Pretender
03-21-2007, 08:58 AM
WHY WE RUN CRATES
Apple Grove, WV. March 20, 2007~ As many of you know, I am and for the past 3 years have been a strong advocate of making racing more affordable and more competitive for more people. Ever since I first read an article about FASTRAK in Dirt Late Model Magazine in 2004 I have been actively working to improve racing in our region as well as other areas. For some of you, you have seen or heard me say these things many times but many have not. It definitely bears repeating at this time.
Over the past few months my campaign has been rekindled yet again!. I have been visiting and/or re-visiting tracks, race shops, drivers, car shows, and anywhere else I can talk to a driver, fan, car owner, promoter, sponsor, wanna be, or anybody else that is connected or hopes to be connected to racing in any way.
I have talked with people from Fairmont, WV to Hazard KY, From Cincinnati, OH to Richmond, VA. And every where in between and Lord knows how many people from other regions! One common theme every single one of these folks agrees on, Weekend HOBBY racing is spending itself right out of existence!!!
Some like crates, some don’t, some don’t care one way or the other, but ALL agree RACING COSTS TOO MUCH for the average Joe to enjoy!!! We have a HUGE abundance of folks who LOVE racing and really want to attend. We have a HUGE abundance of folks who really really want to race. What we don’t have is a HUGE abundance of folks who can afford it!!!
We can sit around and argue over what will work and what won’t all day and all night but to make a long story even longer, FASTRAK, STORMPAY, and CARS collectively have already shown us 1 thing for certain that absolutely does work beyond the shadow of a doubt…CRATE ENGINES!!!! Say what you will but the proof is all around us!!!
We’ve heard every EXCUSE in the book of why crates won’t work. They’ll cheat, they are slow, they are made in Mexico, they don’t last, we‘re putting people out of work…..etc…etc….ALL HOG WASH spewing from those who have the big $$$$$ and don‘t want the status quo to change!!!!
All these excuses but yet FASTRAK just announced their largest points fund ever along with new regions and more tracks! STORMPAY announced yet another expansion! CARS announced more tracks and have even leased a track of their own. Tracks all over the country are announcing crate classes and special events for crates. IMCA now has a Crate Late Model class as well as a Sport Mod class that uses the GMPP 602! FASTRAK also runs a Crate Mod class. Yet here in the Ohio Valley region we keep our heads stuck in the sand and pretend it’s just not true!
People, Elvis is really dead. The earth is not flat. The Sun does not rotate around the earth and CRATE ENGINES REALLY DO WORK!
When I was in the Army we had a saying I really liked and still use on my kids very often;
”The maximum effective range of an excuse is zero meters!”
1st of all~ Nobody ever said that crate engines would “CURE” the old Adam man of cheating…man even cheats at solitaire! But at least with crates we know exactly what is supposed to be in that engine and we can check for it and we do have a means of controlling it.. open engines do not give us that ability.
We certainly don’t need to spend $30K or $40K or even $10K-$15K only to be beaten by a cheater. Super Lates have 1 rule left in the whole book that means anything….NO TRACTION CONTROL!!! But still drivers with $30K-$40K 800 HP PLUS engines still feel the need to CHEAT that one rule!!!! If they didn’t have 800 HP maybe they wouldn’t need traction control!!! Just a thought!!!!
2nd of all…maximizing your resources within the rules is NOT cheating…taking the same ingredients everyone else has and making them work better than anybody else within the rules is NOT cheating…that is called innovation!!!!
Simply building a bigger motor is NOT innovation and certainly NOT skill other the mechanics of building the engine.…it’s just building a bigger motor! Anybody with the cash to do so can do that or have it done!!!
Out run somebody with equal or at least comparable equipment….that is skill and even more importantly that is FUN!!!
Crates are slow…we’ve watched them beat our Super Late’s. We watched them beat our steel blocks…we watched them win track championships in open competition…that’s fast enough!!!. 3 wide wide by side racing and multiple winners are the rule with crates..not the exception.
Made in Mexico…so is your Yukon and Tahoe engine!!! So is my 97 Dodge Ram 1500!!! Not running crates won’t change that!!! Do we like it? No. BUT, Crates still help employ a bunch of Americans too. (parts, transport, sales, service, chassis builders, shocks, springs, other related part manufacturers. Etc..)
They won’t last.. We have crates out there going on their 3rd and 4th seasons without a rebuild…one I know of with over 90 races on it! They have proven to be extremely durable.. especially the 602!!! I wouldn’t recommend running ANY engine that long but it has been done. Crates have proven themselves to be durable.
Putting engine builders out of work….how do you figure? How can bringing more people into racing and more people back to racing hurt engine builders? The alternative is racing is dying out one driver, one class, and one track at a time. Then how many engine builders are out of work?
We literally have more cars in the weeds than we have on our tracks in my area! We have tracks closed or barely hanging on all over the place around here. If a $3000 or $5000 engine will HELP get these folks back on our tracks, or bring new folks to our tracks, get these tracks back open, help keep tracks open, then isn’t that a good thing?
Crates may not be for everyone and I’m not saying crates will cure everything wrong with racing today but they can at least help. Isn't that better than NO racing at all?
