Twelve bracket racers from the former Norwalk Raceway Park were
branded with the nickname “The Dirty Dozen” and banned from the
facility for life and from the IHRA indefinitely. Those dozen bracket
racers were alleged to have performance-enhancing devices that would
enable them to accurately monitor elapsed time during bracket races.
This happened almost a decade ago, but those involved are proving that
time heals all wounds.
The switch of sanctioning bodies has brought about a pardon for their
alleged crimes. Crimes one of those accused still says never happened.
Dave Connolly wants to set the record straight as one of those who was
accused but never proven guilty. The Pro Stock hitter has moved well
beyond those days and admittedly struggles to remember the
controversial scenario. All he knows is that a lot of finger pointing
took place and plenty of allegations were leveled, even though little
or no evidence was ever brought to the table. To Connolly, it was
nothing more than a witch hunt.
Twelve bracket racers from the former Norwalk Raceway Park were
branded with the nickname “The Dirty Dozen” and banned from the
facility for life and from the IHRA indefinitely. Those dozen bracket
racers were alleged to have performance-enhancing devices that would
enable them to accurately monitor elapsed time during bracket races.
This happened almost a decade ago, but those involved are proving that
time heals all wounds.
The switch of sanctioning bodies has brought about a pardon for their
alleged crimes. Crimes one of those accused still says never happened.
Dave Connolly wants to set the record straight as one of those who was
accused but never proven guilty. The Pro Stock hitter has moved well
beyond those days and admittedly struggles to remember the
controversial scenario. All he knows is that a lot of finger pointing
took place and plenty of allegations were leveled, even though little
or no evidence was ever brought to the table. To Connolly, it was
nothing more than a witch hunt.
“There were accusations, and a lot of them, but nothing was ever found
on our cars,” said Connolly. “I think that whole deal was a way of
getting rid of a few select guys and a lot of people got punished for
no real reason. I think there were a lot of guys in that situation that
were branded guilty by association.”
Connolly has maintained his innocence fpr the past seven years. The allegations included a race-fixing scheme.
“You know everything happens for a reason,” Connolly said. “In my case
I moved on to bigger and better things. It never slowed down my racing
career.”
Still Connolly has regrets.
“I wish none of it would have happened. It’s not the kind of exposure I
wanted to ever get. It happened and I had to learn to live with it. I
never stopped racing and I’m hooked up with a great team. I can live
with that.”
Bill Bader Jr. says his team has moved on, although he’s never wavered in his decision to ban those racers.
“It was a long time ago and those guys were racing in different types
of cars,” Bader said. “It was in different types of cars, a different
format, in a different time and different place. To the NHRA’s credit,
they approached me about the situation and took into consideration my
feelings.
“I don’t feel that I have the right after all of this time to impede
someone or detour their pursuit of a championship. I just didn’t feel
it was fair. The NHRA was kind of enough to consider my feelings and we
arrived at a conclusion.
“At the time I made the decision and based on the information that I
had before me, I stand behind my decision.” Bader said. “I feel that
was the absolute right way to handle it. A lot of people were involved
in this. I did have conversations with some of them recently and I
visited with a lot of them during our Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series
event. I think we have all have moved on. I would like to see the
industry follow suit.”
Some just can’t seem to let go, however. Earlier this week, the
Nitromater.com message board generated a four-page thread on the racers
returning to Norwalk.
“You still have your keyboard racers who want to sit there and dredge
up old stuff like that, but in all reality this whole deal happened
seven years ago and if they have to bring that up after all of these
years then I feel bad for them,” Connolly said.
