The Christmas tree at the NHRA Great Lakes Nationals didn’t just look different to some of the Pro Stock racers. It behaved differently enough that drivers and riders accustomed to living on the edge of a red light suddenly found themselves trying to figure out how to get away from it.
At U.S. 131 Motorsports Park, the issue wasn’t necessarily whether the Accutime Timing System worked. By virtually every account, it was consistent.
The problem was that it was consistently quicker than what NHRA’s Pro Stock and Pro Stock Motorcycle racers had been seeing with the CompuLink system.
And when reaction times are measured in thousandths, quicker isn’t a small adjustment.
U.S. 131 Motorsports Park operates with Accutime rather than the CompuLink system traditionally used by NHRA. The standard CompuLink Christmas tree wasn’t compatible with the Accutime system, leaving NHRA to race with the track’s tree while attempting to duplicate the timing racers were accustomed to seeing.
The results weren’t the same.
NHRA recognized the discrepancy and offered to make an adjustment. According to information provided to CompetitionPlus.com, a racers committee reported to the Professional Racers Organization that the preference was to leave the tree alone rather than change it after competitors had begun adapting to it.
That’s where another issue developed.
Several Pro Stock and Pro Stock Motorcycle competitors said they weren’t part of that conversation.
Matt Latino said he certainly wasn’t.
Latino eventually fouled in the opening round, but he knew he had a problem well before eliminations. The tree was quick enough that instead of chasing reaction time, Latino was trying to engineer some of it out of his race car.
“Not really, no. I like that I can be consistent on it and dial in those zeros, but I’ve got to soften the heck out of my clutch pedal and lengthen the throw on it just to not go red, so that kind of hurts my whole shot advantage when going up against someone who averages a 40 or 50,” Latino said.
His first qualifying experience provided the warning.
“When I went up the first run I wasn’t trying to cut any sort of a light at all and I went quadruple zero for the first time ever,” Latino said. “Don’t get me wrong, that was a pretty cool experience, but I immediately knew we were in a little bit of a trouble knowing that I really wasn’t trying to cut a light and I win zeros. Again, that kind of takes away from that whole shot advantage, but I think we’re getting used to it. I think I’m consistent on it and we’ll be all right. But again, a heads-up would have been nice.”
Latino said he heard competitors had been consulted about whether the timing should be changed. He wasn’t one of them.
“I’ve heard that, but I never got asked that question, so if there was a vote, I wasn’t included in it,” Latino said. “And I’ve talked to a few of my teammates and they haven’t heard anything about it either. At least that’s what they’re saying.”
Interestingly, Latino said he probably would have voted against changing it once the weekend was underway. His concern was introducing another variable after racers had already spent time adapting.
“I wouldn’t just because we’ve run so many races throughout the… We’ve run the majority of the season one way,” Latino said. “I wouldn’t want to change it going into the countdown. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t mind that tree. I feel like we’re testing. I actually feel less pressure with this tree, especially here at Rockingham, I know we haven’t made our first pass yet, but I feel like I’m going to be just feeling like this is a test session and have no pressure at all. But some advanced notice would have been nice and I don’t know that I would have wanted that change right into the countdown.”
If Latino’s weekend showed one side of the problem, Troy Coughlin Jr. showed the other.
Coughlin won the Pro Stock event on the strength of three consecutive .00 reaction times. He didn’t fight the tree nearly as much as he learned how to use it.
“There’s many different brands of timing systems and Accutime is another brand that’s at quite a few tracks across the US, that this is just how those timing systems work,” Coughlin said. “They’re a little bit tighter, meaning faster in react. And yeah, it’s consistent. I mean, it’s like Compulink in that note. It’s not giving wild numbers. It’s just a little bit quicker upfront on react. So I think you just kind of have to adapt to the conditions and you’re racing on what you’re given to race on. So I think from a driver’s standpoint, yes, it is a little bit different, but you can’t approach it any different. If you need to slow yourself down, you move your linkage. We have that ability. Not so sure about the Nitro guys, that’s a completely different world.”
Coughlin also provided some balance to the communication question. He said he personally didn’t know what racers would encounter beforehand, but noted NHRA sent an email Thursday addressing the bulbs, tree and timing system.
