CHEVY GUYS GET CAUGHT CHEATING AT INDY

[superbeesrt8]

Chevy guys caught cheating at indy in FSS and FSSX and NHRA gives them a slap on the wrist im done with NHRA always out to keep the chevy guys in the winners circle

 

[Icetech]

Chevy guys caught cheating at indy in FSS and FSSX and NHRA gives them a slap on the wrist im done with NHRA always out to keep the chevy guys in the winners circle

I'm shocked!! Shocked i tell you!!!

 

[pittsburghracer]

I heard right after the slap on the wrist the gave them a faster pulley.

 

[GTX JOHN]

It is a cold Damn Day in July, whenever Mopar gets a Even
Break in NHRA racing!!

I quit racing Prostock when NHRA factored the Crap out of the Hemis making
it impossible to compete

I quit Stock/Superstock for ten years when they factored our Duster 340 from
275HP all the darn way to 330HP and we no longer had a Snowballs chance in Hell
to compete. We have been currently factored to 314HP and it is still a battle to be
competitive at that. (For an example a SS396 Chevelle is at 316 with a way bigger engine
and better Heads)

As WC Fields said: "Never give a Sucker an Even Break!"

 

[ch1ll]

In NASCAR they say if you don’t cheat, you don’t want to win enough.

 

[BVoelzke]

In NASCAR they say if you don’t cheat, you don’t want to win enough.

I don't know how to repost or link a post but I saw an article posted today on Facebook by the Blackbird team that they are no longer competing in NHRA factory X or FSS because of this they will still compete just not at NHRA events. Good article and it goes into detail about their decision. Geoff Turk is one smart guy when it comes to those cars its a shame to see him leave the class.

 

[Newbomb Turk]

I don't know how to repost or link a post but I saw an article posted today on Facebook by the Blackbird team that they are no longer competing in NHRA factory X or FSS because of this they will still compete just not at NHRA events. Good article and it goes into detail about their decision.

And the truth probably is that Allen Johnson stopped driving that car because this happened before. They went out and were the class of the field. And then boom, a rule change and he’s out.

And now this. This has happened for decades. They killed Pro Stock Truck even though it was wildly popular.

They killed the mopar effort in pro stock by the EFI and rpm rules. And the fuel rule (thank you Jeg you cheating punk for that).

They essentially made anything other than the GM engine obsolete.

And NHRA knew exactly what they were doing.

 

[S'cuder]

I don't know how to repost or link a post but I saw an article posted today on Facebook by the Blackbird team that they are no longer competing in NHRA factory X or FSS because of this they will still compete just not at NHRA events. Good article and it goes into detail about their decision. Geoff Turk is one smart guy when it comes to those cars its a shame to see him leave the class.

Here's text from the post.

BlackbirdX Unplugged!!!

Exciting news ….we plan to go out and run BlackbirdX in a number of venues the remainder of this season, unplugged, where we finally light it’s afterburners, as always intended and with an ear to ear grinning Alex Laughlin behind the wheel.

For the remainder of the year, we no longer plan to compete in the NHRA Factory X events.

For the rest of the somewhat long story, read below …….

For decades I’ve listened to folks complain about NHRA, in general but often in relation to the heads up classes. Complaints about their perceived favoritism to a brand and/or to some team or another, demonstrated in this rule, ruling or ‘parity adjustment’ were frequent and plentiful. My response was often along two lines, first, perhaps your view is skewed and here are some facts to defend their actions / choices (and I often did this even when such actions directly, negatively impacted my favorite brand, Dodge) and two, if on a fundamental principles level, are on some significant point(s), you strongly disagree, go race elsewhere.

While there are many depictions and reports of what transpired at the most recent US Nationals in the Factory Showdown and Factory X classes, there are now many things that are irrefutable, published and unquestionably true.

Top level teams and many, many of their drivers were blatantly, flagrantly and in numerous highly deceitful ways, massively cheating to gain advantage and win. Performance changes in these competitors make it clear that this was not a one event occurrence, but a pattern of behavior with corresponding impacts and race outcomes that reach far back to the beginning of this season and perhaps back further. These facts are undoubtedly true.

