TC DQed at Stafford

STAFFORD - Valenti Modified Racing Series motor inspector Bob Carrita said car owner Joe Brady tried to "blatantly bend the rules" with the car he entered into Friday's Lincoln Tech 80 at Stafford Motor Speedway.

Valenti Modified Racing Series officials took the unusual step of disqualifying Brady and his driver Ted Christopher prior to their car even getting on the track Friday at Stafford.

Carrita said Brady used a trick piece to fool the gauge measuring engine compression.

"I checked them like I check all the other cars," Carrita said. "They were big in compression, they were big in cubic inches. They were illegal, they knew it and they had something screwed in the cylinder to mess up my machines. I looked, seen that they had something in the cylinder. I confiscated it."

Carrita showed off a small washer-like piece of metal he said was illegally used in the cylinder.

"Our gauge goes in the cylinder and it measures inside the cylinder with air pressure for compression," Carrita said. "They had the piece screwed inside the cylinder, it only has a small hole in it so it screws with the gauges."

Christopher said that even after the piece was removed from the cylinder the compression measured at 12.3. The limit was supposed to be 12.0. Christopher argued that the team should have been allowed to add weight to the car and been allowed to compete.

"They pulled [the metal out of the cylinder] it out and it was 12.3," said Christopher, a part-timer on the Valenti Modified Racing Series who competes weekly at Stafford in an SK Modified and full-time on the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour. "That's not crazy on a 12-1 motor. Yeah, it's over, I'll admit to that, but you put some weight on."

Carrita said he wouldn't reveal what the true compression and cubic inch measurement was after the trick piece was removed, but said it was substantially higher than allowable and not anything that could be allowed on the track, even with weight added.

"It was supposed to be 12.0, they were much higher than that," Carrita said. "If you're talking gray area being an inch, they were two yards away. So I went down and talked to Brady when I was done doing what I was doing and told him 'You ain't even close.' He didn't even argue with me. It upsets me that they're trying to paint a picture that it was close and it wasn't.

"Ted never came around, Teddy drives the car, what he knows about it or doesn't know about, I'm not saying Teddy had anything to do with it, but that particular car was way off legal, not even close. With NASCAR, or going to New Smyrna, whatever, wherever that car has been, they may be able to trick them guys, but I told Brady 'He's got to get up pretty early to trick me.'

"It wasn't something that I just checked with my gauges. I heard in the pits that they were telling people they were 12.3 and they wanted to put weight on the car. That's far from the truth. Cubic inch wise they were way big and compression wise they were way big."

It marks the second consecutive year that the Brady/Christopher combination has had issues with Valenti Modified Racing Series inspectors. Christopher was disqualified from a second place finish while driving for Brady during a Valenti Modified Racing Series event on Aug. 14, 2010 at the Waterford Speedbowl. Series officials said the heads on the Brady entry motor were illegal.

Brady was left seething after the way the disqualification went down last year at Waterford, at the time threatening to sue series officials for what he called a "conspiracy" targeting Christopher by from the division's then head lead tech inspector.

Friday's Valenti Modified Racing Series event at Stafford was stopped after 32 laps because of rain and will be completed on July 2