REDUCED OILDOWN FINES (2 Viewers)

[my friends call me Zappy]

NHRA to reduce penalties for oildowns
Tuesday, September 22, 2015

NHRA is reducing the penalties for oildowns on the track effective immediately and at the same time working with teams to find technical solutions.

Until further notice, escalating penalties for oildowns will be capped at $3,000 ($1,000 for first violation, $2,000 for second violation, and $3,000 for third and after), instead of the previous system, which had greater penalties for the third violation and after.

“We’ve seen a decrease in oildowns this year, and we want to thank the teams for making that happen,” said NHRA President Peter Clifford. “Oildowns hurt our sport, and we realize no competitor wants to oildown the racetrack. We have a commitment from teams to address the oildown situation and improve it.”

NHRA will work with teams, manufacturers, the PRO, and others in the sport who can contribute to reducing and containing oildowns. Crew chiefs have been asked to share more detailed information with the Tech Department on the root cause of each oildown to aid in technical analysis and prevention practices, and the Tech Department will share oildown data across all teams. NHRA’s own Safety Safari team has also implemented new techniques to speed cleanup.

“Improving competition, which improves the fan experience, is one of the most important initiatives NHRA is working on,” Clifford continued. “Working together, we are confident we will find solutions to minimize oildowns and to improve competition and the fan experience.”
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If they see now the penalties are bad & hurting the sport, why not drop them ?? don't just reduce them.

 

[Toejam]

NHRA to reduce penalties for oildowns
Tuesday, September 22, 2015

NHRA is reducing the penalties for oildowns on the track effective immediately and at the same time working with teams to find technical solutions.

Until further notice, escalating penalties for oildowns will be capped at $3,000 ($1,000 for first violation, $2,000 for second violation, and $3,000 for third and after), instead of the previous system, which had greater penalties for the third violation and after.

“We’ve seen a decrease in oildowns this year, and we want to thank the teams for making that happen,” said NHRA President Peter Clifford. “Oildowns hurt our sport, and we realize no competitor wants to oildown the racetrack. We have a commitment from teams to address the oildown situation and improve it.”

NHRA will work with teams, manufacturers, the PRO, and others in the sport who can contribute to reducing and containing oildowns. Crew chiefs have been asked to share more detailed information with the Tech Department on the root cause of each oildown to aid in technical analysis and prevention practices, and the Tech Department will share oildown data across all teams. NHRA’s own Safety Safari team has also implemented new techniques to speed cleanup.

“Improving competition, which improves the fan experience, is one of the most important initiatives NHRA is working on,” Clifford continued. “Working together, we are confident we will find solutions to minimize oildowns and to improve competition and the fan experience.”
********************************************************************************************************************

If they see now the penalties are bad & hurting the sport, why not drop them ?? don't just reduce them.

Paul, you weren't at Vegas 2 in 2009 or 2010? Not sure which year, Seven hours of Clean-up! NHRA publicly apologized to the fans! They brought them back the following year!

 

[CrewMan]

Good to see something happening. Kudos to Mr. Clifford...

In the previous regime this would have taken at least a year to "investigate all options"

 

[vegasnitro]

Good to see something happening. Kudos to Mr. Clifford...

In the previous regime this would have taken at least a year to "investigate all options"

It's the same regime.

 

[Just Paul]

Paul, you weren't at Vegas 2 in 2009 or 2010? Not sure which year, Seven hours of Clean-up! NHRA publicly apologized to the fans! They brought them back the following year!

I was at that one. I think Antron was half of that 7 hours if I remember right. He had a couple big ones.

 

[The Swegian]

Paul, you weren't at Vegas 2 in 2009 or 2010? Not sure which year, Seven hours of Clean-up! NHRA publicly apologized to the fans! They brought them back the following year!

Ah yes, the infamous Pennzoil Valvoline Quaker State Amalie Castrol Oildown Nationals of 2010. The Saturday Q3 session was just ending about the time Q4 should have because of all the oildowns. Q4 started and we bailed when Jeff Diehl put it in the wall. If I recall correctly, the day's festivities should've been done around 6pm. It was about 8:30 when we left. Then in Sunday eliminations, I remember there being four consecutive oildowns in Top Fuel R1. That round of TF took over an hour to complete. The TF Final took place well after 6pm.

