4/11/2007
Finishing up a few details, seems
I hit a nerve
Last month I brought up the subject about a crisis in Super/Stock, Comp and Brackets that do not allow delay boxes. Well, by the emails I received and the Internet “buzz” it seems a lot of people are concerned about that subject. I thought a little follow-up and some input from others would go a long way to possibly “righting the ship” a bit.
First, the most common response I had was, “You have to be kidding me, how can those buttons be legal?” or “Does NHRA/IHRA even read their own rulebook?” My response to both was, “I don’t know if they read it or if they simply interpret it so they don’t step on the ‘big boys’ toes.’ I really don’t know.”
If you didn’t read last month’s Feature Story in Drag Racing Online I suggest you go back and read it because I am not going to re-write it here. I am just going to try to make some sense of the responses I got and the ideas I received from our readers. Some responses were great and thoughtful and others were blunt and basically said to just leave things alone and quit stirring the pot. Sorry, I am just a pot-stirring type of guy who sees a problem and will not bury my head in the sand over it.
I will start with an example of a situation that basically proves my point that there are “delay devices” in use in classes that prohibit them. Are they legal? I guess so, but is it because the tech guys don’t want to make a call or have they been told to just be quiet? Since it isn’t a “delay box with wires” it must not be a delay device, right?
Here is the example; names are not being provided to protect people from embarrassment. An anonymous car owner was approached by a very good bottom-bulb racer (no delay box). The idea was to come in, lease or borrow the car on a percentage of the winnings and run it at a big money race. The driver made a couple runs and both reaction times were red by about .015-.017. The driver reached into his “bag of switches” (so described by the car owner who wrote to me) he brought with him and in the next twelve-plus runs over a couple events produced reaction times of .008 to about.017. The car owner didn’t ask too many questions but the driver said he has switches with an
assorted amount of “delay” in them. No changes to the car to make it react slower, no launch rpm changes, tire pressure changes or converter changes. Just change switches and it’s good to go. He needed about .025 and he brought it with him.
There is no doubt this driver is extremely good. He reacts inside a tight “package” and wins a lot of races. Could he do it if he didn’t bring those “legal switches”? I don’t know. We will never know unless the rule pertaining to “delay devices” is enforced or the wording changed. To quote the rule in the NHRA rulebook it says: “All switches, buttons, wiring, solenoids, etc. must be for normal automotive use; i.e., not intended to create delay (adjustable or non-adjustable) between the release of the button and the resultant action of the solenoid.”
