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

Donny Schatz has to drive his butt off to get top ten finishes with the ford engine. While the chassis appears to be working well as 

soon as he gets in a battle with the top cars they dust him off. The car is competitive with mid pack teams more than the top teams.

IMO 

To my observation it looks to be down on power a little, at least it did when he started his heat race on the front row the other night at Husets.   He got beat into turn one pretty easy.   I guess there could be other factors in that though.  

The crank, pistons and rods are just there for the ride.  It is heads and cam that make the power.  One can only assume that they know this and are working on it.  Also his regular crew chief has not been with him all year.  WOO has more bad ass brave drivers now than they have for a whilr.  Throw Larson and McFadden in there with WOO drivers.  Donny may be in a slump along with engine.  

You bring up a good point-------Schatz is Mr. Smooth and he is up against a bunch of hungry kids with balls the size of watermelons.  Maybe it's not the engine.  ??????????

It would surprise me if it is the engine. Don't think Tony would send him off in a underpowered car. They did a lot of dyno testing for sure. If it didn't equal the engine they call the Chevy I can't see them switching from what they had a couple years ago.

Power is probably fine, Schatz has been quoted that they struggle with balance. I assume that means they are struggling to harness the power and get him comfortable. He was fast the week of the Silver Cup and Summer Nats but the reliability issues since then have hurt. 

One word my friends cams thats what its all about

Agreed, Neither Tony Or Shavers is gonna have a engine on the track that is underpowered.

We need more sprint car racing at our home track.

Crank, rods and pistons are there for the ride.....good one.

Ricky Warner although has been absent  also had a hand in the development of the new Ford powerplant. He also has been in the pits with the team. I don't know how much time he's been spending on the road.  The outlaw deal has so many guys that can run up front today it's unreal. If your just a tick off unloading it seems like your behind the 8 ball all night. That team has been  loyal customers to J & J chassis since the beginning. I really can't see it as being a balance issue with the chassis. RW is to good for that.  As a team they just seem to be off just that fine edge they were always on. 

You'd think that, but I wonder if Ford was putting pressure on them to get it out there?   Seems like they're spending a ton of money in development and might have a say in that? 

Schatz has always been a clean driver that doesnt have the win it or wear it attitude and his style compared to KL or Sheldon is more conservative.I do know age has a way of making some difference.I would be willing to bet that he has equal horsepower.There are some hungary young drivers with a lot of talent.Probably as equal equiptment from top to 10 and Larson has added a new factor .

     Maybe the shortened season has something to do with it as well? Usually by early August, a lot of the hot dog's teams are running out of money, and runnning out of motors and parts. By that time, Mr. Smooth and easy on the equipment is still running strong.

i was told by a pretty good source that the main problem is the weight of the motor, and the fact that it dosent wind up as quickly.  once wound up, it isnt as much a problem, but by then he is too far behind to ccatch them.  would explain why the car appears to be better on bigger tracks, and struggle in smaller venues(hueset, rivercities,fargo, ect)

That makes sense.  

My money's on Ricky Warner not being there every night more than the motor.

Wrench twirler is at least half the mojo.

Ricky warner being gone is probably the biggest reason schatz isn't running as well......heads and cam are where  you get the horsepower from, your heads make your power and you tune in where you want your peak power and torque to come in by the grind profiles of your cam. You buy the best crank, rods and pistons you can buy for reliability reasons. 

I think it is more of a case where the competition was able to catch up to the 15 as well. While I am not going to discount the fact of putting a whole new motor program together and having to go to a new crew chief after years of success with 1 does go into it, I think people also need to look into the fact that guys like Sweet, Gravel, Schuchart, and even Haudenschild have gotten better with experience gained on the road. Go back to 2015-2016 those guys had probably a drop of experience compared to guys like Schatz, Saldana, and Pittman. Just being on the road, racing, and getting a butt kicking from time to time leads to what you are seeing and all have developed into the top racers in the sport.

Look at 2017 where you had Gravel winning 18races but could not find consistency. Sweet found consistency but could not  win nearly enough to get to the championship hunt. Schuchart started to win races each year at that point after years of just making the A was an achievement. 2018 Sweet found a little more consistency and the ability to contend and win the big races but still not enough to contend for the championship, Gravel took a little step back, Schuchart got a little better. Last year Sweet figured out to turn those 2nd, 3rd, 4th place runs into wins and finish ahead of the 15, Gravel started to become more consistent, Schuchart started to win more but needed to find consistently. This year Sweet, Gravel, Schuchart have found some resemblance of both winning and consistency on different scales. Sweet probably would be running away with the thing if it wasn't for the long string of bad luck beyond his control, but Gravel & Schuchart have been consistent enough that when the bad luck has been there they can pounce. Schatz is still there but he is not just fighting off 1 team, he is having to contend with 3 teams at his level, and a few more that can still keep up night in and night out.

They had plenty of time developing the motor, actually 2+ years.  Hell, he carried the Ford Performane decal on the front wing and Ford on the hood for nearly two years while running the Shaver Chevy.  I wonder what his Ford contract says about if the performance isn't where he expected it to be they can try to improve it if possible or can he possibly eventully in a couple years void the contract.  The other builders of the bowtie everyone  else uses are not sitting on their azzes this year, like all years. They continually work on that engine to increase the power each and every year.  It ain't gonna happen, but what IF he starts to run consistent top 5 or 6 and very few wins, does he have an out?  I'd guess he is driving with more determination this year than any year cause he has to.  He is the best driver out there, no question about that.  Speaking Dirt Vision, I know cameras ara expensive, but they really need to have one or two more camera covering the action.

Lawlessness + liberalism = HELL -  NYC, Detroit, Chicago, 
Seattle, LA  Who the H runs those cities. 

So if I'm understanding you correctly, you're wondering if Schatz can terminate a contract with Ford if he doesn't like the performance?   I'm thinking since he's not the car owner that he probably is in a position where if he doesn't like it his option is to leave the team.   I'm sure he has some say in things given his status, but I would guess it's limited.