I remember walking through the pits after a truck feature a couple of years back and there was a claim on a motor. The team that was getting claimed was notified by the officials to move their truck into the garage once truck tech was complete to do the swap. So when the super stock feature came on, what did the team getting claimed do? Revved the piss out of the engine until they heard a faint little clink then they shut it off went over the garage took it out and gave it to the team who claimed it. Now i dont remember numbers or what happened to the motor or what ever but just goes to show claiming might just be a waste of your motor and 900 bucks

I remember that, and still think that was pretty lame. I even remember someone else claiming an engine.... and attempting to get it to run on propane. But that's a another funny story I don't know about.  ::)

Is that the engine that the track claimed and put in their cube van?

engine claims seem like a good idea to keep people from spending money. In practice, i'm not sure it works. Where i've seen it done, sometimes the guy won't give it up and then he's gone. one less racer. The claimer basically can't race because he usually gets wrecked continually by  just about everyone. Like Shadow says, there seems to be a real stigma attached to claiming someones engine and i think it doesn't get done much where it's allowed because of that. i think for a claim rule to work as intended, it would have to be done alot so the stigma wears off and the fear of losing the motor then does it's intended job (keeping spending down). is there an example of a track anywhere where it has worked well?

I mean, either way it'd be sucky to have your stuff claimed.

The claim amount takes into account only the money spent and not the man-hours put into it. You work all season, maybe break a part, spend god knows how long tracking down more parts, tweak here tweak there, spend nights up to your elbows in grease, finally get it right, just to have someone else say "I'll take that. Thanks"

I can imagine as a claimee that I wouldn't be too happy.

I think a better rule might be that if someone files a protest and you get checked and found illegal, the engine gets confiscated.