Bucky Austin

So what happened to Bucky? I thought the points totals were the best 5 of 10 national events and the best 5 of 8 division events. Maybe I don't understand how the points work? I thought he had a shot at it. I would welcome anybody to explain this to me. Dave Germain

 

A little off the subject, but "The Germinator" is hands down the best TAFC name this side of the Columbia. Kick some A** next year Dave.

 

Dave its best 5 out of 8 races on National events .

 

Dave, he had a shot all year long for the title. After Chicago, Bucky's had one last hope, was to go to Reading and win the race and have Manzo go out in the semis or earlier. Then he had to chase Manzo to his next National and do his best to prevent him from going past the semis again since Manzo had one more race to claim. It all became a mute point because Bucky elected not to travel back to Reading for the rescheduled event there. I big disappointemnt he should have gone to reading. Especially since Manzo won the race running pretty soft numbers.

Dean Murdoch, SpeedZone Magazine

 

I think that Bucky has had the tougher schedule chasing points.

 

Zone,

If did my math correctly back then, Bucky would have had not only to go to Reading to try and block Manzo, he would have also had to race Manzo and beat him, and then go on to win the race. Then he would have been tied with Manzo.

The first tie breaker rule would be head to head competition, which is why Bucky would have had to race and beat Manzo so he would get the nod over Manzo, assuming Manzo did not improve at another National Event.

At some point, you have to decide what you can gain, and what it will take to do it, and what the odds are of it paying off.

 

Will,

I think you are right about the number of wins being the first tie breaker, but that was back then. The Tie-Breaker Methods today start with "head to head" victories. Believe me this is something that is near and dear to my heart on the Divisional side of the world.

Back to Bucky and Frank, the number of wins in their case would have been the same anyway, so going back to the old Tie-Breaker days, #2 on the list was "head to head" victories if my memory serves me right.

Remember, in 2001, I was doing the same thing you were doing in 2000.

 

After comparing the fields at each of their 5 divisional wins, Austin definitely had it easier divisionally.

-------------------------------------------------
Austin -

Mission 1 – 3 tenths on the field

Woodburn 1 – Gordon challenged him

Kent – Almost 2 tenths on the field

Woodburn 2 – 12 hundredths on the field

Mission 2 – a tenth on the field


Manzo -

Delmar – Newberry doesn’t go there

Lebanon Valley – a hundredth on Gill

E-Town – 6 hundredths on field

Cecil – 8 hundredths on the field

Maple Grove – Qualified #6 (Won on a holeshot)

 

Will, Severance won the division. It was head to head and they only raced once, with Joey winning. And Mark is out of Div races to improve.

Divisionally, Pat you are possibly right. But nationaly the west coast schedule is way tougher.

Tommy, if the scenerio was the way I staed, yes they would have been tied, and the ie breaker rule would come into effect. if they did not race each other at Reading, then the first tie breaker (head to head) would not apply since they did not race. tie breaker #2 would also be a tie. five divisional wins each and three national wins each. I don't know what #3 tie breaker is. (if its in-division points that to would be a tie.) they possibly would have to go to total races they competed at or something like that.

Like Scott said, the first tie breaker rule is head to head. In order for Bucky to have won it outright, meant they would have had to race each other and Bucky had to win at Reading and then to on to win the race. The ironic part is that if Buckt had of gone there and not made another hit in qualifying, they would have faced each other in the first round, as Manzo was #1 and Bucky was last (tire shake in the only pass he made)

dean

[ October 22, 2003, 04:54 PM: Message edited by: The Zone ]

 

Both tough competitors and hard workers. No bought tune-ups in those cars.

 

Dean unless NHRA locked the TAFC field and ran the eliminations either on Sunday during the first weekend or locked the field for when the cars came back to Reading there was no way Bucky and Frank would of had a first round matchup IMHO.

During week 1 there were 4 TAFC that did not make a pass during the first session (craig English, Bruce Mullins, Bobby Martin, Bobby Martindale) so if another session happened that weekend chances are the ladder would of been differnt.

Reading was the first bad weekend I saw Frank have in a longtime performance wise. He tried to get that car to run good numbers but it just shook his brians out every pass. He almost crossed centerline during the semis. And also to show you what a sportman Frank is he was given the option to just start the car up and stage and coast down the track for the final. It was freezing out and Frank could of took it easy but he made the crew service the car to see if he could get the car down the track it shook his brains out once again. But believe me Frank might of won and got lucky but it wasn't for lack of effort on His part and his crew. Congrats Frank your the Man!

Hats off to Bucky too for a great season.

 

I realize there were manty possibilities as to whether Bucky would have raced Frank. But it is a scenerio that was there simply because of the first weekends field. Bucky had to be on the same side of the ladder for sure.
Dean

 

Dean I sent you a few emails over the past few weeks did you recieve any of them?

 

got one
Dean

 

I bet Randy andersen would ague with you about that. I herd he worked hard on Buckies car for several years and then buckyfired him this year. after randy was fired bucky hasnt been so dominent and I see hes not entered to run Pamona either. And frank M. still has randies advance powder system sticker on the blower injecter. I dont think its on Franks car because they are freinds.
Thanks.Tommy

[ October 23, 2003, 10:30 PM: Message edited by: Tommy ]

 

While I might agree that Randy has helped Bucky he has probably helped all BAE customers. He crewed on the car this year to start but, it did not last. And he did not slow down in the second half of the year. And if you think Bucky does not or did not have the final say on his tune up you have another thing coming. He has been fast for a number of years.
I do believe he will be at both the vegas divisional and Pomona

Dean

 

I have a question regarding Grade points, do Racers have to claim a division to get Grade points, or can they run any Div. race they want for them? I see racers run 2 or 3 Different Div. races, just curious how that works!