Midwest Circle Track Racers, Lend Me Your Ears (And Your Ideas) . . . .

Damn, at $400 to start, I could probably run a car and not starve to death.

The problem is, we're lucky to get $50 to start around here. Hell, we're lucky to get $400 to WIN.

Hitting the concrete at 80 mph ain't as bad as it sounds like. At that speed, the car folds up a lot, and the lick doesn't hurt as bad (at least to me).

The ones that always seem to hurt the most are the shots that you take at a speed just below what it takes to bend/crush the clip. Every drop of energy from a lick like that seems to travel straight through the chassis to be absorbed solely by your ass and lower back (or collar bones and sternum).

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVgY4XXRczo

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqsaRLeaqAQ

 

Nice.

I like the look of the second set of cars better myself.

But both are pretty bad ass.

 

Cool Hand

I'm coming to this thread late, but I would like to make a few comments.

I got my toes wet in the dwarf class because it was supposed to be cheap and fun. The winning car for the few races I crewed had no fewer than SIX coilover shocks on the rear axle. Like the micro sprints I had run, guys were using $400 worth of tires per night, for $200 to win. Not cheap, not fun.

Bomber stocks; If you have to invest in a heavy duty diesel dually, and full size trailer, JUST to get to the track: it aint a cheap race car.

The best car class I ever saw was called a "two by four" modified. Center section of the frame had to be 2" x 4" x 3/16" tubing, minimum 2' wide by 4' long. Sixes, both V's and inlines, EFI fours, and flathead v8's. Straight tube front axles, 9" Ford rears. Old sprint or supermod type bodies. The result was a blessed absence of pro frame or motor builders, cars with personalities, and competative fields.

The best system of car equalization I ever saw, was by an old New England midget racer association: any motor, any era, equalized by a percentage of nitro in the track supplied alcohol, and a track supplied right rear tire. And I mean any engine: Offies, V8sixties, 144 Falcon sixes, Rover V8's. SESCO's, VW's, OMC pwerheads... Great shows!

We've discussed your preference for race-type spindle and axles, on another tread, but I have to add that I recently picked up the complete suspension from an S10 for $100. A shop offered to bend some simple roll hoops for $50. Add a stick of 2 x 4 tubing, a handfull of ball joints and some swedged-tubing control arms and you'd have the bones of a pretty neat, cheap, little race car

Lenny

 

I've seen big guys race sprint cars, and they have to put those race cars on like pants. I got the chance to drive a 410 winged car once, and I couldn't fit in the damned cage. Their seat was too small for my considerable ass, and my Kirkey wouldn't go between the rails. lol I'd have to have some kind of "wide body" sprint chassis maybe, I dunno, but I digress.

Besides not physically fitting inside them, stuffing big guys into little cars with little cages is begging to end up damaged (you, not the car). The best friend you've got in a serious lick is some space between your body and the bar that's absorbing said lick. The closer you are to the cage, the more chance you have of absorbing some of that energy with your pink and fleshy bits. In a contest like that, steel and concrete always win.

Obviously you've never stood next to Steve Kinser at a drivers' meeting

Lenny

 

Ryan:

I like the ULMA late model rules package www.ulmaracing.com

What I don't like is the ULMA management. They seem to just care about racing at Central Missouri Speedway. If they had more tracks, I'd be building a ULMA car instead of an IMCA Stock Car. And for me...

NO FUCKIN' CRATE MOTORS!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Yeah, that class sounds like a hoot.

Oddly enough, I have found more or less the class I was looking for at a local pavement track.

They are ASA sanctioned, and run a class of modified that is more or less in line with what I was after in this thread.

There aren't a lot of rules, but the ones they have land in all the right places.

Three link or leaf spring rear suspension, no aftermarket brakes, no high dollar or take-apart shocks, fairly narrow and hard track tire (which lasts about eight or ten race nights, if you don't cut them), decent minimum weight, gasoline only, 355 CID displacement limit, stock 500CFM two barrel, steel wheels only, etc.

It's old school modified racing, not the whiz-bang stuff you usually find in this sort of class.

While I wish that the motors had more HP, the limits are something everyone has to deal with, and the hard tire limits how much power you can put down anyway.

They allow quickchange rears and Bert trans, so I'm not going to have to spend much money to change over one of my cars, and I won't have to drop thousands on new fangled shocks that cost $600 a piece, and all the other crap that goes along with switching to a four bar (and the attendant tuning that entails).

