New Rocket car???

[fastford]

Back when I raced, we ran the crate class. I agree with both sides of the argument concerning how crates have helped and not helped late model racing as a whole. It was definitely the only way we could race a late model but, obviously, we were up against guys with ten times the financial budget that we had, making it pointless, as we all know it to be most of the time, if you are a budget racer.

I read an article a few months back where Tim McCreadie gave his opinion on spec/economical racing. One of his points was that the more you try to cut costs on engines, shocks, tires, etc. the more expensive you actually make it. Thus, you will have to buy multiples of those items, in order to achieve the performance you could have gotten from the "open" items if that makes sense.

I would love to get back into a racecar and after not racing for 3 years; the itch has gotten worse. My goal would be to at least get back to crates, but with these high budget teams running crates and with all of the advancements to the technological side of it all, there is no way in h e l l I could even be serious about being competitive or even racing it enough for it to serve its purpose. Even the street stocks are becoming the next "crates." The same thing happened to kart racing 4-6 years ago with the clone engines overtaking the flathead classes. Bottom line to this thread, "Money... If you do not have it or access to it, it is nearly impossible to be competitive, and is not getting any cheaper." The days of pure talent overshadowing the quality of your machine are dwindling just because the money makes such a difference in these new parts. I still think that engineering some little differences into these cars to gain an advantage, will always be around, as Rumley and Davenport showed us this year. However, the budget racer cannot afford to buy it or will most likely not come up with this on their own. The only way, is to use resources and test those theories, which also goes back to needing money to do these tests. Just my 2 cents

gone be hard to out run little skinner or the mulinax clan latemodle86 , but give it a run, and by the way , when they took the un fair advantages they were giving the crates at TST over the sportsman, , look what happened, just saying....

[latemodel86]

I never did understand the crates and sportsman classes being mixed together at TST and a few other local tracks... I guess to get car count up to help with a turnout for the sportsman and help pay the field??? Back in '09 when we started out on our 97 Shaw with a 602, we had no idea the challenges we would be facing... Traded for an 06 TNT at the end of the year and were actually competitive with the bone stock 602 and non adjustable afco's at TST for a little bit. Consistently around the top 5 out of 15-25 cars. Could have competed for a win a River Valley and TST on those two occasions had a few circumstances been different. However, it became more and more difficult to run as people were updating and we were running the same stuff and less and less races each year to keep learning. Times have changed in crates since then. It was tough to be a contender with a 602 and non adjustable shocks but now, that is impossible. If you tell someone that a 602, stock or illegal, with non adjustable shocks is going to win the local feature event or even finish top 3, you will get one of the most craziest looks you will ever see. Times have changed in crates, and has progressed to be a rich man's sport, just like racing as a whole.

[hanginitout]

Seems like there is so much hate toward the crates. I know for a very small operation that I have, no way I could afford to run supers at this point in time (but certainly would like to move up to them in the next 2-3 years). We don't have a local track that runs supers on a weekly basis so it's either run crates or steelheads if you want to run late models. Closest one is about 2 hours away and doesn't pay well at all. Our tracks for the most part combine crates and steelheads and are fairly competitive with one another. The upside is that we have a couple good crate series around that pays pretty good and the fields are very competitive. If you run good in them, you've done something.

I don't think it's a beginner class anymore (we have a Sportsman class around here that's more like that) but it's been good for a guy like me that had never driven on dirt and get my feet wet before I moved up a division.

If all the tracks would give an option to run a steel block with the crates, would be great.. Needed badly...

[fastford]

I never did understand the crates and sportsman classes being mixed together at TST and a few other local tracks... I guess to get car count up to help with a turnout for the sportsman and help pay the field??? Back in '09 when we started out on our 97 Shaw with a 602, we had no idea the challenges we would be facing... Traded for an 06 TNT at the end of the year and were actually competitive with the bone stock 602 and non adjustable afco's at TST for a little bit. Consistently around the top 5 out of 15-25 cars. Could have competed for a win a River Valley and TST on those two occasions had a few circumstances been different. However, it became more and more difficult to run as people were updating and we were running the same stuff and less and less races each year to keep learning. Times have changed in crates since then. It was tough to be a contender with a 602 and non adjustable shocks but now, that is impossible. If you tell someone that a 602, stock or illegal, with non adjustable shocks is going to win the local feature event or even finish top 3, you will get one of the most craziest looks you will ever see. Times have changed in crates, and has progressed to be a rich man's sport, just like racing as a whole.

I tried to argue with TST about letting the crates run with the sportsman,s, my argument was, if you have a crate class available , then ALL crates should run in that class. why should they be given weight breaks and big spoiler because they want to run with sportsman ? and were not talking about the 602, were talking about the 604 with aluminum heads which is an advantage over the steel heads in the slick anyway. plus there was no teching of the crates that ran sportsman at all. If you wanted to protest a crate, it wasn't like protesting a sportsman where you put up 300 bucks and they tore the engine down right there, it would cost 1000 and they sent the motor to a "certified" rebuilder and he would check it and let you know. LOL know to be fair, TST has pretty much fixed this by at least taking the breaks away for the most part and now if a crate runs sportsman and gets protested , they tear it down that night. Im not a crate hater , what I don't like is lack of policing and the catering to Nesmith in crates and street stocks , but as usual, this is JMO.........

[PushinTheLimit]

I totally understand your point. I haven't raced at TST yet, but plan to do so sometime if we ever get down there when the Nesmith series races there. I would think with the size of that track and how slick I know it gets... crates should run well with steelheads. Our local track alot like TST in size and typically goes black slick for the feature and crates run well there.

I know many fans don't want to see crates as the headliner of the night, but the budget for the super guys (even local super teams) I would be willing to bet is still way more than what a crate team spends in a year. Crate racing is not cheap by any means, but it's better than sitting on the couch at home lol.

[fastford]

the couple crates that's winning right now has as big or bigger budgets than the late models, as a matter of fact, in the slick, there turning times within the top 4 or 5 latemodels.....

[bb14]

the couple crates that's winning right now has as big or bigger budgets than the late models, as a matter of fact, in the slick, there turning times within the top 4 or 5 latemodels.....

The bolts are a good idea on paper. However the bolts just keep the honest people out.

I have always thought the bolts should be removed. Since people are spending so much on crates I also feel there should be one late model class. Run hard tires. 50 durometer after race. LM's are expensive. One class or watch. Our society has affected our judgement in racing now. Life is not fair and we are not equal. Just do the best you can.