[Chris Nunn]

Did Chris Bell seem to win the race at Jacksonville over Clauson?

Either way, it was one hell of a finish for the ages

[slick01]

I thought BC won it, but that was seeing the video. One hell of a race!

[kdobson]

Great question Chris and you for sure aren't the first one to ask it over the past few days. In fact we spent parts of Saturday and Sunday setting up cones and buckets on the race track and finish line and taking pictures from diffrent angles, including where the camera taking that picture was positioned. Here's what we know... and it's the most we will probably ever know.

The two scorers who were positioned directly across from a white leg painted on our stage which serves as the finish line both attentively watched the cars cross the stripe and both agreed that it was Clauson, as did our flagman. So we obviously take their word for it and back them as they had the best and only view of both the stripe and the cars as they crossed.

Saturday morning I had left town and requested some stills from our video guy and called our partner Tommy who does our track prep asking him to measure some distances from our track camera man and the finish line so I could get a feel for the angle, and also to give me a feel for where the actual stripe is in relation to the McDonald's sign on the flag stand. Honestly something we never really had occasion to pay attention to. Tommy indicated that there were pictures and video floating around the internet like the one above taken from a different camera.

I went to the track when I got back Sunday and laid out a few cones directly on the finish line, then took some pictures from the grandstand a few feet right and left of the finish line. What you find is that within just a few feet of moving side-to-side the cones start to appear as being one in front of the other. When you are a few feet to the right of the line, the inside cone appears well in front of the outside cones, and a few feet to the left of the finish line the outside cone looks in front. I can almost guarantee you that anyone sitting on the South end of our grandstand thinks that Bell won and anyone on the North end is sure that Clauson won.

The location of that picture is a few feet past the actual finish line. It is also taken from a number of feet to the right of the finish line which starts to get the angle distortion going pretty well. What was going on with the cars at the time was that right at the finish line, Chris Bell's Right Rear was on top of Bryan's Left rear and as it did that it suddenly propelled Bell's car forward very quickly. So 10 feet after the finish line, Bell is well in front of Bryan. But at actual finish line, I THINK, (based on my review of pictures, video and doing some recreations at the track Sunday) that Bell was still in the 'climbing' stage of getting on Bryan's left rear instead of yet being in the 'propelled forward' stage.

Were we right, or were we wrong? Who knows. What I do know is that the scorers looking directly at the line at the time it happened agreed it was Clauson. We will stick by them and their decision as it most likely was correct. We were interested in doing the recreations, not to change the result after the fact, - which we wouldn't do anyway, but just to see if we happened to get it wrong, in which case we would owe Chris and his team an explanation and we could learn something from it.

After a number of hours of taking pictures, doing geometry and Googling the Pythagorean Theory, which we tried to forget after High School to determine some angles... the answer still isn't clear except for the fact that our scorers saw Bryan crossing the line first... they are good scorers who we trust and we will also trust that they actually saw what they both agreed they saw. So my money is on the fact that Bryan crossed the stripe before Chris because I have 3 smart people that were watching the line say that's what happened and I can also explain how the picture above can appear to show something different.

Yes, it was a great race! Congrats to Both Bryan and Chris and also to Chris for picking up the Midget/Sprint car double on Saturday at Spoon River.

[Chris Nunn]

Hey, I wasnt complaining, just saying that was one hell of a finish.

Hence why I just announce and dont score

Scorers have the WORST job in racing...in my opinion. Takes a lot of thick skin to be a scorer.

[kdobson]

I know you weren't complaining Chris, but you aren't the only one to have asked the question. Heck, even I was asking a similar question after the race. I felt like I should share the rest of the story.

[Chris Nunn]

And finishes like that, that make your jaw drop, is why I love this sport

[slick01]

It was awesome and why open wheel racing is the greatest. Thanks to MOWA for being so open on a couple of different topics!

[dirtnonwingfan]

Ken, you mention your video guy. Even without that spectacular finish that was one of the best shows I have attended this year and I am hoping that there is a DVD of the whole show which can be purchased. Is there?

[kdobson]

Frank - Yes, I can have him make some and if you email me I can have one waiting the next time you are here or send it to you, whichever you prefer. kdobson99 [at] gmail.com. It would be of the entire night and not edited. He is no longer in the business of making DVD's. We just pay him to be there so we can use the footage for promos and for Pay Per View. It wouldn't surprise me if Jackslash could make a DVD of just the sprint and midget portions if that's what you are after, and since he makes his living doing this, it might be worth asking him in order to support him.

[Mud Packer]

A big thank you to Ken for going out of the way to explain the finish. I doubt many others would have taken the time to give a detailed explaination of how they did award the win. Even more interesting is they also went back and reconstructed it the best they could to make sure they were right in the call. I also agree Chris, scorers are a special breed. A very thankless job that has to be done. The only downer was that I couldn't be there to see it.