|
Do you remember this interview Shane from 1983?
Advantages Divided in USAC, NCRA Race Matchup
Dean Bailey: July 23, 1983
From the grandstand at Fairgrounds Speedway, it will be difficult to tell the difference between the two versions of championship dirt cars which will be racing against each other beginning at 7 tonight and Sunday night on the United States Auto Club Silver Crown Series race card.
The USAC cars will be racing against the champ dirt cars which run on the National Championship Racing Association (NCRA) circuit, a series of races contested on tracks throughout the Southwest.
Basically, the two cars are brothers which look a lot alike. But there are differences, and the 60 or so drivers from the two circuits have probably already weighed all the advantages and disadvantages of the two versions of cars.
So has Shane Carson, the Oklahoma City sprint car driver who for the past four years has raced on the World of Outlaws circuit. With a break in the Outlaw schedule this weekend, Carson received offers to drive both a USAC car and an NCRA car.
In trying to make up his mind which car to drive, Carson found himself comparing the two cars technically. With his comments to follow later in the article, here are the four major differences in the cars: The USAC cars are constructed on a chassis with a wheelbase of 96 inches. The NCRA cars have a wheelbase of 100 inches.
Both cars use fuel injectors, but the USAC motors have a 355-cubic-inch limit, while NCRA rules allow 360 cubic inches.
The USAC cars are not restricted on engine setback. The NCRA has a 50-percent engine setback rule, which means the motor must be positioned in the center of the chassis with the weight evenly distributed on the front and rear axles.
USAC rules do not allow the use of a wing atop the car. NCRA cars are normally raced with a wing, but the drivers will have to remove the wing for this weekend's races.
Carson, seemingly an objective source since he doesn't race on either the USAC or NCRA circuit, gives the USAC cars the advantage in all but one instance. The five-cubic-inch difference in the motors, he believes, will make no difference.
"I've got three or four engines for my sprint car that range from 388 to 426 cubic inches," he said. "You've got to jump 20 cubic inches before you can feel it. If I go from a 388 to a 426, I have to change gears and change the whole setup on the chassis. But going from 388 to a 393, I don't change anything. And I can't tell a bit of difference."
The shorter wheelbase and the non-restricted engine setback rule, said Carson, should give the USAC cars a slight advantage.
"You're only talking about a four-inch difference in the wheelbase," he said. "That's not all that great a difference, but with the engine setting back a little farther, then I think the USAC cars will have an advantage all the way.
"With an NCRA car, the engine is setting right in the middle. You've got just as much weight on the front axle as you do on the rear. On a USAC car, the engine is usually setting two to five inches behind the center. When you start moving that mass of weight back four to five inches, you're putting a lot of weight on the rear axle."
That, of course, is exactly what a wing does. It uses the wind to add weight to the rear axle, acting like a giant invisible hand holding the car snugly to the track. The NCRA cars will have neither the advantage of a wing nor the extra motor weight on the rear. The added motor weight on the rear, while far from having the same overall effect of a wing, should give the USAC cars a slight traction and handling advantage both on the straightaways and in the corners.
Carson is also convinced that the NCRA drivers will not have an easy time adjusting to driving without a wing. He is convinced of that because he tried it himself last week in an NCRA car.
"It was a whole different ballgame than what I've been used to," he said. "We've been running wings (on the Outlaw circuit) for the last year and a half, and when I got out there without a wing, I felt like I was going a lot slower. "It was like driving a whole different type race car. You don't have that wing to lean on. These local drivers (from the NCRA) are going to have to remember how they drove two years ago when they raced without wings. It's not going to be easy.
You wouldn't believe the difference. You have to learn it all over again, how to go into the corners and how to set up.
"They're going to have to even set up their cars differently. The chassis developments over the last two years have all been designed for cars with wings, because they're running wings almost everywhere now. I think the USAC guys are going to have an automatic edge here, because some of these guys have been running 20 years without wings."
There is one major difference, though, that should give the NCRA drivers a big edge. Most of them know every inch of the half-mile track at the fairgrounds. Many of them race there every Friday night. Few of the USAC drivers have ever run on the track.
"Not only that," said Carson, "but 90 percent of the USAC races are run on one-mile tracks. They don't run on many half-mile tracks very often. That gives the local guys the home-track advantage and the track-size advantage. That may be a big, big difference. "But then
again, these USAC guys are all professional racers. They race for a living, and they may not have any troublel adjusting to the track."
