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Re: Rules and 'Cheating'

To: S800Racer@aol.com
Subject: Re: Rules and 'Cheating'
From: Simon Favre <simon@mondes.com>
Date: Mon, 22 Jan 2001 12:59:01 -0800
Your honor, I would submit the following passage wherein the defendant
specifically asked permission to have his car weighed "just as the car
went on the track, not off." The car in question certainly did NOT get
returned to the same configuration it was when the race started. The
abnormal weight of the tires would have prevented the car from winning
the race! The prosecution rests. ;=)

>Seems that the stewards were just starting to weigh cars after the race
>and one sly team manager, knowing his cars were light, and having won
>the race with one, suggested to the stewards that the weight should be
>determined just as the car went on the track, not off.

S800Racer@aol.com wrote:
> 
> In a message dated 1/22/01 2:16:48 PM, lwdent@fwi.com writes:
> 
> << The Stewards thought that was reasonable, and the crew promptly put in a
> couple of quarts of oil, 22 gallons of gas and rolled over 4 new tires,
> all mounted up on the mag wheels.  Only problem is each tire was filled
> with water, not air.
> 
> NOW THAT WAS CHEATING. >>
> 
>     Cheating is a pretty strong word.  Let's not rush to judgment.  Did the
> rules specify the chemical composition of substances to used in the filling
> of tires?  Did the rules preclude the use of substances other than ambient
> air, such as nitrogen, helium, hydrogen, pure oxygen or various
> hydrogen/oxygen compounds (H20)?
>     It seems that the rules must have been silent on this point and, as
> interpreted by the inspectors themselves permitted the use of fresh tires
> without specifying composition of the tire "filler".
>     I submit that, absent any clear language on the subject of tire inflation
> compounds, the defendant was properly within the rules as they were written
> and interpreted by the officials.
> 
>     Douglas J. Meis "Attorney at Speed" (J.D. 1990 Wake Forest University)

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