No one going to comment on Choquette being Dq’d at Hickory in the ASA southeast race?
http://www.asasoutheast.com/08_stories/9_22_Hickory_recap.html
It’s certainly not Choquette’s year when it comes to dealing with officials, which is a shame because I think he’s the brightest star this state has seen in a while.
Anyone know who the motorbuilder in question is?
Actually my first question is who is the motor builder… and was he given a copy of the series motor rules when he was building the motor for them… I understand that he admitted guilt according to the article but who was the builder…
congrats to Jeff but congrats to the tech people who caught something… the next question is, do the ASA rules provide for impound and tear down?
don’t mind me, just dropping a couple thoughts out there…
Calling a spade a spade…
This gets filed in the “If the shoe fits” category.
Just read the story and had to drop a line myself cuz it’s pretty black and white to me…
Car and driver enter race.
Car and driver win race.
Car gets inspected after race.
Car found to contain cheater parts.
Driver deemed cheater.
Whats so hard about that? He got caught. Plain and simple. Driver is 100% responsible for whatever he pulls onto the track with. I don’t care if he’s a 12 year old video game racer or the do-it-yourself engine builder/chassis dude/driver/owner. Win or lose, it’s his baby. This engine builder didn’t twist his arm and make him buy his engine. And even if he did, the engine builder didn’t make him install the motor and race it, did he? I’m pretty sure the Choquettes have enough money to employ any number of engine builders to put together a cheated up…oops…“legal” motor for them.
“It has no reflection on Jeff Choquette or Jeff Choquette Motorsports”-quote from the article
Gee. Who entered that illegal car and drove it to victory? (all the way from the pole too!) I don’t think it was the engine builder. What a quote. As if it could reflect any other way on them.
Busted cheating. Labeled a cheater in front of all those racers he out qualified and finished in front of. I’d say passed but I saw where he started.
Now that he’s been caught once, an uneasy feeling starts to form inside all the other LM racers’ heads. Remembering when the 70 car seemed like it had just a little something more than theirs on the straightaways. All these feelings leading them to ask “Was he cheated up when he beat me?” and of course the answer will be a resounding “YES” as now he is a known cheater and is suspect to even the most off the wall accusations regarding his number of wins and finishes.
At least it gives way to a new cool nickname.
Cheatin’ Choquette…it’s got a ring to it.
OJ
Didnt he get caught with traction control at Nss last year? Also isnt it a lifetime ban for anyone who gets caught cheating in ASA?
Let me see.
" What we found was to be outside the guidelines of the general motors rulebook and our rulebook."
Was it a crate motor?
If it was we wouldn’t be reading things like this if people would stop (building) crate motors.
This in no way changes the way i think of Jeff.
He’s been in tech more than most i can think of and this is the 1st DQ i’ve heard about.
It wasnt an ASA race at Nss when he was Dq’d. I think it was one of the Brighthouse 50 lappers either last year or the year before. He was having ignition probs so he pulled in. Tech looked at the car and found traction control.
Not taking anything away from the guy, he has won everything he has ever raced.
Reflecting on reflection…
After I read Benny’s post I re-read mine and saw that I forgot to mention that cheating or not, I actually think Jeff Choquette is a hellava pilot. He’s easy on the equipment until he needs to go to work and usually drives with his head in control of his foot instead of the other way around.
He has shown his talent all over the southeast in the last couple of years. That’s why it’s such a shame when someone with his talent gets busted. First you have to ask, why? Then those feelings (the ones I described before) start up and it kind of taints a lot of that persons career because if you get caught cheating once, well…
So what does it mean for Jeff?
Nothing really.
How many competitors have been “banned” from the ASA in accordance to their rule book? No, there will be a footnote found somewhere that allows clemency for a driver or team that swears on the bible that their engine builder acted alone and they were totally and completely innocent of any wrong doing and we promise never ever ever to use that nasty, mean and evil engine builder ever again. Scout’s honor.
Everybody cheats. Big money, little money. Doesn’t matter. It’s just the size of the media stage when you get caught that’s different. Media bias is a great and terrible thing sometimes. But that’s another story altogether…
Again…great driver, sad happenstance.
OJ
Osmosis I have to agree with you… When I have had engines built for me, I have always asked and made sure that I knew what the builder did too it…
Have a great day all…
According to his web site he runs Progressive motors. If this is correct it is not the first time an engine from them has been found illegal.
Choquette got chucked from a PASS South race at Carraway a month or so. But in Jeff’s defense it had nothing to do with a technical infraction. It appeared there was a misunderstanding regarding testing during the week of a race and they wanted Jeff to start shotgun on the field after setting fast time. Guess his crew didn’t like that and the officials didn’t care for how they were being treated by Jeff’s crew, so they were told to load up.
Since that’s the ASA that runs the blended motor rules, I would assume Jeff had his Progressive spec motor in the car and not his crate, but you never know. I’m not even sure if he bothers running a 9:1 any more.
Now traction control is a whole different story, if true…
I think he was running in the RC cola/ Moon Pie series which is different then the asa series they just ran at NSS. So I don’t know if they have the same rules.