So, which car did Carson decide to drive this weekend? As of Friday he planned to drive the No. 20 NCRA car normally driven by Steve Carithers. "I've driven the car twice this year," he said. "I think it's one of the fastest cars around. I ran second in it one night at Lawton and third one night at Wichita. I just feel comfortable driving it. I know the car." Does that mean he thinks an NCRA car might win?
"There are too many factors involved to tell," he said. "I think the NCRA guys may have the track advantage and the USAC guys may have the car advantage. It should be interesting. I think you're just going to have to wait until Sunday night."
Racing Notes:
The 15-lap match race between the USAC drivers and the NCRA drivers will head line tonight's card. Time trials for all the champ cars begin at 7 p.m. with the 10 fastest USAC and 10 fastest NCRA cars advancing to the match race. Two champ car qualifying races will kick off Sunday's card with the top 10 in each race advancing to the 50-lap feature. The top four from the B feature will advance, and promoter Larry Hill will then be allowed to pick any two drivers of his choice to round out the field of 26 cars for the feature.
USAC-NCRA
Entries USAC Drivers (Driver's name, hometown and car number) Mark Alderson, Timber Lake, S.D., 2; Gary Bettenhausen, Monrovia, Ind., 9; Sheldon Kinser, Bloomington, Ind., 12; Ron Milton, Jacksonville, Ill., 17; Larry Dickson, Marietta, Ohio, 18; Manny Rockhold, Pekin, Ill., 19; Ron Shuman, Mesa, Ariz., 21; Ron Hughes, Houston, 26; Mike Gregg, Fort Collins, Colo., 27; Eddie Leavitt, Kearney, Mo., 29; Ronnie Burke, Houston, 33; Jack Hewitt, Troy, Ohio, 34; Ken Schrader, Fenton, Mo., 39. Buz Tappley, Fort Collins, Colo., 42; Jim Moughan Jr., Springfield, Ill., 46; Steve Siegel,
New Oxford, Pa., 5-1; Steve Long, Indianapolis, 52; Joe Saldana, Brownsburg, Ind., 53; Tom Bigelow, Whitewater, Wis., 55; Roger Rager, Mound, Minn., 59; Bill Engelhart, Madison, Wis., 70; Terry Uehling, Ness City, Kan., 72; Billy Pauch, Stockton, N.J., 74; Rick Hood, Memphis, 75; Mike Andreeta, Rocklyn, Calif., 91; Eric Trousdale, Terre Haute, Ind., 95.
USAC Point
Standings 1. Tie, Ken Schrader and Sheldon Kinser 298; 3. Gary Bettenhausen 265; 4. Rick Hood 238; 5. Billy Pauch 181; 6. Mark Alderson 167; 7. Mike Peters 150; 8. Buz Tappley 142; 9. Chuck Gurney 120; 10. Johnny Parsons 118.
NCRA Drivers
(Driver's name, hometown and car number) Herb Copeland, Wichita, 1N; Dave Grubb, Tulsa, 7; D.E. Suggs, Okla.City, 11N; Tony
Armstrong, Tulsa, 11T; Gary Lee Maler, Dodge City, Kan., 11X; Ernie Eldson, Okla. City, 15; Marv DeWall, Jackson, Minn., 16X; Stan Constant, Okla. City, 17; Shane Carson, Okla. City, 20; Jerry Stone, Tulsa, 21; Greg Wooley, Okla. City, 23; Mike Gregg, Fort Collins, Colo., 27; Johnny Burnell, Piedmont, 39; Emmett Hahn, Tulsa, 43; Danny Daniels, Del City, 54D; Harold Leep, Muskogee, 70; Bruce Jennings, Norman, 75. Howie Sewell, Broken Arrow, 76S; Darrell Jennings, Norman, 81; Bob Ewell, Forney, Texas, 85; Mike Peters, Wichita, 86; Troy Matchen, Norman, 86; Paul Ott, Newcastle, 89;
Tommy Estes Jr., Ada, 92; Dusty Odom, Okla. City, 93; Steve Garey, Okla. City, 94; Ken Brewer, Choctaw, 96; Jim McElreath, Arlington, Texas, 99; Mike Allison, Okla. City, 199; David Brotherton, Okla. City, 501.
From 1984
|
