Jerry Eckman speaks out! (2 Viewers)

[CrewGuy]

That driver was never "banned for life",nor was he a drug trafficker as you stated.

At the time of his conviction- the state ( in which he got caught) DID consider it trafficking. Even though he "reportedly' was giving the coke away, he was considered to be selling the stuff.

 

["Dr. Dirt"]

How did a post about a guy repenting of his past transgressions turn into a finger pointing session?

I'm with Ted Hunter here. Let him without sin cast the first stone.

In the mean time, shall we all wish Jerry well on his quest to return to the seat? Right or wrong he's surely paid a greater price than many many others who have crossed the line in our sport and I believe his debt has been both physically and morally paid in full.

$.02?

 

[elvis]

How did a post about a guy repenting of his past transgressions turn into a finger pointing session?

I'm with Ted Hunter here. Let him without sin cast the first stone.

In the mean time, shall we all wish Jerry well on his quest to return to the seat? Right or wrong he's surely paid a greater price than many many others who have crossed the line in our sport and I believe his debt has been both physically and morally paid in full.

$.02?

I second that emotion. Jerry was an easy target to crush and that's what NHRA did. It would be nice to see him make a few passes.

 

[none]

Look guys, there are three sides to every story, mine, yours and the truth. That car was caught red handed. Nobody else ever had a bottle fall on the ground at the track. Jerry says he was a scapegoat. Jerry's team was caught. How do you know that any other team wouldn't have faced the same penalty if they had been caught in the same circumstances? If you took a poll of Pro Stock drivers at the time they would have told you that something was going on with that car long before Columbus. Just ask them. I like Jerry, and if he wants to be reinstated, then pay the fine and apply for reinstatement. The passage of time doesn't cancel the debt. And Jerry telling the story like he told it doesn't make it the gospel.


Alan

 

[TJ]

Jerry or a crewmember did an interview right after the incident in which he/they explained how they avoided detection long before the explosion and if my memory is close it went like this:

They would not use nitrous until the Sat afternoon session as back then that used to be the best conditions....long before Fri evening qualifying came along...and they knew the NHRA did not have time to random tech every car due to Sat evening session came up pretty quick.
So they would run nitrous (small amount) Sat afternoon session, squeeze into the field and take it off for Sat evening session and they would leave it off for the remainder of the event.

@ that time it seemed evryone knew about that w/in the P/S circle.
Jerry could drive, thats for sure and I'd like to see him back as the amount of pro stock competitors has decreased.
Remember when ther was 30+ cars trying to qualify @ every event?

 

["Dr. Dirt"]

How did a post about a guy repenting of his past transgressions turn into a finger pointing session?

I'm with Ted Hunter here. Let him without sin cast the first stone.

In the mean time, shall we all wish Jerry well on his quest to return to the seat? Right or wrong he's surely paid a greater price than many many others who have crossed the line in our sport and I believe his debt has been both physically and morally paid in full.

$.02?

OK, Never Mind?
I'm gonna go walk the dog.

 

[Nitrohaulic]

I too am glad that I read his story, things can only get great for him now............

Cool story Bobby, and I love your site, you've done good with that venture!Well, you've already dropped a big enough hint, I know for sure it's not the Lucus Car, it's not the CSK Cars, the Toyo Car nor the O'Reilly Car, AC Delco and Summit are primarily Pro Stock sponsors so who does this leave? The Fram Car? The Mac Tools Car or the AAA Car? How about Torco? I'll bet Mopar? Another thing to ponder, people usually won't even bother filing complaints and petitions unless a car starts on a winning streak, with that said, that rules out a large majority of the cars mentioned....................hey, Castol is presenting a bunch of the races next year!

