kentprather
Active member
Comments on GTL & The Runoffs.
Anyone owning a GTL car not in attendance at this year’s Runoffs missed a golden opportunity to have a great Runoffs experience. Had there been a couple of extra front wheel drive cars it would have been a traffic jam in the front even more than it was.
But first, I need to tell the story of my impound. After I won and did the victory lap, then the awards ceremony, then the interviews in the tower I was told to get to tech. My car would not start. Actually, both my car and Jim Hargrove’s Honda would not start at victory circle and both had to be towed to tech. My starter appears to be bad because when I got to tech my crew had gone back to our paddock and had gotten the charger on the car but to no avail. We then decided to go get my spare battery and someone from, I believe from Lentz’s crew, went for cables. This did not work either. Tech was reluctant to let me push start the car so next we tried a jump box. This took more time and also did not work very well. The car did start once and was ball tested. It was stone cold by now and tested at just over 4 seconds. Tech wanted another test and it wouldn’t start no matter what we did.
Finally we got permission to push start. Of course the car was flooded and was hard to start. It back fired big time and because the hood was off it popped a dzus fastener up from my box along with a large piece of tape. The car failed badly and Tech saw the malfunction of the box. He simply laid his hand on the box and the top popped back in place. The car was repushed and stalled in 3.8 seconds. Pushed again and stalled at 3.6 seconds. One more push, to make everyone secure, and it stalled at 3.2. We then went back to the tech shed. My hood is a secondary stop for my air box cover and won’t allow this issue to occur in race conditions. The hood was off because we had had the motor checked for overbore etc. and was still off when the ball check was done.
Next thing I know Tech, Bobby Lentz and who knows who comes up to me and say we want one more final test. I was told I should bring the engine up to race water temp and we would then do one final test. This would be for all the marbles. If it passed, I was good. If it failed, I was out of here. I agreed. We pushed the car and I got it to 180 degrees water temp and with all my competitors, all the tech people in the shed, any steward, crew or bystanders in the area, and God, we tested this one last time. It stalled at 3.2 seconds. Just before this Bobby Lentz’s car was tested. After he disassembled his air box and blocked off the ECM vacuum hose his car stalled at 3.1 seconds.
I have been stall tested with this box and SIR many times. In my pits, at Midwest division events and three times in the runoffs tech shed. Not to mention qualifying tests. When we come off the track at a national we are run over the scales, get the track and wheels checked and then anyone in a spec car gets particulars tested. This means SIR’s. Plus, at a regular national we have EP, FP, HP & GLT plus everyone else they can put in one group, all together in impound. Usually this is ALL done in 30 minutes or less. I have never failed anything.
So, here we are at Runoffs tech. Time has gone by to the tune of 1.5 hours plus and I am finally getting my stall test. This was an unusual circumstance and one that I have never been under in performing the test. Will all GTL cars pass the stall test when stone cold? Hard to say and a good question to raise.
So, Bobby Lentz protested tech and this went to the SOM. I don’t blame him for this protest. When my car was tested “not as raced” it failed twice. Actually, one could argue that it was never completely tested “as raced” since the hood was off the entire time and it pushes down on the airbox lid. He is a good steward of the class and has much more time invested in the SIR program than anyone I know. The SIR and work involved to fit it to your car, plus the dyno work and profiling work necessary to make a good old GT4 or old GT5 car convert, is the reason for the demise of GTL. He needed to get a clarification of the 4 seconds stall test rule and so he protested me.
The SOM declared me legal and sided with tech’s efforts to get an “as raced” test. Their job is not to find cars non-compliant, but to determine if a car is compliant.
Bobby then appealed their decision and sent it to the appeals court. They also upheld tech and the SOM. I don’t quite understand the need for an appeal.
Where do we go from here? If we don’t have new competitors in GTL, we are doomed. The big 3 or 4 Hondas didn’t make it to the Runoffs. Any whining they do now about not being competitive should fall on deaf ears.
Should cars be allowed to have a non-accessible SIR that won’t allow a quick, non-intrusive test? Should all cars have the SIR sticking out of the front of their cars like mine or Chris Bovis’s? Wouldn’t it be nice to be tested on pit lane even before the victory circle? (No, tech is really too busy for this.) But a stalled car should be jumped and ALL cars driven to tech just as we do at the national races, that got us to the Runoffs in the beginning.
So, now we need to work on the SIR for GTL. But what about unrestricted cars? I can’t help but wonder about 1300 cc engines or less that don’t use the SIR. The 1237 Honda won’t go over 1300 when bored .047 over. Actually it’s about 1274cc. The 1275 Sprite or Midget, when bored .047, is now actually 1310 cc. Isn’t this more than 1300 cc? How about the 1296 Spitfire? When bored .047 over it is approximately 1330 cc. Perhaps these cars should need some sort of SIR or at least need to pass the dreaded 4 second rule or be limited to less than 1300cc. I have always wondered about this and am curious if anyone can explain this.
I enjoy GTL and perform well as an open top car. My car doesn’t have the big brakes of the 15” wheeled cars and shows it. Each car should shine somewhere on the track and each competitor needs their time to shine. I hope we can get GTL re-vitalized and can have a bigger 2013 in participation and types of cars.
Thanks for listening. Sorry this has taken so long to get out.