What is also now apparent and true is that having discovered this, even before the race was run and even with clear further rule violations to follow at this same event, NHRA has made after the fact corrective actions that are far, far less impactful than the infractions themselves. Where immediate disqualifications, multi month or year(s) long suspensions and significant fines would have, in many, many past precedents been applied (where the rule violations, were in fact arguably far less and for far shorter a time), here NHRA chose minor point standings adjustments, almost comical level fines, no DQs and no driver competition / crew chief suspensions. To top it off, those that were clearly participating in such things, have now been given a ‘parity adjustment’ to largely restore the power reduction (about two to two and a half tenths of ET) removed with the cheating that was discovered.

In the famous case of Jerry Eckman, prior to competition, in Pro Stock, a nitrous bottle and system explosion in the pits in his entry, before any runs were made and perhaps one not even yet connected and functional, when discovered, resulted in he and his crew chief being suspended from competition for two years and fined $25,000, each (in today’s dollars equivalent to $50-100k). The system had not been run and based upon performance, there was no clear evidence it ever had been. While this level of corrective action might have been too heavy handed, the contrast to what was just done, is startling.

I will no longer attempt to defend the actions of NHRA, debate their accused favoritism to a brand and/or competitor or group of competitors because their actions are simply, indefensible.
As I’ve often suggested to those who saw it this way, we will no longer compete in these heads up Factory Showdown or Factory X classes in the NHRA.

Win or lose, we enjoy pursuing worthy goals and competing against worthy competitors, especially in our sometimes challenging to make compete brand, Dodge. In these classes, winning or losing now has little to any meaning, well, except perhaps, that with the right influence and applied resources (resources that have little or nothing to do with actually fairly improving the performance of your race car, or driving it well but when whose influence is applied, now so clearly impact rule making, enforcement) and where you can cheat, repeatedly, avoid any real consequence and are rewarded with performance adjustments that favor you, what does winning or appearing to run well mean ?

As disappointing as this has all has been on many levels, and as difficult a decision this is for our team, to me personally, it is not nearly as difficult as the stark realization and conclusions that it inevitably leads to, that to me are far worse.

The conclusion that the competitors you once respected and the rule makers you often defended, in this regard, warrant neither respect nor defense and that their past performances and accomplishments, along with any future outcomes they are involved in, may not be at all what they appear to be… all of this is the real heart crushing truth to me.

This further aggravated by their feeble defenses that what was done was in the ‘gray’ area of the rules, that perhaps we may also have done the same (BlackbirdX, and its older brother Blackbird, have combined been torn down and thoroughly checked 15-20 times with no infraction of any kind, even a minor one, ever identified and no such approaches were ever taken to improving it’s performance), that it is the very ‘innovation’ that drives performance improvement in all such competitive motorsports, that everyone else was cheating also, that in the end, they had no choice but to massively cheat because others must have been doing so to have the performance advantages they had. These arguments reveal their true characters and the depth of guilt they now bath in. They are not competitors, they are something else and it’s possible, they were never really winners in this sport.

As I am not here to judge them, in a broader human way, I do still see them as God’s creations and know, in far more important ways, they are not ‘bad’ people. I will give them all as much grace as I can muster, keep praying for more, for myself and them, but I will not waste our time and resources attempting to fairly compete with them.

In the end, we have a bright and exciting new day in which we will once again, go get after it, pursue and break new performance barriers, find and dive into new endeavors in racing and pour ourselves into helping others, fairly and legitimately pursue their racing, go fast dreams and succeed, after all, its what we have always done at Blackbird Performance.

 

[BVoelzke]

Here's text from the post.

BlackbirdX Unplugged!!!

Exciting news ….we plan to go out and run BlackbirdX in a number of venues the remainder of this season, unplugged, where we finally light it’s afterburners, as always intended and with an ear to ear grinning Alex Laughlin behind the wheel.

For the remainder of the year, we no longer plan to compete in the NHRA Factory X events.

For the rest of the somewhat long story, read below …….

For decades I’ve listened to folks complain about NHRA, in general but often in relation to the heads up classes. Complaints about their perceived favoritism to a brand and/or to some team or another, demonstrated in this rule, ruling or ‘parity adjustment’ were frequent and plentiful. My response was often along two lines, first, perhaps your view is skewed and here are some facts to defend their actions / choices (and I often did this even when such actions directly, negatively impacted my favorite brand, Dodge) and two, if on a fundamental principles level, are on some significant point(s), you strongly disagree, go race elsewhere.

