KNOXVILLE, Iowa
Racers are frustrating.
They complain that it costs too much to race or the purses aren’t high enough, but when someone tries to effect change, they have every reason in the world not to listen — even a little bit.
Friday at Knoxville Raceway an engine meeting hosted by engine builder Ron Shaver and driver Donny Schatz drew promoters, drivers and engine builders from throughout the industry. The concept presented by Shaver and Schatz was simple: an affordable engine that would help get more racers on the track.
Few in the meeting heard the word concept and they cited many reasons not to consider the engine. The idea was not for this engine, which would be based on the General Motors LS-7 powerplant, to become a new sprint-car division, but to race with existing 410 divisions across the country. Few in the room heard that.
Many were concerned, and justifiably if this were really to be a new division, that it would further segment the sprint-car racing market that already includes 410, 360 and 305 engines. Others didn’t believe the idea would work to increase car counts. Some clearly believed they couldn’t make enough money on the project.
The idea of Schatz’s father, Danny, Shaver took the concept and ran with it and said it surprised even him that a competitive engine could be produced for the $13,800 which it cost him to build. The concept engine produced 740 horsepower and has been used by Schatz in competition, including a controversial (probably because he won) victory in All Star sprint-car competition.
Schatz and Shaver stressed the engine is only a concept and that its specs are not set in stone.
“There are a lot of questions to be asked,” Schatz said. “This is just the first step along the way. I’d like to see injectors on it, but there you go and you run into a couple thousand dollars on to it. It is a spec engine. Everything on it was built for a street car. We’ve spent the money to get it to this point. It is not our intent to regulate it or be a part of it. It can get better, but this is ground one. Base one.”
Shaver, for his part, acknowledged business is down and that building this new spec version of a sprint-car engine could create business for engine builders, should they be able to make a reasonable profit margin on it.
“I know where I am coming from, I don’t have much to do anymore and if I could make the margins on it and make the engines and get more guys on the race track it would give me something to keep going, I would do it,” he said. “The 410 engine business is slower than it has been since ’75 or ’76.”
But everyone is afraid of the unknown. Instead of taking an idea and making it better, they would rather find fault with it and stick with the status quo.
Schatz tagged the back (24 cars) of Saturday’s World Challenge using the engine and was up to 12th when the checkered flag waved in what was merely a test for the engine, as the four-time Nationals champion was not scored and received no money for his test session.
