1/24/07
CHEATING? HERE’S A GRAY AREA
Hello Jok, I don't think we have met, I am Lynn Ellison. I have raced just about everything from SS on down, I have won points races in SG, SC, SST and National events in SS and SG along with 7 track championships and lots of bracket race wins. Why am I telling you all of this? So you will know that I am not just some new racer with a keyboard.
Like you I have raced longer than I care to talk about, and for the most part have loved it all. I don't really bitch about this or that. I have always found that if I lost looking in the mirror was the most likely place to find the problem. That being said, I just read your column in Drag Racing Online and saw you were planning on a cheating article and asked if anyone really thought cheating was going on. Well, I am not sure. I do know that people are doing things that manipulate a car’s function going down the track, but it may be so well thought out that it is in a gray area and is not fully breaking the rules.
Where all of this is going is in my opinion, one thing that MUST be removed from sportsman type vehicles are data recorders of any kind. I have had a Racepak and they are good diagnostic tools, but after you get your car right they are a pain. However, with an Allen wrench and the worst computer programmer and electrical engineer in the world we can map a run and viola, 8.901 at will. And the cool thing is you do not have to hide the
wiring, it goes everywhere you need it, drive shaft sensor-check, wire to the ignition-check, sensor to the throttle-stop-check, wire to the widget wherever-check and it is all perfectly legal.
Will doing all of this insure a win every time? Absolutely not. A .003 package is a .003 package enhanced or not so they do get beat, but some people just happen to be a lot better at going 8.90 than everyone else in the world. It is probably going on in the bracket world too but with a good set of Hoosiers, a good converter, rupert-rons or whoever induction, a drum of alky and just a little driving ability in the 1/8th you can get anything somewhat consistent.
The main thing I want to bring up is trying to make them work a little harder at hiding the wires and where a tech guy might accidentally be able to stumble onto something that might just be a problem. I am sure there are many other ways to do things that might be in the gray area but this is one that even I could make work.
Keep up the good work and I really enjoy your article.
Thanks,
Lynn Ellison
LOOKING FORWARD TO RACING
Jok, payout #2 is the way not everyone can win and that 20 bucks definitely helps in winning beer eliminator.
Also, great article with Scott Gardner. The way it sounds things are looking great for the future with a 3 track series. Should be a fun year.
Jeff Essmann
