NHRA News: New rules and vigilant work by teams key in reducing oildowns (6/3/2004)

New rules and vigilant work by teams key in reducing oildowns

By Rob Geiger, NHRA.com
6/3/2004

Graham Light

In a never-ending quest to improve the overall program at national events, the NHRA unveiled its toughest oildown penalties ever at the start of 2004. Although initially met with skepticism, it's clear after nine races that the stiffer penalties, which include loss of championship points and monetary fines for each oildown, are working as planned with a reduced number of oildowns and significantly less downtime during national events.

"The racing is definitely better," said Funny Car driver Del Worsham. "You look back a few years, before the 90-percent rule, before the fines and the better containment systems, and you see we're going faster than ever, yet we've learned to keep it clean."

One added feature to the new rule actually rewards drivers and crew chiefs that remain "oil-free" for 25 consecutive runs, which earns them a "freebie" in the oildown ledger. So far, 14 teams have avoided oildowns altogether this year, with six of them already earning two "freebies" each.

While lauding several crew chiefs for their ability to keep their tune-ups in check, Vice President of Racing Operations Graham Light went out of his way to commend Budweiser Racing's Tim Richards and Brandon Bernstein for 60 consecutive oil-free runs, which has pushed their number of "freebies" to three (each team started the year with one.)

The clean-up crews are spending less time on the
track this year, which makes for a better program.
Racers Edge Photography

Also earning two extra "freebies" and Light's admiration were Checker, Schuck's, Kragen racers Chuck and Del Worsham, with 56 consecutive oil-free runs, Castrol Syntec's John and Eric Medlen, who have 55 straight oil-free runs, Auto Club's Jimmy Prock and Gary Densham, 52 runs, Hemi/Oakley's Mike "Zippy" Neff and Gary Scelzi, 51 runs, and Kalitta Air's Jon Oberhofer and Dave Grubnic, who have had 50 successive oil-free runs.

Additionally, the following crew chiefs and drivers have competed at all nine NHRA national events this season without oiling the track: Wes Cerny and Cruz Pedregon, Wayne Dupuy and Darrell Russell, Johnny West and David Baca, Ed "the Ace" McCulloch and Doug Herbert, Virgil Hartman and John Smith, Jim Oberhofer and Scott Kalitta, Fred Mandolini and Tim Wilkerson, and Mike Green and Tommy Johnson Jr.

Apparently, the stiffer rules are a successful deterrent.

"It does cross your mind," said Worsham, who shares tuning duties with his father Chuck. "We've worked hard to develop a tune-up that's not too explosive. We nick our share of parts, but the key is to keep the bones (piston rods) in the motor. You can torch heads, bang blowers, scuff pistons, and tear a lot of stuff up without too much trouble, but if you knock the rods out, you're going to spread some oil around.

"The main time I remember being conscious of needing to make a totally clean run was when we needed one more clean run to get our first 'freebie' this year. My dad was as nervous as he is before a final, and it was just a qualifying run. He told me if it makes one funny sound, shut it off. We were solidly in the show, and getting to the other end cleanly was more important than anything."

The 2004 rules allow each nitromethane team one oildown with no penalty. A second violation will be subject to a $500 fine regardless of whether the incident occurred in qualifying or eliminations. A loss of 10 points will be enforced if the violation occurred during eliminations. Subsequent violations as the season progresses will increase in $500 increments.

With inconsistencies in the tuning department, Paul Romine had a tough 2003, oiling the track more than any other racer, including this 24-minute mishap in Seattle.
Racers Edge Photography

Multiple violations at the same event are penalized as follows: A second violation will result in double the posted fine plus a loss of 15 points if it happens during eliminations. For example: first violation of race weekend ($500); second violation on same race weekend ($2,000); third violation ($3,000.) Three or more violations during the same event will result in double the posted fine plus loss of 20 points if the oildown occurs during eliminations. After the sixth violation, NHRA will review the team's overall performance and action will be taken based off the team's ratio of runs versus oildowns.

