Quote Originally Posted by OUBob View Post
That ballast certainly isn't secured properly.
The spare? If that's the way it came from the factory, then it's compliant to the regs even if it's just an 1/8" bolt. Not smart, but compliant because technically it's not "ballast", it's the spare that's allowed to remain.

When I chose to leave the spare in my ITA car I added a 1/2" bolt through one of the wheel holes to tie it through the floor. After arguing with a scrutineer regarding leaving the spare in (he eventually concurred that it's allowed) he started to get me for non-compliant ballast (the bolt weighs something). I pointed out to him that one, hardware is free, so I "can" replace the factory tie-down bolt with something sturdier and two, did he really want to force me to leave a ~25# mini-spare back there when secured with only a cheap-grade 1/8" bolt? He gave in. - GA