Finish line rules

What are your local track rules on finish line racing? The rules as far as I can tell is kinda a grey area... Obviously if you cross the center line or hit the wall your disqualified. I've had pretty good success at times losing 10 mph or so on the Finnish line and have got some flack for some smoke off the front tires.. just wondering what is your opinion or your tracks opinion on the matter.

Thanks.
Jeff

One of the Emmons brothers from Texas was thrown out of a Nat. event in Phoenix for "Excessive Braking". 120mph car. Evidently he was warned in Pomona two weeks before. Meanwhile Funny cars and Pro-Mods are bouncing off the wall at 250mph plus. Stupid rules if you ask me. Out of control is out of control. If you're not tossing a salad in the other guys lane there should be no penalty.

NHRA will disqualify you for doing that unless your opponent does it worst
Is your local track a NHRA affiliate and insured with the same company with the same set of rules
BTW, when you race at any track you have to use and follow their rules and you should know all of them to avoid conflict

I have seen the aftermath of excessive braking a couple of times with destroyed cars. It is just plain stupid to hit your brakes hard on the top end. Dial it hard cut a light and race it. If I were a race official at the top end any tire smoke or wobble you are gone.

You have to use common sense. You can definitely knock off some ET at the strip safely. Smoking the tires? Why would it be necessary? Personally I know well before the stripe if I'm going to get there early or late. Unless you set-up to bag a ton.
Doug

Excessive braking (tire smoke) is most often is a first offence warning, second disqualification.
If you need to break that hard to stay under a dial you probably should dial a little tighter
There have been many examples of racers looping, sliding into the wall or opponents lane trying scrub off speed too aggressively hence the rule.
other than that I can not think of any Finish line rules

NHRA has observers at the national events looking for all kinds of stuff. Excessive braking, pulling off safety equipment before you got off the track, funny blinking lights, etc. They're on a schedule and don't want to have to clean up a mess or have people get hurt. Local tracks and divisionals, luck of the draw. I've seen flat tires and wrecked cars from it. Kind of stupid, but people still do it. Guys like the 4 caliper rear brake kits for that so they don't slide the front tires.

Forgot about the safety equip stuff

But sometimes , it can be tough.............

Seriously , I am from the tighten up your package camp.......if I am trying to kill more than 8-10 m.p.h. , I already screwed up.

The point of my post was not to start a poop show... I was just asking what your tracks rule was on the matter... Because the rules are very vague on the matter.

For those of you that say I'm stupid to "drive" the finish line, I would love to race you! You are the easy ones to load on the trailer....

Jeff.

I don't know that my local track has a rule, and there's no one down there all day watching for it. Most local places are probably the same. I watch some of the high dollar stuff that's live stream and there's some aggressive finish line braking seen there on occasion. I guess it's part of the game. A lot of different finish line strategies in use.

Are cars required to have operational brake lights so whatever they are doing, its obvious to everybody?

Nope!

As far as I know just one red "running" light. No functioning brake light.

"Great save"! "WOW! what a great job of driving and keeping it off the wall"! Like the pic of Tim Fletcher. Guy totally screwed the pooch and tossed a salad and got LUCKY! NOT a great driving job! If you're locking up the tires it's probably not so good. I will say that I have broken hats right off the wheel hitting the brakes too hard. Won a divisional with that broken hat as it happened rd. 4 and I got a bye to the final. Hurt my back too! If there's is tire smoke and sliding the car all tracks will warn you once and throw you out the next time because they will be watching you.

What is "tossed a salad"?

In Fletcher's case they claimed "brake malfunction".

Kid from my area got tossed at 4 cars at a national event for smoking the tires after the finish line and crossing lanes on a pass he won. Luckily the other car was already by him. He got excited and tossed it into reverse.

