I think as long as the motor is in a class that allows for the modifications according to the rules and it techs properly there is no reason to have a claim out there. To have a great motor in a bigger class costs money. If someone wants to stay cheaper or race in a class where motors are even, then race in a crate motor class. But if you are racing in a class where engines cost decent money and you have competitors putting $30,000+ then you can't come up with $15k and buy them out just because you can't afford twice that. We use to have that rule in a traveling series when my son raced karts. If a kart was abnormally fast you could call a claim on the motor, but then it went to tech and got torn completely down. If it was legal, you paid for the rebuild and half the money you claimed it for and got nothing in return. I think anyone who has a solid legal motor would love to have someone claim their motor, rebuild it, and then pay them a bunch of money and not give anything up. I think it's an issue of people staying in classes they can afford and are comfortable in and not going up to classes they are just going to complain about.
Originally Posted by Mooney/DeWitt Racing:
I think as long as the motor is in a class that allows for the modifications according to the rules and it techs properly there is no reason to have a claim out there. To have a great motor in a bigger class costs money. If someone wants to stay cheaper or race in a class where motors are even, then race in a crate motor class. But if you are racing in a class where engines cost decent money and you have competitors putting $30,000+ then you can't come up with $15k and buy them out just because you can't afford twice that. We use to have that rule in a traveling series when my son raced karts. If a kart was abnormally fast you could call a claim on the motor, but then it went to tech and got torn completely down. If it was legal, you paid for the rebuild and half the money you claimed it for and got nothing in return. I think anyone who has a solid legal motor would love to have someone claim their motor, rebuild it, and then pay them a bunch of money and not give anything up. I think it's an issue of people staying in classes they can afford and are comfortable in and not going up to classes they are just going to complain about.
I'm not following you...when your motor gets claimed you leave with money and the person that claimed it leaves with your motor...each party gives something up and gets something in return. The way your comment reads you are confusing a claim rule for a protest procedure.
Originally Posted by darnall:
I'm not following you...when your motor gets claimed you leave with money and the person that claimed it leaves with your motor...each party gives something up and gets something in return. The way your comment reads you are confusing a claim rule for a protest procedure.
That's my point. Say you claim my motor for the $15k he's talking about and I have $30k in it. Just because you got beat by my fully legal motor doesn't make it right you can buy me out because you can't afford it. You leave with my motor and I get half the money I paid for it? That's asinine. Stay out of big motor classes and you can compete realistically for $15k and under.
Originally Posted by Mooney/DeWitt Racing:
That's my point. Say you claim my motor for the $15k he's talking about and I have $30k in it. Just because you got beat by my fully legal motor doesn't make it right you can buy me out because you can't afford it. You leave with my motor and I get half the money I paid for it? That's asinine. Stay out of big motor classes and you can compete realistically for $15k and under.
The point of the claim rule being to keep you and anybody else from spending 30K on a motor. One thing that can't be teched is your checkbook, so a claim rule is an attempt to keep you "legal" regarding the intent of the class.
Do I think there should be a claim rule on premier classes...no I don't... they haven't worked since the early-mid 80s in the beginning of the IMCA modified class, and even then a big chunk of the claims that happened were spite/screw you claims..and guys who were getting claimed started using external balancers so the next guy would shell the motor they just claimed.
In crate classes or possibly even racesaver classes I think there could be some potential good come from having a claim rule, but again it isn't very likely based on how all the other claim rule classes have gone the last 20 years or so.
