If the Torco’s CompetitionPlus.com investigative expose’ Tubular Tales didn’t do enough to provoke skepticism, what we’re hearing should raise the crescendo of dissension even higher. A prominent source close to the situation indicates the NHRA plans to add an engineer to their payroll whom SFI will agree upon.

And, this engineer is? Daniel Metz, Phd. – the same engineer who was on retainer to Murf McKinney and publicly supported heat-treated tubing as an adequate alternative as normalized.

Metz will reportedly serve as an engineering consultant and “for a fee” will use his own models to analyze any proposed data from race teams or chassis builders submitting new designs. If Metz reviews the information and finds this information to be accurate, the submission can then proceed forward to the SFI committee for approval.

In other words, an individual team or chassis builder cannot directly approach SFI any more. They must reportedly submit to Metz first. This announcement has not been made yet, but our unimpeachable sources say it’s coming.

Sounds like to us the process could soon turn into a situation similar to that of the now-defunct Seventies discotheque Studio 54 where the doorman decided the clientele and not the unbiased selection process SFI was created on.