NHRa not saying much. Torrence missed last weekends race.

The State of California is cracking down on trailer lengths again.

Steve Torrence's Top Fuel rig was in a weigh station and flagged "around back", where they were measured for length and determined to be 3' too long. CalTrans determined the rig was illegal and ordered it to be taken out of service.

Torrence claims to have contacted CalTrans a week ago, trying to purchase a permit, but was informed there are no permits and would be no permits granted.

CalTrans told Torrence there was only one way his rig was ever going to leave the weigh station and that would be if it was hauled out on a lowboy trailer. Torrence asked permission to move the rig to a location where it could be loaded easier and permission was denied. CalTrans informed him he was welcome to hire a company to bring a crane out, to lift the entire rig onto a lowboy. He finally managed to find someone with a low enough trailer they were able to back the race rig onto it.



This was taken on the I-15, between Barstow and Baker, headed north toward Las Vegas. The race rig was 3' too long to be operated on the Cali freeways, but the rig hauling the race rig isn't. A drag racer cannot buy a permit for an over-length trailer, but an owner-operator with a lowboy trailer can. Makes wonderful sense, doesn't it?

The word I'm getting from the Left Coast is there are 67 trailers sitting at the Fairplex which are over-length. And the word is going around CalTrans will be sitting at the gates, Sunday afternoon. NHRA claims they have tried to find a work-around with CalTrans, but CalTrans says they are not going to adjust a long-standing law. If racers want to come to Cali with a 56' trailer, they're either going to have to transport it from the state line to race track on a lowboy, or they are going to have to haul everything in by rail. You can haul a 56' trailer around on the streets of Pomona, but you cannot haul it down the freeway.
The problems arise because there is no standardized federal law. Each state has its own law and you're always at the mercy of whoever pulls you over. Some states are just fine as long as there is no advertising on the rig and is identified as being "not for hire". Some states want to know if you are compensated for winning races. And if you win nothing more than a trophy, that is still considered to be compensation. As a point of interest, many of those "illegal length" teams are based here in Indiana and the Indiana laws read the same as the Cali laws. The State of Indiana views those same race teams as revenue generators and (prudently) looks the other way.