While there are many depictions and reports of what transpired at the most recent US Nationals in the Factory Showdown and Factory X classes, there are now many things that are irrefutable, published and unquestionably true.

Top level teams and many, many of their drivers were blatantly, flagrantly and in numerous highly deceitful ways, massively cheating to gain advantage and win. Performance changes in these competitors make it clear that this was not a one event occurrence, but a pattern of behavior with corresponding impacts and race outcomes that reach far back to the beginning of this season and perhaps back further. These facts are undoubtedly true.

What is also now apparent and true is that having discovered this, even before the race was run and even with clear further rule violations to follow at this same event, NHRA has made after the fact corrective actions that are far, far less impactful than the infractions themselves. Where immediate disqualifications, multi month or year(s) long suspensions and significant fines would have, in many, many past precedents been applied (where the rule violations, were in fact arguably far less and for far shorter a time), here NHRA chose minor point standings adjustments, almost comical level fines, no DQs and no driver competition / crew chief suspensions. To top it off, those that were clearly participating in such things, have now been given a ‘parity adjustment’ to largely restore the power reduction (about two to two and a half tenths of ET) removed with the cheating that was discovered.

In the famous case of Jerry Eckman, prior to competition, in Pro Stock, a nitrous bottle and system explosion in the pits in his entry, before any runs were made and perhaps one not even yet connected and functional, when discovered, resulted in he and his crew chief being suspended from competition for two years and fined $25,000, each (in today’s dollars equivalent to $50-100k). The system had not been run and based upon performance, there was no clear evidence it ever had been. While this level of corrective action might have been too heavy handed, the contrast to what was just done, is startling.

I will no longer attempt to defend the actions of NHRA, debate their accused favoritism to a brand and/or competitor or group of competitors because their actions are simply, indefensible.
As I’ve often suggested to those who saw it this way, we will no longer compete in these heads up Factory Showdown or Factory X classes in the NHRA.

Win or lose, we enjoy pursuing worthy goals and competing against worthy competitors, especially in our sometimes challenging to make compete brand, Dodge. In these classes, winning or losing now has little to any meaning, well, except perhaps, that with the right influence and applied resources (resources that have little or nothing to do with actually fairly improving the performance of your race car, or driving it well but when whose influence is applied, now so clearly impact rule making, enforcement) and where you can cheat, repeatedly, avoid any real consequence and are rewarded with performance adjustments that favor you, what does winning or appearing to run well mean ?

As disappointing as this has all has been on many levels, and as difficult a decision this is for our team, to me personally, it is not nearly as difficult as the stark realization and conclusions that it inevitably leads to, that to me are far worse.

The conclusion that the competitors you once respected and the rule makers you often defended, in this regard, warrant neither respect nor defense and that their past performances and accomplishments, along with any future outcomes they are involved in, may not be at all what they appear to be… all of this is the real heart crushing truth to me.

This further aggravated by their feeble defenses that what was done was in the ‘gray’ area of the rules, that perhaps we may also have done the same (BlackbirdX, and its older brother Blackbird, have combined been torn down and thoroughly checked 15-20 times with no infraction of any kind, even a minor one, ever identified and no such approaches were ever taken to improving it’s performance), that it is the very ‘innovation’ that drives performance improvement in all such competitive motorsports, that everyone else was cheating also, that in the end, they had no choice but to massively cheat because others must have been doing so to have the performance advantages they had. These arguments reveal their true characters and the depth of guilt they now bath in. They are not competitors, they are something else and it’s possible, they were never really winners in this sport.

As I am not here to judge them, in a broader human way, I do still see them as God’s creations and know, in far more important ways, they are not ‘bad’ people. I will give them all as much grace as I can muster, keep praying for more, for myself and them, but I will not waste our time and resources attempting to fairly compete with them.

In the end, we have a bright and exciting new day in which we will once again, go get after it, pursue and break new performance barriers, find and dive into new endeavors in racing and pour ourselves into helping others, fairly and legitimately pursue their racing, go fast dreams and succeed, after all, its what we have always done at Blackbird Performance.

