Tabla de contenidos para August 2016 en Circle Track

Depending on where you are in our world, this can be the most wonderful time of the year. The weather is warming up (maybe), the snow has melted off the ground (maybe), and you can sense the summer winds beginning to blow. If racing season hasn’t begun in your neighborhood yet, it’s about to. It’s time for a fresh beginning. Speaking of fresh beginnings— before I get too far into this column, we’d like to welcome a new face to Circle Track. Actually, we’d like to welcome this person back to CT. John Viscardo was a part of the team several years ago and recently had been with another magazine in the industry. John will fill the role left behind by Rob Fisher. We look forward to having someone very…

How to Drive Articles I like your new articles about how to drive in a certain track condition, which I recently read online. I am curious if you can do one that covers a rough, slick track with moisture in the holes. This is a little more in depth to what McDowell was saying online. — Dillon Oregon Hey Dillon, We’re glad you liked the online article about how to drive a wet, rutted track. In the future, you’ll be seeing more articles online and in the pages of this magazine that will provide an in-depth look at how to drive certain track conditions. We’d like to thank Jeff Huneycutt, Dale McDowell, and Jason Hughes for helping us out on this so far. Look for more in the next few…

Speedweeks in Florida signals the start to the new year’s racing program for a good many teams, mostly from up north. Down here, we see a complete array of stock-car classes running on dirt and asphalt. These include the Modifieds, Sprint Cars, Late Models, and Super Lates. The primary Florida tracks participating in Speedweeks include East Bay in Gibsonton, Volusia Speedway Park in Barberville, and New Smyrna Speedway’s World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing. I’ve spent many nights at the last two tracks during the past 40 years, and I usually try to take in some of the action at each one since I live nearby. But this year, I spent most of my time at NSS helping Dick Anderson with our Project Modified car. At NSS, I saw…

Soft, Comfortable and Safe Designed with comfort and safety in mind, the G-Force Racing Gear SFI flame-retardant Balaclavas are some of the softest and safest on the market today. The balaclavas are made from an innovative soft-knit CoolTec Nomex material. With hypoallergenic coverage and a soft texture feel, they give the driver or crewmember a minimum TPP rating of 10. They are available in a single layer with one large eye port or double layer with a single or dual eye port. The Balaclavas are available in red, white, blue, and black. For more information call (770) 998-8855 or visit www.gforce.com. Protection From Exhaust Heat Excess heat off the exhaust can cause an array of problems. Koolmat’s Heatmaster is a 25,000-degree Fahrenheit exhaust shield made for any racer who has…

While preparing for a Speed Weeks run in our Project Modified, we encountered puzzling problems with no obvious cause. I had to use all my previous experience to eliminate those things that were not wrong, so I could pinpoint what was actually wrong. That is what track testing is all about. Track testing provides an opportunity to dial in the car for speed and consistency while running a particular track. Most events have little time to adequately evaluate your chosen setup, so you need to take advantage of every chance to go testing. It’s best to follow a specific test order to get the most out of the experience. Here’s how you might organize and run a typical test session, as well as discuss methods and procedures that will lead…

It is always great to hear from someone who has followed my advice on seeking sponsorship dollars, used some of our materials and books, and successfully secured sponsorship. I wanted to share this email from Paul Amenta because it’s a great example of how someone can secure a substantial sponsorship. Read his story here: I did the sponsorship hunt for Travaglin Racing here in Connecticut more than a few years ago. Even though I am no longer in that business, I still read your columns all the time. I’m amazed you have to keep drilling the same points home to the weekly racing teams. When I started the sponsor hunt, my team and I went to one of your seminars in Daytona, bought the recommended books, and followed all the…

Before I dig into this month’s subject matter, I’d like to preface this with some background. I’ve had hands-on experience designing intake manifolds and exhaust headers using the techniques I’ll share here. It will not be only theoretical approaches. Rather, these techniques have stood the test of time. (As a matter of fact, there have been U.S. Patents issued on some of what will be discussed.) I hope you’ll find them as helpful as these have been to me. Both intake and exhaust systems operate with unsteady, pulsing flow. On the intake side, this is probably more important to consider. We’re dealing with the problem of keeping atomized fuel in suspension with air, particularly when using carburetors. Due to differences in mass between air and fuel, particularly during directional flow…

You need traction control—not the electronic kind—but an approach to the design and setup of your car that will increase traction. Traction is all about making the four tires work harder. When you can better understand how various settings and procedures affect the amount of traction in race cars, you can better prepare your car for racing. With more traction, you can brake harder, roll faster through the turns, and accelerate harder and faster off the turns. Everything you do with a race-car setup, outside engine prep, aero tweaking, and driveline technology, is directly connected to trying to develop more traction. Everything you do related to chassis setup comes down to making the tires work harder. Tires are the ultimate connection between the car and the racing surface. Far more…

PERFORMANCE DISTRIBUTORS The new Supreme Racing Davis Unified Ignition (DUI) Distributor by Performance Distributors was designed with the do-it-yourself racer in mind. The innovative distributor design makes this easier to install and compatible with many engine combinations. Every DUI distributor is calibrated on a distributor machine at Performance Distributors. This provides a quick and accurate mechanical advance that results in instant throttle response and greater power when you need it most. A quick response can help you shave time off—lap after lap. Instead of using a timing light, the Instant Timing Knob allows you to make timing adjustments quickly and easily. Simply turn the knob to advance or slow down your timing. No need to loosen and retighten the distributor holddown clamp to make alterations. With the knob, you will…