It appears docking points is much more of an attention-getter than the punch in the pocketbooks.

"No doubt getting points taken away is a big deterrent," Worsham said. "One of the reasons oildowns were so bad a few years ago is we had teams out here with more money than sense. They'd just lean on it every run and not care if they blew it up. Even now, if we just had monetary fines, there'd still be people who wouldn't care. But, take away their points and you're hitting them where it hurts.

"I've always thought taking points away was the way to make the sport police itself. We create the technology to go this fast, and overcome all sorts of challenges, so it made sense to me that if you made the incentive great enough we could find a way to keep the track cleaner. Keeping the track cleaner makes for a much better show; that's good for everyone."

In addition to fines and penalties, the Tech Department added rules requiring full belly pans on Top Fuel dragsters, dry sump oil systems on Funny Cars, and the phasing out of cast blocks to help reduce oildowns. The race teams themselves have stepped up with improvements of their own, such as the use of titanium oil pans.

Chuck Worsham says the drivers themselves can help reduce the problem also.

"One reason we don't oil the track is the driver," Chuck said. "Del is very good at sensing trouble and lifting on qualifying runs. He'll leg it out on Sunday, but if we're safely in the show during qualifying and any little thing goes wrong, he's one of the best at getting off the throttle before we make a mess. The driver is key to keeping your motor intact. If he's got his foot down when it's nosing over or has two cylinders out, or if he doesn't know where the finish line is and drives it 1,500 feet, he can do a lot of damage."

2004 Combined Nitro "Oildown" Statistics - Listed by Number of Violations

PC PA GF LN HT BT AG CI TK TOTALS

Tony Bartone 0 0 1 0 1 2 0 0 0 4

Luigi Novelli 2 2 0 4

Jerry Toliver 2 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 4

Scott Palmer 1 2 0 0 0 3

Larry Dixon 0 2 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 3

Bruce Litton 2 0 1 0 3

Tony Schumacher 0 0 0 2 1 0 0 0 0 3

Whit Bazemore 0 0 0 1 0 2 0 0 0 3

Ron Capps 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 3

Phil Burkart 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2

Stephen Neese 0 2 2

John Force 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 2

Scott Weis 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 2

Bob Gilbertson 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 2

Jack Wyatt 1 0 1

Cory Lee 1 0 0 1

Bob Hallock 1 1

Dale Creasy Jr 1 0 1

Rhonda Hartman-Smith 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1

Don Sosenka 0 1 1

Tony Pedregon 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1

Todd Paton 0 1 1

Brady Kalivoda 0 0 0 1 0 0 1

Terry Haddock 0 0 0 1 0 1

Chris Karamesines 0 1 1

Cory McClenathan 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1

Doug Kalitta 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1

Bob Bode 0 0 0

Bob Vandergriff 0 0 0 0

Brandon Bernstein 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Clay Millican 0 0 0 0 0 0

Cruz Pedregon 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Darrell Russell 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

David Baca 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

David Grubnic 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Del Worsham 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Doug Herbert 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Eric Medlen 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Gary Densham 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Gary Scelzi 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Glenn Mikres 0

Grant Dowling 0

Jeff Arend 0 0 0 0 0 0

Jim Head 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Joe Hartley 0

John Lawson 0

John Smith 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Keith Jackson 0 0 0

Mark Kinsella 0

Marshall Topping 0

Mike Strasburg 0 0 0 0 0

Mitch King 0

Rob Passey 0

Scott Kalitta 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Steve Chrisman 0 0

Tim Cullinan 0 0

Tim Wilkerson 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

TJ Zizzo 0 0 0

Tommy Johnson Jr 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Venues abbreviated by city and state; blanks cells indicate a driver did not attend the event

Related story: National event oildowns at two-year low
Related story: NHRA announces new oildown penalties for 2004

2004 News Archive
Return to the Home Page