Cheating... and I don't mean on your spouse

[stitcherbob]

 

[FABMAN]

Just like Smokey storing fuel in his roll cage, ran out of fuel at tech after race. After post tech started car and drove to his pit, crack me up. Can you imagine if he had been in a wreck, crazy things went on back then, techs are a lot smarter these days.

 

[Treeshaker]

Ways I have witnessed teams stretching the rules:

1. Light cars, one team won 2 pro championships adding lead shot in driver's fire suit between run and scales. One team puts a 35 lb truck alternator on floorboard of driver's compartment, some use heavy body poles for FC's, etc.

2. Large coil of air line between driver's seat insert and seat pan to delay start of retard box. NHRA caught this but no mention because of big sponsor. Electric timers when only pneumatic were allowed.

3..Several additives for alcohol cars that cannot be detected. Don't really know if any actually helped performance.

4. NOS in fire bottles. An alcohol FC won a championship using this technique. Driver would always pull around and away from other cars and top end personnel because the one bottle with NOS would still be hissing. A nitro team tried this but they filled both bottles for a test session, car caught fire, no on board fire system and car burned to ground, driver got out without burns. This was a very big name team.

5. Longer wheel base. I bought a slightly used TF dragster and it wouldn't fit where it was suppose to in trailer, measured wheel base and it was 307". Seen FC's with up to 4" extra.

6. Traction control systems.

 

[stitcherbob]

Ways I have witnessed teams stretching the rules:

1. Light cars, one team won 2 pro championships adding lead shot in driver's fire suit between run and scales. One team puts a 35 lb truck alternator on floorboard of driver's compartment, some use heavy body poles for FC's, etc.

2. Large coil of air line between driver's seat insert and seat pan to delay start of retard box. NHRA caught this but no mention because of big sponsor. Electric timers when only pneumatic were allowed.

3..Several additives for alcohol cars that cannot be detected. Don't really know if any actually helped performance.

4. NOS in fire bottles. An alcohol FC won a championship using this technique. Driver would always pull around and away from other cars and top end personnel because the one bottle with NOS would still be hissing. A nitro team tried this but they filled both bottles for a test session, car caught fire, no on board fire system and car burned to ground, driver got out without burns. This was a very big name team.

5. Longer wheel base. I bought a slightly used TF dragster and it wouldn't fit where it was suppose to in trailer, measured wheel base and it was 307". Seen FC's with up to 4" extra.

6. Traction control systems.

As in your #1.... I seem to recall a F/C team (I think it was the Austins) get caught with a body bar that fell in the scales and a track worker almost got a hernia when he went to pick it up....E-Town maybe?

and your #4.....haven't seen a F/C burn to the ground in a long time.....was it in the 80's ?

 

[vegasnitro]

5. Longer wheel base. I bought a slightly used TF dragster and it wouldn't fit where it was suppose to in trailer, measured wheel base and it was 307"..

Of all of the cheating mechanisms you mentioned, it seems like this one would be real easy to catch. How could they have never measured the car once, or is it only done at the beginning of the season (like an SFI cert) and then the team modified it after?

As always, thanks for the good info Virgil!

 

[sdwarf36]

Someone I knew from back in my dragbike days spilled the beans on a PS/T team that came to him about filling nitrous tanks. He said he could do it. They would show up late at night after his shop was closed. Bringing their HOOD! They had a couple of sneaky Pete bottles grafted into the fiberglass.

 

[We Bad]

Hydrogen peroxide

 

[none]

#4. A nitro team tried this but they filled both bottles for a test session, car caught fire, no on board fire system and car burned toground, driver got out without burns. This was a very big name team.

Was it red? Maple Grove comes to mind

 

[CS]

How's this one - it was 1989 or 1990 I went to help a "name" team who was next to fire up by removing their zoomie cover the damn thing weighted at least 25 pounds for a fabricated cover. When we got down to the scale they were on it and weighted 20 pounds over minimum. Brings to mind what an old friend told me once there are two types of racers cheaters and losers.

 

[stitcherbob]

#4. A nitro team tried this but they filled both bottles for a test session, car caught fire, no on board fire system and car burned toground, driver got out without burns. This was a very big name team.

Was it red? Maple Grove comes to mind

go to 2:50......

certainly looks like no fîre bottles were spraying.....

also,the car was on a run during the test compared to the 5.80 it ran after it was rebuilt.....