Rocky Estep
Regional Director King of the Mountains Weekly Racing Series
www.KOMWRS.com (http://www.komwrs.com)
304-576-2234
Apple Grove, WV. March 20, 2007~ As many of you know, I am and for the past 3 years have been a strong advocate of making racing more affordable and more competitive for more people. Ever since I first read an article about FASTRAK in Dirt Late Model Magazine in 2004 I have been actively working to improve racing in our region as well as other areas. For some of you, you have seen or heard me say these things many times but many have not. It definitely bears repeating at this time.
Over the past few months my campaign has been rekindled yet again!. I have been visiting and/or re-visiting tracks, race shops, drivers, car shows, and anywhere else I can talk to a driver, fan, car owner, promoter, sponsor, wanna be, or anybody else that is connected or hopes to be connected to racing in any way.
I have talked with people from Fairmont, WV to Hazard KY, From Cincinnati, OH to Richmond, VA. And every where in between and Lord knows how many people from other regions! One common theme every single one of these folks agrees on, Weekend HOBBY racing is spending itself right out of existence!!!
Some like crates, some don’t, some don’t care one way or the other, but ALL agree RACING COSTS TOO MUCH for the average Joe to enjoy!!! We have a HUGE abundance of folks who LOVE racing and really want to attend. We have a HUGE abundance of folks who really really want to race. What we don’t have is a HUGE abundance of folks who can afford it!!!
We can sit around and argue over what will work and what won’t all day and all night but to make a long story even longer, FASTRAK, STORMPAY, and CARS collectively have already shown us 1 thing for certain that absolutely does work beyond the shadow of a doubt…CRATE ENGINES!!!! Say what you will but the proof is all around us!!!
We’ve heard every EXCUSE in the book of why crates won’t work. They’ll cheat, they are slow, they are made in Mexico, they don’t last, we‘re putting people out of work…..etc…etc….ALL HOG WASH spewing from those who have the big $$$$$ and don‘t want the status quo to change!!!!
All these excuses but yet FASTRAK just announced their largest points fund ever along with new regions and more tracks! STORMPAY announced yet another expansion! CARS announced more tracks and have even leased a track of their own. Tracks all over the country are announcing crate classes and special events for crates. IMCA now has a Crate Late Model class as well as a Sport Mod class that uses the GMPP 602! FASTRAK also runs a Crate Mod class. Yet here in the Ohio Valley region we keep our heads stuck in the sand and pretend it’s just not true!
People, Elvis is really dead. The earth is not flat. The Sun does not rotate around the earth and CRATE ENGINES REALLY DO WORK!
When I was in the Army we had a saying I really liked and still use on my kids very often;
”The maximum effective range of an excuse is zero meters!”
1st of all~ Nobody ever said that crate engines would “CURE” the old Adam man of cheating…man even cheats at solitaire! But at least with crates we know exactly what is supposed to be in that engine and we can check for it and we do have a means of controlling it.. open engines do not give us that ability.
We certainly don’t need to spend $30K or $40K or even $10K-$15K only to be beaten by a cheater. Super Lates have 1 rule left in the whole book that means anything….NO TRACTION CONTROL!!! But still drivers with $30K-$40K 800 HP PLUS engines still feel the need to CHEAT that one rule!!!! If they didn’t have 800 HP maybe they wouldn’t need traction control!!! Just a thought!!!!
2nd of all…maximizing your resources within the rules is NOT cheating…taking the same ingredients everyone else has and making them work better than anybody else within the rules is NOT cheating…that is called innovation!!!!
Simply building a bigger motor is NOT innovation and certainly NOT skill other the mechanics of building the engine.…it’s just building a bigger motor! Anybody with the cash to do so can do that or have it done!!!
Out run somebody with equal or at least comparable equipment….that is skill and even more importantly that is FUN!!!
Crates are slow…we’ve watched them beat our Super Late’s. We watched them beat our steel blocks…we watched them win track championships in open competition…that’s fast enough!!!. 3 wide wide by side racing and multiple winners are the rule with crates..not the exception.
Made in Mexico…so is your Yukon and Tahoe engine!!! So is my 97 Dodge Ram 1500!!! Not running crates won’t change that!!! Do we like it? No. BUT, Crates still help employ a bunch of Americans too. (parts, transport, sales, service, chassis builders, shocks, springs, other related part manufacturers. Etc..)
They won’t last.. We have crates out there going on their 3rd and 4th seasons without a rebuild…one I know of with over 90 races on it! They have proven to be extremely durable.. especially the 602!!! I wouldn’t recommend running ANY engine that long but it has been done. Crates have proven themselves to be durable.
Putting engine builders out of work….how do you figure? How can bringing more people into racing and more people back to racing hurt engine builders? The alternative is racing is dying out one driver, one class, and one track at a time. Then how many engine builders are out of work?
We literally have more cars in the weeds than we have on our tracks in my area! We have tracks closed or barely hanging on all over the place around here. If a $3000 or $5000 engine will HELP get these folks back on our tracks, or bring new folks to our tracks, get these tracks back open, help keep tracks open, then isn’t that a good thing?
Crates may not be for everyone and I’m not saying crates will cure everything wrong with racing today but they can at least help. Isn't that better than NO racing at all?
Rocky Estep
Regional Director King of the Mountains Weekly Racing Series
www.KOMWRS.com (http://www.komwrs.com)
304-576-2234