NASCAR has had it with the finger-pointing, accusations and fruitless investigations about the use, uh, make that alleged use, of illegal traction control systems in its Winston Cup Series. Starting next season, Nextel Cup teams will have to mount all of their wart-ugly ignition parts, pieces and wires so that anyone strolling through the garage area can inspect the system through the front windshield. “They will be in full display on the dashboard,” Winston Cup director John Darby said this week. “The Busch Series and Truck Series are going to have the same rule.” Any traction control system utilizes the ignition system to send the right amount of torque and power to the rear wheels. With a traction control system in place, a driver would have a distinct advantage over other competitors with a regular ignition system, especially at NASCAR flat tracks. Prior to this season, most of the ignition system was hidden from sight under the dashboard area. Those in the know say all it would take to convert a plain old ignition system into a traction control beast is a preprogrammed computer chip. They say such a chip could be inserted into the ignition system by the driver just before the race and quickly removed after the checkered flag, making traction control virtually undetectable. NASCAR doesn’t want this kind of technology infesting its circa-1950s motor and electrical setups, but even after issuing a you-will-never-race-with-us-again-if-caught ultimatum about traction control, the whispers continued. When Darby talked about NASCAR’s plans to bolt these electrical parts to the dashboard, he never uttered the words “traction control.” He said the purpose of the rule is to let everybody else know what a team is running in their car. “Right now ignition systems are not in full view of every competitor,” Darby said. “It goes along with our open garage, open inspection philosophy. With the ignition systems in clear sight of everyone, all the competitors can look at it just like they look at the body, springs and chassis.”Most everybody thought this was going to happen before the 2003 season because traction control was such a hot topic during most of 2002.(see full story at the Daytona Beach News Journal )(10-30-2003)