The story on Bob Glidden's sons was very well documented in SSDI. They kept telling Bob that he was losing ground on the competition because they were using NOS. Bob didn't believe them, saying that NHRA Tech would never let it get by them. So they set out and built it into a car without Bob's knowlege and sure enough ran it right through Tech. Afterwards, they exposed everything, and how they did it all. They ran it through the frame rails, motor plate and if I remember right, the hood pins and just released it into the hood scoop. I also remember that they wired it in a way that the clutch had to be depressed with the ignition switch on and a few other things that would never happen all at once in a Tech Inspection.

According to the story Bob was pissed that his boys brought it to the track, but it was their only way of proving it to him.

Don't forget about another angle to the turmoil that Bob went through at the time. When the Glidden boys said they'd gotten nitrous past NHRA tech, NHRA denied it, basically calling them liars. I remember Bob saying something like "They couldn't find it unless it was in a bottle painted blue." But, Bob also had a battle within his own family from what I read because they'd done it. He was catching hell from all sides. I don't think teching in was an easy process for him after that.

I said on the old mater that NHRA used to have a habit of letting a rule fall out of the book to make room for new ones and people told me I was full of it. When all this took place, the rulebook said nothing about nitrous being prohibited in pro stock. It may have been "common knowledge" that you just didn't do it, but it was not in the book at the time.

The rifle drilled motor plate is the part that sticks in our technobrains! I remember they said the orifices were just two pinholes glassed into the top of the scoop, one over each carb, and that you could be looking right at them and not even see it. Just enough to help on the top end a little.

As far as the "break in" at the other team's shop, all I need to remember is Buddy Morrison saying that they were pro stockers, that they could build or fix anything, and that if they had engines running what those guys did, he would have fixed them!

 

[Rajunz]

Everything Ron Just Said!

 

[elvis]

Look guys, there are three sides to every story, mine, yours and the truth. That car was caught red handed. Nobody else ever had a bottle fall on the ground at the track. Jerry says he was a scapegoat. Jerry's team was caught. How do you know that any other team wouldn't have faced the same penalty if they had been caught in the same circumstances? If you took a poll of Pro Stock drivers at the time they would have told you that something was going on with that car long before Columbus. Just ask them. I like Jerry, and if he wants to be reinstated, then pay the fine and apply for reinstatement. The passage of time doesn't cancel the debt. And Jerry telling the story like he told it doesn't make it the gospel.


Alan

Alan-

You are absolutely right in what you are saying. I (and I think some others) are a little frustrated that one team got to win championships with it (c,mon, nobody can deny that fact) and got away with it for a long period of time. Then the struggling team who gets caught is publicly drawn and quartered. Time indeed does not cancel the debt, but a sanctioning body that had blinders on for certain teams I think is what has people really PO'ed.

 

[Sean D, shondoo]

As far as the "break in" at the other team's shop, all I need to remember is Buddy Morrison saying that they were pro stockers, that they could build or fix anything, and that if they had engines running what those guys did, he would have fixed them!

I remember that interview very well. Something to the effect of, "All I know is if I had a 6-second motor, I would fix it..."

I can also remember like it was yesterday, sitting across the table from my Dad while reading an interview from DA shortly after the break-in. I can't remember the exact quote, but it was something like, "We're going to take this opportunity to move forward with our wedge program....", and I immediately told my Dad, "Well, when the cars come back out and don't run, that's going to be their "out"". Man, I laughed my a$$ off when I read that!

Man, that was good stuff back then, wasn't it? Drama, drama, drama! LMAO!!!

SD

 

[Nitrohaulic]

Right. You can put saddles in the mains of blown fuel blocks. Guys like Reher-Morrison could spend hundreds of hours welding and rolling over factory aluminum heads, but someone can't fix a sledge hammered pro stock block.

 

[-]

Hi
Great article, interesting to read some of the facts, would be great to hear Ordorff's side as well. What's the chance?

Correct me if I am wrong, but as the article itself states, Jerry received a 2 year ban, and a $25000 fine.
So why is it the NHRA's fault that he has not raced for the last 8 of the 10 years he feels he has lost?
If the fine had been paid he could have been reinstated after 2 years or am I missing something.

