Mike... I am not blaming Force or special treatment... Sorry if it sounded that way... What I am saying is if the rocking in and out of the beams caused the autostart to start, then Force should have been DQ'd for being out of the beams after his car started the autostart countdown... Not meaning he backed out on purpose...
Thiel was not treated fairly (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter fatcat
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yoda
Nitro Member
How could he have purposely "backed out" at all??? The car was always in a forward gear...
MM is right- car was deep in prestage and vibrations nudged the stage beam (probably by the fender or the chassis)- that would be the place to start looking, if anyone is looking at all (3" ground clearance to the spindle).
I am not saying he purposly backed out, not even where I was going with it... If the autostart is started by Forces car, Forces stage light shouldnt be out... If Forces car is no longer breaking the beam that started autostart, the car should be DQ'd no matter how it happened... And this goes for any car, not just Forces...
The thing is, it comes down to **** happens sometimes...
Randy
Nitro Member
That "flicker" could have been caused by anything. Static interference, the fuel fumes coming fom Brian's car closing the beams, a stray cat, etc. Force wasn't close enough to the beams to trigger a flicker and there's no way he backed out. Brian was screwed.
I think Brian had to have been offered a gift certificate to Ruth's Cris' Steakhouse or something for keeping his cool and playing it down in the interview. If it was my car my team would have been holding signs in the backround with that famous football game/barnyard chant written on them..."BS...BS...BS."
Per the rulebook, in the pro ranks, drivers are required to drive the cars and computers are not allowed to do any functions in the race car except to monitor events and report them on the download. Why can't the start of the pro races also be a function of a person (starter) and not some automated computer controlled process prone to screw up (most recently Edward's comes to mind)? The guy is already standing there, and it makes him look like an idiot every time something like this happens.
JMHO.
RG
I think Brian had to have been offered a gift certificate to Ruth's Cris' Steakhouse or something for keeping his cool and playing it down in the interview. If it was my car my team would have been holding signs in the backround with that famous football game/barnyard chant written on them..."BS...BS...BS."
Per the rulebook, in the pro ranks, drivers are required to drive the cars and computers are not allowed to do any functions in the race car except to monitor events and report them on the download. Why can't the start of the pro races also be a function of a person (starter) and not some automated computer controlled process prone to screw up (most recently Edward's comes to mind)? The guy is already standing there, and it makes him look like an idiot every time something like this happens.
JMHO.
RG
my friends call me Zappy
Nitro Member
Registered member said:
Maybe you should read the rest of my responses where I explain what I was talking about...
Tony
Nitro Member
It sure is easy to be critical from the comfort of a keyboard. Maybe the NHRA should let the Chronic Complainers from the NitroWhiner take turns at the starter position since it's so easy. They could start with Michael and John, and I'll donate a case of DEPENDS to the cause!
my friends call me Zappy
Nitro Member
Registered member said:
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my friends call me Zappy
Nitro Member
Registered member said:
*******
Nitro Member
Having worked the staring line at a racetrack myself and started everything from junior dragster to promods,A/F cars and jets I can speak first hand. The job is not as easy as it looks and lots of variables come in to play BUT absolutely the worst thing to ever happen is the invention of Auto Start. It takes all the control out of your hand for strange or weird events such as this.
my friends call me Zappy
Nitro Member
Interesting statement.....Mr. Green I have a question, as a starter what would you have done ?? You have car A fully staged - car B is pre-staged but just sits there with the roofhatch open...... Do you let car A burn down ???
As far as taking control out of the starters hands, I see that as a good thing. Autostart is NOT impressed by big name drivers-owners-sponsors, or anything else. It preforms as programed period.
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Randy
Nitro Member
Paul:
I've read all your posts. No disrespect but it sounds like you didn't see what happened or don't understand the timing system. Nobody was ever fully staged (car A). After a stage light "flicker" (that was not caused by "car A" in car A's lane...and should not have activated autostart under any circimstances), car A finally stages after about 6 seconds and in less than 3 tenths of a second the tree activates. The scenario you posted above has nothing to do with what actually happened. Keep in mind Force likes to stage last and many drivers like to "push him along" within the rules (Cruz, for example) and let him stage first.
One thing I would be worried about now is whenever a crew member accidentally steps in the beams when directing the driver up to the starting line. Does that mean autostart has begin to count down if RS has thrown the activation switch?
RG
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Reese
Nitro Member
I thought that you had to be staged for a certain amount of time before autostart takes over. I know Steve Johnson will flicker the bulbs on you to mess with your mind(maybe why L.E. redlit against him?) if he knows you have a performance advantage on him. Never saw him get the red buld because of it or the other bike get counted out.
You're right, and a lot of the posters on this thread seem to be unaware of that fact.
At least when the system was first installed, I guarantee you there was a time threshold that had to be met before the system would start its countdown. I remember it was a fairly significant amount of time - like one second or so. The explanation was that it would prevent what apparently happened in this instance.
I honestly don't know if the autostart got changed or whether the clocks malfunctioned in this case. There's a lot more to the starting system than most people realize. I've seen a lot of cases where it was modified to solve a problem but the change created two or three new problems. I don't envy Jeff Foster at all. He has a very hard, thankless job.
yoda
Nitro Member
No one with a brain in their head would EVER pull in then put the car in reverse. So the term "back out" is a misnomer...
Pulling in to pre-stage and having something lower than the 3" minimum break the beam momentarially, or as RG has suggested, maybe electronic cross-talk that messes with the system (a little confused with that one, RG- are you suggesting that the mags or something in the timers may have interfered with the electronics in the starting system?), triggered the time out system to activate.
John obviously answered your question: he did get back in before the bulbs got a signal to go, and beat the red-light. Just barely.
Johnny West had hands-on after the car was in the beams- that is a textbook and rulebook example of a DQ.
