Beef stew it takes guys like you to keep people safe .many years ago i did some tech in ikf and a local midget series and it seemed like i was wasting my time on some of the racers . my point is do you ever feel your wasting your time or just focus on the ones that you can help .p.s. a tech guy saw a cut in a fuel cell on one of my cars were a rotor had cut in to it from a larger wing i used .if i would have gone back out i would have opened a 22 gallon tank on myself instantly thanks for what you guys do .c
nah i wouldn't ever say it's a waste of time. i've gotten used to quickly becoming the most dreaded/hated guy on the salt/dirt. i know a lot of racers look at the inspectors as if we're there to hassle them or give them a hard time but seriously it's all in the name of safety and fun. i'm particulary meticulous when i do my inspections and i usually get assigned to inspect new cars because they're the ones that need to be gone through with a fine tooth comb. it's the cars first time out and shit always gets over looked, ALWAYS. you can tell that the newbies get all amped up about being there and going through tech and they can get pretty heated when i point something out that's a problem. but it's cool and i understand. these guys pour their heart, soul, and wallet into these cars and they want to race and i'm the dick head that's holding them back. i've had some heated words with some guys and afterwards they usually come back to apologize because they realize that i'm only trying to make sure that they make it home to their wife and kids at the end of the day. the absolute worst part is having to either send someone away (which does happen from time to time) or giving out a speed limit restriction ie you can't go faster than 125 mph etc. some guys just refuse to follow the rules and think it's a joke or something or they don't take own safety seriously and they halfass build their car. they say fine, fuck you, i'm going to the texas mile which is fine with us. we don't need any more injuries or deaths. go away. go faaaar away. truthfully i LOVE tech inspecting and i love land speed racing. it's my life.
Admitted, my original post was lacking in information on the question asked. Which was, "how much strength is gained with the reinforcing plate?" I noted what the SCTA rulebook called for because that's where I got the idea to make the plate. And repeated it to an extent when asked where I got the information. Nowhere in any of my posts did I say I was building the car to compete at the dry lakes. The 31 on 32 rails car is simply a street roadster and has what should be SCTA approved steelies, drive shaft loops and the like. The wheels in question are for my long-time owned 32 roadster that is also a highboy street roadster. I was bothered by the ten lughole wheels, figured that they would be ok on the street and an SCTA mandated plate looked to be a good addition . . . especially since it would be covered by the hubcap. A good idea is a good idea regardless of where it comes from. I'm not calling into question SCTA rules or any other organizations rules, just trying to make things a little safer for a particular car. As far as reading the SCTA rulebook goes, I did, more than a few times. The car was originally built thinking that competing on the dry lakes would be fun, but is going on the street with an occasional outing to the nostalgia drags. And the original question is still un-answered....
I guess the SCTA is the only game in town. I'm not stuck with just the NHRA, I've got a couple of tracks that will let me run. By any chance have any of you seen King Chassis's digger? Built just like a Don Long chassis from back in the day with a Hilborn injected, blown SBC, direct drive, etc... His car does not meet the current rules. He's not having a problem finding tracks to run at either. Come on over to MoKan in August and watch me run at the HAMB drags I won't be the only one there with an old style digger either. I bet you hated Smokey Yunick didn't you?
The Jalopy Journal