I understand that it was an expensive fine and he may not have had the money to pay the fine, but again how is that the NHRA's fault.
He does admit to being involved at some level, so there is no dispute that he was a part of the incident.
Could the parties involved have worked out a deal? In the article it appears the NHRA was willing to try, but again because of issues not within Jerry's or the NHRA's control the deal was not completed.

I would like to see Jerry back racing as most of us do he was an excellent driver, but there is a fundamental flaw in his reasoning, he has not completed the assigned penalty, whether we, as keyboard experts, agree on the level of penalty, or if it should be reduced with time is not relevant, that was the penalty handed out, I am sure it could have been appealed at the time, (maybe it was) but in the end it still stands.
Thanks JP

 

[Gordon]

So many thoughts, fingers moving too slow.

Great article, but I agree with Alan - three sides to every story. (I said the same thing about the fan who 'got in Hillary's face.' If Jerry is telling the absolute truth as he knows it, then fine - if not God will be his judge, not me. And for the record, Yes, I would absolutely love for Jerry to pay his fine and be reinstated as a Pro Stock driver.

It's easy for us to argue over who should and who shouldn't be fined, punished, suspended, etc., but we have little to no knowledge of the potential overall impact to our sport. Where would we be if Mopar decided to pull out because their team was caught cheating? Think it wouldn't happen? Think again. NASCAR legislated them right off the track for a long, long time. And whereas NHRA might be able to live without 'em, it would've hurt. Maybe that's a bad analogy, but I hope you get my point. In a motorsport that struggles to be noticed with the NASCAR's of the world, every little bit counts. Why did Ford leave Pro Stock? (I honestly don't know, so I'd be interested in hearing if someone does.)

Are there teams in the Pro (and Sportsman) Categories cheating? I would have to say probably. Do I care? No, quite honestly, I don't. Is the competition so lopsided that it's obvious or ruins our "show"? I don't think so. I thoroughly enjoy Drag Racing and I'm not in a position to pass judgement on anyone. If, however, NHRA catches them, either through tech inspections, or God forbid because of a similar incident as happened to the Orndorff/Eckman team, then penalties should, and will be levied.

I don't always agree with the suits in Glendora, but I'm not sure they were wrong here. Pay the rest of the fine Jerry, then hopefully we'll see you get another chance...

 

[TJ]

Anyone read the Jon Asher bit on Competition Plus posted Fri Jan 26 ?
He talks about how he felt the Army car should of been removed from the last event in 2006 due to them ignoring Stewarts orders to shut the car off when they had an oil leak, he gave props to their performance, and felt a fine was weak. I have to agree...if anyone else had ignored those orders thay would have been told to leave the property...
I gotta agree w/ him...

 

[rocketman]

Anytime you cheat you are screwing someone out of a lot of hard work, R and D and money! And that's what Bill Orndorf and Company did by cheating. It sounds like Jerry is using the old "I smoked but never inhaled" Bill Clinton deffence.

 

[None]

Look guys, there are three sides to every story, mine, yours and the truth. That car was caught red handed. Nobody else ever had a bottle fall on the ground at the track. Jerry says he was a scapegoat. Jerry's team was caught. How do you know that any other team wouldn't have faced the same penalty if they had been caught in the same circumstances? If you took a poll of Pro Stock drivers at the time they would have told you that something was going on with that car long before Columbus. Just ask them. I like Jerry, and if he wants to be reinstated, then pay the fine and apply for reinstatement. The passage of time doesn't cancel the debt. And Jerry telling the story like he told it doesn't make it the gospel.
Alan

Alan, you're right on and isn't there a fair bit of sniveling about the current and past pro stock champion from somewhere in the Carolinas? Seems some of those who can't get up to date on their tune up are singing the blues about somebody else. But then again, some things never change.