2018 fastrak rules update – new shock/suspension rules

[blncfn57]

Can't afford a $20 bumpstop? To save bottoming your $500 shock and damaging the body?

A crate is a 430 hp slot car.

Usually you have some pretty good, knowledgeable posts, but if you believe a bump stops purpose is to protect the shock I'll have to disagree with you.

[blncfn57]

Dv8

"The large payouts caused it, so the blame lies with them. "

I completely agree and was about to say something similar before I read your post.

[MasterSbilt_Racer]

Usually you have some pretty good, knowledgeable posts, but if you believe a bump stops purpose is to protect the shock I'll have to disagree with you.

Yes. Plus change the wheel rate. And define the end of the travel. Something is going to define the end of travel no matter what you do.

[Kromulous]

Huck's point isn't lost, but it also highlights the problem. You can dumb down the cars with rules like this, but if you allow the bodies to remain the way they are currently your only compounding the problem further at the end of the day.

Rules are needed, see Wedge cars of the mid 80's, but smart rules are hard to come bu currently. Anytime to deal with a "Limited" class of any kind you invite manipulation of some sort, it is what it is to some point.

Supers are a beast of there own, any sort of specific limiting of items can lead to expenses increasing, but you still need to keep a lid on it. Otherwise you end up with NHRA, overpriced mega machines that eat $$ by the dumb truck loads. Biggest impact i still believe is Aero, cut the spoilers down!!!

[blncfn57]

Yes. Plus change the wheel rate. And define the end of the travel. Something is going to define the end of travel no matter what you do.

ok, but rest assured, nobody is running a bump-stop because they don't know how to keep a shock from bottoming out.... as your earlier post suggested.

[a25rjr]

They didn't have shock rules and Bloomquist put inerters on the car and completely decimated the field almost every time he raced with them. 10's of thousands in shocks so they made them illegal ... should they be legal ?? If we could make a deck hike to 80" should that be legal ?? This concept that more rules adds cost is absurd. If you make it
Impossible to put power to the ground costs will go down. People won't build 900hp if they can't use it. You guys claim if they make everyone run 100 dollar shock they will make birdcages that costs 500k .... seems pretty tough with the bird cage rules ... you can move Chassis mounts almost anywhere with a sawzall and welder , plenty of room to make adjustments there's no need for F1 shocks or any exotic spring set ups. Im done with this assanine argument I'm going to get back to making money

Who needs more rules? (sarcasm)

Im all for bolting on those sheets of plexiglass on to the decks. Then we can evaluate in a year or two and see where we're at! (sarcasm)

[MasterSbilt_Racer]

ok, but rest assured, nobody is running a bump-stop because they don't know how to keep a shock from bottoming out.... as your earlier post suggested.

The original purpose of a bump stop on a vehicle was just that. It is a dumb piece of rubber. It gets progressively stiffer and ends suspension travel. This is preferred to crashing pieces of steel together. There is no magic.

[blncfn57]

The original purpose of a bump stop on a vehicle was just that. It is a dumb piece of rubber. It gets progressively stiffer and ends suspension travel. This is preferred to crashing pieces of steel together. There is no magic.

Lol, I'm fully aware of the intended purpose preventing shock damage isn't the purpose in the 21st century.

[MasterSbilt_Racer]

Lol, I'm fully aware of the intended purpose preventing shock damage isn't the purpose in the 21st century.

It operates exactly as I described above even in the 21st century. Explain where the physics are different than I described? Still a dumb piece of rubber. Still progressive rate, still stops travel.

[MasterSbilt_Racer]

Or better yet, what is the hoped result from outlawing this rubber donut?

[MasterSbilt_Racer]

They're figuring cars won't lay over on the right front so hard, and that'll keep the spoilers down.

What will happen?

A metric f*ckton of money will be spent on replacing bent shocks.

And the claimer rule won't do a d*mn thing to control costs. Claimer rules have never worked.

I think you are right. Don't want a spoiler in the air? Take it off. Class makes too much grip? Put smaller tires on them. Crate cars have so much traction they are boring.

Making rules to make a certain aspect of the racing more difficult to achieve is ineffective. Making that aspect unimportant can be effective.

[FASTRAKPR]

I would like to respond to a couple of idiotic post made on here about FASTRAK since I own FASTRAK. I have copied the post and will respond under each for the sake of clarification.

I guess the shock companies didn't buy fastrak's extortion on having to pay to be a legal shock manufacturer thus there isn't a spec shock.

Extortion is a very legal word you might want to be careful with and especially when you have WRONG INFORMATION. Stating something is fact and adding the world extortion does however make you libel for stating FALSE INFORMATION. Asking for $2500 from a shock company annually "TO GIVE BACK THE RACE TEAMS" isn't called extortion. It's called going to bat for your teams. Thats what I did. We asked them to do a skype call with everyone on at the same time but no one bothered to do that. We asked for a personal meeting in our office with everyone together in the same room to try and resolve shocks as they have gotten out of hand and needed their expertise to try and fix it. Only one did. So yes after all that, we did put out a bid letter and several agreed but some did not.

