Is it IRP time yet?

[paulydee]

And if Andy was really in the wrong and the Chief Steward chose to take some action after the race, the guidelines from our Executive Stewars say the minimum penalty is 1 position in class. Would Pauly and the rest of the guys in ITS been satisifed with that?
[/b]

Thanks for the comments here Bob. It was good to get a stewards perspective.

I have opted not to comment further on the subject because I know no good will come of it.

[Andy Bettencourt]

This is an interesting topic (the start of the TR8) and the starts of races are so different (and important) every race I try and learn whenever I can. For one, the car should have been black flagged and a stop and go applied. I wonder all the time what goes through stewards heads during the decision making process on wave-offs vs. black flags.

Secondly, if the issue was one of such concern, starting from the back of the grid would have been the 'safest' solution or not even taking the green.

The BEST solution in my mind would have been to inform ALL your competitors in the run group. Without any knowledge of what you were doing, drivers have no idea what to expect. I personally would have thought you were yeilding to everyone else as you had a known mechanical and I would have made racing moves based on that assumption - only driven by your positioning that has no good explanation for. You at least owe it to your competitoirs to inform them - because some (like Paul) think it was an advantage.

I also believe 100% that the TR8 got ZERO advantage from that move (because he could have just as easily popped out at the green and taken the exact same line. The only issue is that you technically 'blocked' that slot for others who may or may not have gotten a run on the pack.

Bottom line for me? The motivation was pure, no advantage was gained and the final results were not tainted. HOWEVER, why would the stewards allow a start like that without a wave or a penalty to the TR8? It makes no sense to me.

[paulydee]

Andy B. I am glad you chimed in as a voice of reason. That was a very concise point of view.
Thanks for coming to visit the MidWest Forum for a logical and level headed post.

[Racerlinn]

And it appears we may have to change the title of this particular thread to 'Is it ORP time yet?"
Looks like the NHRA has to decided to follow the crowd and is selling the naming rights to the facility to O'Reily Auto Parts.
Thus, we will have O'Reily Raceway Park. Maybe that should be "ORRP"?
ick.

[R2 Racing]

Thus, we will have O'Reily Raceway Park. Maybe that should be "ORRP"?[/b]

O'RRP? Hmmm, being O'Reily Raceway Park, I might have to get super drunk at the Saturday night party and start a fight with someone.



(Disclaimer: If you're of Irish decent and took offense to that comment, save it and lighten up, because so am I. )

[Racerlinn]

O'RRP? Hmmm, being O'Reily Raceway Park, I might have to get super drunk at the Saturday night party and start a fight with someone.
(Disclaimer: If you're of Irish decent and took offense to that comment, save it and lighten up, because so am I. )
[/b]

Oh great, now I gotta hire bouncers for the fall Double Regional to keep the Ruck family in line.....

[Marc Henry]

As I was working in the starters stand for this weekend, we did see that the TR8 was out of line at the start. We called it in as soon as race control called for held calls. The steward asked us to write up the incident, and we did. As a competetor myself, I personally would like to see at least, a drive thru penalty on anyone that improves their position or out of line, before the green flag is displayed. It would show me that the stewards know about the infraction, and have taken action.

[Drew Aldred]

At every driver's meeting I've been to the last few years, the start is always the main topic. Anyone getting out of line from the car in front can expect a stop and go penalty. Not sure why the TR8 wasn't given some type of penalty as he was way out of line before the green.

A known problem with the clutch should have started at the back to avoid any possible problems balking the start.

[iagreen]

Since I now know about the cool google.video that Steve is using, and since there is no reason to let a thread about a race a month ago die, I'll add my video from to accompany the pic on page 4.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...13790856962445