Tarheelers Hit Cones at Nationals...

David Teague · **Posted:** Mon Sep 22, 2008 10:24 am

Chuck Frank wrote:

Keith Quistorff wrote:

Wes Eargle wrote:

There's an interesting story about Andy Hollis that is going on right now. Damn!

What's the story? Any link(s) available? Google search came back with nothin'.

Check the STS forum on SCCAForums.com
synopsis: random impound check of top STS cars by pulling valve covers revealed illegal valve spring shims on Andy's engine. He was immediately DSQed. All 2008 wins and earnings were stripped. Further penalties pending.

Actually Andy voluntarilly have back all of his winnings from what I heard.

Chris Peterson · **Joined:** Tue Sep 16, 2003 9:02 am **Posts:** 243

Keith (and anyone else interested) - definitely take a look at SCCAforums for detailed info. While I don't remember the specifics, I'm pretty sure that Andy VOLUNTEERED to return all his 2008 winnings so they could be redistributed - they weren't stripped. There are 2 different threads on the matter. I thought the one started by Andy (My STS DSQ - The Facts) held the most factual information from multiple sources.

ETA - I see David beat me to it!!

Todd Breakey · **Posted:** Mon Sep 22, 2008 10:35 am

That thread that Andy started now includes photos of the offending part.

Here the link to Andy's thread.

Here the other thread on the topic.

David Teague · **Posted:** Mon Sep 22, 2008 10:38 am

Chris Peterson wrote:

Keith (and anyone else interested) - definitely take a look at SCCAforums for detailed info. While I don't remember the specifics, I'm pretty sure that Andy VOLUNTEERED to return all his 2008 winnings so they could be redistributed - they weren't stripped. There are 2 different threads on the matter. I thought the one started by Andy (My STS DSQ - The Facts) held the most factual information from multiple sources.

ETA - I see David beat me to it!!

Yea but yours has better spelling than mine...

Donnie Barnes · **Posted:** Mon Sep 22, 2008 10:44 am

Chuck Frank wrote:

Check the STS forum on SCCAForums.com
synopsis: random impound check of top STS cars by pulling valve covers revealed illegal valve spring shims on Andy's engine. He was immediately DSQed. All 2008 wins and earnings were stripped. Further penalties pending.

As others have said, nothing else was "stripped." As far as I know (and I'd probably know), there are no further penalties pending, either. :roll:

Tim Buck at Mazda felt like it was likely there was a performance advantage from shimming, but plenty of others seem to think there was no way there could be. I really don't know, but logic seems to follow that there's no way Andy Hollis, of ALL people, would have cheated like *that*. Way too obvious and easy to catch, at the very least (not that I think he'd cheat anyway, I'm just saying.)

--Donnie

Chuck Frank · **Posted:** Mon Sep 22, 2008 10:47 am

Sorry, I stopped reading about it before the clarification that the forfeiture was voluntary. I stand corrected.

David Teague · **Posted:** Mon Sep 22, 2008 10:58 am

Donnie Barnes wrote:

Tim Buck at Mazda felt like it was likely there was a performance advantage from shimming, but plenty of others seem to think there was no way there could be. I really don't know, but logic seems to follow that there's no way Andy Hollis, of ALL people, would have cheated like *that*. Way too obvious and easy to catch, at the very least (not that I think he'd cheat anyway, I'm just saying.)

--Donnie

In My expreience You generally Shim to get Vavle Springs to the correct height/force and when I have had heads worked on I generally shy a way from shimming because it can cause binding. From what I read several of Andy's springs were sagging due to age, so I seriously doubt he was gaining any performance advantage.

Marty Howard · **Posted:** Mon Sep 22, 2008 11:09 am

And did someone actually steal his radiator hose?

:evil:

Todd Breakey · **Posted:** Mon Sep 22, 2008 11:18 am

Yep, that person was an STX competitor and was ultimately DSQ'd and probably won't be able to compete nationally next year either.

Ryan Holton · **Posted:** Mon Sep 22, 2008 11:56 am

Marty Howard wrote:

And did someone actually steal his radiator hose?

:evil:

Steal, use and return (installing incorrectly)

All without telling said owner.

Donnie Barnes · **Posted:** Mon Sep 22, 2008 1:26 pm

Ryan Holton wrote:

Marty Howard wrote:

And did someone actually steal his radiator hose?

:evil:

Steal, use and return (installing incorrectly)

All without telling said owner.

Correct. And the PC is apparently asking the BoD to remove said member from the club, but if you look at the rulebook the reasoning there is there's not much in between DSQ and expel to choose from.

That will likely get fixed, though (but it won't help for this issue).

The strange thing is the dude considered it and apparently his "friends" around him thought doing what he did was a fine idea. :shock:

With friends like those....

--Donnie

Richard Casto · **Posted:** Mon Sep 22, 2008 4:41 pm

Todd Breakey wrote:

That thread that Andy started now includes photos of the offending part.

Here the link to Andy's thread.

Here the other thread on the topic.

You want to know what the most important thing I learned from those threads?

I finally know who David Lehman is. :lol:

Todd Breakey · **Posted:** Mon Sep 22, 2008 9:04 pm

Richard Casto wrote:

You want to know what the most important thing I learned from those threads?

I finally know who David Lehman is. :lol:

Yea, kinda scary isn't it. Especially when you consider that he is a family man with 4 kids or so. He really is a character. You should see some of the stuff he posts on Autocrossforum.com in the Martin SCC section. And those are his friends that he is saying stuff to. :roll:

Arthur McDonald · **Joined:** Fri Aug 29, 2003 1:54 am **Posts:** 2052

Todd Breakey wrote:

That thread that Andy started now includes photos of the offending part.

Here the link to Andy's thread.

Here the other thread on the topic.

Thanks for posting both links. I'm going to give Andy the benefit of the doubt on this one - based on Rob Foley's comments on page 9 of Andy's thread - I can only gather that he (Andy) had not inspected the engine builder's work very carefully, or he would have noticed the damage to the (illegal) shims described and done something about it.

I ran against Andy twice before his earlier suspension. In Oct 89, Andy smoked NCAC ES champion Doug Matre by 2 seconds on a 64 second Laurinburg course which consisted of two laps of the "P". I remember Oscar White, then running a new CSP Civic, watching Andy's launches and just shaking his head and saying: "Damn". The next spring Andy didn't fare as well, finishing 3rd at Rocky Mt behind Scott Housel and Doug Matre. In both cases, my times were nowhere near Andy's (or Scott's or Doug's), so CLEARLY something was going on

Scott Johnson · **Posted:** Tue Sep 23, 2008 8:42 am

The one nagging issue... This is something that would be noticed via a fairly casual mechanical inspection. I am somewhat skeptical that Andy went all season over-revving his engine (all the STS guys are going well above the factory redline), and never once pulled the valve cover to check the valve lash. Not even once? Maybe you don't do that on AX cars during the season (2 hours of time on a motor isn't that much compared to a track event where it sees that in a day).

Scott

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