No one seems to have mentioned the ESP impound protest. Here's the deal as
I understand it:
As part of the "intrusive impound inspections" that the SEB can order for
Nats, all the ESP competitors in trophy positions were asked to remove a
front and rear wheel after their runs on Tuesday. In the past, the next
step would have been for the impound chiefs to inspect specific parts to
verify legality. Instead, this year they just pulled the wheels to allow
visual access and then let the competitors police it. As it turns out, one
highly placed Mustang was found to have offset steering rack bushings and
was informed of this revelation. Rather than a protest being filed, the
competitor then asked for his Tuesday times to be withdrawn and he quickly
left impound to go fix the car so that his wife could drive legally in the
Ladies class.
My point is not to finger someone running with illegal parts, but instead to
commend the SEB for a very clever way of using their "instrusive inspection"
powers to give competitors a wider view of their fellow competitors'
vehicles. This allowed for a wider range of items to be checked, in a
smaller amount of time, with fewer resources. This sure beats trying to
pick out exactly the right single items to check. I hope to see more of
this in the future.
--Andy
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