******* Predator Cheating ******** On Wall Street they have an old saying Its what you know that you dont know that keeps you up all night . That saying could be used in racing also. Before I got home Saturday , the messages started to come in about cheating in the predator classes. Rumors and innuendos added up and before I knew it I had four messages making claims that carbs, springs, cams , fuel , heads, and other items were being used to win. This is a crossroads for our rules package and perhaps some of the tracks will split off and start their own rules in response to these claims. Hanging Rock Kartway will not , and we hope the other tracks that have taken up our rules will stay with us on this simple but effective rules package. When Brian , Jim and I set out to develop the rules , we made sure we , not an organization would remain in control of our rules and for the first year it has served us well. No rule change coming down from the organization , no new tooling , No cost added to the engines ,none of that. In that year we have had no fussing , no arguing , just good hard racing. Now what about these claims ?What will we do about it ? What should we do about it ? Those are the questions. As I did from the start ,I consulted with the old guard who helped in the beginning. They have seen each time a new package is developed , rules are added to rules and before long a hundred dollar engine goes to $1000 like it has with the clone. So what can I do to head that off ? At this time doing nothing is the answer. I will do my best to explain why and give you evidence to show you that in fact , what is worrying those racers is what they do not know. From the start the rules were written in a much different way than most rules. The very first rule is you must run the engine Out Of The Box . So what does that mean ? The box stock project made the mistake of saying an item is to be compared to a know stock part. From there it was doomed. We made sure not to include that in our rules. Instead the next 4 rules defined Out Of The Box. 1) The engine must be ran out of the box 2) The governor must be connected and operational 3) The air filter and sock must be installed per factory. 4) The engine must have a key way as installed by factory on the flywheel 5) The engine must pass a governor test on the stand if asked 5500 max No where in those five rules does it say a part is to be compared to a known stock part. Instead we are convinced that those five rules is all that is needed to define Out Of The Box. So what about the claims of springs, carbs , cams and other items ? Rules 6 thru 9 address that issue. 6) Any engine can be claimed by a racer in the field after qualifying or race 7) Claim price $140 tech receives $20 /engine may be raced if claimed at Q 8) Probation if caught cheating , no pay out for 6 months. Second time suspended from class for 1 year 9) Track can claim any engine or in pre announced races require any participant to run a track supplied engine or swap with a competitor in the class. That is all that is needed to keep tricked up engines from being a problem. If a guy bolted on parts , he would only be cutting himself with this package. Now you say that is too vague , and I will be back to your track with a hog and prove your rules do not work. Thats okay, the low rpms, and governor will not let you get very far in producing power. In addition , as was the case Saturday, you may not be racing that engine. Now to the part that you do not know as a racer , but we do. We collect data and study it from top to bottom. Organizations such as AKRA and WKA do not have the ability to comb through that data in making decisions such as we need to here. They can only talk among themselves and engine builders and make a decision based on that. In the past , it killed us tracks , who had no say in the matter. Not this time , at least not at HRK. So what is that data ? Follow along close and you to will come to the conclusion that not only did no competitor gain an edge , no competitor cheated to be in the top 5 or 6. After qualifying Saturday , we took the top 10 and held them in the impound area. 6 of those competitors were required to swap engines and 1 in the top 5 kept his engine as the study case so to speak. Since we would not have time to go back, they had to run them in both 375 classes. 1st swapped with 7th , 2nd with 6th , 3rd with 5th So how did they fair in the first race. 5th won with 3rd engine 3rd was second with 5ths engine 6th was 3rd with seconds engine 4th was still 4th with his own engine 7th was 10th with first engine 1st was eight with 7ths engine , crash sent him to rear (Note , he ran fast time of race with 7th engine. Race number two 5th won with 3rd engine 2nd was guy with his own engine who was fourth in Q (best time) 3rd was third with 5ths engine 4th was sixth with seconds engine 5th was first with 7ths engine 2nd finished 6th with sixth engine and again 7th was 10th with pole engine. So you see we have a lot of data to help us with determining how equal the karts are on the track. You could not collect that kind of data in clone ,because no racer would even consider a swap, even though it would help in keeping rules fair. The winner Phillippe Coppin was the difference maker here, he is one of the most underrated drivers in all of karting. And he is on a tear. He won four races again this week , two races at Paradise last week and four races at HR the week before. Get ur Done that is what he is doing. In summary , we will continue to gather data on this class, at this time we will refrain from using the Known Stock Term . It is critical that we do not go down that road, it is a dead end road and if we are forced to do that, we will simply close down the class and quit running it. There would be no need to continue on and add rule after rule and cost upon cost. You may think I am wrong here and never race this class again. That is okay. You may try to hog your engine up and come back to prove a point. I caution you against that. The final rule I have always applied to this engine package is one that Nascar Uses . That rule is simple. At our discretion we may at any time determine that a part or engine has been tampered with , if so it will be disqualified with no explanation required So far we have not used that rule. I have shared the data that backs up our determination that all engines are equal and fair.As written in the rules , two engines were claimed on this night. Both of the claimed engines were looked at and cleared as race engines. The end result is this for one racer. Chris Cook has been really fast in all the predator races. Chris Cook had two of those engines claimed. The winner and an engine he loaned that the guy liked so much he claimed it. Also Chriss engine won the race. If Cook did in fact try to skirt the rules , look at what it cost him. He lost two engines ,that if he paid someone to work was a loss, because he only got $120 each. In addition he paid to have someone build an engine that was used against him to win $500 ,another substantial loss. That being the facts, do you really think there is an interest in cheating up your engine to win ? The evidence says no and after talking with drivers each week in this class, most feel that this is the most equal engine package in all of karting. The predator races were fantastic Saturday , lap after lap the draft came into -play and lap after lap the lead was swapped. It looked like HRK in the nineties with drafting being a huge factor. If I were out of this lead group ,perhaps I would think they were cheating. The lead draft is much faster than mid pack. In addition they ran times that were only a second off the clones. 12.67 was the fast time of the night. That is pretty dogon fast if you ask me. I close with this, please if you race this package , let us know in this post if you think it is fair. After this season , if we are forced to write a rule book for this engine , instead we will drop it from the program and go back to all clone. I am not interested in writing a rule book that I know in the end will only lead to more confusion and cost. I laid out what I think of it and looking at the most perfect rules ever written The Ten Commandments , adding an eleventh , would have only confused us people. Let me know your thoughts and for the four racers who questioned the clarification of the rules , I have decided it is best to leave them as they are written and not try and determine if they have illegal parts as defined by Box Stock rules Known Stock. That is not what we go with, out of the box is a loose term and requires the use of a claim , swapping engines, and an rpm rule , in order to keep it simple and cheating from being rampant. We will continue to gather data and monitor the competitiveness of this engine package. We believe it is critical for the long haul to not add any rules to the original rules that were written. Now that racers are complaining and wanting clarification, we are at a crossroads. Will other tracks move away from the original HRK rules ? If so they will follow a dead end road of arguing and cost rising. I hope not , I hope they also take a stand and instead enforce the swap rule, the rpm rule ,and the claim rule. If they continue on as we have , in the end , sure the builders will find a way to make a buck as some already have. If the builders do find a way to make a buck , I am all in. The long term and end result should be that by not changing anything , the cost will adjust itself over time and those builders would never have a reason to add on cost that is not already present. Thanks for messaging me and giving me a chance to clarify our rules package. I never discount any racers opinion , instead I study it and try and figure out what if anything needs changing. In this case , no change to our rules is needed. Thanks Randy Brown
Posted on: Mon, 20 Oct 2014 12:56:55 +0000
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