The rule set those guys run is very much a throwback to the original intent of the IMCA modifed.

Having perused the fast cars running there currently, I believe that a comparable car can be built by just about anyone with a good welder, a friendly local junkyard, and a working knowledge of racing car suspension.

I'm gonna give it a shot.

It's a hell of a lot easier to try out someone else's throwback modified class than to try to found one of my own.

I'm not going to throw away the rule set that I'd been working on, but I'm going to concentrate on building a competitive car for this existing class.

We'll see how it goes.

 

I was really hoping the "Cam Coupe" type cars would take off. I really liked the old coupe body concept but hated the stock GM metric frame/suspension deal.

How about a cam coupe body on any frame (stock car, mod or LM), 1 steel shock per wheel, any suspension,, Brinn type tranny, any rearend. You big limiter would be the engine and hard tires. Bring back the old American Racer EC2 on the rear and the current G60 on the front. Steel wheels. Limit the engine to 365 ci, steel heads (spec steel head?) and flat top pistons. Run on gas with any 4 bbl @ 2800lbs. 103-108" wheelbase, V8 (people like the sound).

Been the owner of IMCA stock cars, mods and late models. Hard tire, watch the shocks and make rules you can tech easily.

SPark

 

I've got a buddy that works at GM in the powertrain division, and he tells me that most all of the current Circle Track Crate Motors are going away in the not too distant future.

That pretty much makes them useless as a basis for a racing class.

Now, I see no reason not to allow them to compete alongside the other motors, but mandating them in the rules is a bad call.

The class I'm fixin' to dive into has quite a few motor rules, and having talked it over with my engine builder it looks like ~$8,000 will build an engine that will live through many seasons of use and make as much HP as the rules will allow.

Now, $8k sounds high, but the last middle-end dirt motor I built cost over $15k, and it wasn't as stout as what the front runners had, so from that perspective, it's a significant savings. Plus, with the HP numbers we're gonna see, that bottom end should live a long and happy life, instead of maybe living through one season like the dirt motors.

If you live with an RPM limit less than what we intend to run, you could get by for less than that (perhaps significantly less if you were personally skilled with machining and assembling race engines).

 

hello, Im an engineering student currently trying to build his own kurtis kraft midget sprint racer, however I haven`t been able to find any goo plans or measurements of the chassis, any chance you could help me out?

 

You might try searching Kurtis Kraft on this board or there is also a vintage noncage midget thread that have something for you.

 

i ran an club here tried to never change rules unless it was necessary. You took the green in warm-ups you got tow money but the purse wasn't top heavy had racers tell me the only time they didn't loose money racing it was with us.
up here the biggest thing is DIRT and if it wasn't for them dirt mods would have gone the way of the DODO birds
the biggest starter class up here is Sportsman and use gm 602 crate motors, sprints are making inroads into this area but has taken 10 years.on sunday it took 3 -360 clubs to get enough cars to put on show
as far as motors in some areas certain motors have been used up in the inboard hydros the 5liter class 305cubic inch people had to buy cores from out wet or down east so they changed to 350's in the 2.5liters ( pinto mustang, ranger) it's the same but the problem is heads so they have changed to esslinger heads and intake.
what ever you decide don't stray from what is readily available in your area and I DO NOT LIKE 2BRL CARB RULES. a small 4brl is way better and cheaper did dyno test with 3 500cfm holleys one from a front runner, one from a well known carb modifier a $1200 and out of the box from jeg's or summit, which turned out to be the best
ACHA supplies spec Dart heads with their logo in both the 350 and GP class (blown big bbc on methanol)at racer price and the also sell the spec cam for the 350's trying to control cost and make for competitive racing.

the whole idea is to make for cheap and competitive racing that will sell in your area ( promoters talk to each other and set (fix) prices, purses, scheduling and what they will let run in their area)

 

make inspection easy and parts that are readily available, pump gas or methanol as racing gas is too expensive

 

I didn't read all the responses but have thought alot about this.
I think the current emod class is way out of control.
I'd like to see them with a
spec tire
604 crate motor
Less motor set back
Steel afco non adjustable shocks w/ coilover kits
No titanium or carbon fiber parts whatsoever
And 2550 weight rule
I'm sure this would need some tweaking as people find ways to cheat but I think it would be a good class
I also agree with the poster that said any cheating found bye bye see ya next year.