More nonsense from NHRA Tech

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Les Gibson

Les Gibson

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I found it to be complete nonsense what NHRA Tech tried to do to Bob Tasca this past weekend at the four wide race in Charlotte. Disqualify the 2nd round qualifying run because NHRA Tech didn't like the color of his intake manifold, which had been give NHRA Tech's blessing after Gainesville? C'mon man! Saying the manifold had been modified because it had been media blasted by Wilson manifolds, when no dimensional changes had been made whatsoever is a real stretch of the rule book. Tasca had the last laugh when he was given a manifold to use by the Torrence team ( hat's off to them) and ran a FASTER run with the Torrence manifold. NHRA Tech really embarrassed themselves with that little farce, unfortunately they'll have Tasca in their crosshairs for the rest of the season. They'll be looking for any little thing to disqualify him going forward.
 
pittsburghracer said:
Rules are rules. Good for NHRA watching over these guys.
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I agree but NHRA Tech looked at his manifolds at Gainesville and said they were fine. Then at Charlotte they reject the same manifolds? If there had been a change of dimensions in the manifold runners I would completely agree with the disqualification. But that wasn’t the case. It was based entirely on the appearance of the manifold, not its function. Seems ticky-tacky to me.
 
I’m kinda on the fence on both sides. The rules state that no modification is allowed to any of the three accepted intakes. A surface finish change is a modification in my book. Wether it qualifies as an advantage or not does not matter, it’s a modification. But I was glad to see Bob didn’t pack up and leave and I agree, big props to the Torrance team for loaning him the intake, and big props to Bob for running faster (and setting a new track record) with it.
 
Les Gibson said:
I agree but NHRA Tech looked at his manifolds at Gainesville and said they were fine. Then at Charlotte they reject the same manifolds? If there had been a change of dimensions in the manifold runners I would completely agree with the disqualification. But that wasn’t the case. It was based entirely on the appearance of the manifold, not its function. Seems ticky-tacky to me.
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No he said they didn’t say they were fine but they didn’t say they were not legal either. I watched his interview last night.
 
pittsburghracer said:
No he said they didn’t say they were fine but they didn’t say they were not legal either. I watched his interview last night.
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Whoever on the Tasca crew received the manifolds when NHRA returned them after Gainesville should have requested confirmation of legality from NHRA.
NHRA tech just created a bunch of future work for themselves because teams are going to be demanding written confirmation going forward.
 
We must be talking about the inside of the intake ports not the outside
of the intake manifold that were Glass Beaded?

In Stock also they are very fussy about appearance and texture of the
ports. I could elaborate some more BUT I better not say anymore!
 
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I got questions. Who said the manifold was stock dimensions and why would someone send a manifold to Wilson just to be bead blasted? Did Wilson manufacture the manifold?
 
ocdart said:
Whoever on the Tasca crew received the manifolds when NHRA returned them after Gainesville should have requested confirmation of legality from NHRA.
NHRA tech just created a bunch of future work for themselves because teams are going to be demanding written confirmation going forward.
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Sometimes it’s best to say nothing until someone else says something.

If tech is on the fence with an issue, they might look the other way if they are having trouble filling the field with competitive cars. You know no one likes a boring show especially a track owner, promoter or vendors for that matter. Drama fills seats with asses. It just happened to one of your favorite racers, eventually it happens to all the racers. In NHRA, winner’s push the envelope. If there is no growth, there is no spectacle, just been there done that.

And as they say in nascar, if you don’t cheat, you don’t want to win bad enough.
 
Charrlie_S said:
In funny car you have to run a "as manufactured" manifold? Those are not stock eliminator cars
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Yes, there are 3 manufacturers of top fuel and fuel funny car intake manifolds, AJE, JFR, and I think the third was DSR (I could be wrong on number 3), and only those three are allowed by NHRA. The teams are not allowed to modify them in any way shape or form.
 
Just a thought ...

Not saying any of this is possible but...

What if the manifold was bead blasted only on the outside.

What if that bead blasting caused a change to the metals structure.

What if that change reflected heat better than raw metal

What if they "painted" the outside.

What if the "paint" reflected heat better than raw metal

No they have a manifold that reflects heat better than a raw manifold and they have an advantage.


PERSONALLY...

I think they should be able to do what ever they want to build power.

That way there would be innovation.
 
Dana67Dart said:
Just a thought ...