 

[rckymtn3]

To me, parts failure/oil downs have always been and always will be part of a motorsport that is 95% about performance, and 5% about longevity. That's just the deal. You want to watch gigantic horsepower piston driven engines burning exotic fuels explode from a standing start to over 300MPH three football fields later, you have to pay for it. I've never had an issue with the extra time a race has needed when things happen. Just not that big of a deal to me. If you don't like it, leave. I just think it's silly to ask them to be on the absolute ragged cutting edge, and then get angry when they fall over to the bad side once in a while.
Does anyone actually think they want to blow up parts?

 

[troy boy]

Steve Evans used to get us to the track by saying."SOME WILL GO SOME WILL BLOW!"

 

[my friends call me Zappy]

It's the same regime.

Same regime yes, but a different skipper.

 

[JB3]

To me, parts failure/oil downs have always been and always will be part of a motorsport that is 95% about performance, and 5% about longevity. That's just the deal. You want to watch gigantic horsepower piston driven engines burning exotic fuels explode from a standing start to over 300MPH three football fields later, you have to pay for it. I've never had an issue with the extra time a race has needed when things happen. Just not that big of a deal to me. If you don't like it, leave. I just think it's silly to ask them to be on the absolute ragged cutting edge, and then get angry when they fall over to the bad side once in a while.
Does anyone actually think they want to blow up parts?

Really, leave? Great way to encourage repeat spectators. That work's for you ... obviously you are able to stay at an event for the duration. If the sport is to grow ... it has to be confined into a certain sized box. Fans pay big $$ to be there and watch the Nitro cars almost exclusively. Not the Safari trucks cleaning up. Naturally those fans want to see the final outcome at the end of the day. But often as the case is due to weather, oil, etc., some have to leave. Long drives, school next day for the kids, whatever. I get it, sometimes crap happens. It just cannot be the norm.

JMO ... If we went back 2+ hours between Pro rounds and a typical end time between 5-6 pm on Sunday just to allow teams more time to "fix" everything, the stands might be empty for the finals. Today's fans of all sports want a tight return on their investment. Watch a night game in a stick / ball sport. After 10pm they place becomes deserted even if the final outcome is still in question. People aren't willing to stay anywhere for 6-8 hours anymore especially if the whole family is along. Isn't that what we want in our sport, spectator growth from the family perspective? Won't get that if in general, the perception is the live race day product sucks. Plain and simple.

You don't mind and that's ok, but you can't look at this just from your personal window Kevin.

 

[Toejam]

Ah yes, the infamous Pennzoil Valvoline Quaker State Amalie Castrol Oildown Nationals of 2010. The Saturday Q3 session was just ending about the time Q4 should have because of all the oildowns. Q4 started and we bailed when Jeff Diehl put it in the wall. If I recall correctly, the day's festivities should've been done around 6pm. It was about 8:30 when we left. Then in Sunday eliminations, I remember there being four consecutive oildowns in Top Fuel R1. That round of TF took over an hour to complete. The TF Final took place well after 6pm.

Only race I can think of as bad as that was the 1995 Winternationals......Terrible!

 

[Toejam]

To me, parts failure/oil downs have always been and always will be part of a motorsport that is 95% about performance, and 5% about longevity. That's just the deal. You want to watch gigantic horsepower piston driven engines burning exotic fuels explode from a standing start to over 300MPH three football fields later, you have to pay for it. I've never had an issue with the extra time a race has needed when things happen. Just not that big of a deal to me. If you don't like it, leave. I just think it's silly to ask them to be on the absolute ragged cutting edge, and then get angry when they fall over to the bad side once in a while.
Does anyone actually think they want to blow up parts?

Im sure many first time fans have and do Kevin...

 

[Butch]

We already have the,
Eddie Hill rule.
Now we have the
Terry McMillan Rule Lol

 

[Huge]

We already have the,
Eddie Hill rule.
Now we have the
Terry McMillan Rule Lol

Actually, it wasn't just Terry, there were at least two other teams that told Nhra that they were going to park their teams for the remainder of the season.

 

[my friends call me Zappy]

Who can blame them ??

 

[PJ]

Really, leave? Great way to encourage repeat spectators. That work's for you ... obviously you are able to stay at an event for the duration. If the sport is to grow ... it has to be confined into a certain sized box. Fans pay big $$ to be there and watch the Nitro cars almost exclusively. Not the Safari trucks cleaning up. Naturally those fans want to see the final outcome at the end of the day. But often as the case is due to weather, oil, etc., some have to leave. Long drives, school next day for the kids, whatever. I get it, sometimes crap happens. It just cannot be the norm.