I read through the entire post......I missed anyone calling anyone stupid.
I think the consensus is clear......if you smoke the fronts going through the lights , you are going to attract some official attention.
And it seems like most feel it is justified.
If you can " drive the finish line " and not smoke your front tires or veer into the wall , then you have done nothing wrong from my chair.
Our approach has always been to run our race and let the chips fall where they may.
Whoever is in the other lane is not all that important.
Certainly not as important as they think.

Which rules are vague, your track rules or NHRA rules?
As far as racing in brackets or handicap racing I'm your sugar daddy, when and where do we race
I've been beat by .0004 (by John Calvert) and I've beat others by .0001
I have cut one perfect .400 light in super class racing also when division 7 race both S/P, Pro ET and both S/G and S/ST on a .400 pro tree That was long before anyone had come out with the delay boxes we have and use today

skip to 14:20 in this vid

Every track that I have raced at for the past 40 yrs has the same view on excessive braking. One warning and then DQ. Excessive braking is hitting the brakes hard enough to smoke the tires. Nothing really vaugue about it.

Specifically I'm asking about IHRA tracks. I should have stated that in the first post. I've never been able to find a specific rule on this, that's the whole reason for me asking the original question...

Jeff

That was cool. Most race cars have the brake bias to the back and that car looked like a stock setup. I saw ZERO loss of control though. He got off the brake when the race was over.

A "rule for excessive braking"?
The rule is: someone important doesn't like it. That not a rule, that's an opinion.

The entire point of having rules is NOT to rely on someone's opinion.

Its a safety issue - if you are smoking the tires with excessive braking then - quite frankly you need to leave before you hurt yourself or somebody else. It was happening at Norwalk in the slower brackets to the point guys were spinning out at top-end playing the stripe. Scrubbing a little speed off is one thing but locking up your front tires is just plain stupid!

Excessive braking is a universal rule, I would doubt any track would say they allow it. Some tracks have their own set of rules, such as a visible tail light, courtesy staging, no beer in the pits, and the like. There are 4 IHRA tracks in KY, Beacon, I-64, London and Clay City. Go on their website or call them to see if they have any rules in particular. I tend to stay North of the Ohio river, as some of those tracks still have single Armco guardrails and the tech inspection consists of handing in your tech card to a teenage girl in the tower.

Cgall. I'll agree with you 100% on the tech inspection down here! I used to race at Byron and RT 66, it's a whole other world down here as far as tech inspection goes... I don't understand it.

Jeff

Remind me not use use logic in these remarks, doesn't seem to have any effect.

What logic was used and what was ignored?

I get it. I've seen the "rule" enforced differently even at the national event level, depending on who the offender was.

Tire smoke or no tire smoke? Crossed up or not? Under control or not? It's a judgement call, probably depending on how long it's been since someone slid the tires and hit the wall.

It is curious just how important a rule becomes immediately after it was violated with extreme consequences.
We used to have a stretch of public road that was a week end drag strip......unofficially , of course.
And it was perfect..........about a mile long to a dead end , no cross streets and businesses on one side that were closed.
It was all good until someone wrecked and / or got hurt.
Then it was verboten...usually till the next spring or summer.
A couple years back they installed curbing that made it a series of S turns and only wide enough for a single if you wanted to go straight.
One more reason why they call them " The Good Old Days ".

That was both IHRA, NHRA and outlaw tracks.

The left overs of locking up the tires at the stripe

I believe it was the 68 or 69 NHRA Nationals that Judy Lilly blew out both front tires because of locking up the brakes in the lights trying to keep from breaking out. Nothing new here.

I agree 100%.

Nothing wrong with scrubbing a bit but most of that can be done with your right foot.
Also ...if you have to hold a tenth to win a race I would suggest buying my car.....it runs the number.

i remember one time some racing buds and i were talking if we could make a stand alone abs set up

Over on ANOTHER PLACE ... there’s a huge topic about some racer allegedly hitting a CONE up on the big end ..

If being able to scrub a little speed is so much more important than a couple MPH why not just run a little wider tire so you can brake without locking em up.

"If the brakes are locking up in front on a drag specific car it is not set up properly." Don't tell Tommy Philips!