Maple Grove :(

[paoldtimer]

so for the people that were at the race on sunday. how was the weather ?? was it freezing cold sitting in the bleachers? did it warm up

. Layers! It wasn't bad if you had layers of clothing on. I was fine all weekend but once the sun came out, the coat had to go!

 

[my friends call me Zappy]

It's official now, I've just notified by the coroner. The horse is declared dead. The beating should cease.
Good day all. (lol)

 

[JB3]

I would have thought McMillen would have been put at the bottom of the ladder with NT like Hale and Lee were in Funny Car.

Hale and Lee made legal qualifying attempts ... only have to take a green light. Don't have to move a single 1"
By the rulebook, McMillen was DQ'd after crossing the centerline (blocks) which does not suffice as a legal attempt. Which puts him the same boat as the Greek. Neither driver made a legal attempt to get down the racetrack. PERIOD !!

If you were a driver on property in a category you knew only had 16 cars so all would race Sunday ...

1. Why would you drive it so hard if the run wasn't perfect (McMillen)? Given the Saturday conditions, was your starting position really that important? Antron won, right? His qualifying time was over 11 seconds.
2. Same holds for Karamesines, ok maybe you had a little issue in the pits. The weather sucks, you gotta figure there is not a great chance of another session. All you have to do is fire the car, skip the burnout, roll up to the line, take a green light, and shut it off. Again, do not have to move an inch. He would have went on the ladder just like Hale and Lee did in FC.

To me, sometimes it seems like everybody wants to find a way to try and prove drivers got screwed. At what point are the drivers / teams accountable for knowing the circumstances and making a smart decision based on those circumstances?

 

[twostep]

I haven't paid much attention to the 16/14 car deal and what happened to McMillen and the Greek, but man....poor Terry....I bet that guy wishes he'd taken a job as a mitt monkey at a car wash rather than nitro drag racing. The guy just can't buy a break, no matter what he does.

 

[duke]

Hi all, new member here, been lurking for a while. I have been going to Maple Grove since the first Keystone nationals in 1985, sat through all kinds of weather delays at this race. I was there both saturday and sunday, ( used common sense and didn't go friday). Have to agree, Saturday was borderline too cold, talked to Jack Beckman saturday before they ran. I asked him how he felt about the conditions and while he didn't say it was to cold, he felt it would be tough to make a good run. Once the track got some heat in it, made all the difference in the world. Shame the nice weather didn't come in 24 hours earlier.

 

[stitcherbob]

It's official now, I've just notified by the coroner. The horse is declared dead. The beating should cease.
Good day all. (lol)

 

[8sec71]

Hale and Lee made legal qualifying attempts ... only have to take a green light. Don't have to move a single 1"
By the rulebook, McMillen was DQ'd after crossing the centerline (blocks) which does not suffice as a legal attempt. Which puts him the same boat as the Greek. Neither driver made a legal attempt to get down the racetrack. PERIOD !!

If you were a driver on property in a category you knew only had 16 cars so all would race Sunday ...

1. Why would you drive it so hard if the run wasn't perfect (McMillen)? Given the Saturday conditions, was your starting position really that important? Antron won, right? His qualifying time was over 11 seconds.
2. Same holds for Karamesines, ok maybe you had a little issue in the pits. The weather sucks, you gotta figure there is not a great chance of another session. All you have to do is fire the car, skip the burnout, roll up to the line, take a green light, and shut it off. Again, do not have to move an inch. He would have went on the ladder just like Hale and Lee did in FC.

To me, sometimes it seems like everybody wants to find a way to try and prove drivers got screwed. At what point are the drivers / teams accountable for knowing the circumstances and making a smart decision based on those circumstances?

And that's the problem, the rules should be a little more forgiving if the teams only get 1 crack at the track at no fault of their own. Any rule that makes 2 teams sit out do to a technicality after only having 1 shot at it thus having a short field is asinine. Period. Of course that's just my opinion.

"All you have to do is stage the car and not move an inch and you're in but if you make a run on a blisteringly cold track and get loose at 300mph and nip a timing block, you're out". Sound retarded? To me it does.

 

[mike]

Hale and Lee made legal qualifying attempts ... only have to take a green light. Don't have to move a single 1"
By the rulebook, McMillen was DQ'd after crossing the centerline (blocks) which does not suffice as a legal attempt. Which puts him the same boat as the Greek. Neither driver made a legal attempt to get down the racetrack. PERIOD !!

If you were a driver on property in a category you knew only had 16 cars so all would race Sunday ...

1. Why would you drive it so hard if the run wasn't perfect (McMillen)? Given the Saturday conditions, was your starting position really that important? Antron won, right? His qualifying time was over 11 seconds.
2. Same holds for Karamesines, ok maybe you had a little issue in the pits. The weather sucks, you gotta figure there is not a great chance of another session. All you have to do is fire the car, skip the burnout, roll up to the line, take a green light, and shut it off. Again, do not have to move an inch. He would have went on the ladder just like Hale and Lee did in FC.

To me, sometimes it seems like everybody wants to find a way to try and prove drivers got screwed. At what point are the drivers / teams accountable for knowing the circumstances and making a smart decision based on those circumstances?

 

[mike]

Jim I was the third pair of alky to run in the rain we knew we had to try to run hard 21 car field because two did not choose to run felt it was unsafe. We blew the hides off . The qualifing was canceled after our aborted run.We had to watch the next day as the rest of the group got to go in better conditions was this also right?

 

[Professional Fan]

Jim I was the third pair of alky to run in the rain we knew we had to try to run hard 21 car field because two did not choose to run felt it was unsafe. We blew the hides off . The qualifing was canceled after our aborted run.We had to watch the next day as the rest of the group got to go in better conditions was this also right?

This is a rule I really don't understand and it is very unfair. Seems to me that a qualifying session for a class should only count if all cars that were in the lanes to run were allowed to run. Otherwise, no runs should count. I have seen situations in the past where part of a session got rained out which screwed the cars still in the lanes. Can someone explain to me why this makes sense and is fair?

 

[yoda]

Terry must REALLY love driving....

 

[Billy]

Jim I was the third pair of alky to run in the rain we knew we had to try to run hard 21 car field because two did not choose to run felt it was unsafe. We blew the hides off . The qualifing was canceled after our aborted run.We had to watch the next day as the rest of the group got to go in better conditions was this also right?

I thought this was unfair as well, though I wasn't surprised NHRA didn't allow those 6 teams to run. It seems the conditions were so different, they should have counted the Saturday runs as the "first session" and the Sunday as "second session" so you would have been seeded at the back of the field for it. The conditions did not feel safe at all - we could feel a mist in the stands the entire time the Pro qualifying session was happening.
It was a tough situation for all and I hope there can be some learning experiences for what occurred for future events subjected to this type of weather. One can dream?