Dim Light strikes again. (1 Viewer)

[.]

What do you guys think of this ordeal? It's not like the guy staged the car knowing he had no brakes.

http://www.competitionplus.com/drag...it-or-not-to-split-sooner-or-later-reality-is

Super Comp racer Holden Laris, during a semifinal bye run at the NHRA Route 66 Nationals, lost his brakes and ended up in the sand. He was uninjured, and the car, though dusty and filled with sand, was repaired and returned to the staging lanes for the final.

The car apparently had a soft pedal prior to the burnout, and Laris pumped the brakes a few times and the pressure returned. Laris then staged the car with the brakes but a master cylinder failure at the finish line sent the car off the top end.

Reports of the soft pedal apparently made their way to the control tower, where Laris was disqualified from the event for knowingly racing an unsafe car.

Laris and crew pleaded their case to the race officials, even going as far as providing a computer graph which showed computer readings that indicated that there was brake pressure while staging.

Laris had traveled 1000 miles one way to participate in the event and only needed to take the stage light to win the round and reach a monumental final round per NHRA rules. He ran a perfect 8.900 on a run he didn’t even need to make.

When you put down the circumstantial evidence, it really makes no sense to believe Laris would knowingly try to tear up his car on a round he’d already won.

Could the NHRA been a bit more focused on this issue, or was the pressing need of live television broadcast of higher precedent? The answer should be a resounding, yes and yes.

And Holden's side of the story is here: https://www.facebook.com/holden.laris/posts/1201780066507916

 

[my friends call me Zappy]

That is ridiculous. Does Light really think the driver would run 180MPH with NO BRAKES??. And what about the crew chief that sent a TF'r with a rag wrapped around a fuel leak, no action takin then.........IMPEACH LIGHT

 

[Reese]

This family are really good racers. His dad throws a huge crawfish boil when we had the Cajun Sportsnational.
By the way didn't a pro stock bike didn't have brakes and ran into the traps a while back.

 

[rpasley]

I watched this unfold on All Access and, although I'm sure Holden Laris is a great guy from a great family, the sequence of events certainly suggests he didn't exercise the greatest judgement under the circumstances. It was very clear that there was a major problem of some sort for the couple of minutes before he staged for his single as he sat idling for a very long time, not moving at all. The announcers surmised all sorts of possible problems and sympathized with the obvious frustration of having a single into the final that might not happen. Then, very, very slowly and painstakingly, Laris inched the car up 30 feet or more until he finally rolled the car into the beams. Had the brake pressure returned, as the story suggests, to the point of Laris feeling like it was really OK, he certainly didn't demonstrate that confidence in the way he staged. I'm sure that the disqualifying infraction from NHRA's point of view was not that he had a brake issue (which was easily repaired) or that he took so long to stage, but that he drove it out the back door knowing he was experiencing brake problems when all he had to do was take the green light to advance to the finals. That poor judgement landed him in the gravel and on the trailer for the day, which I think is not unreasonable...

 

[Reese]

If he thought he had problems all he had to do was take the green. He could broken the beam and taken the green and have the crew push it back. Also if thought he had problems, why would he run 8.90 at 182. Oh and a .017 light so he must have had brake pressure to staged the dragster which his average was around that all weekend.

 

[Huge]

That is ridiculous. Does Light really think the driver would run 180MPH with NO BRAKES??. And what about the crew chief that sent a TF'r with a rag wrapped around a fuel leak, no action takin then.........IMPEACH LIGHT

Didn't he run the car knowing he was having a brake problem that led to no brakes when all he had to do was idle off the line and go back to his pits and fix the problem before the next round? I don't see why you would use the word ridiculous...didn't it actually happen?

 

[JB3]

That is ridiculous. Does Light really think the driver would run 180MPH with NO BRAKES??. And what about the crew chief that sent a TF'r with a rag wrapped around a fuel leak, no action takin then.........IMPEACH LIGHT

And if he went down the track again and something worse happened to this racer, both you and Brent would be screaming for NHRA's head. "The sport was founded on safety", "Wally must be turning over in his grave", etc. I can hear it all now. Can't have it both ways guys !!

