Greetings all...

As many of you have heard, we were disqualified at the Sprints from our 3rd place finish due to unapproved spark plugs.

It turns out we had three Motorcraft AGSF 34 pp plugs, and one Motorcraft AGSF 34 C in the car. The platinum, or "pp" plugs are not allowed. Erik has allowed that the platinum plugs shouldn't create a performance advantage, but the letter of the law must be observed.

The spark plugs are one area of the car where I've paid little attention and if I were prepping the car I may not notice whether the plugs are platinum or not. I might only check that they are Motorcraft AGSF 24 or 34, and not necessarily notice whether or not they are platinum.

I would urge everyone out there to check your plugs and make sure you don't have these platinum plugs installed by mistake. I believe Lars' guys replaced one of the plugs because it got damaged, and that happened to be the only legal plug in the engine. No one seems to know when the platinum plugs had been installed.

I do want to applaud Erik and his team for keeping us all on a level playing field, even if I'm the one taking the hit. This is a class where you really feel like you've done something as a driver when you win one of these races, and keeping all the cars equal means the driver makes most of the difference.

Hearing of someone being disqualified makes for uncomfortable news, and I wanted everyone to know what happened.

Carry on.......

Jeff

Jeff - good for you to post your comments. I've raced with you since the 80's and know you have never intentionally cheated and in fact never needed to cheat to win races. I do agree that rules are rules and should be strictly applied in our class - but that this instance shouldn't be treated as a drive line offense and I hope Erik feels the same way.

If any of us race for many years something is bound to inadvertantly slip by regardless of how hard we try - air filter, oil filter, plugs, etc - it has happened to me and to many others.

Clay

Agreed, nice post Jeff,

Definitely not a Powertrain Violation, I am a fan of Jeff's and hope this doesn't cost him the Runoffs invite! I have just enough stomach to take the full enforcement of all of the current rules, as is. "Back in the day" getting tossed for decals would have been too much for me! However, we have never been criticized, by more than the "offender" (and even then never aggressively), for enforcement. We have taken many hits, some still lingering, over not aggressive enough enforcement. Generally speaking the findings can be Enterprises, but the penalty is the race officials...up to a Powertrain Violation...which is a letter I send.

Also, we are conserving travel budgets, so the important folks traveled...Mike and Kimberly to Rose Cup (Festival race was SRF and we had only been twice since I have been here) and Shannon to the Sprints. I ran a marathon Saturday (my initial target race got shut down mid race for heat 4 weeks ago, so I pushed to maintain my peak). Shannon was unfortunately victim of having to use my initial flight plans, which would have gotten me home for a late dinner with the kids for Father's Day. He would never have scheduled himself to miss final tech (but he left instructions and a list)...that was my bad! Sorry.

Well done post, Jeff. As everyone who has raced against you knows, and I have done so a lot of times, you are up front simply because you are a darned good driver. I'm sorry to see that you lost that well earned and valuable third spot over something that could easily happen to anyone who bought the plug model number but missed the suffix letters. (I'm betting many readers will double check theirs.)

It looks like you and I both need to do some scrambling to make this year's Runoffs. Good luck.

Jeff,
I feel your pain, we were once DQ'd and a $500 fine for running a Fram oil filter that our new rebuilt motor came with from the CSR and even though at the time there was no spec for filters we took the brunt and almost quit running Spec Racer on the spot.. We all know those Fram oil filters and platinum plugs make big power. Having battled you many times in the past your driving skills are what gets you out front not something that can easily be purchased and installed by mistake and has no power advantage.

Good post Jeff. It must have hurt, but spec is spec and being willing to play by the rules is part of what makes this a great class. That was a big hit for a small mistake.

Finally got back from being out of town since writing that post.

Thanks for the replies guys. We may not get the points, but at least we showed we are in the ballpark, performancewise.

Yes Jim, we have some work to do with only 2 Cen-Div races left.......

Jeff

Beck wrote:Yes Jim, we have some work to do with only 2 Cen-Div races left.......
Jeff

Still got a couple races over on this side of the lake.
Easy pickin's.

H.(G&G)B.

Hal B. wrote:

Beck wrote:Yes Jim, we have some work to do with only 2 Cen-Div races left.......
Jeff

Still got a couple races over on this side of the lake.
Easy pickin's.

H.(G&G)B.

Definitely not easy pickin's, but we should be at both G, and G.....

Let's hope for a return to those Hal(cyon) days of the past, eh?

Jeff