New NHRA Oil Down Policy

OF COuRSE

I'm impressed. That seems more than fair.It should scare that oil to stay in the diaper or else! At least it will hurt Force's bottom line the same as mine.We'll both put the same value on this situation. Good thing I don't carry a couple spares..I'll bet a fuel car expenses $500 extra per run and doesn't even notice.I'll just add that to my account please.

 

Wtf thats crazy

 

TA/FC & TA/D PM/A get fined what about the rest of the field? Comp, S/S, S, S/C & the rest after all oil is oil no mater where it comes from, Hitler strikes again. Ak/tun!

 

Fines

As I read it the other classes do get fined also. $250 for 1st and $500 for 2nd.

One good thing is that they did give everyone one free oildown.

Doug Gordon

 

1 credit

Will, Under alky it reads (after use of credit) so we get one credit. Mike

 

Doug I see that now, Sorry, {Engage brain before typing} disregard my post.

 

I posted this on another web site:

From Bobby Bennett's web site:

“Let’s put it this way, if the penalty for speeding was the death penalty, you would not see too many people speeding,” Beard said. “If the penalty for speeding is a $5 ticket, you’re going to see a lot of people hauling ass down the interstate. The effect of the (NHRA) rule will do what really needs to be done, and that’s fix the sport from all the delays.”

I sat in the stands at the 2010 Finals at Pomona on Friday for the last pro session and was bored to tears. I thought the real race was to see how quick the oil downs could be cleaned up, not how fast the cars could go. Every time there was an oil down a large percentage of the people that were left headed for the parking lot.

If the penalties affect the outcome of the championship so be it. The best car/team should win it, not the team that has a hail Mary tune up that is fast but blows everything up in the process.

Lower funded teams like mine can take a second look at our containment devices, tune up, etc, to see what we can do to minimize the oil downs. Thankfully our average is one oil down about every two years when we are running.

Not all oil downs are due to breakage. I know of instances where a breather was loose, valve covers never tightened, problems that were known to exists that weren't fixed due to time restraints. Which brings me to one thing I have trouble with. They are giving the teams very little time between rounds to service the cars and giving them less and less as eliminations go on. Considering that after a run you have to get in line to be weighed, then fuel check, then fight the traffic and fans getting back to the pits you end up with about 40-45 minutes max to do everything. For the lower funded up and coming teams that may have volunteer crews that means less time to double check your work or properly service the car should you have a big problem. They can't have it all.

 

Srac

I cannot speak for all the Sportsman Racers Advisory Committee members, but just wanted to share with you all a couple things. This rule ammendment, as well as the last several were never discussed with the committe before announcement to the general public. The committee members recieved an e-mail informing us about the same minute that Will did.
For the last 20 hours or so, myself, and alot of the other committee members have been firing off e-mails and phone calls discussing and protesting certain points of the recent rules and the process for making them.
If I recieve any updates that are not already shared on here, I will do my best to communicate them to you all.
Marty Thacker
D-3 SRAC Member

 

Take a look at the Winternationals entry lists,..absolutly pothetic,..and for an obvious reason too. We will ALWAYS be the last to know what has happend,..and no one will ever have an input that will get respectfully listend to.

http://www.nhra.com/events/entrylist01.aspx

 

Replies

First of all, to all that tried to contact me,my internet will let me post on web sites but I was unable to reply to the messages I received. To add to Marty's post, he is 100% correct. The penalty is totally out of line, especially since we have had all of the mandates placed upon us, such as the belly pans, diapers, hose inspections, valve covers, and the monster of a puke tank we had to get for 2010. By implementing these penaltys, it is destroying the top alcohol (sportsman) classes. How much more can we afford to invest in a class that has remained fixed in payouts? We are used as a "filler" on Sundays to fill the gap between the pro rounds. We have no police escorts, no traffic assistance to get back to our pit, and then given less time than most classes get in turn around time. Our maintance is very close to what the top fuel and funny cars need to do. I have experienced less that 45 minutes between rounds. You do what you can in that amount of time. NHRA needs to look at giving us the benefit of additional time in the semi final and final rounds. I would appreciate someone sending this on to Jay Hullinger, because my E-Mail replys are not working. My carrier is working on it but not there yet. Thanks for listening! Mike Kosky

 

Not Good

This seems excessive to me. I understand what they are trying to accomplish, but the fine is too high and the timing is poor at best.

