DSH at Grass Lake

[BP125V]

So, how did the ASH contraversy come out. I heard the DQ on the 2nd heat 1st turn and the sponson tip radius was overturned. Did it grow in the humidity..... ha

No they did not grow, even though it was pretty humid yesterday Matt protested the DQ for the pickle forks and the SORC over turned the DQ.

[bill boyes]

No offense intended towards Dave I think he knows it is his boat I respect and fear most.

Those who know me know that I am referencing my own similar nationals experience in that a non performance detail left me disqualified and many shaking there heads.

Dale if you are taking about Oroville your were DQ in a Elim for illegal Numbers. No black background with white numbers. the thing is you should have been advised during boat safety inspection before your heats.

[daveracerdsh]

Dsh

One kinda funny thing happened heat one DSH finals...I was on the outside of Fred Hauenstein for three laps....he kept pushing me farther and farther out until we were BOTH pushing reeds out of the way...I came into inspection laughing my azz off at the reeds stuck inside my windshield and all over my lifejacket. I owe you one Fred....lmao.

[mercguy]

Protest it Dave!!! Even if I have to return my 5th place trophy....

[reed28n]

Systemic Issue

We have way too many rules that we try to get our volunteers to enforce at weekend races. It is a very tricky balance when we get to the Nationals.

We have huge support by the membership every year to implement new rules for one thing or another. It is frequently the result of one exception or particular incident that our loyal volunteers could not resolve at a local event through the use of exisiting rules.

Where is the line drawn. If you cannot meet the rules as written then by our own rules an action must be taken. But there are protests and appeals rules to help drivers take another step. Sometimes in racing it is just tough luck. (I have experienced many)

So, before the national meeting this year I encourage everyone to take a look at our current rules. What can we eliminate in the name of offering our volunteers a bit of relief and make our rules easier to understand.

We do not need more or new rules. We need well known easily understood rules that are easily enforceable.

PS - Dave it was great to see you in Grass Lake

[Hutch06]

MHRA Inspectors? Or Rulebook?

"sorry to hear about your DQ by MHRA inspectors. i have to say this seems to be a really chicken sh** call on a non-performance item."

This was not an issue of "MHRA inspectors". This is a rulebook issue. I am not saying I agree or disagree with it, but please do not blame people who work their rear's off all week. This is what causes people to quit volunteering.

I'm sorry to hear of the failure at inspection Dave, it happens to the best of us, but appreciate all the effort you put into the 302ssh class. It has quite a few new MHRA members talking. Thank you for coming and I hope you had a good time at every place else minus inspection.

-Elek Hutchinson

[Team 12R]

wow....

how about plain ole common sense reed? is there more to dave being pitched out than an un-covered hole used as a supply port for a starter cable? how could this be allowed to happen. pure junk man....

being from region 10 i watched and cheered for my buds. look for yourself on the apba videos. i've never seen a chop job in the first turn in heat 1 on daren more obvious by someone??? dave just told you he was pushed out every lap and had the weeds to prove it. yet your "volunteers" hunt for a missing rubber plug? really?

next to patrick gleason dave is the biggest apba supporter i know. he's a class act and i give him props for not blowing his lid over this "missing plug" deal. you guys sure know how to make guys who spend thousands in travel and lodging feel welcome.

[Hutch06]

I don't think anyone here is questioning Dave's support of APBA or his level of class. I will ditto what Scott Reed posted here and leave it alone.

222R, I very deeply appreciate your concern in our accomodations of out of state travellers. Thanks for your input.

[daveracerdsh]

Dsh

It was great to see you again Scott...I thought you did a dang fine job as stock VP....I am sure not trying to start any huge cluster you know what with this thread...far from it. And i sure do understand that keeping volunteers working and happy is no easy task. I consider all of the inspectors present as friends..I just think we need to take a common sense approach to inspection issues. With non speed related issues such as mine was...why not give a warning the first time? What if a racer came in with his/her APBA sticker blown off the side of the hull or cockpit side? It says in the rules you must have it....do we dq them? I am over getting thrown out....it happens. Trust me, I get thrown out all the time in club races for things so I am a pro at it. What I am honestly worried about is the message it sends to a struggling organization that is trying to retain current members and get new ones to join. As far as me quiting stock outboard racing to go to another catagory? My life has sort of intertwined with racing D stock hydro, I simply cannot imagine doing something else... and I have made it one of my adult life priorities to win nationals. And, I want the 302 Super Stock Hydro class to be a huge hit...I think it will be with the response Jeff Brewster and I got over the course of the week.....so at this point I am not going to sell my stuff and move on like some people have said would be the right thing to do. davey

[Art K]

NBRA loves Tohatsu`s no stupid rules, just hard equal competition.
Art K

[daveracerdsh]

Tohatsu

I was actually asked at DePue to bring my rig to a NBRA race.....I may do that in the future. Davey

[ram95]

Hindsight 101 - Hindsight is always 20/20.