Thanks S'cuder for posting , I couldn't figure out how to do it , and I talked to the Blackbird team at Indy and asked why Allen Johnson left the team they told me so he could spend more time with his aging father and family... a picture of " Blackbird " in the pits at Indy last week. I have been an NHRA member for over 40 years but have zero interest in their " show " thats why a friend and I drove 11 hours one way to see the Hemi Challenge at Indy last week and came home right after it we both had no interest in seeing any of the other classes especially the pros.

 

[Newbomb Turk]

Here's text from the post.

BlackbirdX Unplugged!!!

Exciting news ….we plan to go out and run BlackbirdX in a number of venues the remainder of this season, unplugged, where we finally light it’s afterburners, as always intended and with an ear to ear grinning Alex Laughlin behind the wheel.

For the remainder of the year, we no longer plan to compete in the NHRA Factory X events.

For the rest of the somewhat long story, read below …….

For decades I’ve listened to folks complain about NHRA, in general but often in relation to the heads up classes. Complaints about their perceived favoritism to a brand and/or to some team or another, demonstrated in this rule, ruling or ‘parity adjustment’ were frequent and plentiful. My response was often along two lines, first, perhaps your view is skewed and here are some facts to defend their actions / choices (and I often did this even when such actions directly, negatively impacted my favorite brand, Dodge) and two, if on a fundamental principles level, are on some significant point(s), you strongly disagree, go race elsewhere.

While there are many depictions and reports of what transpired at the most recent US Nationals in the Factory Showdown and Factory X classes, there are now many things that are irrefutable, published and unquestionably true.

Top level teams and many, many of their drivers were blatantly, flagrantly and in numerous highly deceitful ways, massively cheating to gain advantage and win. Performance changes in these competitors make it clear that this was not a one event occurrence, but a pattern of behavior with corresponding impacts and race outcomes that reach far back to the beginning of this season and perhaps back further. These facts are undoubtedly true.

What is also now apparent and true is that having discovered this, even before the race was run and even with clear further rule violations to follow at this same event, NHRA has made after the fact corrective actions that are far, far less impactful than the infractions themselves. Where immediate disqualifications, multi month or year(s) long suspensions and significant fines would have, in many, many past precedents been applied (where the rule violations, were in fact arguably far less and for far shorter a time), here NHRA chose minor point standings adjustments, almost comical level fines, no DQs and no driver competition / crew chief suspensions. To top it off, those that were clearly participating in such things, have now been given a ‘parity adjustment’ to largely restore the power reduction (about two to two and a half tenths of ET) removed with the cheating that was discovered.

In the famous case of Jerry Eckman, prior to competition, in Pro Stock, a nitrous bottle and system explosion in the pits in his entry, before any runs were made and perhaps one not even yet connected and functional, when discovered, resulted in he and his crew chief being suspended from competition for two years and fined $25,000, each (in today’s dollars equivalent to $50-100k). The system had not been run and based upon performance, there was no clear evidence it ever had been. While this level of corrective action might have been too heavy handed, the contrast to what was just done, is startling.

I will no longer attempt to defend the actions of NHRA, debate their accused favoritism to a brand and/or competitor or group of competitors because their actions are simply, indefensible.
As I’ve often suggested to those who saw it this way, we will no longer compete in these heads up Factory Showdown or Factory X classes in the NHRA.

Win or lose, we enjoy pursuing worthy goals and competing against worthy competitors, especially in our sometimes challenging to make compete brand, Dodge. In these classes, winning or losing now has little to any meaning, well, except perhaps, that with the right influence and applied resources (resources that have little or nothing to do with actually fairly improving the performance of your race car, or driving it well but when whose influence is applied, now so clearly impact rule making, enforcement) and where you can cheat, repeatedly, avoid any real consequence and are rewarded with performance adjustments that favor you, what does winning or appearing to run well mean ?

As disappointing as this has all has been on many levels, and as difficult a decision this is for our team, to me personally, it is not nearly as difficult as the stark realization and conclusions that it inevitably leads to, that to me are far worse.

The conclusion that the competitors you once respected and the rule makers you often defended, in this regard, warrant neither respect nor defense and that their past performances and accomplishments, along with any future outcomes they are involved in, may not be at all what they appear to be… all of this is the real heart crushing truth to me.

