Alcohol Funny car final rockingham??????

if anyone cares to comment

 

Hold the clutch pedal in longer.

 

Mark , I was shocked at the final round . It is hard for me to understand what happened . I as well as others saw no motion to cause a red lite let alone any forward motion . I guess we will all have to wait for the video. My understanding is that Spook says the car rolled out of the beams , to which I replied that was impossible and could not happen when the car was prestaged and staged with the brake at 5700 rpm . He suggested that the car was possibly not staged deep enough or properly in the beams (eg. body or ?) . What I saw was the yellow and red light on together with no visible time between the two lites. Mark , After the struggle your team overcame to fight back to that position It was as disheartening to watch as it must have felt for you and the team . You handled the situation with class, It would have been very hard for me to use that kind of restraint. I wondered about the E.T , Did the car rattle the tires or was that just a part of the red light, it did go 239 mph ?? Sorry to see any race like that at any time . See you in the New year .Best wishes To the family and team .

 

Mark,

From my position in the tower I may not have had the best vantage point. My CompuLink printout shows a -0.382 red light. Does that jibe with Fred's timeslip? With a 14 hour drive ahead of me, I had to leave just after the Pro finals so the only hint of controversy I had was an overheard conversation on my way to the car.

Nick

 

Mark I didnt see much throught the view finder on my camera but I will have those pictures back shortly and maybe I caught something I dont know about. We'll see soon enough....I was a little concerned myself as to why the et was so slow and the speed so high but i never saw the car shake the tires....I'll get back to you

 

195.75 at half track,fastest weve ever been,we let #1 run till 3rd.lol...-382 red?? maybe tree was on single left lane??

 

mark what does the time slip[ say at each interval including reaction time....

 

thanks for the kind words Les, IT MEANS ALOT. HELLO NICK . 1.46 60 foot need i say more.LOL

 

Hey Mark: Congratulations and "great job" on your IHRA final round. Tell your Dad I said "nice job." By the way, what happened in the final that this thread is about?

 

HeLLo PAUL, thank you are you still racing with jeff next year, you were running well at the last few races.
not going to say anything abouy the final i left the post to hear from people who may have saw what happened, we like IHRA and dont intend say negative things. or whine to much.LOL

 

It has happened 2 times this year , it happened in the right lane at Toronto Motorsports Park at the National event during competition rounds and the tree red lit 2 or 3 Pro Stocks the same way when there was no forward motion at all and all the stage lights were lit . The problem was possibly a software issue , but I am not positive of that. I do know that it was not cured at track level with hardware as I was present with about 80 curious / nervous onlookers from many classes during the Pro session. The similarities are stunning , the difference is that in Toronto the cars involved Got to rerun the 2 or 3 pairs and oddly it was repaired somehow in the tower . I am on the edge of my seat to see the film of Rockingham, but In the back of my mind something tells me that we will not see a starting line shot on the finished TV product for the F/C class ?? I believe that Fred ran about 5.85/5.88 but I don't know if he beat Von to the end or not , In actual cars leaving the line I would say my view across the starting line was that Von Left on Fred . If Fred beat him to the end he didn't do it with a 1.46 60' and a 6.39.I will guarantee you he would have had to have left a 1/2 second or better ahead of Von , and that would be obvious and there would be no question to who left first, that would have been visible to Ray Charles !

 

Hello Les,WELL that hurts. the shaft speeds indicated we were on a low 80 possibly high 70,
dad said the thing was hauling ASS,195.75 AT half track never been that fast,
(prev) 194.20 on the low 80s we had run. 200 more shaft speed from .50 to 1.50 and stuck. dad said he never saw Von. the time slip was so far off 1.46 60 and at half track it was like 5 seconds .its a mess,the picture of dad and von leaving the starting line,there side by side.-382 to 062,both about 2feet from the beams. on comp plus .com.

 

Von does look like he is ahead. He never did roll the beams? That would be the only explanation I could think of. That is an error a driver can make, A little too aggressive clutch and he can't hold it. I don't know just asking.
Dean

 

Mark:

Yes, I will be racing with Jeff again next year. Things started to come around for us at the end of the year with all the new things we are trying.

From reading the information that's posted here, seems like you guys deserved a re-run of the final. 195 at half? It was haulin' huh? Hey, at the Grove, we had a 110mph half track time on a "full pull."

Later,

 

Hey Mark,

I just saw the final on TV. I said to my father right away that something went wacky with the timing system on that one before I even saw this post.

The car didn't pull through the beams, leave early, or anything. In fact, Von visibly left first. Of course the IHRA TV announcers aren't bright enough to catch onto something like that. For those that didn't see it, or don't get Speed, they actually showed a shot directly in line with the stage beams showing the cars front tires.

By my math, you guys got to the stripe first by .008, right? Given that Von left on him by about .04 or so, that puts you guys on an .81 or .82. Anyway, great job down there...

See you at a D1 race next year

Later!
............ Mike

 

I just wanted to say that I watched the tape over and over again, and if the tree was shot from behind the cars, it appears that Von Smith's red light came on. Could it be that Von Smith red lighted, but the system switched the lanes?

 

Mark- Frank and I checked the tape again and the shot of the tree was from down track but like I said being that Smith left first could he have gone red and the system switched lanes? Is there anyway the starter could have given Fred the red?

 

It certainly did not look like Fred rolled the beams and it did not appear to be a red light.
Strange.
Dean

 

Like i said before , there was zero motion from Freds car ! The picture shows the cars in motion , Yet any racer in this forum Knows for a fact if you leave -.382 and the other guy is .462 the cars are never ever going to be in the same camera shot unless it is taken from the Shuttle !! I told Mark at the line when it happened that it was wrong , its still wrong today but the fact is its too late to make it right . Remember if Fred ever gets a gift, squeeker or questionable win "they owed him "
As a note ,Spook said Fred may have rolled out of the beams , I say impossible that car was coiled like a Cobra ready to go forward not back .