JMO ... If we went back 2+ hours between Pro rounds and a typical end time between 5-6 pm on Sunday just to allow teams more time to "fix" everything, the stands might be empty for the finals. Today's fans of all sports want a tight return on their investment. Watch a night game in a stick / ball sport. After 10pm they place becomes deserted even if the final outcome is still in question. People aren't willing to stay anywhere for 6-8 hours anymore especially if the whole family is along. Isn't that what we want in our sport, spectator growth from the family perspective? Won't get that if in general, the perception is the live race day product sucks. Plain and simple.

You don't mind and that's ok, but you can't look at this just from your personal window Kevin.

I'm the opposite, I sit there at the end of the day wondering why we rushed through it, what happened to all day racing. I get needed to fit the most punch in the smaller timeframe, but they need to be careful to not make the time too small. Not unless they plan on lowering the cost

 

[stitcherbob]

One year the racing at Maple grove ended at like 4 - 4:30....nice to get an early start at the exit traffic, but it felt like we missed a whole bunch of racing.....

but in 1990...10pm finals after all day rain delay...that was a rough 2 1/2hr ride home (at least my faves Force, Ormsby and Alderman won!) @36:09

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Tdjr-IWFSG0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[rckymtn3]

Really, leave? Great way to encourage repeat spectators.

First off, yes, leave. People do it all the time, football, soccer, baseball. Get your fill, then go. Don't want to hang around while they clean up, yes, leave. It's pretty-much as common sense as one can get.

Other thing, I'm not here to encourage repeat spectators, (talk about preaching to the choir) and aside from that, if I made a list of reasons why casual fans never return to a race, oil down time is not even in the top ten, but then, yes...that's my personal view.

Isn't that what we want in our sport, spectator growth from the family perspective? Won't get that if in general, the perception is the live race day product sucks. Plain and simple.

No. 100% no. But that's me.

Involve younger people, sure. Involve families, sure. But involve them because they want to watch a race, not because the race will finish right at 3pm.

IF grabbing this fickled group of folks that need a perfect little outing that fits neatly into a time slot is the only way drag racing will grow, I say it's overgrown. Time to just let it be the stepchild and stop changing it's hair color to make everyone love it.

Going after people that don't really care what they're doing as long as it fits inside a time slot aren't really the people that will sustain this sport. Going after that group as a fan base will change drag racing, so much so, that it's no longer recognizable.

I've said it before. I think that's the mistake of the century.

People either get drag racing or don't. Trying to change the product (NHRA) to fit into what these folks want will only alienate the people that currently love it, and those new people...we'll never see them again, as the next sport du jour will sparkle and capture their interest and the real fans are left with a hollowed out version of a sport they fell in love with a long time ago.

You don't mind and that's ok, but you can't look at this just from your personal window Kevin.

Actually, that's exactly where and how I should look at anything. How else does someone look at anything, except from their own personal view?

You may be thinking of applying this discussion to the health of the future of the NHRA, but then, that really wasn't the discussion I joined. I saw a few people well-versed in going to drag races, talking about how tiring the oil-downs are. Hey, I don't love them, but like my comment stated, I certainly don't mind them, as it's part of the sport that has such powerful powerplants.

Want zero oil downs, and a race that can easily fit inside of a live TV format? Have a race between production sedans.

Now, ask me how many people will tune in to the Production Sedan Nationals.

 

[Bob]

Parts failures happen, and sometimes that results in oildowns. It happens in every class of drag racing. I worked a divisional event where the only oildown was a Junior Dragster! Some people see this as an unacceptable inconvenience to them as spectators. How selfish! Having watched 10's of thousands of cars go down the track at drag strips, when a car leaves oil on the track, I don't feel anger toward the driver. I feel sympathy for the driver. I know that what ever happened was not intentional. I know that what ever happened will likely cost the driver money. I know that sometimes the money involved in trying to complete the event, or the season, may be more than is in their racing budget.

There is no combination of containment devices that will completely eliminate the possibility of oildowns at drag races. They will continue to happen.

 

[flapjack]

I know of someone on the Safety Safari and it would be interesting to hear what they have to say on this topic. But I won't give them up, they have to speak for themselves.