I witnesses an incident at a Trans Am race at Michigan International
where the winner "ran out of gas" between the winner's circle and tech.
Two guys ran to "fetch" some gas and dumped it in so he could drive to
tech. It was several days later before the scene reran in my mind and I
suddenly realized that a can that one guy was handling all afternoon
suddenly seemed to be all two guys could handle. It was years later
that someone who knew told me the can had some gas in it but it was
mainly comprised of over 200 pounds of split shot to get the car up to
weight. Worked.
Rick Yocum
Nova Trans Am
-----Original Message-----
From: grant62 [mailto:grant62@starpower.net]
Sent: Monday, January 22, 2001 3:20 PM
To: lwdent
Cc: grant62; rebjrmd; S800Racer; John.Desantis; vintage-race
Subject: Re: Rules and 'Cheating'
lwdent wrote:
>
> This discussion reminds me of an event that happened early in Trans-Am
> history when the book was not as thick and officials sort of made it
up
> as they went along, much as I do on occasion in running races for
> SOVREN.
>
> Seems that the stewards were just starting to weigh cars after the
race
> and one sly team manager, knowing his cars were light, and having won
> the race with one, suggested to the stewards that the weight should be
> determined just as the car went on the track, not off.
>
> He reasoned that oil had been used, gas had been used, rubber was worn
> off the tires, etc, and the crew should be allowed to put the car back
> into before race condition for the proper weight to be found.
>
> The Stewards thought that was reasonable, and the crew promptly put in
a
> couple of quarts of oil, 22 gallons of gas and rolled over 4 new
tires,
> all mounted up on the mag wheels. Only problem is each tire was
filled
> with water, not air.
>
> NOW THAT WAS CHEATING.
>
> Larry Dent, Chief Steward, SOVERN
And that's why cars are now weighed as they come off the track...
Grant
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