This further aggravated by their feeble defenses that what was done was in the ‘gray’ area of the rules, that perhaps we may also have done the same (BlackbirdX, and its older brother Blackbird, have combined been torn down and thoroughly checked 15-20 times with no infraction of any kind, even a minor one, ever identified and no such approaches were ever taken to improving it’s performance), that it is the very ‘innovation’ that drives performance improvement in all such competitive motorsports, that everyone else was cheating also, that in the end, they had no choice but to massively cheat because others must have been doing so to have the performance advantages they had. These arguments reveal their true characters and the depth of guilt they now bath in. They are not competitors, they are something else and it’s possible, they were never really winners in this sport.

As I am not here to judge them, in a broader human way, I do still see them as God’s creations and know, in far more important ways, they are not ‘bad’ people. I will give them all as much grace as I can muster, keep praying for more, for myself and them, but I will not waste our time and resources attempting to fairly compete with them.

In the end, we have a bright and exciting new day in which we will once again, go get after it, pursue and break new performance barriers, find and dive into new endeavors in racing and pour ourselves into helping others, fairly and legitimately pursue their racing, go fast dreams and succeed, after all, its what we have always done at Blackbird Performance.

All true. Anyone who thinks GM ain’t running this **** is lying or stupid. Or both.

 

[Icetech]

Damn... i need to read up on what happened

 

[Newbomb Turk]

Damn... i need to read up on what happened

Go back and read up on Pro Stock Truck.

Or the stupid Pro Stock rule changes.

Or get your Chrysler Bible out and go through the parts about Stock and Super Stock and how they factored certain Chrysler engine packages right out of existence.

NHRA is neither non profit nor is it a true sanctioning body.

It is a vassal to GM.

 

[Icetech]

Go back and read up on Pro Stock Truck.

Or the stupid Pro Stock rule changes.

Or get your Chrysler Bible out and go through the parts about Stock and Super Stock and how they factored certain Chrysler engine packages right out of existence.

NHRA is neither non profit nor is it a true sanctioning body.

It is a vassal to GM.

naw, i know all the old ****, i stopped watching racing completely a long time ago cause of it.. just curious what they did this time i mean.. everyone cheats.. but for it to be called out this hard is crazy

 

[niceolddart]

The only bright spot in all this, is that ALL the Top Fuel & Top alcohol cars, Dragsters OR Funny cars, run Chrysler based HEMI engines, no matter what it says on the body of the car, & I don't really care to watch them anymore either. To HELL with NHRA.

 

[Demonracer]

Bob and I quit NHRA Stock Eliminator and went over to IHRA. NHRA had the attitude that the sportsman racers were just fill in for the Pro classes. They arranged our schedule to what the big boys wanted and trying to get anything from them was damned near impossible. IHRA on the other hand were courteous and friendly and even came through the puts to check in with the sportsmen. We switched over to the crate motor class and had the time of our lives. It's just too bad Feld screwed up IHRA down south. I used to watch the NHRA races we didn't attend, but these days I just bypass it because I have no interest in supporting them in any way.

 

[partsmonsta]

Bob and I quit NHRA Stock Eliminator and went over to IHRA. NHRA had the attitude that the sportsman racers were just fill in for the Pro classes. They arranged our schedule to what the big boys wanted and trying to get anything from them was damned near impossible. IHRA on the other hand were courteous and friendly and even came through the puts to check in with the sportsmen. We switched over to the crate motor class and had the time of our lives. It's just too bad Feld screwed up IHRA down south. I used to watch the NHRA races we didn't attend, but these days I just bypass it because I have no interest in supporting them in any way.

When you state that "It's just too bad Feld screwed up IHRA down south"...are you referring to the PBIR debacle?

 

[partsmonsta]

Chevy guys caught cheating at indy in FSS and FSSX and NHRA gives them a slap on the wrist im done with NHRA always out to keep the chevy guys in the winners circle

Can someone elaborate in layman's terms, just exactly what the Bowtie Boys did in FSS and FSSX to cheat...was it NITROUS again?

