Tabla de contenidos para October 2016 en Circle Track

Now that we’ve hit the midway point of the season, sponsors might not seem as critical as they did during the off-season. You’ve got their money, you’re spending it, and you’re doing what you can to keep your end of the agreement. Mission accomplished, right? Not so much. Those of you who have done this long enough know the sponsorship chase is a yearlong endeavor. I’ll bet some of you are out on the track looking at a sponsor on your competition’s bumper and wondering how you can get that company on your car next year. That’s a good way to think. You never know who might want to jump on board midseason and help push you to that Championship or cover you for that year-end special. Going hand-in-hand with…

A Fast Blast From the Past Apple-Rice Racing won the Vintage Nationals in the Sportsman Division at Dillon Motor Speedway. Ron Barfield and his dad have a top-notch facility there. It’s a great place to race with very nice people. —Jeff Apple Hi Jeff, Thanks for the picture and congratulations on the win. Our friend Mike Slade sent us an awesome gallery of the event that we posted on www.circletrack.com. Vintage racing really seems to be taking off around the country. We love to see those old cars out on the track pounding the pavement—or dirt. As far as the event, it sounds like it was a good one. We heard from Mack Tatum, who works with the Barfields, to put together the event at Dillon. There is a lot…

If there is a consistent complaint we hear time and again about racing, it’s almost always about the cost of racing and the fact that nothing ever changes. OK, maybe that’s two complaints, but you’ve probably heard them both, too. A large contributing factor is the fact that tracks and sanctioning bodies rarely stray from the status quo. We are, after all, still largely racing carbureted firstgeneration Chevy small-blocks and Ford Windsors. It has been years since you could reliably find race-quality parts in the junkyard, and as the aftermarket has further refined the quality of their products, the costs only go up. The manufacturers aren’t to blame. They just do what racers demand. We’re always asking for higher-quality, lower-weight parts for our race cars. And if we’re willing to…

In Part One, Smokey Yunick was on the trail of obtaining his own Indy car and beginning to negotiate with an elderly lady, who happened to own one that was Offy-powered and built on a Kurtis chassis (neither of which Smokey had prior knowledge or experience with). Well, maybe he had experience with the ladies, but certainly not a hardheaded older one who knew unsponsored racers were usually brimming with energy, but typically not adequately funded. As a consequence, his first effort at financing the purchase of the car had fallen flat. But, as we noted last month, Smokey had said, “What the hell, you never know ’til you try.” Returning to his shop, he built a ’58 Pontiac for the last NASCAR race to be run in the sand…

Race teams have many and varied approaches to their racing programs. I find that fact particularly interesting when I talk to crew chiefs and drivers, and watch teams compete. I have concluded that how a team envisions their future has everything to do with how much success they will have. I have worked with many teams who are extremely confident of victory, even though it might not have happened yet. They go about their chores and preparation intent on winning, however they define winning. They seem to all stay within their own programs and insist on developing their setups in-house. They usually never seek out the so-called top teams or the usual winners, preferring to do it themselves. These predetermined winners will most all the time end up at the…

Absorbing the Torque DRP Performance Products offers standard lightweight and extra-lightweight styles of the company’s axle for affordable weight savings and increased traction. Although all axles twist upon acceleration, DRP has designed their axles for maximum twist, which brings extra bite. The standard lightweight axles typically save 1 to 2 pounds per axle. The extra-lightweights save 2 to 3 pounds per axle. The axles have been proven by winning Championships on asphalt and dirt. They have a 3 1/24 spline and are available in 1/2-inch increments or custom lengths. For more information call (888) 399-6074 or visit www.drpperformance.com. Spring Into Something Progressive The Dual Rate Progressive UHT Spring from Hypercoil has two linear rates connected with a rate transition range. This makes for a much more sophisticated suspension spring more…

Performance Trends was founded in 1986 by Kevin Gertgen, an engineer from Ford’s dyno lab in Dearborn. Their first product, “Drag Race Analyzer,” was a drag-race simulation for the Apple II computer. In 1986, performance software was either incredibly simplistic or nonexistent. Performance Trends made its mark by allowing the user to do more detailed types of modifications. Its “Drag Race Analyzer” program could answer questions like, ”Should you go to the drag strip with a full tank of gas?” More weight slows you down, but more weight over the rear axle gives better traction. In this case, the program’s answer was, “It depends on how traction limited you are.” The “Drag Race Analyzer” was quickly followed by “Engine Analyzer” and “Circle Track Analyzer.” After getting feedback from literally thousands…

A number of years ago, during the early life of this column, we touched on a subject that remains an issue, particularly when building or modifying an engine intended for racing. It was also early in the availability and affordability of in-cylinder combustion pressure testing as a function of incremental crankshaft angles. “Engine cycle analysis” (ECA) had evolved from the academic community and was further explored among the higher-end motorsports, such as F1 and NASCAR. This technology provides combustion pressure measurement in virtually real-time while linking the data to high-resolution crankshaft angles. From these data, a variety of thermodynamic-related calculations give particular insight into how a given engine is converting fuel into heat during the combustion process. This approach to combustion analysis provides a way to look inside the combustion…