Schumacher ignores shut-off order

[Husky]

$20.000? What a JOKE.

More importantly (Gee, I remember when 20 G's was a lot of money) will there be any points penalty?

 

[knightrider]

More importantly (Gee, I remember when 20 G's was a lot of money) will there be any points penalty?

Don't hold your breath.

 

[Husky]

Don't hold your breath.

Understood, but is there any precedence?

 

[BaldyLochs]

I should know this, but does Rick & all those tech guys all wear radios & headsets? Why not? (I know first hand it's awful hard to use radios in the first place with the noise) but my beef.... once again... is with the sanctioning body; NOT the drivers or crews. "Not seeing it" is just unacceptable to me. The officials should all be able to communicate with each other at any moment.
Someone from Racing Radios needs to make a sales call to Glendora.
And, the token NHRA fine.... is getting to be like a joke like in the NFL & NBA.
I truly believe Tony will still be able to pay his mortgage this month... even with this financial "set back".

 

[Bullet]

Here is my take.....

-Tony disobeyed Rick Stewart's orders, more than once. I saw Rick signal him more than once.

-Rick Stewart seemed to clear it with the other NHRA guy on the line before Tony went into stage.

-$20,000 is a more than adequate penalty. However I feel there should also be a probation period for the team.

-Points deduction was not suitable as if he had of benefited from the run I would hope the NHRA would have disallowed the run.

-GENERAL OBSERVATION - Rick Stewart's antics in general are embarrassing

 

[yoda]

PRETTY CLEAR OBSERVATIONS, BULLET... No pun intended, but "right on target"..

Now Tony should do Public Service Announcements for the rest of next season at every Jr. race they can get him to explaining WHY you are supposed to listen to the person with the box in their hand...

 

[Doug in the woods]

Lets wear Tonys shoes for a miniute

your sitting there with 8,000 hp behind you and yes you see Stewart waving his hand.
Tony then see's AJ with normal routine and Stewart is walking away towards his perch.
AJ signals to stage the car.
Stewart never talks to AJ.
In Tonys mindset he figures all is OK perhaps excess fuwel on track or?
Tony stages car.
How much simpler can it get.
Like I said, look at the video in slow motion and pretend your in the drivers seat.
Use some imanagiation at YOU see Stewart, you are hoping to set a record run, the car is vibrating, you wait for the normal routine from AJ
AJ gives his signal to stage (in the back of your mind you are wondering what Stewart was trying to tell you as YOUR crew chief says to stage and Stewart is walking right by AJ. NO COMMENT from Stewart.
Tony must be thinking--Must of been a false alarm, won't be the first time Stewart has done that.
Mistakes are made

 

[Demon]

Great post Doug.
I don't think for a minute that anybody's safety was comprimised in any way.It's not like the car was leaking quarts of oil,and the oil didn't cause the car to light up the tires on the hit.

 

[Bobby]

it didn't seem to me like rick was very sure. why didn't he do something when he walked right past alan? this is big pfffffft.

 

[aafunnycar]

Looks like it cost him $20,000! Light fine for what could of happened.

NHRA News: Schumacher fined for qualifying incident at Auto Club NHRA Finals (11/12/2006)

Dan

Not enough! Ron Capps was fined points for an incident last season, was he not? So what's the dilly now???

 

[big jim]

As a sportsman racer, when the starter gives the "kill" signal, you shut it off...no matter what. You have no idea why the signal is given. It could be a timing malfunction, a car still on the track...etc. Sure it's frustraiting when you see the sign, but them are the RULES.

For Tony to admit he saw the signal, but chose to ignore it, just shows a intentional disregard of the rules.

My track would of DQ'd me if I did it....but theres a heck of a lot more money invloved with the pro ranks

 

[Marchboom]

Rick Stewart walked right by AJ. Could have stretched out his arm and touched AJ, no problem WHY didn't Stewart TELL AJ to shut it down?
Stewart just kept walking and started talking to another crew member then activates the tree.

That's EXACTLY how I saw it. If Rick really wanted to shut down Tony he could have easily. Maybe he didn't want to screw things up for Doug(?) But I think he should have been a little more aggressive. I'm sure it will be a topic of conversation at the next driver's meeting, you know, to make it clear who is really in charge at the line.

Can a point deduction be one of the penalties for this type of violation, or just $$$?

