While there will be much written and discussed about the Western Nationals, perhaps the biggest topic will be about the dyno issues that came up.

In our opinion there were enough dyno issues to last for five years worth of Nationals and we hope to never go through this again.

With that said, we want to start discussions with a complement directed to the Acting Series Director for the event, Tim Comeau.

Starting on Thursday, dyno concerns were coming up from various 944 racers and others in other classes. Tim stepped up Friday morning after first practice and shared his concerns about the dyno. His immediate action was to send three of the top guys to the dyno immediately to get information on how it was reading. He explained it clearly and issued dyno slips so the three did not have to pay for their dyno's. The results were quite unexpected. Tim then called a meeting of the group to address a solution to the obvious problems. His solution was fair to all competitors and was the best solution in a very bad situation on very short notice.

It is true that some racers were not immediately happy with his solution but, on further reflection and more facts, those initially unhappy racers were in full agreement with his solution.

His thoughtful action in addressing a serious problem saved any semblance of a proper National Competition for all of us.

Thank you, Mr. Comeau, for your measured, thoughtful, logical approach to the horrendous problem that could have easily destroyed the Western Nationals for 16 competitors.

Jim Foxx and Katie Pelland

I have to say, I was one of those upset with the dyno issues and unfortunately took to this forum to voice my frustrations. I have to say that Tim Comeau did handle the situation VERY well and very diplomatically. He was a definite asset to have and look forward to seeing him again at the track.

My issues stemmed from the fact that I had been on that same dyno in very similar conditions not long before and didn't believe that it would change so much. I decided to put my car on the dyno and lo and behold, I gained 10hp in a month! I was fractions from being illegal.

The way the situation was handled by Tim & NASA should be a model going forward of how as a group things are solved.

Thanks also to everyone for letting me vent my frustration and accepting my apology later.

While I wasn't at Sonoma, I'm not surprised to hear about drama attached to the dyno. We had some minor issues at Eastern Nationals but nothing as disruptive as this sounded to be. The basis for our drama was tied to the environmental compensation box which was effectively being cooked in the 140+ degree track temps of Road Atlanta. Thanks to our national director, a course of action was implemented early on that minimized the drama.

If this does anything, it should illustrate how much of a wildcard the dyno testing seems to be and should be an improve that needs to be passed on to the National Office seeing as how both events seemed to go very well and were a big hit on both coasts. As much of an impact as 3 pulls on a trailer can have on a racers week end, it seems like there are way too many issues arising from its use. Is it just naturally a point of contention or is there really room to improve? Hopefully NASA will look at a better way to vet/qualify/contract with a dyno service that will offer predictable, reliable, and confident results.

First let me say thanks to Tim for managing what was a very difficult situation in a very professional way.. Second, I appreciate that the racers worked hard to be compliant, even though that meant serious detuning on the part of many, and low dyno results after th championship race. The results at Sonoma were clearly problematic, and out of line with previous results to a significant degree.


If there was one upside, I don't think there were any questions about over performing motors, and all seemed satisfied that the competition on track was determined on driver ability and car setup, not a bigger motor. While in that sense the dyno rule did it's job, the pain to get there is clearly excessive, and needs to be addressed.

I need to gather some more information on this, tlak to Tim & NASA, and work on solutions going forward. We may have some difficult decisions to make - stay tuned.

I have lots of info on my personal experience with the dyno that I will be happy to share if someone wants it. I did share it with Tim but am not sure he even believed me about it as I found it hard to believe too.

I set a new track record, in the championship race, with an engine that dynode in the 125's after the championship race so, clearly, that reading could not have been correct. With exactly the same fuel quality setting and 60 weight oil, it had dynoed at 135 or so the day before so go figure!

I was forced to set the fuel quality switch to setting 4 to get the dyno readings to be legal and, frankly, was very concerned about damage to my engine using that setting but adding 6% fuel(the number 3 setting) gave me a 4HP increase in power which made no sense either. The dyno reading simply made NO sense the entire weekend and my concern was having it suddenly read even higher after the race, which it did not do, thank goodness.

If anyone wants a full recounting of what I found, let me know and I will share it.

Jim Foxx

Jim, I need all the data I can get - email me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .