To get a real world view on the long running debate, seeing I dont have a rule book, yesterday, I asked the following questions to both IHRA & NHRA to get the real world answer:

Mark asked:
"Would you please  have a look the below scenarios and please advise, under your rules, who you would consider the winner in each case or  point to where I can find the correct answer..

Two cars intend to race, both are pushed into stage (ie they do not move under their own power before or during staging)

The tree counts down:

1. Car A red lights.
Car B never moves, the car is pushed back to the pits

2. Car A red lights.
Car B moves but goes about half way and stops in the middle of the track because he broke something.

3. Car A Breaks out.
Car B never moves, the car is pushed back to the pits"

Mar 12 2010 Mike Rice, NHRA's  Pacific Director replied:
"First off, no car should ever be pushed into stage beam. Must stage under own power. Exception may be motorcycles as they don't generally stage using the clutch. In all, if car b stages under power it would be the winner."

Mar 12 2010 Skooter Peaco, IHRA's VP of Race operations replied:
"That’s an easy one.  Both cars are out.

Pg 113 General Rules:
Staging:  Paragraph 4
To be considered a round winner, the competitors final staging motion, using the vehicles applied power, must be in a forward motion going from pre-stage to stage position.

Again, both cars would be DQ and there would be no winner of that round.  A similar situation happened to me once at a national event with pro stock, only in this scenario both cars left before the tree was activated.  No winner.

If you want to toss out the fact that neither car can be considered a round winner because neither actually met the stage requirements and you just wanted to look at the various scenarios, then
#1 – Car B wins
#2 – Car B wins
#3 – Car B wins
In the ranking of offenses, page 124 a foul start is a 7 and not crossing the finish line on a dual competition run is a 9.  The lower the number the worse the offense.
Breakout is an 8 value, which is still lower than the 9 rank of not crossing the finish line."

*************************

So Bracket 500 folks, there you have it.  In real life, it is clearly critical that a car must move forward under its own power (not driver/crew whoever power)  to win a race.  We agree in the slot car world that this is not practicable to burnout/stage under power.  So the ruling is over to the track owners to publish and enforce how they would handle the situation,
but for completeness and accuracy I suggest something like
    Vehicle fails to unable to move forward unaided (after receiving go signal) becomes an infringement.

Mark

Last edited by NZ Mark (Today 2:43 pm)