by first round of eliminations later in the day.

A particularly disheartening note during qualifying... Ken Perry's dragster oiled down the track BIG TIME! It was one of the worst oil downs I have ever seen. Apparently, an oil line came loose at the hit of the throttle. The entire lane from wall to centerline, from the starting line to the top end turnoff was oiled. It took over an hour to clean up. From the starting line to about 150', they put down the grease sweep, washed, dragged, washed again, dragged, put down rosin, dragged, put down traction compound, dragged, scraped from the starting line to about 100', dragged, put down some white power and went over it with the propane torches (which appeard to melt it), dragged, and put down more traction compound. [sigh] It was a disaster and the fans (around me at least) were not happy the lengthy clean-up.

The next 3 TAD running in that lane -- Randy Meyer, Guy Kelly, and Dave Hirata -- all blew the tires off about 100' out. It was interesting (amusing?) to hear Graham Light say the track was so good, that the cars were underpowering it and shaking the tires. The smoke coming off Meyer's tires sure looked like they had lost traction.

Unfortunately, this oil down resulted in the cancellation of the second Pro Mod qualifying session so that the NHRA could get close to being back on schedule. The Pro Mod cars were already in the staging lanes and had to be towed back to their trailers.

A number of the alky teams I talked to in the morning said that the alky's would get the Sunday qualifying session if they "behaved," i.e. no oil downs. I guess we'll see tomorrow if this oil down affects the qualifying session that is now scheduled.

P.S. Perry wasn't the only one who had a major oil down. Don Reed in TF also had a major oil down, but while lengthy it didn't result the extensive repair of the low end of the track that Perry's did.

Later...

 

OK ?

 

Everybody should start building a bottom-end catch pan like Bob Newberry has, most likely be a rule next year.

 

Ken Perry's oildown was not his fault. The line was still tight when he got to the other end. It had a recent hydro-test tag and appeared to be in good shape. When NHRA took the line to Hyatt's for testing, the line leaked severely through the braiding. NHRA told Ken he was not held responsible.

 

Is Bobs catch pan like the carbon fiber model from deist? If not, where to we find one?

 

Another bad oil down was the Mile High Express car. Yet another new driver in the seat for this car, word was he drove the thing almost to the scales.

If we don't start getting this oil down stuff under control why SHOULD NHRA give a crap about us.

Glad to see that Perry couldn't have prevented his oil down but it still sucked.

[ September 07, 2004, 08:47 PM: Message edited by: ROF ]

 

Marty, I have the utmost respect for you, your team and your knowledge of BADs. What bothered me as a fan sitting in the stands is that Perry's pass took over 16 seconds. Clearly, something was not right. He had plenty of time to pull to the side, stop his car and minimize the amount of track affected. Did he not know his car was leaking as he continued all the way to the top end? It took an hour and ten minutes to clean up. I haven't seen many oildowns at national events that took longer to clean up.

 

Rocky,
I don't know what Ken did, or did not, realize during that pass. You have a valid point, and I like to see people pull to the guardrail as soon as they know there's a possible leak too, but during the heat of battle, it evidently didn't register on Ken what was happening. I'm sure if he would've known, he would have aborted and pulled over. They are good people.

Take care all.

 

We built our own in the shop. Any chassis shop or tin knocker can build one. We used .050aluminum and rolled the edges in , just to slow down any oil that may happen to be sloshing around in there. We put a rod out at the second race we had it on the car and did not put one drop of oil on the car or racetrack. It is the best thing we have bolted on our car in a long time.It should be on the inside of the framerails, instead of on the outside like some of the fuel cars have theirs

 

I guess that was after Houston?? There are so many ways to put oil on the track or otherwise make the lane unusable I don't think the problem will ever be solved. All we can do is be proactive like above.

 

Your right we oiled it down pretty good. Weve had tons of problems with the rear main not gettin enough oil and spinning the bearing, and eventually it dropped 2 rods, 7 and 8 and broke a hole in the pan.

 

I dont know about the scales, when we went down there to pick him up he was right next to Todd so.. but ya he is a new driver for us he drove it in Denver and scribner and here so ya fairly new. I dont know if he knew about the oil or not but he drove it right down the groove on the throttle the whole way.

 

I dont know about the scales, when we went down there to pick him up he was right next to Todd so.. but ya he is a new driver for us he drove it in Denver and scribner and here so ya fairly new. I dont know if he knew about the oil or not but he drove it right down the groove on the throttle the whole way.

 

Whatever happened to that Redlight box at Half-track? That would be a good thing to have for Crewmembers to let a Driver know something has happened!