How much "cheating" is actually taking place in Crate Late Model racing?

[Returning to Dirt]

http://insidedirtracing.com/how-much...-model-racing/

Drivers Jesse Lowe, Rusty Ballenger and Matt Henderson offer thoughts regarding Crate Late Model racing.

[birky time]

just a little bit lol

[MasterSbilt_Racer]

Where engines are teched, not much. Where they are not, a lot more.

[Clayton_Wetter]

Too much. It's pretty ugly to see one guy win every time he's at the track. (one certain track in mind)

[dirtcrazy4u]

This class was brought on because of the hi costs of slm racing. What you have is guy's that bought into the crate crap garbage that is in the south with fastrack and another group I believe in ohio rush that wants to take over all racing. That group has lates, modifieds and I have heard they want a pc of sprint car racing. So what you have is guy's that bought in and the owners that are buying all high tech gear. There spending money on new cars, bodies , shocks and last but not least the motors with all the latest bolt on stuff. Carbs are costing guys a min. of 1000.00 cheating No, but there out spending everyone. These cars need limits on what accessories can be bolted to that motor, chassis limits, cheap shocks. O by the way. JD just won at Charlotte. I wonder what that car owner paid for that win. Money has taken over racing. A new hi tech rocket or longhorn should not be on the track. Those 5995.00 motors end up costing 13,000 plus. Crate racing will end up hurting racing in the long run, few if any tracks in the south have slm on a weekly card. It,s only going to chase fans away. On a local level I think the Midwest has the strongest weekly slm still out there. Bla.

[Hoosier_Dirt]

Alot!!!!!!!!!!!!

[slmcrewchief99]

This class was brought on because of the hi costs of slm racing. What you have is guy's that bought into the crate crap garbage that is in the south with fastrack and another group I believe in ohio rush that wants to take over all racing. That group has lates, modifieds and I have heard they want a pc of sprint car racing. So what you have is guy's that bought in and the owners that are buying all high tech gear. There spending money on new cars, bodies , shocks and last but not least the motors with all the latest bolt on stuff. Carbs are costing guys a min. of 1000.00 cheating No, but there out spending everyone. These cars need limits on what accessories can be bolted to that motor, chassis limits, cheap shocks. O by the way. JD just won at Charlotte. I wonder what that car owner paid for that win. Money has taken over racing. A new hi tech rocket or longhorn should not be on the track. Those 5995.00 motors end up costing 13,000 plus. Crate racing will end up hurting racing in the long run, few if any tracks in the south have slm on a weekly card. It,s only going to chase fans away. On a local level I think the Midwest has the strongest weekly slm still out there. Bla.

Crate racing started hurting Late Model racing the minute the class was formed.....

[castone]

Not going to call any name, but one of the drivers mentioned at top of page has been busted for a cheated up crate!

[zerolm]

In my area, if you are using a crate your car is automatically subject to weight only in tech. If they see a 604 with seals on it they automatically assume that you are a saint and have never missed your mother's birthday. It is literally treated this way. When traveling series are in town they tear them down but I seriously can not remember the last time a crate was teched in any way shape or form otherwise.

[President Clinton]

No one cheats!!!! And I didn’t have sexual relations with Monica!!!!! Nor did I inhale!

[RW57]

One big problem is cost to get it resealed I know engine builders are in it to make money but come on depending on what is done 1 head gasket 1 intake set 1 oil pan gasket sure I will reseal it its a thousand bucks but wait I only got 700 dollars after the track gets their cut no way should it cost a racer more to reseal than he got had a friend this happened to twice with a 602 got less than 400 dollars to pull head cost over 500 dollars to have head put back on and sealed.engine builder probably cleared 350$$$ for what an hour's work that's a rip off bottom line.

[GRT24]

Didn't Jesse Lowe get thrown out at Boyd's earlier on the year?

[Illtsate32]

Didnt want to assume but the guys saying the rules are great nothing going on here are prob the ones who are cheating their bal;s off...

[grt74]

it has gotten way out of control, you could run supers for what most are running crates with today (im talking about the front runners)

[mcarter815]

You can’t stop racers from spending money. They’ll spend whatever they can afford or more no matter the class. I’ve seen guys use toters to haul legends cars.

[kidrock]

You also can't stop the cheating if you don't tech but, if you do tech and you catch them you make the penalty so severe no one would want to do it again.

[riddle28]

my question has always been why do they need to be sealed? why not tear downs like a regular motor?

[PushinTheLimit]

I have raced with all the guys that are mentioned in the article. Some of those guys, I race against weekly amd it makes it tough to run against so many good teams... wins are hard to come by. But I'm ok with that, just means we have to work a little harder on our stuff and keep trying to get better every race.

I don't think there's a ton of cheating in motors. There's been quite a few tear downs this year and that alone should keep most guys in check from doing something they shouldn't be doing or they will get caught. I think there could be some cheating going on in "other areas" though.

Crate was supposed to be a more budget friendly class for guys that still wanted to run late models but couldn't afford to run supers. That's why I jumped in on that 4 years ago. I just don't have the funding to compete with supers and crates just makes sense for me. I just think some of the cost effective rules got lost along the way. It was never meant to replace supers.

[RW57]

I agree if they would tech regularly they might control it some but racers can t help themselves if it makes it go faster we are gonna buy it. Someone had a good point why seal it handle it like a regular tear down think about it what do seals accomplish other than someone saying it has seals must be legal yea right. A friend of mine had a clone 604 built but had 6 in rods everything else was right cam heads intake etc no seal bolts ran it till he sold car no one ever checked to see if it had bolts.at least the racer can put it back together him self .

[tb1545]

I truely believe the engines are not as big of a problem as most people say. Do you think they put in a super special engine to make davenport drive better than the previous driver of that crate car he raced at Charlotte? or maybe talent and setup matter more since the engines are mostly all similar. The issue i have with crates currently is they require the same $35k to $45k roller and shock packages to compete as the super late models. the only difference is one engine package costs $12k and one costs $60 to $80k. The original idea and promotion of crates was "bring back out the 12-15 year old cars, put a crate in, and compete for wins". That is not close to the truth in todays technology of racing. So those guys that dont have the talent and/or equipment now cry that anyone beating them must be cheating up the crates cuz theres no way they lost due to that guy just being better than him.