Club Arnage

Tell you what - it's getting pretty funny out here, with all the devious goings-on out at the Speedway. Toyota's much vaunted entry into the Nextel Cup Championship has gone a little piss-shaped, even before the first hurdle.
An illegal 'fuel additive' was found in the intake manifold of Michael Waltrips' #55 Camry, which has resulted in the summary booting-out of his crew chief and the competition director of MWR! Waltrip starts his '07 Cup campaign with NEGATIVE 100 points and is now trying to qualify the spare car.
This on top of four other severe arse-kickings for various rule-breaking misdemeanors (mainly aero-naughties).
I wonder if the higher-ups at Toyota are thinking, "What the HELL are we doing, placing our reputation in the hands of these frickin' hi'billies".
The 500 "America's Race" runs this coming Sunday, kick-off at 3.00pm EST.

Thanks Matt, but I'll be descaling the kettle then  ::)

Wasn't it Toyota who got thrown out of the world rally championship some years ago for a blatantly illegal turbo which was cleverly designed to get past the scrutineers?

Yeh, I'll be busy jogging... er I mean running... water

>Martini

Well I thought it was funny when I wrote it...

Yes it was, a spring loaded mechanism in the airbox which bypassed the restrictor plate iirc. It was tte, or the people who started up the toyota F1 team.

It was indeed - chucked out completely - if I remember rightly, it was a variable size air restrictor, which allowed them to run above the restrictor size, allowing more air into the turbo = generating more power.  The FIA took a very dim view of it because it was so cleverly engineered (i.e. deliberate cheating rather than just "misinterpreting the regulations") that they banned them from the WRC from 1994 and 1995.

MG Mark

Its a shame they don't cheat in F1, they might get somewhere (well for a short time).

I remember Daytona.  Wasn't there a limit to the capacity of the fuel tank, so some hillbilly invented the ten gallon fuel pipe

Cheating bastards! ;D.
Seriously, in NASCAR they say if your not cheating, your not trying hard enough.  Best story I ever heard was the time AJ Foyt got caught putting fuel in the fire extinguisher, the scrutineers had questions about the hose running from the bottle to the fuel tank, can't imagine what they thought was wrong about that sight.
Fax

I heard that Steve Perez had to fit a new steel cage into his Audi Sport Quattro (Group B rally car) not because the original cage was aluminium, but because they discovered that the cage had been used as a secret NOS tank, piped to the engine.

Might explain why the group B cars tended to explode on impact in major crashes.

I would be watching it live except that NASN that I pay good money to to watch it have yet to do a deal for this year's Nascar coverage and have been told it won't be until later in the year do to a buy out by Disney having delayed negiotiations. Best i can now do is to sit up from 12.10am until 3.10 am monday morning watching the delayed coverage on Channel 5. >:(

It happens in every branch of the sport, from club racing right up to the top levels of NASCAR, WRC, F1 and the like. 

Remember when Tyrrell used ball bearings in a water tank to make post-race weight?  They installed a 3.3-gallon water tank in the car and rigged a system whereby water was sprayed into the air inlet trumpets, which was legal - refueling was illegal then, but the Tyrrells would come in late in the race to have the water injection tank topped up. The mechanics, however, added the balls along with the water.  Discovery occurred when a tank split in the pit lane at Brands Hatch in '84, scattering ball bearings all over the place - that got them banned for the rest of the year and their earlier results declared null and void.   BAR tried the additional fuel ballast trick in '05.

A couple of the old NASCAR ones that really tickled me related to the weight game.  Darrell Waltrip used to go through scrutineering with a set of wheels fitted that had several pounds of weight hidden in them; running slower in the early laps of a race, after the first pit stop with standard wheels bolted on, he would run a lot faster - it took quite a while before anyone cottoned on to that one.   Another one involved the driver's helmet - include one in pre-race weighing with the lining filled with lead and then, just before the start, have a radio problem and use a second helmet weighing considerably less.....

It's all about that wonderful grey area of pushing the envelope and finding loopholes between compliance and cheating.   I think NASCAR have even stopped calling it cheating now preferring to cal it "actions detrimental to the sport"

MG Mark

Or alternatively download TVU Player from http://www.tvunetworks.com/downloads/player.htm , Install the program, open it and find the channel labeled "53060 - Wheels".
It was broadcasting The Duels yesterday and will most probably do so with the race.
It will take a few minutes for the video to stabilize.
You must have a fast connection to view it.

Last night they busted Jeff Gordon - after the duel race, for running an inch too low on his ride height. However, the squeeky-clean Rainbow Warrior was only cited for an "equipment failure" - and not out-and-out cheating.
It's a bitch when all four shocks give out at exactly the same time isn't it. And even with that 'all four corners' suspension failure, you still manage to win the race. Who'da thunk it....?