Kent Prather
Anyone owning a GTL car not in attendance at this year’s Runoffs missed a golden opportunity to have a great Runoffs experience. Had there been a couple of extra front wheel drive cars it would have been a traffic jam in the front even more than it was.
But first, I need to tell the story of my impound. After I won and did the victory lap, then the awards ceremony, then the interviews in the tower I was told to get to tech. My car would not start. Actually, both my car and Jim Hargrove’s Honda would not start at victory circle and both had to be towed to tech. My starter appears to be bad because when I got to tech my crew had gone back to our paddock and had gotten the charger on the car but to no avail. We then decided to go get my spare battery and someone from, I believe from Lentz’s crew, went for cables. This did not work either. Tech was reluctant to let me push start the car so next we tried a jump box. This took more time and also did not work very well. The car did start once and was ball tested. It was stone cold by now and tested at just over 4 seconds. Tech wanted another test and it wouldn’t start no matter what we did.
Finally we got permission to push start. Of course the car was flooded and was hard to start. It back fired big time and because the hood was off it popped a dzus fastener up from my box along with a large piece of tape. The car failed badly and Tech saw the malfunction of the box. He simply laid his hand on the box and the top popped back in place. The car was repushed and stalled in 3.8 seconds. Pushed again and stalled at 3.6 seconds. One more push, to make everyone secure, and it stalled at 3.2. We then went back to the tech shed. My hood is a secondary stop for my air box cover and won’t allow this issue to occur in race conditions. The hood was off because we had had the motor checked for overbore etc. and was still off when the ball check was done.
Next thing I know Tech, Bobby Lentz and who knows who comes up to me and say we want one more final test. I was told I should bring the engine up to race water temp and we would then do one final test. This would be for all the marbles. If it passed, I was good. If it failed, I was out of here. I agreed. We pushed the car and I got it to 180 degrees water temp and with all my competitors, all the tech people in the shed, any steward, crew or bystanders in the area, and God, we tested this one last time. It stalled at 3.2 seconds. Just before this Bobby Lentz’s car was tested. After he disassembled his air box and blocked off the ECM vacuum hose his car stalled at 3.1 seconds.
I have been stall tested with this box and SIR many times. In my pits, at Midwest division events and three times in the runoffs tech shed. Not to mention qualifying tests. When we come off the track at a national we are run over the scales, get the track and wheels checked and then anyone in a spec car gets particulars tested. This means SIR’s. Plus, at a regular national we have EP, FP, HP & GLT plus everyone else they can put in one group, all together in impound. Usually this is ALL done in 30 minutes or less. I have never failed anything.
So, here we are at Runoffs tech. Time has gone by to the tune of 1.5 hours plus and I am finally getting my stall test. This was an unusual circumstance and one that I have never been under in performing the test. Will all GTL cars pass the stall test when stone cold? Hard to say and a good question to raise.
So, Bobby Lentz protested tech and this went to the SOM. I don’t blame him for this protest. When my car was tested “not as raced” it failed twice. Actually, one could argue that it was never completely tested “as raced” since the hood was off the entire time and it pushes down on the airbox lid. He is a good steward of the class and has much more time invested in the SIR program than anyone I know. The SIR and work involved to fit it to your car, plus the dyno work and profiling work necessary to make a good old GT4 or old GT5 car convert, is the reason for the demise of GTL. He needed to get a clarification of the 4 seconds stall test rule and so he protested me.
The SOM declared me legal and sided with tech’s efforts to get an “as raced” test. Their job is not to find cars non-compliant, but to determine if a car is compliant.
Bobby then appealed their decision and sent it to the appeals court. They also upheld tech and the SOM. I don’t quite understand the need for an appeal.
Where do we go from here? If we don’t have new competitors in GTL, we are doomed. The big 3 or 4 Hondas didn’t make it to the Runoffs. Any whining they do now about not being competitive should fall on deaf ears.
Should cars be allowed to have a non-accessible SIR that won’t allow a quick, non-intrusive test? Should all cars have the SIR sticking out of the front of their cars like mine or Chris Bovis’s? Wouldn’t it be nice to be tested on pit lane even before the victory circle? (No, tech is really too busy for this.) But a stalled car should be jumped and ALL cars driven to tech just as we do at the national races, that got us to the Runoffs in the beginning.
So, now we need to work on the SIR for GTL. But what about unrestricted cars? I can’t help but wonder about 1300 cc engines or less that don’t use the SIR. The 1237 Honda won’t go over 1300 when bored .047 over. Actually it’s about 1274cc. The 1275 Sprite or Midget, when bored .047, is now actually 1310 cc. Isn’t this more than 1300 cc? How about the 1296 Spitfire? When bored .047 over it is approximately 1330 cc. Perhaps these cars should need some sort of SIR or at least need to pass the dreaded 4 second rule or be limited to less than 1300cc. I have always wondered about this and am curious if anyone can explain this.
I enjoy GTL and perform well as an open top car. My car doesn’t have the big brakes of the 15” wheeled cars and shows it. Each car should shine somewhere on the track and each competitor needs their time to shine. I hope we can get GTL re-vitalized and can have a bigger 2013 in participation and types of cars.
Thanks for listening. Sorry this has taken so long to get out.
Kent Prather
