Flying Racecar Brings About Ruling Controversy

Wyoming-based small-tire racer Lance Knigge, already well-known for the high-flying antics of his twin-turbocharged Chevrolet Nova, exposed a rarely referenced grey area in the otherwise cut-and-dry competition rules go drag racing on Saturday evening.

Knigge was racing Brandon Sandlian and his supercharged Studebaker in the second round of No-Time Small Tire eliminations at Tulsa Raceway Park’s annual Throwdown at T-Town when his Nova again became airborne near the finish line, clearing the 660-foot timing reflectors in the process. Sandlian received the win light. Video footage from around half track showed Knigge ahead of Sandlian, and most opinions on social media gave him the nod from a visual perspective, but as his car caught air and slowed, Sandlian appeared to have at least partially closed the gap, calling the race into question.

Amazingly, Knigge’s car settled down after the brief low-altitude flight and crashed back to earth without doing any significant damage.

The National Hot Rod Association, traditionally the sport’s “North Star” for competition policy, has maintained that conclusive video evidence is required to overturn the electronic result of a drag race. This standard famously came into the limelight in 2005, when the result of the Pro Stock Motorcycle final round at the U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis was overturned in favor of Steve Johnson. ESPN television footage from the finish line tower confirmed that the wheel on Johnson’s motorcycle in that climactic race had fooled the finish line timing sensors and that he had indeed outrun Smith, hours after Smith had already given TV and media interviews, and accepted the check and the prestigious Wally trophy.

Without finish line footage in the Knigge/Sandlian contest to confirm a winner, and neither driver confident in who crossed the finish line first, Midwest Drag Racing Series and Tulsa Raceway Park officials were forced into the unenviable position of making a unique call. Unique, of course, because not only is a vehicle sailing over the finish line the rarest of rarities, but typically, such a flight either results in a conclusive loss, a lane infraction that negates any further conversation, or a devastating crash that renders the winner unable to cross the scales and return.

“By the 330 I could see that I was pulling on him, and I had all the power out the back, so I felt in my mind that I was going to win the round,” Knigge says. “Then all of a sudden I took flight.”

In the interest of fairness to both parties, the ultimate decision was made to re-run the race, eliciting some controversy online. Knigge, in an effort to avoid the same result on the top-end, replaced a damaged front wheel and turned his car up early so he could then tame the power application down late. The result: his machine struck the tires, and Sandlian moved on.

“It was 100-percent their call, and I’m upset at the outcome, but I’m not upset at them for making that call, because there are two sides to it,” Knigge said of the re-run. “Brandon thought he should have won because of the win light. He said he knew I was out in front of him, and I definitely knew I was out on him when I went through the stripe. The videos really look like [I won], but there’s just not a straight-on video. So that’s what made the call tough.

“If there was video proof that I was ahead, I think they’d have called it that way,” Lance continues. “I do feel like it should have gone my way, because I’m on my side of it. But if I were in Brandon’s shoes, I’d say, ‘show me the proof and I’ll give it to him.’ But there was just no video proof. Who knows, without a video to show us side by side, maybe once I left the ground, Brandon passed. There’s no way to definitively answer that. So at the end of the day, I leave holding my head up high. We ran it again, and I didn’t win, but I know I was faster that round. That’s racing. I’m not upset. Some people think I got screwed, but I don’t think I did. I’d like to have it gone the other way, but it didn’t.”