A routine series of technical inspections of Factory X and Factory Stock Showdown entries at the NHRA U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis a week ago has set in motion the exit of one high-profile entry, and reignited a decades-long quarrel between diehard brand loyalists.
The inspections in question unearthed supercharger pulley-related rules violations by a number of Chevrolet-powered teams, with five of the six teams being permitted to correct the issue and remain in competition at the Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park. One of those entries, Aaron Stanfield, went on to win the Factory X crown over Lenny Lottig.
On Friday, with rumors of the wrongdoing already well into circulation, the NHRA announced its sanctions against the Factory X entries of Aaron Stanfield and father Greg Stanfield, along with the Factory Stock Showdown entries of Doug Hamp, Lee Hartman, Stephen Bell, and Tony Scott, docking each 100 championship points and levying a fine of $2,500.
The most vocal of competitors has been Geoff Turk, who campaigns Factory X’s only Dodge, with Alex Laughlin at the wheel, and also lends technical support to the Dodge Challenger Drag Pak Factory Stock Showdown entry of Ray Nash. The consequences, Turk says, are merely a slap on the wrist.
“In the famous case of Jerry Eckman, prior to competition, in Pro Stock, a nitrous bottle and system explosion in the pits in his entry, before any runs were made and perhaps one not even yet connected and functional, when discovered, resulted in he and his crew chief being suspended from competition for two years and fined $25,000, each. The system had not been run and based upon performance, there was no clear evidence it ever had been. While this level of corrective action might have been too heavy-handed, the contrast to what was just done, is startling. I will no longer attempt to defend the actions of NHRA, debate their accused favoritism to a brand and/or competitor or group of competitors because their actions are simply, indefensible,” Turk asserts.
“Top level teams and many, many of their drivers were blatantly, flagrantly, and in numerous highly deceitful ways, massively cheating to gain advantage and win. Performance changes in these competitors make it clear that this was not a one event occurrence, but a pattern of behavior with corresponding impacts and race outcomes that reach far back to the beginning of this season and perhaps back further,” Turk suggests.
As Turk alluded to at Indy following the tech department’s discovery, and confirmed this week, he and Laughlin will no longer compete in Factory X and will instead seek other venues to showcase the BlackbirdX Dodge.
“We plan to go out and run BlackbirdX in a number of venues the remainder of this season, unplugged, where we finally light its afterburners, as always intended and with an ear-to-ear grinning Alex Laughlin behind the wheel. For the remainder of the year, we no longer plan to compete in the NHRA Factory X events,” Turk insists.
Chris Holbrook, a veteran of class racing and the two categories in question, who pilots one of only two Ford Mustang entries in Factory X, says his future is likewise uncertain.
“I have a potential sponsor lined up and it was looking good until these latest problems [in the class] and now they are not sure, so I have not made any decisions yet. I’m hopeful things will improve and this exciting class can continue to flourish,” Holbrook says.
Holbrook said that he first noticed something visually askew with the superchargers on select Chevrolet entries as far back as last season and raised those concerns, but it was not until the inspection at Indianapolis that those issues were identified.
Adding salt to the wound for Turk and Nash is that on the same day the NHRA’s actions against the named participants was announced, parity adjustments in favor of the Chevrolet entries were also made.
Data from Indianapolis would suggest, at least on the surface, that may have been warranted, as the Ford entry of Jason Dietsch outqualified the quickest Chevrolet, Tony Scott’s Camaro, by a sizable .082 seconds. Just one Chevrolet, that of Scott Libersher, advanced past round two. At the most recent event in Norwalk, Bell led qualifying and four of the top five cars were Chevrolet entries. At Bristol in June, Chevrolets comprised the top eight qualifying positions, with Hartman pacing the field.
With the corrected, legal combination, Aaron Stanfield clocked low elapsed time of the U.S. Nationals in Factory X, and two of the three quickest runs of eliminations overall.