Eugene and others are spot on ... the racer had other options and this could have ended differently. So many racers never take accountability for their own actions.

 

[none]

That is ridiculous. Does Light really think the driver would run 180MPH with NO BRAKES??. And what about the crew chief that sent a TF'r with a rag wrapped around a fuel leak, no action takin then.........IMPEACH LIGHT

Evidently he did just that. Watch it on all access. There was obviously a problem with the brakes. Brakes don't fix themselves. All he had to do was take the tree and all would be good. Very bad decision on his part to run the car not knowing what was wrong with the brakes.

 

[Reese]

So every time someone runs off the track they should be D.Q.. Maybe only sportsman racers. Remember "the run".

 

[none]

Well I wont try and explain common sense anymore. Goodbye

 

[mike]

Well I wont try and explain common sense anymore. Goodbye

Duh Mark WHAT dont you understand??

 

[Sean D, shondoo]

I'm not the biggest fan of some of NHRA's decisions, but I'm amazed that ANYBODY thinks they can quantify putting this one on the sanctioning body. So he pumped the pedal a few times and got pressure back.........so what??? Like Marc said, brake issues DON'T fix themselves. Running that car down the track was a bad decision, period.

Wow.......

Sean D

 

[sdwarf36]

If it was side by side in the finals-that would be one thing. But trying (and succeding) to run 8.900 on a bye-where you could have just took the light? That doesn't seem to be a wise choice.

 

[sammi]

So....in the future, we must all assume a Schumacher car with a rag tied around a leaky coupling, or a Force car with a rapidly repacked parachute, will be DQ'd. It is good that was cleared up, at the expense of a full retail paying sportsman racer.

 

[SundayNiagara]

Does anyone remember the T/AD that ran he wrong tires? Same, but different.

 

[Reese]

So....in the future, we must all assume a Schumacher car with a rag tied around a leaky coupling, or a Force car with a rapidly repacked parachute, will be DQ'd. It is good that was cleared up, at the expense of a full retail paying sportsman racer.

You have the "full retail paying sportsman racer" right.
Ok, he made the wrong decision about the brakes he thought was ok when the pressure went back up. He is the first and the last to take a unsafe car down the track that's why he got D.Q.
Poor sportsman racers, can't get nothing right.

 

[vegasnitro]

Does anyone remember the T/AD that ran he wrong tires? Same, but different.

Monroe Guest, was banned for a year. He has popped up here and there since the ban in both Pro Mod and TAD in an A/Fueler.

 

[SundayNiagara]

Monroe Guest, was banned for a year. He has popped up here and there since the ban in both Pro Mod and TAD in an A/Fueler.

He was warned not to use the tires, but ran them anyhow and paid a hefty price. The 8:90 racer did something stupid and was caught. NHRA helped him help himself. He won't do that again. Imagine if Uncle Jack was the event director?

 

[I was NITRO BREATH]

Light has a difficult job. He does it much better than anyone on this forum could. He makes alot of tough decisions. This was an easy one and he got it right

 

[Bob K.]

Graham Light disqualified this sportsman racer because he "heard" the brake was "spongy" yet he refused to look at the computer graph that plainly showed the car had brake pressure when he staged it. This is not the first time that Light has done this. Making a "snap decision" like this when plain evidence is presented. The Pro Stock Motorcycle final at Indy a few years ago when Steve Johnson clearly won by a wheel over Matt Smith is another example. He would not even look at the video that plainly showed that Steve won. This is real arrogance in my opinion. Decisions like this deserve a more measured approach. However if it was my car I would not have run it past 60 feet! It was a by run, he didn't need to run it all the way down so he must have been sure the brakes were okay No one wants to wad up their car or worse.