And he keeps the win.  Typical NASCAR garbage.  They make the FIA look like geniuses.

Let's face it guys, "bending the rules" is as old as the sport itself.  Speaking of bending, anyone remember the 1970 British GP when, after the race, Colin Chapman instructed his mechanics, led by Jochen's lead wrench Herbie Blash (now one of the top brass in the FIA), to sit on the rear wing, and push their knees against the wing mounts during the post race lap of honor, so that the rear wing supports would be bent down, Chunky knowing damn well the rear wing was mounted too high.
The most famous may have been Gordon Murray's "ride height adjustment" on the Brabham's from 1981, soon copied by every othet team.  I do agree with Chop though, in NASCAR, the favored few get preferential treatment.  "Golden Boy" Chicken Lips being the best example.
Fax

That's pretty awesome, I had heard about internet TV services but never tried one. A SpeedTV showing of a truck race from Daytona has just started.

The TVU page has some links to other internet TV services, which cost not a lot. Are they any good?

Well to be honest Smokie, most Internet TV channels suck I think.
Only boring content, Chinese commentators, reruns of things that you donot want to see anyway and most of them disappear in no time.

I found out the last 6 months or so that this TVU p2p thing works fine when you have a proper Internet connection and it is apparantly here to stay.

Never tried and actually didn't see the paychannel links to those other channels (hey I'm cheap  ;) ) but maybe if you check the forum on TVU http://www.viidoo.com/en/index.php (http://www.viidoo.com/en/index.php) you might find out more.

Enjoy the race tomorrow,

Hey this TVU is brilliant, will Speed be broadcasting Sebring for those of us who are unfortunately not attending in person?

Hi Jay,
           Go here for schedule.
http://www.speedtv.com/home.php
Phil

HI

Doesn't seem to work on a Mac, unless someone knows different.

>Martini...

Sebring will also be live on Motors, as well as 6 other ALMS races (the remainder will be recorded).

Race is not on Speed TV but on Fox on the TVU apparantly.

Channel 5, rather than Eurosport or Motors, has this in the uk (Midnight)

Must be worth watching the first 15 minutes

Excellent Speed will have Sebring on for those of us without Motors TV

Really pleased that you can get some of the US ALMS coverage over in Europe - but did any of you bother to watch the 500?
OK, it was roundy, roundy - but sh*t, what a finish. I was really rootin' for the old git, Mark Martin.
As a post-script, you always know when it's been a good 500, when someone crosses the finish-line on his roof!

Hi Matt,

Yes i watched it on the TVU on the PC. Like you say what i wild finish and i was also up for Mark Martin to win it and he must have been gutted to lose it that way.

Now sat up watching it on the big screen with taped delayed coverage on C5, to make make sure the DVD recorder doesn't stop before the end of the coverage.

i managed to watch the first 3 laps before i passed out with narcolepsy .... too much work and a soft sofa killed my chances of seeing anymore.

ts bound tobe re-played at some point....

There's a quite interesting postscript to all this - that kind of highlights NASCAR's inability to interpret or enforce it's own rules.
In order to try to eliminate yellow flag finishes, NASCAR introduced a new procedure, whereby, if there was a caution at the end of the race, it would go into 'overtime', allowing one green lap and one under the white (last lap) - after the caution is lifted. However, if ANOTHER caution takes place in overtime, the race is called, by track position AT THE INSTANT the race goes yellow.
Well, that's exactly what happened at the 500. The field was actually stopped on the track, while debris from the wreck that caused the yellow was cleaned up. At the re-start, Mark Martin had two laps to run to take his first 500 win in 24 attempts.
It is true that Kevin Harvick got one hell of a run on him, for the chequered flag, but HAD NOT passed Martin at the time of the monumental pile-up behind them - which naturally sent the race yellow again. At this point NASCAR should have frozen the race - and had they done so, Mark Martin would have been the clear winner.
For some reason NASCAR didn't apply it's rule. I wonder why not?

Because we're NASCAR and we'll do things hyever we wanna' do 'em and there ain't a nuthin' you can do about it, ya' hear?  Get back to watchin yer' damn pointy cars, grumble grumble.

How's that?  ;D

After watching that fiasco, I revert to my previous feelings about NASCAR....Pro wrestling on wheels!
Artificially close racing via "restrictor plates" equals massive crashes, which the beer swilling 'good ole' boys" love.  All which resulted in one of the most butt-ugly "races" I've ever seen.  Might as well make it a figure eight layout for full effect.
Fax

With or without a bridge?????........

MG Mark