They were taking bids to be the exclusive shock manufacturer or you had to pay five figures to be included as a legal shock. They gave the shot companies about 30 days to submit a bid and if you didn't put in a bid then they took it as you didn't want to be a part of it. It was very aggressive and very odd and pissed off a lot of the shock. I know at least one of them talked to legal counsel about it.

Your own topic here discredits your post as one time to said 5 figures, a lie, and another time to said BID.

FIVE FIGURES???????? lmao. Another LIE. I wish we got 5 figures for anything much less shocks. Your five figures must have included the .00 on a dollar sign.
Aggressive? So there is an REAL issue out there and you are the shock company and you ignore every attempt to fix it together but we are labeled as aggressive?? I am here to do my best with the knowledge we have to keep expense to a minimum for my teams. I would call it passive aggressive the other way as like a lot of things, just keep ignoring it and I hope it goes away???

Someone wants to get counsel because we invited them to a meeting to fix an issue? I only wish. I welcome that fully. No different than they can price their shocks the way they want, we can run our series the way we prefer. So now trying to keep the cost down is ILLEGAL?

Now I am beginning to understand why most promoters call this board the joke of dirt racing. I disagreed with that for a long time, but its beginning to make sense.

Stan Lester
678-935-7304 ext 1.

Always glad to speak with you. I don't always have time to look at this board.

[FASTRAKPR]

Why don't they just supply the cars and drivers will pick one when they get to the track? That's the direction we're heading with all of this nonsense. People fear what they don't understand. Then come up with money as an excuse to make a rule against it that will ultimately cost MORE money. The level of stupidity at the top of these sanctioning bodies never ceases to amaze me. Thank god when Fastrak tried to take over in Indiana we ran them out of town. Crate late models around here are just that. A late model with a crate motor. Now everybody wants to dumb the crate late model class down to a street stock. Leaf springs will be mandatory next year I guess.

Run FASTRAK out of Indiana? I won't say what I would like to. I WAS NOTIFIED ON MY 8 HOUR DRIVE HOME FROM INDIANA THAT MY MOM HAD BEEN DIAGNOSED WITH CANCER and simply needed to take care of her. THANKS!

Stan Lester
678-935-7304 ext 1

I always take calls or return calls. I don't always have time to look at message boards.

[hucktyson]

Stan just ignore these clowns. According to the engineers on this board If 410 sprints got rid of weight rules, wing rules , tire rules , CI rules , shock rules , any type of motor rules at all the cars would cost 1/3rd what they do now and every race would be won from 24th AND they would be way way way safer for drivers and fans going an extra 50mph faster like the lack of rules would allow ... they think if you limit them to a 375rf you going to let them design a radical new front suspension that will act like a stacked spring on a bump stop ... when clearly anyone with a brain can see it would be outlawed immediately... You are absolutely going the right direction tying to save races from themselves but these rules don't go far enough, it's a good start.

[FASTRAKPR]

Please feel free to call me if you have any questions about FASTRAK. I have zero issues with post that are made with facts but I do take issue with lies. I am more than glad to talk to you about what we are trying to do and why. Who knows you might be able to teach us something and that we look forward too. Like any business, when people spread false rumors they can damage a company and especially when the words like extortion enter the arena. Thats very serious business. I honestly thought it was ok to ask for a meeting with the shock companies, when things were getting out of hand and you all know they are. When that didn't work a face to face meeting. Yes after than I sent a letter asking them to support the very people that bought their products. SOMETHING WRONG WITH THAT? All any of them EVER HAD to do was call and state their case if they didn't like the letter. So they didn't have time to meet via skype, didn't have time to come to a meeting, didn't bother to call AT ALL, but they had time to let you know about WRONG FIGURES? Its all about communication folks. Sure would have be easy to do in this case.

Oh just FYI: 4 of them did decided too but that put us in the position of allowing some manufacturers and not allowing others, so we decided to drop it all together. Not fair to those that were going to support it and make our teams junk what they already had for the companies that did not support it. Yes several companies offered to do a spec shock. My letter to the current shock companies was in reference to us, the series and shock companies to come up with a solution but we see what happened. People spread complete lies to damage us and some people fell for that. We are the last crate late model series to support the shock companies for 15 years, but this is an unfortunate reply to that effort. ALL I WANTED TO DO WAS FIX IT BEFORE IT GOT WORSE. "Lesson learned".

FASTRAK has paid back over $4.3 million dollars in point monies alone to crate late model teams in the last 14 years. I don't think we have anything to be ashamed of.

Stan Lester
678-935-7304 ext 1

I always take calls or return calls. I don't always have time to look at message boards.