First, let me say I'm relieved that neither Cal H. nor his car suffered serious damage when the head failed. I didn't make the Nats this year due to severe engine damage in March at a H/U race. I wanted to help keep TSO alive, but couldn't. I'm a GSCA member, although I do tend to not be as gracious as others in the situation under discussion.
A case study: at that March race this year, Autostart was ON and functioning. We were told at a drivers meeting it would be used, and what the various parameters were. As noted above, one of the paramaters is always that both cars must be prestaged before either may light the bottom bulb. You can be harsh, and have the program set for automatic DQ for doublebulbing, or have "manual" control of that function, and wave the guy out of the beams and give a second chance (which is what was done). Maybe failure of the latter scenario (manual oversight) is what happened in TSO. Other variables are at the discretion of the race director. There were many fast turbo cars at that March race, and no one was complaining about a level playing field, even though the ambers flashed a variable 0.800-1.200 seconds after both cars were staged.
Without rules (or without enforcing them), we've seen it's a race for some guys to finish their burnouts and rush to the line, stage and spool, whereas others may bump in my mistake. In the absence of rules (or enforcement), it shouldn't always be up to the personality of the guy who got bulbed to determine how the situation is handled. That diminishes the integrity of the results in my opinion, and leaves a nagging concern (with me, at least) about how future transgressions will be handled. The Nats provide a relaxed environment, most leave their Type A personalities at home, some rarely race competitively during the year, it's a vacation for most in attendance, and no one wants to spoil the party. But I'm really sorry to see this type of thing persist. After participating in one of either TSE/TSO/Q16 from 2000-2002, I've been telling people that all that's needed is Autostart and an authoritative starter to ensure that it is functioning - and to step in and rule when it doesn't. If the intent was indeed for Autostart to run the show, then that's a big step in the right direction. I hope to be back next year.
How was the track prep - or is that better off addressing in another thread?
Art
Is there also a 15 second rule if both are pre-staged and one of the cars lights the 2nd bulb? I can see alot of problems there with guys waiting 13 seconds before tripping the second light while the other guy has been spooling the turbo for 13 seconds.