It's a given that the 'Inspector' abides by what is written and it is not her/his perogative to interpret what the rule means... just what it says. It is OUR job to write the rule so that it says what we mean it to say. Hopefully WE have thought it through and considered all the scenarios that are important... and included an escape clause for what might get misconstrued that is otherwise considered inconsequential (eg, non performance enhancing).

On this matter of cowl plugs... I am the party guilty of submitting the paragraph saying that plugs must be installed. REEELAXX.. go get some schnapps and let me explain fer crissakes... Why did I write that? Well... I'll tell you... and I gave it a ton of thought.

My rationale was simple enough. The Tohatsu bottom cowl, being a fishing motor cowl, has about fourteen freaking holes in it where fishing motor crap penetrates it: Shift levers, throttle cables, fuel hose, electrical cable, pwr trim switch, shift shaft, remote control cables, power tilt motor power supply, and I forget the others. None of them amounting to a fart-in-a-windstorm... bbbBUT... I was concerned that there might be a problem during INSPECTION when one person had more or less plugs than the next person. SO... In an effort to avoid a problem... I tried to fix a problem that did not really exist by choosing the wording I used. At the 2010 SORC national mtg it was accepted along with the rest of the Tohatsu spec sheet. And, like a lot of other annoying rulebook details 'the Racer' (aka APBA member affected!!) never had a whack at it. Pretty much like the no DOT rule we got jammed with. Had anyone posed the question regarding the electric cable routing for a starter motor, the wording would have gotten fixed then and there. Silence ruled.

Today.. operating in the technically obsessed foreskin-finder mode I would word the paragraph addressing cowl plugs thusly: "Cowl plugs may prevent severe water ingestion, installation is optional". I can hear the booo-rays on that hummer!!

Starter motors (on the Tohatsu, and the J Merc) are an area that might ought to be addressed...........bbbBButt.. I'm happy to leave it alone if you are. Yeah.. that's what I thought... leave it alone Al.... hohoho@$%&&*gasp!!(#@.... I mean, c'mon dude who ever would have thought a diddly cowl-plug would result in a DQ.

Well folks... it did. And once again, I reflect upon 20/20 hindsight... Somewhere in the rulebook (which I can't access on this pc because it won't talk to Acro-bat!!!) there is a rule that allows for a protest to be filed. The SORC must promptly convene on-the-spot and decide the issue. In this case.. hopefully, the Commission(ers) would respect the inspectors dilema but would have ruled in favor of the racer (based upon what I have read here at least).

So, let's not blame MHRA or the Inspector... let's fix the wording to say what we want it to say.

Alex

[Haüenstein]

NBRA loves Tohatsu`s no stupid rules, just hard equal competition.
Art K

Hey, APBA loves Tohatsus so much that they tossed the 2nd-place Mercury in favor of one! : )

-Mike H.

[Haüenstein]

dave just told you he was pushed out every lap and had the weeds to prove it.

Don't believe everything you read on the internet! : ) All in fun. The video of that heat is pretty good.

It sucks that Dave got pitched. At the same time, it's hard to fault the inspectors for enforcing the rules that we, the racers, create. That is why we can protest. Common sense means drastically different things to different people.

[reed28n]

You sound frustrated

how about plain ole common sense reed? is there more to dave being pitched out than an un-covered hole used as a supply port for a starter cable? how could this be allowed to happen. pure junk man....

being from region 10 i watched and cheered for my buds. look for yourself on the apba videos. i've never seen a chop job in the first turn in heat 1 on daren more obvious by someone??? dave just told you he was pushed out every lap and had the weeds to prove it. yet your "volunteers" hunt for a missing rubber plug? really?

next to patrick gleason dave is the biggest apba supporter i know. he's a class act and i give him props for not blowing his lid over this "missing plug" deal. you guys sure know how to make guys who spend thousands in travel and lodging feel welcome.

I support the decisions of the race committee and the inspectors. There was no bias.

As for the chop….. I think you are referring to the CSH elim and Kyle Bahl. Sounds like a chop to me. I would have supported that call too, I was going for the wrong buoy (driver error on me). I got crowded by a couple guys going into turn one in my CSR elim ….. but it is racing drivers make mistakes and turn judges can’t see everything, maybe I should have been where I was.

If you care take a little emotion out of it, you would recognize that there really is no limit to when the enforcement of the rule would end or would be available for a common sense call. You have to follow the black and white and change it if it is not correct or if it is not popular. That part takes hard work on the beach.

So, my point was we have too many rules. We get very excited to right new ones at the national meeting. We should not.

And for the debate on the hole in the cowl? I think more air is a speed advantage.