Once again the Friday 12 rule strikes.....

[PJ]

very true Paul, he did complete a burnout though, which I believe was used somewhere in this thread as a start line. It was a second chance that was given that I could find proof of. The other 2 that I can think of are by faded memory

 

[Just Paul]

There is an endless list of cars that have had to shut off after a burnout and had to re-fire and go right away or comeback at the end of the line.

 

[turbo ken]

Mark Lyle doesn't seem to have any kind of authority like the late, great Buster Couch did!

 

[TF CREW]

Go to Brainerd Last year we(Rapisarda) vs Torrence round 1 staging light failure after burnout

 

[yoda]

So- if Russo had gotten tossed out and, let's say Hale, got in with another qualifying pass, would the chit storm here be bitching about how unfair it was to Russo for being bounced? Or would you expect him to get another (5th) pass in to try and qualify?

 

[PJ]

It could be argued that due to the long time they were forced to sit it over heated the car and caused their malfunction.

 

[DragFan2]

This was an example of bad starting line management by the starter-NHRA. When the tree first malfunctioned he is looking directly at it, and looks like he is talking on his headset. He should have killed it right then, it was a bad choice by NHRA not a rule issue. If the tree malfunctioned, as it did, before the run NHRA has the obligation to check the system before they run the the next pair.

The principle here is unrelated to whether or not the cars needed the run to qualify, but it is about how NHRA can provide a reasonable remedy in the circumstances. What would they do if this happened during eliminations with non obvious results? Rules typically have extenuating circumstance clauses anyway. G Light illogic has shown more than once, blind adherence when blind to other facts is a failure to think. Rules are to provide fair and predictable guidelines, but when the unpredictable happens fairness should prevail whenever possible.

John, you gave the best description of what could have been done. Mark Lyle, the Starter, had to know something might be wrong with the Tree after the Red Lights flashed once, but as the video shows, by the red lights not staying ON, both Mark Lyle and both drivers didn't know what was going on, and decided to go ahead and complete the staging process. In hindsight, both of them wish they had shutdown the cars, but didn't. Mark Lyle didn't kill the Tree when he probably could have and told the cars to shutdown. So, it was just a SNAFU all the way around, but a very costly one for both teams. The drivers did NOTHING wrong, and yet were screwed, at least John Hale was, since he made it to the finish line in obviously less than 6.24 seconds. Something needs to be done for both teams, and cash would be nice, since both cars spent a good bit of money, especially John Hale since he blew an engine on his run, and now both are questioning whether they can afford to go to Seattle for the next race. Is that the message that NHRA wants to send to racers and fans once again?

 

[glofria]

The Steve Plueger team (driven by John Hale last weekend) is on there way to Seattle and will compete with one of the Austin Clan doing the driving.

However to add injury to insult, one of Plueger's truck and trailer was t-boned and severely damaged on Monday. None of the crew members were hurt and the rig (while significantly damaged) was rolling down the highway.

This was as of yesterday.

 

[yoda]

Jeff Diehl Racing is in Seattle.

 

[yoda]

It could be argued that due to the long time they were forced to sit it over heated the car and caused their malfunction.

Huh? There was no wait time.

 

[Huge]

The Steve Plueger team (driven by John Hale last weekend) is on there way to Seattle and will compete with one of the Austin Clan doing the driving.

However to add injury to insult, one of Plueger's truck and trailer was t-boned and severely damaged on Monday. None of the crew members were hurt and the rig (while significantly damaged) was rolling down the highway.

This was as of yesterday.

I was being towed to Medford Or to get a new differential put in the truck and we went by the accident right after it happend. The girl that ran into them was very lucky that there was a guard rail there or she would have went over the mountain. Everyone was ok and they made it to the track and are parked right next to us. She just got distracted and ran into the back left corner of the trailer and then knocked off the left rear fender of the dually pick up that was pulling the trailer and then lost control and flipped over and landed on the guard rail on her side. They were coming down a mountain that has a 6% grade for seven miles right at the California/Oregon state line.

 

[Butch]

Distracted? You mean she was playing with her phone.

 

[glofria]

I was being towed to Medford Or to get a new differential put in the truck and we went by the accident right after it happend. The girl that ran into them was very lucky that there was a guard rail there or she would have went over the mountain. Everyone was ok and they made it to the track and are parked right next to us. She just got distracted and ran into the back left corner of the trailer and then knocked off the left rear fender of the dually pick up that was pulling the trailer and then lost control and flipped over and landed on the guard rail on her side. They were coming down a mountain that has a 6% grade for seven miles right at the California/Oregon state line.

Thanks for the clarification Eugene.

I was going off of Brad's Facebook posting that I skimmed through. Ya think he's excited about going nitro racing?

 

[PJ]

Huh? There was no wait time.

Check the video posted the page before. While just a small sample size, they sat twice as long compared to the other pairs. I went going from the first car hitting the pre stage and also once both were staged. There was a delay after both were staged, also with the reset happening after prestage had occurred there was a delay there as well.

Perhaps someone with more tuning knowledge than my feeble mind could say if that would have made a difference. Roughly 8 seconds on the line versus nearly 17.

 

[DragFan2]

Mark Lyle doesn't seem to have any kind of authority like the late, great Buster Couch did!

Neither did previous starter, Rick Stewart, in most cases. Buster was such an imposing figure due to his size, and he wouldn't take crap from anyone, or so it seemed.

 

[qtermile14]

What would you have them do? Just throw the rules out and let them race?

Do you want to be the one to tell Densham and Russo to pack their trailers and get off the property because they aren't in the show? And make sure you clarify that, the rules say one thing, but we are going to throw those out and let these other two teams run. Sorry about that.

Again, and nobody wants to acknowledge it, the rule is quite clear and has been in place for what, 6 or 7 years now?

If you want small, predetermined, prepaid fields, go to an IHRA race.

Greg, what should be done is a new rule that says if an NHRA timing equipment (does not include blocks taken out by competitor) problem occurs, there is a rerun. I'm sure that would not happen, because like somebody said, there are more timing malfunctions than the average spectator is aware of, which would cause a lot of time being taken for reruns.

Also, I remember that the only top 12 count from Friday rule was so if somebody had a bad run during the ideal conditions of Friday evening, they would have a chance to get in on Saturday. I'm sure this was to be sure most of the teams in contention for the championship qualify, which means it will probably not change.

 

[d'kid]

Almost, Chicago was a one lane track

 

[qtermile14]

Mark Lyle doesn't seem to have any kind of authority like the late, great Buster Couch did!

Couch was the best. It also helped that he had Steve Gibbs to back him up instead of Graham Lightweight.

 

[FABMAN]

There has been a lot talked about on hrer and this may have already been mention but I believe there was a re=run in P/S at Seattle between Warren and Jeg a while back because of lights. Now remember I'm getting old so I could be mistaken.

 

[dragstats]

The bottom line is this is a stupid rule, most fans don't get it, you don't have a 16th car bubble on Friday to compare runs with during qualifying...it just doesn't serve a purpose to me.