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I'm going to try and not bash anyone in particular, but if there are any track owners out there who want to chase 3/4 of their race cars away, try this. In November of 2007, Lanier Speedway near Atlanta, implemented a crate engine only rule for their 3 top divisions (late model, trucks and sportsman). Pretty good idea I thought, problem was, all engines which were legal in 2007 were now illegal, the other problem was, not 1 car in any of these divisions used a 602 or 604 crate engine in 2007. So, every car had to convert to crate engines in a 3 month time period for the March opening. 2008 car counts for the first 3 or 4 events were around 5 late models, 4 trucks and ZERO sportsman.
Being the idiot that I am, I scraped and clawed enough money to buy a crate engine (which by the way, cost the same amount as my built engine) and finally got everything switched out when lo and behold, another rule change. The 2007 engine package is now legal again. Personally, I can't blame the owners for changing the rules back, you need race cars if you own a race track. But, from my perspective, I just spent $5000.00 for nothing. I still need another $1000.00 or so for new wheels (another 2008 rule change), tires, Nascar license (whatever), etc. So, I now have an almost race ready car sitting in the garage and my 2008 race budget is already shot. With the construction industry the way it is, that extra $1000.00 may be hard to come by. On top of that, I'm starting to lose interest in this endless money pit called "local short track racing".
If I do get to the track this year, I'm skeptical that my legal crate engine will be competitive. I've already been shown the sealed bolts in an engine builders hand. This could mean that everyone is going to have to "cheat up" their crate engine or drop more money into their built engine. I assume tech is nothing more than visual inspection of the sealed bolts.
Oh well, I genuinely wish the best of success for all of short track racing, but at it's current rate of (mis)management, the price of fuel and the state of the economy, things don't look too good.
Being the idiot that I am, I scraped and clawed enough money to buy a crate engine (which by the way, cost the same amount as my built engine) and finally got everything switched out when lo and behold, another rule change. The 2007 engine package is now legal again. Personally, I can't blame the owners for changing the rules back, you need race cars if you own a race track. But, from my perspective, I just spent $5000.00 for nothing. I still need another $1000.00 or so for new wheels (another 2008 rule change), tires, Nascar license (whatever), etc. So, I now have an almost race ready car sitting in the garage and my 2008 race budget is already shot. With the construction industry the way it is, that extra $1000.00 may be hard to come by. On top of that, I'm starting to lose interest in this endless money pit called "local short track racing".
If I do get to the track this year, I'm skeptical that my legal crate engine will be competitive. I've already been shown the sealed bolts in an engine builders hand. This could mean that everyone is going to have to "cheat up" their crate engine or drop more money into their built engine. I assume tech is nothing more than visual inspection of the sealed bolts.
Oh well, I genuinely wish the best of success for all of short track racing, but at it's current rate of (mis)management, the price of fuel and the state of the economy, things don't look too good.
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