Forum: HoseHeads Sprint Car General Forum (go)
Moderators: dirtonly  /  dmantx  /  hosehead

Wow. Gave you a phone number. Don't see a missed call. Guess you prefer to hash it out here. But if that was an offer to stay home, consider it accepted. Exactly the type of drama we aren't going to have down here. Sorry we never had the chance to introduce ourselves.

Now.. everyone can get back to their original discussion. Sorry for the hijacked thread.

Never hit stationary objects!

I propose that the rule be that if you want full tech on someone else's motor that you pay a $300 fee in protest (if they are found illegal, you get your $$ back, if they are legal, the $$ goes to the car that was protested). Additionally, when you protest a motor, yours is also torn down (I've found over the years that those that bit$h the loudest that someone is cheating, is generally not following the rules either, that's why the bit$h so loud (the old adage of "If I'm cheating and they are still beating me, they must be cheating too).

vande77 .we finally agree.he who whines loudest is most of the time cheating.the protest fee is a great deal.it would be nice to see the officials treat the 305 guys with some respect . because they pay the same gate fees as the 360/410 guys and because most of them are young people they bring a lot of new fans in the gate.

They bring a lot of new fans in the gate?? They must be sitting at a different track than I was Saturday Night, the 305's bring very little to the grandstand gate IMO.

I think Knoxville does give the 305's guys a lot of respect (they don't have to even have that class, they could take that purse $$ and point $$ and add it to the 360's to up their car count if they wanted to).

Do you consider tearing their motors down every week which would cost the teams more $$$ showing them respect?? I don't. As it stands, the 305's have rules and the tech guys inspect the cars to the best of their ability WITHOUT adding a bunch of expense to the teams by making them remove cylinder heads and the like (they could, but I bet we'd see a car count in the range of (15) 410's, (12) 360's, and (10) 305's if they teched each and every car the way that is being proposed in this thread (financially it just doesn't make sense for the teams to do it every week)). As it stands today, if you win 3 times, they tear your motor down (they did it last year to every team the night they won their 3rd race).

IMO, SOME of the 305 teams think that they are the headliner that everyone is coming to watch @ Knoxville and they are sadly mistaken. The 305's are a SUPPORT CLASS at Knoxville (and are treated MUCH better than even the headline classes are at a lot of tracks across the country).

I thought Larry Ball, Jr. summed it up best in victory lane "These guys are just out here to have fun" Sure feels like a couple of the guys running think they are on the World of Outlaw tour when in actuality they are running a feeder class that is designed for them to LEARN TO RACE and then move on to 360 or 410 racing if they are really serious about it.

I saw in an earlier thread that Larry Ball just turned up the speed and dominated the last few laps. From where I was sitting (section H), the only thing that happened was that Larry didn't slow down in lapped traffic like the leader(s) did. I didn't see the lap times, but I would bet the big difference is that Larry ran consistent lap times the entire race where others had huge disparities in lap times on an open track and in traffic and that is why Larry ended up in victory lane.

vande, I was going to say the same thing. I bet if you took the top 3 from Saturday night and look at their fastest lap, they are about the same. Now look at lap to lap and you will see a huge difference. It takes experience and a well handling race car to do it lap after lap after lap.

I used to pit for a street stock guy that was very fast week in and week out. We would always laugh when other drivers accused us of running a big motor. We were checked two to three times a year and were always legal. What made it LOOK like we had more power was a car that drove off the corner and carried speed down the strait vs. the majority of the other guys being loose coming off the corner and scrubbing off a ton of speed. A well handling race car can make it look like you have a pounder under the hood.

Also know a very successful local modified driver in this area and when he started out ten years ago or so, he was always complaining about needing more power to hang with the "big" boys. Finally, he started to fine tune his set-up and before you knew it he was running with, and beating a lot of the big $$ motors. Set-up and a smooth driver will go a long way.

Knoxville raceway just left my shop after going completely over everything in our 305 and we are 100% legal! We knew we were but I was more than happy to let John tech anything and everything he wanted, and I believe he did! They had a crew of 4 plus Mitch Alexander, that represents the 305 class watch and document the entire process for over an hour and a half. I want to thank Lee Nelson of Ostrich Racing Engines for building me a very strong and LEGAL 305 and I highly recommend that if you want a top of the line engine, give him a call. There is nothing real special about our engine and he can build you an engine EXACTLY like ours. He also builds top notch 360 and 410 engines as well. Our 360 has had the last 2 quicktimes at Knoxville and Lee has many more quick times and wins in all classes. We feel we have a very good combination in our race program and that, along with a lot of hours, hardwork and knowledge over the years has been the reason for some of our success. We just want to race and have fun and that's all we intend to do.

P.S. Congrats on your New Track Record Matt Stephenson! Looks like you did your homework over the winter! See ya guys Saturday!

Larry Ball Jr

Larry, if you say you are legal, I believe you. I want the 305 class to GROW! I think a tech on a different "rule" on the top 3 every night can't do anything but help. I watched you last Saturday, and you just flat out drove the field, especially the last 2 laps. Hard to beat seat time! If it was not fun, why do it! It certainally is not for the MONEY.

Have a great season! Watch out for that KID in the 1K!

Hmm. Let me see here. From someone who has absolutely no connection to this or knows anyone involved this is what i can see.

I seem to see a situation where a simple additional inspection of a motor was not performed by the officials at the track. Even after being asked. Also it is being claimed the tech people and the crew of the car with the subject motor seemed very reluctant to have the additional tech performed.

Then around two days later, after some message board chatter, the suspect motor is "checked" in private and the owner of the motor is thumping his chest and claiming vindication.

As an outsider i see no vindication and nothing to show the motor at the track was legal. Pardon my skepticism but how do we know that parts were not changed? After all it has been a couple of days. Hell how do we even know it was the same motor that was at the track and that the teched motor will be the one that shows up at the track?

Why if everything was on the up and up and the tech guys wanted to make sure the motor was legal, didn't they keep quiet and just wait until the next race and ask the guy to tech the motor when he showed up? Or tech it after the next race? Why didn't the tech people do this all out in the open? Did they even put any marks or paint on the motor to act as a seal to insure the motor wasn't tampered with after they left?

Like i said, i have no connection to any of this but it just doesn't smell right. Instead of putting the situation to rest, the way this is going seems to lend itself to more questions than answers.

This also opens up the door to let the possible offender run for who knows how long outside the rules as people will be hesitant to call them out.

If it were me i would be standing in the tech area with my money every week for a while and tear the guy down.

I could be totally wrong, but i have seen stuff like this go on before, and when things are handled in such a way that doesn't make sense, there usually is something fishy going on.

Good Job out of Larry to voluntarily have his engine looked over.

Man.... all this over a $400 first place winners check.

Eric Arnold
Social Media Manager & Track Historian
Knoxville Raceway

so what's the price tag on a state of the art Ostrich 305? $20K? or more?

I don't like the 305 class for two reasons, the guys winning are spending as much or about as much as the 360 guys and the experienced guys step down and cherry pick.

I would have rather seen a 360 pro class and a 360 ameture class.