 

[Yunick13]

Was looking up the subject, and came across this article:

https://www.hemmings.com/stories/most-infamous-cheating-in-motorsports/

 

[pink340swinger]

Can someone elaborate in layman's terms, just exactly what the Bowtie Boys did in FSS and FSSX to cheat...was it NITR

FLEXJET NHRA Factory Stock Showdown performance numbers from the Toyota NHRA US Nationals in Indianapolis, IN, the NHRA Technical Department is increasing the supercharger overdrive by changing the supercharger rear jack shaft pulley and rear cog pulley for the 2019-2023 Chevrolet COPO 350 from 32 teeth to 34 teeth on the jack shaft pulley and from 34 teeth to 32 teeth on the supercharger pulley. This rule change will go into effect immediately. NHRA reserves the right in the future to make additional rule changes to control performance and maintain parity in the category.​

Apparently this is what they had been running, they got caught, then came the rule change to make it legal...

 

[pittsburghracer]

FLEXJET NHRA Factory Stock Showdown performance numbers from the Toyota NHRA US Nationals in Indianapolis, IN, the NHRA Technical Department is increasing the supercharger overdrive by changing the supercharger rear jack shaft pulley and rear cog pulley for the 2019-2023 Chevrolet COPO 350 from 32 teeth to 34 teeth on the jack shaft pulley and from 34 teeth to 32 teeth on the supercharger pulley. This rule change will go into effect immediately. NHRA reserves the right in the future to make additional rule changes to control performance and maintain parity in the category.​

Apparently this is what they had been running, they got caught, then came the rule change to make it legal...

That only makes sense. To the NHRA.

 

[BVoelzke]

Does anybody think for a minute if it had been a Mopar that got caught they would change the rule to appease them like they just did for the Chevies ? Sickening ... they get caught cheating then make the part they cheated with legal .. typical NHRA ! Now Factory X can be an all Chevy field just like they want ... just like Pro Stock

 

[B3422w5]

Can someone elaborate in layman's terms, just exactly what the Bowtie Boys did in FSS and FSSX to cheat...was it NITROUS again?

I heard it was pulley size

 

[pittsburghracer]

Another update


While I’m quite sure our whole team greatly appreciates the large outpouring of support, encouragement and pledges of continued support in whatever is next, I personally wanted to let you know just how much it’s meant to me also. Thank You.

I also wanted to thank all those, who may not see it entirely the way we do, for questioning and challenging our views, for asking for clarification as well as, asking us to potentially reconsider our tack here. Thank You also.

I’ve spent the last couple days, doing my best to productively engage in the public discussion and dialogue around all this, and it’s time I shift my focus to grace and to what is next.

By far most importantly today, I wanted to share my huge take away from this morning’s message at church, and that if you were in my head, you’d see clearly how God sometimes appears and works directly on me, in my life journey.

The takeaway for me in that eerily, precisely targeted, in all this, message and the selected scripture used to present it, is this…as in many other aspects of my life, I need to work harder on maintaining a balance of truth and grace. Calling out what I believe to be wrong, making it clear I disagree with it, perhaps even despise it and its lack of moral underpinning, attacking the actions taken, making my own choices regarding how we will respond with our time, gifts, energy and passion…all of that, I think is OK.

BUT it’s time for me to remember, it is something very different I now need to show people that might have had some part or another in this. I intend to show them that I do very personally understand their sometimes overwhelming desire to compete and win, or to maintain and grow a business, or a class or a sanctioning body. That I also can personally understand how that can lead you to skew how you see this and that, and how it impacts your choices, this way or another. No one I know who was directly or indirectly involved in all this is a bad or terrible person, in fact quite the contrary. I need to do more than say that, I need to live like I know it.

Thank you all and thanks for the grace you may have had to extend me, and please forgive me for my zeal to present what I see as wrong and the truth, as I understand it. I wanted all of our supporters, if they cared to, to know and understand a change in direction they will see, to know that we will be running hard(er), but that it won’t be in NHRA Factory X.

I also need to spend less time on Facebook now and more time working on what’s next for BlackbirdX, the team and our business, Blackbird Performance.

See you out there, deep in the 6s

 

[GTX JOHN]

They made special cheater pulleys with a large diameter
although some did have correct number of teeth.
Bigger the pulley on that end = More boost. they knew DAMN
well they are blatantly CHEATING!!!!

I know the Blackbird team are good people AND Devote Practicing Christians.

Many times over last 60 years - I have considered quitting (Last time in Vegas which I wrote about)
but I would miss my multitude of good friends that I have at the track and my family time!

 

[superbeesrt8]

Hopefully they will find a place to race next yr