- Joined
- May 26, 2001
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.......................
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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..