Beckman's Red-Light

[Bobby Bennett]

http://www.competitionplus.com/drag-racing/news/20527-beckman-contends-i-did-not-red-light

 

[Jer]

To bad for Beckman,i bet if things were reversed there might be a diffrent outcome??

 

[Rajunz]

To bad for Beckman,i bet if things were reversed there might be a diffrent outcome??

If you read the story, it says that Hight clearly beat him to the finish line, so there was no question on who the winner was, regardless of the timers.

 

[TooTall999]

To bad for Beckman,i bet if things were reversed there might be a diffrent outcome??

What are you insinuating? The point was moot anyways as Robert clearly beat Jack to the finish line. If things were reversed, than Jack would have beaten Robert to the finish line. Whether the light was a true redlight or not ( I agree that it was caused by the upward movement of Jack's wheel); the fact is simple, the first one to the finish line won.

 

[none]

I suspect Mike Dunn pretty much called it correctly when it happened. Jack staged way to shallow and the car pulled out of the beams at the hit.
Tough break for Jack but I'm sure he will get over it.

 

[mick]

i think what jeremy is insinuating is that if this red light had happened to
the actual winner (be it this jack/robert race or any other for that matter),
is a racer capable of presenting enough evidence to overturn the
electronically decided winner?
think about this - if jack had clearly beaten robert to the stripe, where would
this issue be now?.......worth looking into IMO, at least to conclude what
actually happened - jack did in fact red light, or there was an electronic error,
or as paul mentioned, the red light was directly tied to a very shallow stage.

 

[my friends call me Zappy]

Hight clearly got to the stripe first, so he won. But BOTH Jack's pre-stage and stage lights went out at the same time. Hight's went out top first then bottom like normal. Was it a fluke - or a malfuntion??? should be checked out.

 

[FABMAN]

I watched replay on my TV several times and you can clearly see the staging lights go out as soon as the car squats and that wood cause the tires to lift off the beam if he shallow staged. If you watch Roberts stage lights you will see one light go out then the other as he rolls out of the beam. Robert clearly won the race so this is a non issue, Jack needs to make sure he is staged properly, these cars are to quick to play games with the lights.

 

[*******]

I can't believe that a veteran ex-sportsman racer doesn't realize that he staged so shallow it backed out of the beams. Common occurance every damn weeking bracket racing. When your R/T is XXX fast and your ET is XXX slow it's obvious what happened. No controversy here.

 

[mick]

I can't believe that a veteran ex-sportsman racer doesn't realize that he staged so shallow it backed out of the beams. Common occurance every damn weeking bracket racing. When your R/T is XXX fast and your ET is XXX slow it's obvious what happened. No controversy here.

so when this happens, it is generally understood that it is the driver's fault
for staging too shallow and the red lights stands?

 

[JB3]

so when this happens, it is generally understood that it is the driver's fault
for staging too shallow and the red lights stands?

Yup ... part of being a driver. Not their fault, just an associated risk of the staging process which is a driver function. Have to know how your car reacts if you want to play. As Mike said above, happens at all kinds of events weekly. Probably happened to at least 1 sportsman driver during the Gators. Simply put, your car must move out of the beams in a forward direction. If you lurch up or back, the beam gets broken a second time when you come down before accelerating away.

No controversy. Jack should know the risks of shallow staging. You need to understand the system if you are going to complain about it.

 

[Heavyhauler]

I'm trying to understand why you would go in shallow race day. I understand the concept for qualifying (better ET) and deep on race day for being closer to the finish line.
But the logic eludes me here, reminds me of the day (1989) in Dallas Snake turned out the top light and ran 5.15 right after Ace bumped her in light and ran 5.13 for the record. Had Snake lit both lights he'd have run a 12 or 13, oh well he won anyway but he sure would have like to have had the 200 points for the record I bet.

 

[Mike]

I'm trying to understand why you would go in shallow race day.

Lane Choice!

 

[AlkyDennis]

Lane Choice!

Dumb move by Beckman!
I would only go in shallow for lane choice when racing a car you should be quicker than, A smart driver would stage a little on the deeper side, like John Force always said, if you stage a few inches deeper than the other car your closer to the finish line!

 

[Just Paul]

I don't blame Beckman one bit, people shallow stage all the time. Jack has probably done the same thing 200+ times. Why did a problem happen this one time?? Who knows. Pat Austin had a frog hop in the beams once and messed him up. Things Happen.

Heck some crew chiefs get upset when a driver rolls it in deeper becasue it reflects poorly on the ET, and thus the crew chiefs ego.

 

[Bross Hawg]

Lane Choice!

You gotta win the round or else lane choice doesn't matter.

 

[MM]

You gotta win the round or else lane choice doesn't matter.

Yea but it still answers the question of why he would go in shallow on race day. And for those of you that say this was a dumb move by Beckman, I will just say this; 99% of the time when a driver tries to go in shallow on raceday, it's because he was told to do so.

 

[Rollout96]

I could be wrong but I thought I saw that the ET was way off from what the computer said they ran too. Meaning that added to the speculation of a malfunction.

 

[Mike]

Dumb move by Beckman!
I would only go in shallow for lane choice when racing a car you should be quicker than, A smart driver would stage a little on the deeper side, like John Force always said, if you stage a few inches deeper than the other car your closer to the finish line!

You gotta win the round or else lane choice doesn't matter.

I don't think any driver has gone in shallow in an attempt to get the best ET possible (lane choice) with the thought that the car will roll out of the beams backward when the tire squats thus giving him a red light. Given the assumption that he tried to go in shallow, he bumped in and the stage light lit. Once lit, no one is going to make a second effort to make sure it is in an extra inch. You show me one driver in TF or FC who can tell he is in too shallow and I sell you my beachfront property in Arizona.

Bottom line is, the car was not the first to the stripe. As a racer, you want to both win the round and have lane choice in the next if possible. If he was the first to the stripe then he might have a case for further review. They could look at incrementals in both lanes throughout the whole run and determine that there was at least an issue. At the least NHRA should take a look at the situation so it doesn't happen again.

 

[none]

Jay,

If the car backs out of the beam, then the Compulink clock has started, the computer on the car is looking for forward motion to start counting, so it shows a different start point. The RT was quick (Red) the 60’ was slow confirming the theory that the first move was not forward.

Mike,
I think that’s what Jack and Don were both asking, “What if this had happened to the winner?” They both know that Robert won the round, but if there was a problem, they wanted to try to fix it now rather than wait until it happens again and does affect the correct outcome of the round. To my knowledge no one was saying that Jack won the round, they just wanted to know what happened.

And I’m sure if that’s not what they were asking then Don will straighten me out.

Alan