Robert Ballou's Comments after Macon
 

Robert inferred that one or more competitors cars where found illegal due to ballast being ahead of the front axle?

Which "competitor" and which race was he talking about? I scrapped thru the Internet and found ZERO information.

One thing about Robert, you can always count on him to have something to say!

I believe it was from Friday night. Bacon and Moles both had weight bolted under the front torsion bars, which is clearly illegal but USAC let it slide. Why have rule book if you are not going to follow it. I think that all the teams and drivers want a fair playground plain and simple. I personally think that the USAC 410 non-wing is the best racing of any race class. They should have a much bigger following of drivers and teams with bigger payouts, but that won’t happen with inconsistency of USAC.

The tech guy DQ’d them but someone higher up at USAC reversed the decision. A friend of ours went to the driver’s meeting Saturday and said Ballou was very vocal, along with others. Understandably so, the other drivers were demanding a response only to hear nothing can be done about it until Monday. So we will wait on the edge of our seats to see what happens….or doesn’t.

Very bad decision by USAC. You cannot selectively enforce rules and expect that to be tolerated.

Re: Robert Ballou's Comments after Macon
 

Will be watching to see how this all plays out. Good for ROBERT for speaking up! It's BS!

Re: Robert Ballou's Comments after Macon
 

Hmm, sounds like what happened to the seventh commandmant on the barn wall in George Orwell's Animal Farm!

.

Re: Robert Ballou's Comments after Macon
 

Where was the IRON MAN?

if someone would take time to read the usac master rule book, it states on page one" this rule book can be changed without warning".

Wait, what? This really happened? I’m flabbergasted, USAC would never alter the rules to protect their protected drivers.
Sounds like Tiregate part Deaux!

Would the “Race Director “ be the guy that would overturn this rule infraction? Asking for a friend. 😉

If everything I read here is true, then I call on my beloved USAC to make it right tomorrow morning. Everyone knows I’m the biggest apologist for USAC there is. But sometimes you have to make the tough call. It’s not easy to do but necessary to preserve integrity. This is coming from a guy who actually black flagged his best friend in the world. The high road is a lot of times a bumpy ride. So in my typical apologist nature, I’ll remind everyone that this is not the only series in the world that has had controversy. Hell I remember not that long ago a big name hit the restart cone at the biggest Sprint Car race in the world and no penalty was accessed. Some even blamed the cone! Coyote, cue Orwell again

He appears to be a Wanger now based on last weeks activity.

Re: Robert Ballou's Comments after Macon
 

I am amazed after Robert's great run in a really good feature that this is what people are talking about. What about that race? As good as I have seen all year. Bacon and Ballou had an intense battle. They always seem to find each other during an intense race. Ballou did a slick old school move, that no one has mentioned. Bacon was getting good runs at him down low off of 2. On the caution, Ballou went low under caution drove through a puddle on the inside and gassed sending water onto that low groove. That took away Bacon's sweet spot.
People seemed to like drama more than racing. What a race. Great job by everyone involved at getting the show in.

Re: Robert Ballou's Comments after Macon
 

Hold on a second. I asked a question with this thread as I didn't know what in the world Ballou was talking about.

and everyone who knew something and posted, thanks.

Now Brent, I don't care how good the racing was. USAC has a rule book that everyone is to follow. They can not allow some to not follow the rules and other must... That spoils the very essence of competition.

As far as throwing water onto the groove or whatever, is there a rule against that? Is Bacon allowed to nerf if he feels he was "done wrong?" I have no idea as the stellar camera work provided by Flo and the hour of the day... thank God Flo provides a replay at 2am in the morning as I was fast asleep during the feature.

I will never be fed a sheet sandwich and made to tell someone it tasted great. NEVER. If someone broke rules then someone should be disqualified, penalized, something as a deterrent. Unless USAC is going the way of Marion County Judges where bad guys are on the street in 48 hours.

Re: Robert Ballou's Comments after Macon
 

Re: Robert Ballou's Comments after Macon
 

The primary purpose of any sanctioning body is to administer races and enforce rules. Something like weight in an illegal location is easily rectified. As an organization, as soon as something is pointed out like this you should approach the teams and require them to fix it or they can load up and go home.

I don't know if weight in an illegal location is as egregious an infraction as illegal fuel, engine, tires or even total weight. However, this certainly needs to be addressed.

One thing I do get tired of is seeing organizations turn their heads when one of the "big teams" purposely breaks a rule but the minute one of the "small teams" does it and the big team points it out its taken serious. Or someone is allowed to be illegal until they run up front.

One example of them throwing the rule book the side has been when they allow illegal midget engines to race just because they know they're not fast enough to win. However, the minute one wins everyone would be up in arms. So why not just write them into the rule book?

Re: Robert Ballou's Comments after Macon
 

I love the sceen-shot in the pod cast showing the USAC Official shining a flash light on the left front torsion bar

Re: Robert Ballou's Comments after Macon
 

Good thing there's no screenshot or video evidence of Bacon's because he wouldn't cheat :17:

Re: Robert Ballou's Comments after Macon
 

Serious question. I thought that putting weight on in front of the axle was actually bad for the set up. I thought that this was where certain series put weight on the car when they were trying to balance engine sizes? Do I have my locations off or is it that Macon was such a different type of track that it took a very different type set up.