“I personally did not, but I know Thursday we did get an email from NHRA about the bulbs and the tree and the timing system notice,” Coughlin said. “So there was something sent out, in fairness, to the sanctioning body. But yeah, it’s just not something I really think about. I mean, I’m a bracket racer, Super Gas racer from the grass. What we race with out here is just what we get and what it is, is what it is. And if it says I’m seven red, I’m seven red and I’m going to have to make adjustments. If it says I’m 70, I’m going to have to pay better attention and get up on the wheel and make adjustments.”
For Pro Stock Motorcycle, however, the situation became considerably more pronounced.
Richard Gadson entered the Countdown as one of the quickest leavers in the category. At Martin, that strength turned against him.
Gadson fouled in the second round, his first race-day red light in what he estimated was more than two seasons. He didn’t absolve himself because of the equipment.
“Yeah. No, it’s not. It’s the first time I had red lit in competition on race day in, I think, a little over two seasons, but at the end of the day, there’s reasons,” Gadson said. “I got my, we’ll call it excuses or things that weren’t perfect, but at the end of the day, it’s my responsibility to adjust accordingly. Somebody had to win the race, so I should have been able to do what was necessary to win the race. We did try. I did everything I knew how to do that we’d normally do to slow down my reaction time, but the combination of how amazing the starting line was, the racetrack was absolutely amazing.”
Gadson said the track itself compounded the situation. The motorcycle was leaving the staging beams quicker because the starting line was working so well, then the different timing characteristics were piled on top of it.
“That was probably the best surface we’ve been on since I’ve been racing here maybe, and the combination of how good the start line was made the bikes move out of the beams even that much quicker,” Gadson said. “Then, we had the timing system differences. So it was a perfect storm of things that really kind of hurt me, especially considering I’m usually pretty aggressive on the tree. That’s how I’ve been racing. That’s kind of my thing, and I ran into an event that bit me for it. So you take your lessons from it and you got to move forward. Hopefully this weekend I do a better job adjusting.”
Gadson’s assessment of the consultation process was considerably less diplomatic.
He said the Pro Stock Motorcycle riders weren’t asked.
“No, we never knew that that consultation happened until after the race was over, and then we were told that that happened and that they asked some Nitro drivers, or I don’t know exactly who, so I’m paraphrasing, but I know it was Nitro, which all due respect, they are the big boys on campus here, but they don’t have the same reaction time issues that we would have,” Gadson said. “Yes, it affected them as well. It made most of them look amazing. Then, the guys who are typically pretty quick, you saw them popping up red.”
For a Pro Stock Motorcycle rider, Gadson said slowing the process wasn’t as straightforward as telling himself to wait a little longer.
“But our situation was you could actually shallow stage, see yellow, and calmly leave and be 015 red, so how do you slow yourself down another 200, which would still make you double 0, right?” Gadson said. “So, to get to the side of 30 or 40 required a whole nother world of an approach to the start line, and I couldn’t figure that out. I wish that we had gotten asked, because I think there would not have been, you know how they split the vote, it was six to five of changing or keeping it the same? I guarantee you in our class it would’ve been 16 to zero on changing it.”
Six-time Pro Stock Motorcycle champion Matt Smith had already taken his concerns upstairs before eliminations.
Smith said he went to the tower Saturday morning during a rain delay and told NHRA something wasn’t right.
“I went up to the tower Saturday morning when it was raining and told them that something was definitely off,” Smith said. “It was way too quick. Friday, both passes, I was way too quick on the tree than what I should have been by my numbers. And we never got asked to change. So all in all, we just had to deal with it.”
Then Smith watched Gadson turn on the red light in the second round.
His reaction was almost instinctive: Don’t do it to yourself.
“And I think that’s why you saw a lot of people red lighting our class,” Smith said. “And second round, when I saw Richard red light, I was like, ‘Don’t do that. Don’t do it.’ And I just gripped a little harder, and hesitated a little bit, and was 70, and that’s what cost me the round. But all in all, hopefully they’re going to make a change to the tree here at Rockingham, same timing system as Martin, and we’ll see what happens today.”
Coughlin wasn’t interested in deciding who should have been consulted or whether NHRA should have changed anything once competition was underway. His approach was considerably more old-school.
“Again, it goes back to the sanctioning body,” Coughlin said. “It’s their rules. It’s their sandbox. We’re here to race and sell parts. I think if they want to change it, they can change it. It’s their deal.”
