[on_the_edge]

Originally Posted by Racerrob USAC's rule for the past three years (I think) had been for the lower frame rails to be constructed of 1.5" x .083" or 1.375" x .095" tubing. They adopted these rules in conjunction with the WoO and AllStars adopting identical rules. This rule was made necessary by teams building chassis out of thin wall tubing on the lower rails to improve performance. As teams kept making these rails thinner, safety concerns developed as a hard crash would break the lower rails. Our F-5 chassis were made out of 1.375" x .083" tubing and worked extremely well. Our team and many others complied with these new rules. All Triple X chassis conform to the WoO/AllStar standard and I would wager that Maxim's and most other chassis manufacturer's do as well since they build cars primarily for WoO and AllStar competition. When Chase took his car to Haubstadt to compete with the WoO they measured the thickness of his frame rails during the tech inspection and found the lower rails were too thin. It is my understanding that when Levi contacted DRC about this, he was informed that ALL DRC chassis had the thin wall lower rails which would make them illegal unless USAC changed the rule. Apparently a chassis manufacturer located in Indianapolis, building cars for USAC competition, was unaware of USAC having this rule. Levi contacted me and discussed the situation. I was not in favor of changing the rule because: 1. It was initially instituted for safety reasons; 2. It makes USAC cars non-standard from the other major sanctions; 3. It legalizes cars which have a competitive advantage over many of the current competitors and; 4. It rewards the teams who have been competing with an illegal chassis for the last three years and penalizes the teams who have complied with USAC's rules by forcing them to buy new chassis or accept diminished performance. I understand the position of USAC not wanting to affect car counts (especially for this weekend)and I proposed to Levi that the rule remain as it was but to make a public announcement that beginning July 1, 2016, USAC would tech all chassis for the wall thickness in compliance with the rules and competitors found to be out of compliance would not be allowed to compete. USAC could also conduct the tech inspections beginning this weekend (without enforcing the rule) to let teams determine if their current chassis is legal. I guess I should have saved my breath because obviously it did not make a bit of difference. Levi just wanted my blessing to change the rule. Now I am faced with the decision of whether I should have chassis built to take advantage of the new rule because it is a competitive advantage. Nothing like penalizing a team who complied with the rules and rewarding those which didn't! As many years as I have been doing this I should expect nothing less from USAC!

Do you think XXX Chinese .095 is as strong as American .083?