Fines for Sportsman Oildowns (2 Viewers)

[Terry]

Maybe I'm behind on things, but I just ran onto this. I knew about the diaper rules coming for sportsman racers, but I hadn't heard this about fines and points penalties for sportsman racers. Torco Racing Fuel's Competition Plus.com - Drag Racing's Internet Magazine - NHRA EXTENDS OIL DOWN PENALTIES
How bout the rest of you maters?

 

[Toejam]

I'm for anything that speeds up the program!

 

[Jude]

Whoo, thank God, something needed to be done about all those SC/SG/SS and Stock guys oiling down the track constantly.

 

[onfire]

Two races......The T/F, F/C and the Lucas Oil series cars had a total of 2 hrs 49min of down time.......All the rest of the sportsman classes combined for a total of over 4 hrs of down time........who woulda ever thunk it?

Late...Mitch (patiently waiting for the activities to begin 2.5 hrs from my location.)

 

[Chili]

David Cook (Comp eliminator) had a lengthy oildown in Phoenix. The oil line came off during his burnout and left a lot of oil on the track. It happened on Friday after the Pro's ran their second session. Other than that I didn't see another oildown from the sportsmen classes. When you have 400+ sporstmen cars running there are going to be some oildowns. I don't think fines are going to change that.

 

[Terry]

Kind of what I was thinking, Chris. I don't try to run my SG car on kill or anything, but occasionally things do break... I'm thinking that if I do break a rod in my Shafiroff motor, the last thing my racing budget needs is a $250 fine on top of the loss of the motor.

 

[*******]

60 fuel cars equals 3 hrs of clean up
1200 sportsman cars equals 4 1/2 hrs of clean up.

Yeah, they need to fix the sportsman cars

 

[FC Girl]

Additional Earned Credits

Professional teams will earn an additional one (1) credit after 25 consecutive oil-free runs at NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series national events.** Those credits earned will not be rolled-over from one season to the next.*


My Biggest Question, and I know many are going to want to know especially in Alky where some teams have high 6 digit involvement,

Does this rule of thumb only apply to Pros? It doesn't mention anything about pro sportsman or sportsman having the same provision, does anyone know if we do?

Thanks for sharing this post.

Nancy

 

[Joker]

Personally I dont think they should penalize and fine sportsman racers such as SS/S/SG/SC etc. I dont mind them throwing in the TAD and TAFC's though. Some of them are just bombs waiting to be ignited just as there are some fuel cars that way as well. But I think they should have the 25 clean runs equals 1 freebie to the alky guys as well. Just think if Morgan Lucas didnt run the tour last year we could have finished the season in September! I like Morgan and hopefully this year they wont hurt near as much stuff as they sent to the equipment god last year.

 

[Jenn]

NHRA hasn't announced the SFI spec for the diapers for SC/SG. So if I go out and buy a 300 dollar diaper now, come the day they announce the spec, am I going to go out and buy another one, in which case the price jumps for that little SFI tag?

BTW, I don't have to buy just one diaper, I have to buy 5.

They should offer credits for freebies like they do in the pros.

 

[Joker]

NHRA hasn't announced the SFI spec for the diapers for SC/SG. So if I go out and buy a 300 dollar diaper now, come the day they announce the spec, am I going to go out and buy another one, in which case the price jumps for that little SFI tag?

BTW, I don't have to buy just one diaper, I have to buy 5.

They should offer credits for freebies like they do in the pros.

Jenn the only problem I see with doing the freebie deal with sportsman also would be how they can keep up with all the cars. It shouldnt be too hard in today's computer age I guess but thats alot of cars to keep track of. I dont think they should charge them at all. It takes more time to run a fuel session then it does to run the entire 1st round of all the sportsman categories sometimes. Thats 40 cars vs. 400 plus.

 

[Pete]

I agree that diapers must be mandatory for ALL cars in competition. Not only is it a 'time saver' with oil/parts retention, but it is a great safety tool. However, I have a big issue with the penalties assessed to the SC/SG/SST racers....$250 + points/$500 + points/Disqualification from the event.

Looks to me that the sportsman racer is getting the shorter end of the stick than the Pro's, who are more prone to dropping 'stuff' on the track.

Lets see them disqualify a Pro team and dock points....it just seems more fair to have the same basic rules across the board.