 

[Randy]

Engine covers with lead bags in the pockets, lead shag bags in the belly pan after a run, one world champion alcohol dragster racer that was running one legal diameter cylinder with large bores in the rest was caught and it cost him his green and white oil sponsorship, another championship alcohol dragster racer sold his car with a fuel tank with a false reservoir under the fuel cap, plastic crate was used to drop the chutes in and placed on the deck of a TA/FC that weighed about 40 pounds, one racer that would park his TA/FC in the shut down area with the fuel cap off for several minutes before towing to the scales. When chased down and confronted it failed fuel check because the supposed additive didn't have time to evaporate out but nothing was done about it. Later that weekend, a long time alcohol dragster racer put on his fuel cap "Official Castrol GTX Fuel Additive Inside."

 

[mike]

Engine covers with lead bags in the pockets, lead shag bags in the belly pan after a run, one world champion alcohol dragster racer that was running one legal diameter cylinder with large bores in the rest was caught and it cost him his green and white oil sponsorship, another championship alcohol dragster racer sold his car with a fuel tank with a false reservoir under the fuel cap, plastic crate was used to drop the chutes in and placed on the deck of a TA/FC that weighed about 40 pounds, one racer that would park his TA/FC in the shut down area with the fuel cap off for several minutes before towing to the scales. When chased down and confronted it failed fuel check because the supposed additive didn't have time to evaporate out but nothing was done about it. Later that weekend, a long time alcohol dragster racer put on his fuel cap "Official Castrol GTX Fuel Additive Inside."

Randy that green & white dragster did not have the bores that way -he had a big crank in it when they used the P&G he had it figured out how to spin fast enough to read low this took place at Atlanta we were also there it was the allstar race .His generator quit coveniantly so the couldn t see to measure him with the head off. He also had to come to the races after that with the heads off for a year

 

[Nunz]

Wow, I never would've imagined this many instances of cheating were out there, especially with title winning cars. (although it makes sense, that they were winning lol)

 

[ironpony]

Rules are made to be bent.........sometimes broken

 

[Nunz]

Well there's such a thing as exploiting gray areas, then there's outright cheating. Things like adding weight at the scales are pretty blatant.

 

[Randy]

Randy that green & white dragster did not have the bores that way -he had a big crank in it when they used the P&G he had it figured out how to spin fast enough to read low this took place at Atlanta we were also there it was the allstar race .His generator quit coveniantly so the couldn t see to measure him with the head off. He also had to come to the races after that with the heads off for a year

No kidding? I was told he figured NHRA would always pump #1 so he made it legal. The rest were larger bores. When they showed up to pump it they requested access to a cylinder other than #1 and that opened a whole can of worms.

Several years ago we got a few visits when we had the heads off after running well in qualifying. They measured all 8 bores and stroke manually and wouldn't even let us turn it over for them.

 

[mike]

Rules are made to be bent.........sometimes broken

No kidding? I was told he figured NHRA would always pump #1 so he made it legal. The rest were larger bores. When they showed up to pump it they requested access to a cylinder other than #1 and that opened a whole can of worms.

Several years ago we got a few visits when we had the heads off after running well in qualifying. They measured all 8 bores and stroke manually and wouldn't even let us turn it over for them.

Randy i saw many a different forms of cheating over the years.From what I hear tech for next year is going to be on the honor system,WHAT______ cost of licenses double this year, bad payouts NHRA No Help Racing Anytime.

 

[TAFC 5 81]

Back in 1981, Division 2's P&G would only go up to about 64 (512 cu in). We ran a 510 and got checked. Jerry Gwynn had a 525" and another car (I will leave unnamed) had a 540"(?). It was agreed that the winner (this was TAFC at Bradenton FL) would pull a head. The car with the largest engine won but Division 2 tech didn't enforce the agreement. Later at the US Nationals a crewmember from the 540" car said they had a 600" engine at Bradenton. Now he could have been full of #### or they got away with one (if so I don't think the hired driver had any part in it).

RE fuel additives, I could usually tell when someone added propylene oxide to methanol (even in daylight). They would run quick for 1000 ft. but often start detonating the engine after that. One of my crew would say "that car smells like a can of Kiwi shoe polish".

 

[Toejam]

Powermist?

 

[Leebone]

Cheating in drag racing? I didn't know Tom Brady raced!