Todd Okuhara will take over tuning duties on Leah Pritchett's dragster

[flapjack]

http://www.nhra.com/story/2016/8/2/okuhara-will-take-over-tuning-duties-on-pritchett-dragster/

This should make for an interesting rest of the season for Leah.

 

[.]

I wonder why Guger was let go.

 

[qtermile14]

I wonder why Guger was let go.

It's not surprising. The car has not performed that well consistently, along with her having eight oil downs all under Guger's tuning. That is the most of all nitro cars, with twice as many as anybody else, none when driving the Lagana Bros. car.

 

[Just Paul]

In Guger's defense, this deal was thrown together with a mix and match group of parts to begin with from the other teams, FC teams included. It has to be hard to walk into a new deal like that and run as well as the teams that have been together a long time.

 

[Justin@NRE]

I don't think you can totally place all the blame on Guger for the oildowns. When teams get to a point where they aren't sure if they will be racing again, parts and crews wind up in a giant clusterf$%k. Then you wind up going to race for DSR, who makes most of their own parts. Now you have to learn nuances of different parts. And what about the crew themselves? All the same people? And they have to learn the nuances of the parts as well. Principles are all the same as far as a nitro engine, but different parts don't always give the same fatigue/really pissed off motor identifiers. And with Fuel motors on a good/happy run it will burn the ground straps off the plugs and turn rod bearings into thrust bearings, which are the first places you look on every other kind of engine. And then the parts inventory.. Right cam in the block? Timed right? Right rockers? Right Rods/Pistons for desired Compression Ratio? Consistent cc's in combustion chambers? New or used cranks and how many runs on the used? Fuel Pumps consistent? Blowers consistent?

 

[Nunz]

Guger's been at this a long, long time. He learned under one of the best, AA/Dale, who was just a badass racer in every sense. I hope Mike can land somewhere with some security and get after it again.

 

[Huge]

It's not surprising. The car has not performed that well consistently, along with her having eight oil downs all under Guger's tuning. That is the most of all nitro cars, with twice as many as anybody else, none when driving the Lagana Bros. car.

Mike, I don't really think you can compare it to the Laganas car because Guger is running the car a lot harder then Stew is.

 

[Treeshaker]

The BVR teams were under the DSR umbrella for a while so the parts have been the same. Do you really think bad/used up parts were being put into Leah's car? Some drivers create more carnage than others by their inconsistent routines and driving style. With a new experienced crew chief we will see whether it was Mike's or Leah's work that was the cause of the multi oil downs.

 

[Just Paul]

If you are talking to me, I never said bad, I never said used up.

 

[mick]

letting him go certainly lowers the per race expense of this TF'r.

 

[Justin@NRE]

The BVR teams were under the DSR umbrella for a while so the parts have been the same. Do you really think bad/used up parts were being put into Leah's car? Some drivers create more carnage than others by their inconsistent routines and driving style. With a new experienced crew chief we will see whether it was Mike's or Leah's work that was the cause of the multi oil downs.

Very true concerning the drivers. I think it's possible that some hand-me-down parts from the other teams made it into the mix to get the team going, not trashed, but maybe stuff they wouldn't normally run again but would give/sell to the lower buck teams to get a couple runs on. What I was really getting at was the consistency of parts and crew among the pickings of parts they had to work with. You know as well as anybody how much shop work and prep goes in to loading the trailer for a weekend, and something they may not have had the luxury of was the same person checking the parts before use and instead taking somebody else's word/markings for granted.

To quote Leah in her Comp Plus article that just posted: "We're almost solid. Every race that we've had we still have had a rotating crew, we've yet to have a solid crew. There are three to four that are in and out. We've got some interns from Western Tech, we've got some people from hospitality but what stays the same is our two crew chiefs and two other guys that we rotate in and out." Crew chiefs are only as good and consistent as the guys carrying out the orders and assembly..