 

["Dr. Dirt"]

. . .It doesn’t matter what the reason is for Rick Stewart giving the shut off signal to ANY team!!! The fact is, a crew chief isn’t privy to the information that Rick Stewart is. Rick has full control of the entire race track period and everyone knows that!!!

Looks like this statement is a thing of the past! It used to be true but, for whatever reason, the world champion crew chief appears to have the call for a price and the world champion driver is allowed to ignore what he admitted to seeing deferring only to his crew chief?

I'd say the team ultimately got what they wanted for a price?
How much oil is bad? How much is deadly? Had a fatality occurred as a result of ignoring the official would this entire conversation be different?

 

[.]

Looks like this statement is a thing of the past! It used to be true but, for whatever reason, the world champion crew chief appears to have the call for a price and the world champion driver is allowed to ignore what he admitted to seeing deferring only to his crew chief?

I'd say the team ultimately got what they wanted for a price?
How much oil is bad? How much is deadly? Had a fatality occurred as a result of ignoring the official would this entire conversation be different?

Bobby,

Thank god nothing bad happened to either driver. I may root for some drivers more than others but I certainly don’t want to see ANYONE get hurt.

I didn’t realize certain crew chiefs had the power to override the decision of the highest ranking official on the race track. Learn something new everyday I guess…..

Just when I thought Rick was in charge……. Wrong again!

Brian.

 

[Brian]

This one is all on Rick Stewart. How does he give the shut-off order and then watch him stage? If he felt that Tony, his competitor and the spectators were in danger if he ran he would have stood right by the cockpit, motioned AJ over and told him to shut-off.

This never would have happened with Buster as starter. He would have stradled the car, pointed at Tony and told him to shut-off. If he refused he would have discharged a fire extingisher into the injector and then would have thrown it at AJ. He had a command of the starting line.

Every time something out of the ordinary happens on the starting line, Rick Stewart looks confused. The fine is a joke. If I were Don, I'd pay the thing in pennies.

 

[jeff]

Buster would have walked over and grabbed the fuel shut off. Buster was one bad dude and everyone knows that. One hell of a nice guy as well. With that being said if AJ were my chief and didn't tell me to shut off I wouldn't have either. AJ rules and he definitely proved it with that walkoff grandslam.

 

[BlueStangGT]

This one is all on Rick Stewart. How does he give the shut-off order and then watch him stage? If he felt that Tony, his competitor and the spectators were in danger if he ran he would have stood right by the cockpit, motioned AJ over and told him to shut-off.

I've tried to stay out of this entire subject but after reading this I have to say that you've summed it up perfectly providing that the video we all saw is indeed an accurate representation of all of the actions on the starting line. Since none of us were actually there we don't know specifically what may or may not have been said between Rick, the assistant starter, AJ, etc. We've seen Rick shut down lots of cars in exactly the manner you describe above yet we've also seen him allow Nitro-class runs where a crew member stops a leak with a shop rag so it would seem that it is indeed up to Rick and if he'd really wanted to stop the run, he would've stopped it.

Hopefully NHRA 2-Day will shed some more light on this on the next show.

 

[onfire]

I don't have a rule book handy, but, does it say anything, anywhere in the rule book that you will be deducted points for not following the chief starters commands?? I think this was a first and the organization dealt with it as they saw fit. Will there be a provision in next years rule book about disobeying the starting line crew or any of the other "officials" during the course of an event?? I think the answer to that is a big YES. The fine imposed seemed to be in line with what those toilet bowl racers get every once in awhile. And answer this for me.....When was the last time a cup racer was deducted points for taking an extra lap or two after being black flagged?? I don't know, that's why I'm asking. A fine....yes. Point deduction....I doubt it. Just my .02!

Late......................Mitch

 

[Bob]

Looks like this statement is a thing of the past! It used to be true but, for whatever reason, the world champion crew chief appears to have the call for a price and the world champion driver is allowed to ignore what he admitted to seeing deferring only to his crew chief?

I'd say the team ultimately got what they wanted for a price?
How much oil is bad? How much is deadly? Had a fatality occurred as a result of ignoring the official would this entire conversation be different?

Team Shuemacher needs to read section 19 of their rule book.

 

[Husky]

Imagine if the car piddled on the track getting a pts deduction, and everything else played out the same as it did on Sunday? TS, AJ and crew would be on permanent guard duty and KP.