Fiscus Gets The Shaft

[Nick Micale]

Originally posted by Ken H
As one of the many who witnessed the final with OC and Dave, I have to say that both racers acted very civil towards each other after the race. ......
............. Dave's car never moved once it turned on both lights. Auto-start must have been in " manaul mode ". This is where the situation could have been easily resolved by the starter, the tower, or a GSCA official. Not one of the officials stepped up to the plate. Word came down that it was going to be all up to Odell, whether he wanted to run again or not.......................
......................................................
In my opinion, what should have happened is the tower should have called both cars back to the staging lanes and re-ran the finals, it should not have been put in the hands of one competitor to decide. Someone mentioned earlier that something might have tripped the staging beams on Dave's side. Well it just so happens the smoke from the burnout was blown by a slight breeze toward the tree. This might have tripped the stage lights, who knows.
This double bulb situation was dicussed on the GSCA bb months prior to this event. Art Freeman asked this exact question and I never saw a real response other than saying it was not suppose to be allowed. After all, majority of the guys racing in TSE, TSO, and Q-16 know what double bulbing means and what the consequences are suppose to be. These guys all race alot at there own local tracks. ............ I just think things should have been a little more fair.

I'm off my soap box......................Ken Hagood

Ken, what you said is very accurate except one item - "Not one of the officials stepped up to the plate." After I was approached by Cal and talked with him, Dave was back in the staging lane. I went to Dave to find out his reaction then called OC to the tower. Since you already defined their meeting, you could see nothing would be gained by any GSCA official being involved.

If the racers want to invoke a staging rule like NHRA that Bill A. described, they should propose that early enough in the process to properly implement it for next year..

 

[BobbyBuick]

If the racers want to invoke a staging rule like NHRA that Bill A. described, they should propose that early enough in the process to properly implement it for next year..

OK YEA I WANT TO

 

[BUICK528]

Nick, I applaud you for seeing the issue, and attempting to dissect it right away. Good job.

Ken is *dead on* correct about the tree being in MANUAL mode, thats just ridiculous, exactly what I said before.

Whats the purpose of Pro Tree *Autostart* if it's in MANUAL mode??

Double bulb is AUTO DQ. Period.

Thats 3 years in a row with final round tree snafu's...

I'm very glad to see the *hook* issue has been resolved.

J

 

[Nick Micale]

Originally posted by BUICK528
Nick, I applaud you for seeing the issue, and attempting to dissect it right away. Good job.

Ken is *dead on* correct about the tree being in MANUAL mode, thats just ridiculous, exactly what I said before.

.......I'm very glad to see the *hook* issue has been resolved.
J

Thanks Jim, the event could benefit by adding your experience and help, maybe you could be there next year? Lots of people miss seeing you too.

 

[Race Jace]

Both pre and stage lights came on in my lane because of the smoke from my burnout on almost ever single one of my passes.

what would happen if the autostart was on in these instances? Would I be DQed for doing to big of burnout?

 

[Nick Micale]

After doing some research today with local tracks, I was informed there are 2 Autostart systems - an early version and a late, or newer one. I was told the early version will red light the opponent if you light both stage bulbs.

Since this is the type in BG, the way to prevent that from happening is have the starter back the readied lane out of the stage lights and reset.

We will discuss this with the track owner in BG to help remedy this situation.

 

[BobbyBuick]

Nick ,thanks for stepping up to the plate on this .Its things like this that can makes the Nats even better.In years past this would have gone to death ears.I could tell a differance this year in the total attitute to make it a club event.getting the right peaple in the right places is key in any business.Thanks again

 

[TurboDiverArt]

Originally posted by GNSCOTT
I don't know..Some guys like to stage early, especially if they have a big turbo they have to stage. The last thing I wanna worry about when i'm racing is if the other guy can get to the line quick enough. Like you said, it happened alot, so everyone should have known about it. It does suck to have to win it that way, but like they say, thats racing.

I’m not getting into this argument. I know Dave and he’s a great guy, parked next to him last year at Bristol.

Have you ever heard of “Courtesy Staging”? It’s called that because it’s courteous to the other driver. Break pre-stage bulb and wait for the other guy to pre-stage. Ever watch the pros? You never see one guy stage before the other guy is pre-staged.

The clock is 15 seconds. Hell, even Eric Rankin without Nitrous could stage his big 92mm thumper in 15 seconds… Dave and others have a hard time doing a burnout sometimes, an 88 is a big turbo. Takes a lot to spin the tires, even when the tires are wet without hammering the gas, you wouldn’t imagine it but it’s true. If the other guy staged before Dave had even completed his burnout that’s just wrong! My car isn’t as fast as Dave’s or the other 8-second cars but even with my 9 second GN there is a lot of preparation when getting ready to run. You can’t just do your burnout, roll up to the beams and run like in a streetcar. If this is what happened then it’s BS!