"SMOKE" Nails It Again... A Race Track is No Place for Cheats!!

[Leftturnjohnny]

http://www.nationalspeedsportnews.com/featured/magazine-tire-soaking-hurts-dirt-racing/

National Speed Sports News

[uticamike]

It's a good thing that this comes from a "heavyweight" in the racing game like TS.

An area where promoters should work together  whereas a guy gets caught at one place

he should be penalized equally at another. If the penalties for soaking were severe enough

it would all but end I believe.

[RTC56]

Here's a thought or a question??  When Lance Armstrong was caught cheating he was stripped of his cycling wins, and Tour De France titles? Look at Mark Mcguire and Barry Bonds in baseball? A-rod? Role models right? how come when A racer with many wins, and multiple track or series championships gets caught cheating, they're titles and wins aren't stripped?? Is it because cheating is an accepted practice in racing? U know who's getting screwed? The 10 year old kid in the stands that worships and cheers for that track champ from watching him win all those races over the years when the guy has been a cheater all along......

[chit pants]

Don't always agree with Tony but he's spot on with this one.

[dirttrackrocker]

Yep... Nailed It!!!!

[frontstretch]

Tony makes sense with this. I see more series take an active role in policing this. Local tracks can do this too. It is not that difficult. And not as costly as you might think.

[kt]

Tony makes sense with this. I see more series take an active role in policing this. Local tracks can do this too. It is not that difficult. And not as costly as you might think.

Mahoning Valley just did this....Cut up small samples of tire from 3 cars and sent them to a lab....In this case the results were negative.......Every track that would do this would gain respectability in my opinion..........................kt

[Turbo01]

I know for a fact that a handful of teams did not go to the Decker race at Holland because Holland would not give a durometer number to be compliant with  before the race. Cam and others called Holland expressing their desire to run the race, but did not want to go if people were going to be soaking. Holland would not commit to a number as late as a few days before the race, so Cam and others stayed away.

[fastbackss]

Big race was held out here in Michigan this past weekend (asphalt track), highest paying mod race in the state.

Roughly 50 cars showed up, with 20 getting locked in by time.  The local track, believe it or not, allows soaking.  As such, there was a lot of concern that teams (especially local ones) would use the doped tires.  Because of that they checked the durometer of every single tire as it came off the track for time trials and announced the results.  Not foolproof, but better than nothing.

Fun sidebar, they had a "mock qualifying" run for $500 the night before, and allowed soaking for that.  Also one of the locals put on a doped set during practice the day of and set the fastest time run all day by almost two tenths.

[Shamrock 3x]

If tracks would just establish a minimum durometer #, to be checked either before, after, or better yet, both, it wouldn't matter if teams soaked or not.  It is hard, and probably expensive, to police whether soaking is going on or not. But I say, let 'em soak 'em, but enforce that min. durometer #.

[Mayhem Racing]

Duro rule does little or nothing, you can roll a tire inside and not effect the outside duro much if at all.  There is a ton of stuff out there that will produce grib with out softening.

If tracks would just establish a minimum durometer #, to be checked either before, after, or better yet, both, it wouldn't matter if teams soaked or not.  It is hard, and probably expensive, to police whether soaking is going on or not. But I say, let 'em soak 'em, but enforce that min. durometer #.

[m15mod]

I remember when you could buy a race tire that didn't need the crap.

[phredo]

I remember when you could buy a race tire that didn't need the crap.

Gumballs!! 

[raceannouncer]

Granted, none of this type of thing should never happen...but whatever happened to the concept of "formal protest"?  If a driver believes something illegal is going on--why doesn't the statement "put up or shut up" hold weight any longer? Either way, someone's reputation has the possibility of getting blemished.  Either the person who files the protest is found to be wrong or the accused suffers the damage.  I've always believed that protest rules are put in place just for these kind of circumstances.  Pay money to protest or suffer in silence!

Furthermore, why doesn't some of this blame game also apply to the driver(s) as well?  If no one cheats, nothing need be done. 

False allegations without proof also harm the sport if someone is proven innocent of all charges, as much as any cheating that may or not be going on--The tracks can only do so much!  IMHO, some of the onus has to fall on the drivers themselves.  If you believe you must cheat to win, you shouldn't be out there trying to win at all! Victories mean absolutely ZERO if they involve cheating to accomplish...Again, JMO!

[Leftturnjohnny]

iNTERESTING...

Well on July 30th I was racing ****** speedway and finished 4th .. After the race track officials took samples of my tire. And sent to the lab in North Carolina ... This week it came back illegal ... I admit that I messed with my tire ... I put a solvent on the tire to try to get a edge ...the solvent that I used is part of the Hoosier manufacturing process and I thought that it would pass the lab test ... I'm a *****. I shouldn't have done that. After 31 years of racing I should know better ... I made a huge mistake in judgement ... I want to apologize to my fans ,friends ,family and my sponsors for letting everybody down. I screwed up big time ... I will take my punishment and criticism that I deserve. I'm gonna take this as a life learning experience and try to move on from there ... I'm gonna miss everybody at the track as you all know I love for racing ... So see everybody in a month and get back at what I love