 

[crewcheif gt/aa]

60 fuel cars equals 3 hrs of clean up
1200 sportsman cars equals 4 1/2 hrs of clean up.

Yeah, they need to fix the sportsman cars

Thats what I say..... so does this meen that sportsman get into nationals for free now like the pros????

 

[Bullet]

Average out the Oildowns/Runs of the Pro's and the Sportsman and I bet the Sportsman racers are way out in front.

 

[Chris]

60 fuel cars equals 3 hrs of clean up
1200 sportsman cars equals 4 1/2 hrs of clean up.

Yeah, they need to fix the sportsman cars

Thank you Mike!

They also changed the diaper rule for us dragster people, we are now allowed a belly pan instead.

Stef
c/d 1892
Competition Eliminator Board - Home

 

[stanman]

Whoo, thank God, something needed to be done about all those SC/SG/SS and Stock guys oiling down the track constantly.

I hope you were being sarcastic. Otherwise, this is one of the most ignorant statements I've read on here in a long time!

Consider the shear number of competitors in the sportsman classes vs. the pro. And that the vast majority of "sportsman" oil downs come from the Alcohol classes. Through the first two races using NHRA's info it breaks down like this.

Total amount of time spent on oil downs per competitor entries:

Top Fuel and Funny Car: 2.06 minutes per competitor
All Sportsman Classes: 20.27 seconds per competitor

If you broke that down by the total number runs during the weekend the difference would be even more drastic.

Also consider the likelihood that NHRA probably isn't as concerned with performing a speedy clean-up when you have a horde of sportsman racers in the lanes vs. the pros because they could care less if the sportsman get their time/qualifying runs as scheduled... as long as it doesn't interfere with the pros.

 

[Jenn]

Jenn the only problem I see with doing the freebie deal with sportsman also would be how they can keep up with all the cars. It shouldnt be too hard in today's computer age I guess but thats alot of cars to keep track of. I dont think they should charge them at all. It takes more time to run a fuel session then it does to run the entire 1st round of all the sportsman categories sometimes. Thats 40 cars vs. 400 plus.

Well, like my brother was saying. They can't give a sportsman a freebie and not collect the $$$ because an oil down is usually catastrophic anyway so they aren't going to get the chance to oil it again the next run. They'll be in the trailer with their tail between their legs.

 

[Jude]

I hope you were being sarcastic. Otherwise, this is one of the most ignorant statements I've read on here in a long time!

Consider the shear number of competitors in the sportsman classes vs. the pro. And that the vast majority of "sportsman" oil downs come from the Alcohol classes. Through the first two races using NHRA's info it breaks down like this.

Total amount of time spent on oil downs per competitor entries:

Top Fuel and Funny Car: 2.06 minutes per competitor
All Sportsman Classes: 20.27 seconds per competitor

If you broke that down by the total number runs during the weekend the difference would be even more drastic.

Also consider the likelihood that NHRA probably isn't as concerned with performing a speedy clean-up when you have a horde of sportsman racers in the lanes vs. the pros because they could care less if the sportsman get their time/qualifying runs as scheduled... as long as it doesn't interfere with the pros.

Sorry, I forgot the oozing sarcasm smilie...

 

["Dr. Dirt"]

I see a couple problems with this:
First, sportsman racers stand to gain so much less with a win than Pros so the fines don't seem commensurate.
Second, sportsman racers don't consider engines as acceptable losses since most classes only have one at the track which is in their car.
Third, as has been said (and even mis-interpreted) the oil downs by sportsmen is minuscule in comparison to the fuel cars
Lastly, these sportsmen racers are generally too stretched in their budgets to be able to scatter engines without catastrophic financial losses then the sanctioning body wants to add insult to this injury with an additional fine beyond the expense of repair. I'm not sure that's going to offer incentive sufficient to convince the sportsmen to keep everything perfectly fresh mechanically.

Case in point: We've made well over 500 passes without spilling anything on the track but early on in we purchased a fresh motor with aluminum rods that we found out a year after losing one in the traps that the rods were actually used. The good news is that we imploded and didn't oil things although we had pistons swapping holes by the time it shut down. I'm sure glad after that $15K lesson that some sanctioning body didn't add to our misery?

 

[megadeth]

Something needed to be done!
Pomona was the worst I have seen since they started the oildown rule!
I don't agree with penalizing the sportsman class just because they had a small rash of incidents the Pros were off the charts at Pomona!