Not saying any of this is possible but...

What if the manifold was bead blasted only on the outside.

What if that bead blasting caused a change to the metals structure.

What if that change reflected heat better than raw metal

What if they "painted" the outside.

What if the "paint" reflected heat better than raw metal

No they have a manifold that reflects heat better than a raw manifold and they have an advantage.


PERSONALLY...

I think they should be able to do what ever they want to build power.

That way there would be innovation.
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They don’t need any more innovation and NHRA doesn’t want more. (Remember the laid back header deal a few years ago? And why they now race 1000 feet? NHRA is trying to keep them from going any faster.
 
Dana67Dart said:
I get that, then they should reduce the displacement and let the innovation go crazy till it's too fast again.
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Believe it or not they are trying to control costs for the little guy. Changing displacement would go against that thinking. They even forced the teams to cut back on testing.
 
Sounds like something NHRA tech would do to a Mopar racer ! On that note a close friend of mine races a 57 Corvette he bought it awhile ago from a guy that raced it for over 40 years it now has a 383 SBC and runs mid 11s , he was informed late last year that because it has a " removable " hard top that it must now have a roll bar.. the top hasn't been off the car in over 50 years ! I don't know the E.T. specifics for this rule he is installing a roll bar , he bought a kit from S&W but because the car is so tight inside it is turning into a difficult endeavor.

IMG_2695.jpeg
 
Who even watches nascar anymore? It died when Dale Earnhardt tangled with Sterling Marlin while protecting Dale Jr’s lead on the final lap at Daytona 2001.
 
TT5.9mag said:
Yes, there are 3 manufacturers of top fuel and fuel funny car intake manifolds, AJE, JFR, and I think the third was DSR (I could be wrong on number 3), and only those three are allowed by NHRA. The teams are not allowed to modify them in any way shape or form.
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NHRA sucks. I stopped racing in "stock" back in the '80's due to their BS.
 
Heywodja said:
Who even watches nascar anymore? It died when Dale Earnhardt tangled with Sterling Marlin while protecting Dale Jr’s lead on the final lap at Daytona 2001.
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They never "tangled", Earnhardt simply lost it forcing His car low where it wasn't working to block Sterling, & He died racing His way....the series died for Me in the mid '80's...
 
Heywodja said:
Who even watches nascar anymore? It died when Dale Earnhardt tangled with Sterling Marlin while protecting Dale Jr’s lead on the final lap at Daytona 2001.
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Actually, Michael Waltrip had the lead, Jr finished second.
 
ch1ll said:
I got questions. Who said the manifold was stock dimensions and why would someone send a manifold to Wilson just to be bead blasted? Did Wilson manufacture the manifold?
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The Tasca team sent the manifolds to Wilson to be flow tested. I guess Wilson media blasted them as part of their cleaning process but didn't make any dimensional changes to the runners, and both Tasca and NHRA Tech confirmed there were no dimensional changes, however the media blasting apparently changed the color of the manifolds which NHRA Tech classifies as an illegal modification.
 
its all about $$ for them ,
Les Gibson said:
I found it to be complete nonsense what NHRA Tech tried to do to Bob Tasca this past weekend at the four wide race in Charlotte. Disqualify the 2nd round qualifying run because NHRA Tech didn't like the color of his intake manifold, which had been give NHRA Tech's blessing after Gainesville? C'mon man! Saying the manifold had been modified because it had been media blasted by Wilson manifolds, when no dimensional changes had been made whatsoever is a real stretch of the rule book. Tasca had the last laugh when he was given a manifold to use by the Torrence team ( hat's off to them) and ran a FASTER run with the Torrence manifold. NHRA Tech really embarrassed themselves with that little farce, unfortunately they'll have Tasca in their crosshairs for the rest of the season. They'll be looking for any little thing to disqualify him going forward.
Click to expand...
its all about $$ for them Chevy wins , majority happy , and kick backs from stuff they control that has to be up dated every so often...
 
pittsburghracer said:
Believe it or not they are trying to control costs for the little guy. Changing displacement would go against that thinking. They even forced the teams to cut back on testing.
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Regardless of their intentions, additional rules never ever "control costs."
Additional rules ALWAYS drive the costs up.

Look at your example, forced cut back on testing. This just kills privateers, they're gone!
If I have an organization with four "teams" (cars), I can do four times the testing a privateer could do.
 
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