If this is indeed a move by KO team, probably a move in the right direction. Go Chase!

So Brent, I believe the reason for the post , is the amount of attention that Ballou brought to the table. No one said it wasn’t a great race, it was. Robert apparently brought it up in the drivers meeting Saturday and I fell on deaf USAC ears and he mentioned it again on his Heat race win interview and AGAIN in his post race podium interview. And I must say in classic Ballou style. So Brent, if there was a rule infraction with the two said teams, how do YOU think the situation should be handled and how do you think the sanctioning body will respond.

Re: Robert Ballou's Comments after Macon
 

Thank you . I can’t wait for for the Funk spin on this question. Well done sir.

Re: Robert Ballou's Comments after Macon
 

I hope your statement is in jest. If it isn’t you might want to fire up your Twitter account and look up Johnny Wingo. The photo is there. Maybe even just ask Brady. 🤷*♂️

Re: Robert Ballou's Comments after Macon
 

I’m interested in how long this post will last before it gets pulled for USAC sensitivity. Not a fan of Ballou and his endless complaining, but he makes a valid point about the rules.

Re: Robert Ballou's Comments after Macon
 

The key word is apparently. Just because a coach whines about a call in a ball game, doesn't mean he is right. Since you brought up that this is classic Ballou style, what has that done for him? Has it helped his qualifying program, so he gets more wins instead of hard charger awards? It is just encourages drama queens to complain. I have never seen a Robert interview fix or change anything. I go to watch races, not for a soap opera. Robert was great to watch last night. I bet most of the people commenting about this, weren't there, and saw nothing first hand. Basically they are basing it off a guy who doe s tend to be a victim a lot said.

Re: Robert Ballou's Comments after Macon
 

Vookie

DIRTTRACKR's comments are totally ridiculous. WoO it's not. The comments about chassie builders providing a place to bolt weight does not fly either. Why? Pretty simple, RULE BOOK.

example

In Iran if they catch you shop lifting? They cut off your hand

In America? Depending how much you steal and how much money you have.


I have been around long enough to know a few things that went on behind the scenes. There are some rather sordid scenarios in the past.

Re: Robert Ballou's Comments after Macon
 

USAC Rule Book 2024 National Sprint Cars:

Appendix C, Section 302 Paragraph F:

"Additional bolt-on weight must be mounted and fastened to the frame and/or chassis in a secure manner. Weight must be
mounted in an area between bottom frame rails, front and rear axles and no higher than mid rails at cockpit. All weight must
be mounted within the confines of the frame. No weight may be added during yellow or red flag."



Boy! That is black and white!

Yada Yada Yada…… You skillfully avoided answering the main last question to you in my post……

Re: Robert Ballou's Comments after Macon
 

Yes! its also a good thing they don't have gambling on this.... oh wait...

Re: Robert Ballou's Comments after Macon
 

The rolling eyes at the end of my post should be a clue...

Re: Robert Ballou's Comments after Macon
 

interesting point even though my comment was in Jest.

I’ve seen pictures of the alleged infractions on both the 19 and 69. I’ve seen the rule posted. However painful, the right call must be made. It’s seems simple to me

Re: Robert Ballou's Comments after Macon
 

Bingo!

https://i.postimg.cc/d3LYt4Gq/IMG-6955.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/gjQPw8K3/IMG-6956.jpg

Re: Robert Ballou's Comments after Macon
 

"One thing I do get tired of is seeing organizations turn their heads when one of the "big teams" purposely breaks a rule but the minute one of the "small teams" does it and the big team points it out its taken serious."

I've personally had that happen before, not with USAC though. With mini sprints. I was always lowest budget team out there. Running a dead stock engine on pump gas, with factory tuned ECU, was having some problems with overheating. We drilled a few holes in the hood for some pipes to channel air to radiator more. We also heard if you got more air to intake it can help lower temps. So we took a flexible plastic hose from Lowes, ran it to the right side of the airbox and ran a small pvc pipe to the left inlet of the stock airbox. Ran the first race, found out to much air was coming in and had no power, so we put some foam in. Helped a ton with temps and gave us a little more power. Not much, but some. Still no where near what the "bigger" teams were.

Well one of the "bigger favorite" teams noticed and complained about it. We were parked for the night due, to we were running "forced injection" although rules only stated "No turbo, super chargers, or vacuum pumps." Meanwhile said team and several other teams were sending their engines out for really high dollar rebuilds. That's not even including on the aftermarket airboxes, some of the airbox on the left side would stick out the side of the hood.

Re: Robert Ballou's Comments after Macon
 

Cheap fakes, Cheap Fakes! :5:

Re: Robert Ballou's Comments after Macon
 

And often IS!!!

Re: Robert Ballou's Comments after Macon
 

I believe both of these teams involved in this are honest, fair minded and professionally run organizations and I do not believe either of them are cheaters. The thing that most puzzles me about this whole thing is why? I just have a hard time believing either team would do something so obviously in violation of a clearly stated rule at the very front of the rule book without some kind prior approval or consent.

To paraphrase Ricki Ricarrdo, "USAC, you got some splainin to do"!

Re: Robert Ballou's Comments after Macon
 

I'm wondering if the weight way up front was possibly to help keep the front end from lifting.