The touring professional sportsman racer will usually bring two or three cars in a huge hauler. The cost of a two-car team is probably $70,000 to $100,000 for the race cars add another $30,000 for a basic two-car trailer and then add on another $100,000 to $200,000 for a quality motor home that will stand up to the thousands of miles of travel it will require. So now you have $300,000 in equipment just to be able to race. Once you have made this commitment it becomes a lot more than just “fun.” The professional sportsman racer will do everything within the rules he can to win events. Nothing wrong with that; they owe it to themselves and their family to do their best.
The problem could be the interpretation of the Rule Book or really, the lack of enforcement of the Rule 8.2. Of course, this is my opinion but here is how I see the current interpretation of that rule and the effect it could have on “No Delay Box Classes” all the way from NHRA national events to the local bracket races.
What if you race in one of the “No Delay Device” classes and you see a racer with a switch in the car that can slow down the release of the trans-brake (or line-lock) by .001 up to 4/10ths of a second?
What about some trans-brake switches that advertise they can adjust your car’s reaction times by simply adding spacers to make the switch a “longer-throw” or even by tightening a bleeder valve adjustment screw that slows down the button’s release? If you can adjust this delay by using a practice tree to get it set, what is the difference between that and just punching a new number into your delay box? There is no difference, the delay box just costs you a lot less.
These “NHRA-approved” buttons can be adjusted from “no delay” to “4/10ths of a second delay” for some of them. Does that device actually conform to the spirit of the rule as listed in the NHRA Rulebook? I don’t think so. As a matter of fact, they sound like a delay box without thumbwheel switches to me.
Why have these “delay buttons” started showing up? Simple, it is better to be the chaser in most cases in a bracket race (be it Stock, Super Stock or Comp, they are all index or dial-in based bracket races). The chaser cannot red-light first (there is one advantage) and the chaser has a better view of the finish line, and finish line judging is better coming from behind (advantage #2). To consistently be the chaser means you have to be fast more often than not. Leaving off the bottom bulb on a 5/10ths tree is hard to do with eight- and nine-second cars. They leave hard off the flash of the bottom bulb making it easy to red-light, and if the driver has to hesitate to stay green, consistent reaction times are a problem.
Surprise, someone came up with a “slow switch” for the fast cars. The rules say, “No switch or device (electric, electronic, hydraulic, pneumatic, mechanical, etc) can be used to create a delay between releasing the trans-brake switch and the resultant action of the vehicle.” That is exactly what these switches do -- WHY are they being allowed?