Read your posts:
Engine rule for this is different from that. This is the problem with the racing today. Engine rules in the flavor of the promotor. Did anybody ever think that WOO has it fugured out with the 410 and ASCA has the 360’s cured. All you need is a guru for the late models and all willl be fine.
Sorry but a motor that is .5 faster than a 9:1 does not compare to a close finish and a good race.
Jeff Choquette has never ran traction control in his car let alone get disqualified for using it.
On the other hand, he absolutely was DQ’ed at the ASA Southeast race in Hickory, NC. For anyone that knows about these motors ~ it is a 604 Chevy Crate motor. The heads, cam, and pistons were all legal. The block was cut 0.015 of an inch (roughly as thick as a piece of paper) beyond the parameters of the rules. This was hardly an infraction and absolutely not the reason he won the race, admitted from the ASA officials.
As far as the PASS race, Jeff was given permission to practice from an official earlier in the week. When it came to race time and he was fast qualifier they said he would have to start in the rear. The crew felt as if we weren’t being treated fairly and the officials were sticking to their word so after a verbal altercation the car was loaded up before the race started.
Either way, Jeff Choquette will bounce back from this set back! Last week he won the Miller Lite Super Late Model Championship at Mobile International Speedway. We usually do not post on this message board but I wanted everyone to be clear of the facts.
I thought it was him but didnt know for sure. Thanks for coming on here and clearing it up.
Thanks for clearing that up.
All of us in this post pretty much agree your boyfriend is the man and hope he can crack the big leagues. I, for one, certainly miss seeing him tearing it up on our tracks.
the message boards.
sometimes information gets all misconstrued and i am so glad you did come on and get it straightened out. Jeff is one of the best racers we ever had in florida… i miss him alot and wish him the best. hope you are all well and happy … also hope you like the cold cuz its comin! roflllllllll take care. why dont you post Jeffs races so we can keep up…he has a huge fan base. give him a big hug for me and Bobby.
thanks
carolwicks aka OZZIE
um…okay.
“On the other hand, he absolutely was DQ’ed at the ASA Southeast race in Hickory, NC. For anyone that knows about these motors ~ it is a 604 Chevy Crate motor. The heads, cam, and pistons were all legal. The block was cut 0.015 of an inch (roughly as thick as a piece of paper) beyond the parameters of the rules. This was hardly an infraction and absolutely not the reason he won the race, admitted from the ASA officials.”
For anyone who knows about these motors? What about the concept behind their use? Isn’t it to ensure that all competitors have the same powerplant as the next guy thus negating any advantage that cubic dollars provide? We have all seen how well this industry saving idea has played out. When Progressive or McGunigill or any engine shop is allowed to break open and alter a GM crate motor IN ANY WAY, then reassemble it and try to pass it off as legal…why even have an engine rule in the first place?
You would have everyone believe that Team 70 paid thousands of dollars just to have 0.015" shaved off of a block deck? Wow. Now that’s the benefit of unlimited resources defined to a T.
And if this was not even a fractional improvement to his engines performance, why risk it not being right to begin with? With his superior driving ability, why the need to go beyond one of those “out of the box” 604’s like the rules intended. Let me rephrase that. What the rules SHOULD have intended. Obviously the motor was found (BY ASA) to be outside the parameters of the rules which unfortunately equates to “an unfair advantage”. In other words…cheating. Which is why they, THE ASA, took away his win. OBVIOUSLY they felt strongly enough that it provided him with an unfair advantage over the rest of the field thus the DQ.
Plain and simple.
Why is it that when someone gets caught cheating, the first words out of their mouths is “It didn’t do anything to help anyways.” and the obligatory, “We didn’t know it was even there”.
Can’t anyone just for once say “Damn, they finally caught us.”
“Either way, Jeff Choquette will bounce back from this set back!”
No doubt. Getting caught cheating no longer carries the stigmatism that it used to and in today’s racing environment it’s become an all too accepted practice. With sanctioning bodies that don’t stick to their own rules and spend way too much time looking the other way, racers will continue to break the rules and get away with a slap on the wrist. No, I’m sure this won’t affect Team 70 in any way shape or form. Nothing a little more $$ won’t cure anyhow.
“We usually do not post on this message board but I wanted everyone to be clear of the facts.”
But you do read it, I see. That’s all that really counts, actually.
And unless we were all there at Hickory, sitting inside the tech shed watching what was taking place…there aren’t any “clear” facts.
Congrats on the win at Mobile.
OJ
“We didn’t know it was even there”.
If they are (the racers) all as honest and unaware as they claim they are, how come nobody ever sue the engine builder for destroying the racer’s reputation, cutting his chances of making it in big league, loss of sponsors, looking bad on every sense of the word and so on… So how come nobody does it…
Just a thought…
Andr?
Look, they open them up because they are allowed to. If they weren’t they wouldn’t. Plain and simple.
They got the money and time to have somebody try to get a little more out of the motor, in this case whatever they were intending to do clearly was outside the rules and they own up to that.
Intent is the issue i am taking with OJ’s post. Were they clearly trying to get something more out of the engine? Yes. Were they clearly trying to violate the rules? No. Did they in the process? Yes and they admit to that.
They were trying to play every angle they could and stepped over the line. Not enough reason in my book to label him the way you are. Now, if this type of thing keeps happening, then, I will change my mind.