JMHO

Mike L.

 

Nhra

Stand up and get a set of balls. It is really easy DON'T GO You all cry about all this shit, but don't do a G.D. thing about it. You have got to get there attention. I am a Union member.I have lost wages to make wages. Sometimes you need to step back to go forward. When you keep letting people tell you what to do, they will never change unless you change. FxxK NHRA Don Onimus

 

AHMEN Don,..!!!!!!

Just say No,. and dont Go !!!!!!

End the dictatorship already., I wont be paying for their Lawyers either.

 

wow

That seems fair, our fines are only half as much as the PRO teams with the sponsors, tv time, and ten times our payout. So our oil downs should be ten percent of what thiers are. Fortunately we don't often "oil down" a lane but I can assure you it is NEVER because we are trying some "hail mary hope it works and we'll fix it if it doesn't" tune up. I cannot afford to race that way, nor can most all Alcohol teams. If we oil the track it is because something failed. This is absolutely ridiculous to implement against a class that as a whole really doesn't have clean up issues as a percentage of runs that are anywhere close to the fuel cars.
I know NHRA has the stats, and I for one would be interested in seeing them. I was at several National events last year where a fueler would oil the track every two or three runs. We were laughing about it at Charlotte because our pit was next to the track by the finish line and it was actually comical how many times the Safety Safari rolled that weekend to clean up the messes by the pros. How about the fuel sessions at the fall Vegas race? Could have been the longest ever?? Typical "knee jerk" reaction and penalize everyone because some of the classes have a real problem. The "polling" of the fans as to how the oildowns impact thier enjoyment of the show isn't really related to Alky because most of them aren't in the stands when we run anyway. The announcers do a real good job of telling them to go to the pits and watch them work on the "leakers"

I wonder why the other sportsman classes only pay half what we pay? Win a race in comp or super comp or super street for that matter and your pay will be half again as much as winning in the Alky or "pro" mod classes.

I understand the cry "Just say no and just don't go" but that leaves a person with a fancy hotrod and nowhere to race it. Plus as has been said many times, they really don't give a shit if we show up or not so all the "boycott" would do is eliminate our class. Then they could get the Sunday show over in three hours instead of five. Maybe it would be better if they just eliminate the purse altogether. Just let us in for nothing, no oildown penaltys and no payout, then it would be crystal clear that this is just a pay to play hobby and we wouldn't have to bitch about the pittance that we get. Oops I was just kidding, don't want em to get any ideas.

See ya at the races (too stupid to quit)!

 

I agree with Clint's observations of this. Lets see, hit a sportsman racer $500 and figure that that will assist him in running newer pistons or rods or better sleeves. That will certainly help to dry up the racing surface. Of course the new oil drum on the cars was supposed to catch everything, right?

 

Whats the world coming to?

Whats the world coming to when we can't even afford to blow up the one motor we couldn't afford in the first place?......Man I get the idea but somehow don't feel this is going to work out how its supposed to.

Do we get a discount if we get out and help clean? I was in the service, I'll wax that track too!

Starting to appreciate the local circuit more and more

Trevor Sherwood

 

oil downs

As far as I feel, Who gives a shit about fan racing experience. I thought this was a non profit org. for the racers. not for people to sit around drink in the stands and not have a clue anyway. They said they know it is part of racing, but we are going to shit on you anyway. I can go on, but it would just piss me off more. Sell all my stuff for Penney's on the dollar, build a street car and go back street racing like we did in the 60's It pay's more. Don

 

now don thats sounds expensive if you get caught but sounds good