By T.J. Buffenbarger
04/24/2000: The Pennzoil World of Outlaws has changed dramatically since television and more money has come into the sport. The teams are all looking for advantages over their competition, and the latest craze is taking sprint cars to a chassis dyno similar to what the Winston Cup Cars use.
A chassis dyno consists of two large rollers where the wheels that deliver the power sit on while the car is tied it down. It allows the team to run run the car up to the maximum power without putting it on the track. NASCAR did this very openly a couple of years to check the makes for parity and blew up Dale Jarrett’s car by doing so.
The latest team to hit the chassis dyno was the DoCC Motorsports team with Johnny Herrera. According to one of the team representatives, the chassis dyno gave lots of information on the car that they were not aware of, and should help them run better throughout the season. What that information contained was not revealed.
Other teams that we know have gone to the chassis dyno are the Beef Packers #83, Hillenburg Motorsports #2, and the Selma Shell #11. Some reports even have Mopar paying for Karl Kinser to take parts into the wind tunnel for testing.
-Two local drivers got bitten on a new rule for the Pennzoil World of Outlaws about how far the front wing of the car can be put forward on the car. Butch Schroeder and Chad Kemenah both had their times disallowed after measurements were taken. Kemenah raced out the night starting at the back of each event, while Schroeder and his Peterbuilt team were not happy and decided to call it a night.
Apparently Schroeder was sitting at either quick time or nearly the top of the order and passed inspection once. Then later of after they had been working on the cars the WoO officials came over then to measure the wing after the initial inspection and then told the Peterbuilt team was not legal. Apparently the rule was not re-iterated with other rule changes in the drivers meeting, and has made the Daughtery Motorsports team upset enough that they may not race the Outlaw event at Bristol, or even at all this season.
Schroeder also had a incident with Pennzoil World of Outlaws officials last June when he exchanged bumps on the track with Sammy Swindell and was suspended for one race because of it, while Swindell got off in the incident with just a small fine.
-The racing was notably improved with the new format over the past couple of seasons with the Pennzoil World of Outlaws. Most of the heat races featured some passing, while the feature event had Stevie Smith and Steve Kinser having a good battle for the lead all race long, with Crag Dollansky right on their bumpers.
Dollansky, who will be racing with the Gummout Support Series this season, had a very strong run at Eldora by winning his heat, winning his dash, and being in the hunt for the win until bumping the turn two wall and blowing a right rear tire.
Kent Wolters had a fleet of three cars at Eldora with two of the machines running the Pennzoil World of Outlaws portion of the event. Wolters brought in Becca Anderson from Pennsylvania to drive a second car.
“Our deal in back home fell apart, so we decided to try this over here. We met Ken (Wolters) a couple of years ago while racing here, and he offered us a ride”.
Anderson however missed the main event, as did Wolters. No word though on what Anderson will be doing for the rest of the 2000 season.
-Many veteran spectators noticed the crowd was significantly down for spring Outlaw event at Eldora. The race was pushed back two weeks from its traditional week being run on either the first or second weekend in April. Many people felt the Easter weekend and shaky weather from contributed to the smaller turnout, which was large enough that most dirt track promoters would love to see at their Outlaw races.
-Second place point man Danny Lasoski had a rough night at Eldora. After a lackluster qualifying effort Lasoski had to start way back in his heat race, and did not make the transfer. Then after starting back in the B-Main, the Dude works his way up to sixth position when a red flag came out for a flip involving Boston Reid and Jimmy Stinson.
The Beef Packers team then discovered they had a leak in a radiator, and barely made it off the work area in time to restart. The Dude then was behind a torrid battle for the last transfer spot involving Tim Shaffer and Ed Lynch, Jr. Coming to the white flag Shaffer and Lynch were running side by side, which left the door open for a huggie pole running Lasoski to make it three wide down the backstretch and took the last transfer spot.
Lasoski later on dropped out of the A-Main, while Shaffer’s team took a provisional to start the main event.
-Gene Frankart mentioned on WFIN’s racing world Saturday that this could he his last season promoting Attica Raceway Park. Frankart said he would like to see someone purchase the race track, and have him prepare the racing surface and push cars every week. This is a fairly normal spiel for Gene, who is a tireless worker that is very proud of his racing facility, but normally doesn’t start until the end of the season.
Frankart also sited Kevin Eckert as having the best job in racing, going to a hundred different race tracks a year and telling it like it is. Gene also went on to follow Eckert’s lead talking about how speaking your mind about dirt track racing, “You can’t do that here in Ohio”.
-Brian Liskai and Jim Ford were also on Racing World talking about the improvements to the Fremont Speedway. The new lights were turned on the other night, and had better visibility than most tracks. The surprise to us after seeing the photos was that only half of the new system was turned on. Many people involved with the track said the 1/3-mile looks more like a football stadium with the lighting. The opener at Fremont will be April 29th with a $2,500 to win 410-sprint car show.
-Mike Linder had a tough start to his NRA 360 sprint car night when he got run over in his heat race, which was followed by the best steering wheel toss that the Slideways Crew has seen in many years. Linder was able to come from the back of the B-Main to run second, and worked his way up to 3rd position after starting 17th.