Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 1, 1995 TAG: 9503010073
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
From sophisticated electronic surveillance to a simple new device consisting of a suction cup and a fish scale, Gary Nelson, NASCAR's Winston Cup director, is leaving no stone unturned in his personal crusade to clean up any techno-cheating that might be happening in the Winston Cup series.
At Rockingham on Sunday, Nelson's inspectors - including newly hired Steve Peterson, an electronics specialist - tested ignition systems and even tore one apart, looking for hidden circuit boards or other unapproved electronic devices.
At Daytona on Feb.19, inspectors scanned the air waves, honed in on data-transmission signals and hunted them down. They were searching for teams that might be violating the NASCAR rules by sending digital data from their car while it was on the track, providing a vast array of information about the car's performance.
No such activity was found, Nelson is happy to report.
``We traced down a lot of stuff at Daytona,'' he said. ``Everything turned out to be digital fax machines and cellular phones. We even traced one signal down that turned out to be that little helicopter that CBS was using to help televise the race.''
In his efforts to keep the sport clean, Nelson has gone so far as to consult with an official from a high-tech security company whose specialty is testing electronic banking services by trying to rob them.
Nelson's mission, he said, ``is not to catch people. We're trying to convince them not to try it.''
A native of Southern California, Nelson is laid-back by nature. So one of his least favorite things to do is to confront the members of a team he has busted in the NASCAR trailer and assess fines and penalties.
But when he's had to do it, the 41-year-old former crew chief has turned cop and laid down the law.
The repercussions of NASCAR's record fines at Daytona still are being felt.
At Rockingham on Sunday - for the second consecutive race - Nelson forced the teams of Junior Johnson and Bill Davis, who were fined for cheating at Daytona, to tear down their engines and undergo a thorough, time-consuming postrace inspection. This was done even though neither car had been in contention in either race.
Usually, the tear-down is limited to the top five finishers and a randomly selected car or two.
``We're going to look a little closer at somebody we know has broken the rules already,'' Nelson said.
On Monday night in Charlotte, N.C., a three-member panel of the NASCAR-administered National Stock Car Racing Commission reduced Johnson's fine from $45,100 to $35,100 for using an altered engine manifold at Daytona. The panel also reduced crew chief Mike Beam's indefinite probation to four races, but extended the probation to Johnson as well. Johnson had appealed the NASCAR penalties.
Besides the forlorn looks on the faces of the Johnson and Davis teams, there were other interesting sights in NASCAR's postrace inspection area at Rockingham.
One was NASCAR's Peterson, who used to work on electronics and computers at Roush Racing. Peterson is one of five inspectors Nelson has hired to replace three who departed.
Peterson's primary job is inspecting safety equipment, Nelson said, and he already has come up with an ingenious device to make sure the roof flaps designed to keep cars from flipping in a spin will open if necessary.
``He developed this really neat thing with a suction cup attached to a fish scale,'' Nelson said. ``You lift the roof flap with the fish scale and it tells you how much it takes to open the flap. We're developing a standard for how easily it should open. Previously, we'd been using a pocket knife to pry them open to make sure they worked.''
On Sunday at Rockingham, Peterson was in the roped-off inspection area with a small blue box that Nelson identified as a diagnostic testing device for ignition systems.
The blue box elicited some curious comment.
Stan Creekmore, a National Speed Sport News correspondent who was hovering around the area like a buzzard, heard an engine builder ask NASCAR's pace car driver, Elmo Langley, what the blue box was.
``It's my lunch box,'' Langley replied.
Nelson confirmed Peterson was testing for unapproved circuitry in the ignition boxes.
``In other forms of racing, such as drag racing, the technology has gotten to the point that when the driver puts his foot to the floor, an on-board computer adjusts the ignition or fuel to give maximum traction,'' Nelson said.
Before the use of computers and digital transmissions was limited in Formula One racing, Honda engineers in Japan were making adjustments by satellite to race cars while they were speeding around the track in South Africa and other stops around the world, Nelson said.
An on-board computerized traction-control system would be tremendously beneficial to a stock car, he said. For instance, at shorter tracks such as Rockingham and Richmond, the engine can produce too much power, spinning the rear wheels on the pavement when the driver hits the gas coming off the turns. An on-board computer, reading information from tiny sensors attached to each wheel, could control traction by cutting engine power, even to the point of taking one or more of the eight cylinders out of commission.
But NASCAR has banned the computers in its effort to control the cost of stock car racing, Nelson said.
To hunt for violations, ``all we did was go to the manufacturers of ignition boxes and get their diagnostic equipment,'' Nelson said.
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
by CNB