DRIVER OR HORSEPOWER
Probably not many stop by anymore to check this page since it is very outdated since I have fallen behind in my weekly updates, but I will try and touch on some different subjects and even drivers over the winter months. For those of you who do not no me, My husband, Scott and I own a chassis company. I watch more races than him during the year, but his knowledge comes from driving. We have had lots of discussions along, and with our customers lately over this topic. We have been lucky enough to travel out of the tri-state area and run at many different tracks over the last few years. I have seen many different types of drivers and cars, and still I am not saying that my opinion is right or even a completely educated one. I am going to give you my spin on it and I would really like some feed back on this subject. You can email me at
cyndi@keystonebreakdown.com and voice your opinion. I may even print some of them for future discussion. Back 5-6 years ago maybe even longer the general opinion of the experienced drivers was that you could only hook up so much horsepower on an 8" tire. I remember at Hickory one night Jim Dandy Jr. Taking his motor out of his box van and finishing third. It was a dripping greasy mess, that you had to all jump out and push up the hill to the race track, yet he used it to claim a motor. The same time frame saw him win night in and night out on a stock 350 motor. He was beating guys with stout 406's , when I say beating I mean lapping more than half the field nightly. I remember him saying in victory lane "you can only hook up so much horsepower on an 8" tire. You guys keep building bigger motors and I'll beat you by two more car lengths." The only thing that has stayed the same in this class is the 8" tire, but as the years have passed guys have learned to adjust and fine tune their chassis to handle more and more horsepower. Those adjustments have come in the form of suspension technology. I do not want to really get into that this time, but I will say that the combination of the pull bar, Z-link, & 4-bar suspension that has been perfected has enabled these cars to hook up with more bite and drive thus enabling them to handle more horsepower. Now understand, there is still the squirrels that cannot handle a 5000 chip in a 350, but a real driver that has done their time and homework in this class knows that there is a whole new thinking on the line of horsepower. I have listened to guys complain about forward bite, and when I took a closer look at who finished in front of them and realized those guys were turning 8200, and the one complaining about forward bite was turning 6800.... when someone hooks up on that much more horsepower, it could make you feel like you were having forward bite problems. Now once again more variables, a motor man that's is tuned into this class knows there are certain things such as cams that play a big role in these motors hooking up also. We had a customer that had some serious horsepower but he couldn't control it. Finally my husband told him, I cannot tune your car any more till you change your cam. He did and the car hooked up and flew. Now I am not saying that you cannot win in a stout 350, what I am saying is do not be hard on yourself or your car, if your finishing 2nd to someone that has out classed you in horsepower.
Now back to my driver issue. I have watched a guy finish tenth and out drive the field. I must say that it pains me to see what horsepower has done to real drivers. I have seen guys win that have stormed down the straight-aways, muscled themselves (banging off of everyone) through the turn, and storm down the straight-aways again. Then I look back in the field and watch maybe a guy in 3rd or 5 th or even further pass 5 cars in a turn and never touch one, come out ahead and loose the drag match down the back straight away. Who is the better driver? The dragster or the guy that can get through the field and turns? I have heard guys talk after they win like they were the worlds best, but put them in the same equipment as the rest of the field and they would struggle to break top ten. How do you distinguish and who are the real drivers?
Me personally, I like driver better than uncontrolled horsepower. One thing that I have noticed about some of the so called 'fast guys', is that if you start them deep in the field, the have a harder time controlling their horsepower to work for them, but on the big money shows it is usually a straight-up start so the slow guy is out of luck. But what is the answer???!!!! I am definitely not for a motor rule. I watched my own husband get beat 7 times this year by horsepower and I still say 'no' to a motor rule.( Well maybe not all 7 times, when you get beat by Danny Dean, you got beat by talent and experience.) But anyway, how do you tell the difference between horsepower and driver?? I do not have a clue! I would say maybe start the fast guy dead last and see how good he can drive through the field with his big thumper. I think a big down fall to having horsepower is that you depend on it instead of the car and driver working together. One driver told me,'having a big motor, allows me to recover from mistakes. When I run my small motor I have to run every lap perfect.' That is oh so true, Which goes back to my original question, is horsepower taking the place of great driving talent? To a certain extent I believe the answer is 'yes'. But as chassis companies learn to tune to it and everyone gets back on an equal playing field, I believe you will see the true drivers emerge again. I am acquainted with many drivers in the AMRA Road Warrior Tour. Last year at the nationals 93 good cars showed up and 68 got put on the trailer early. As near as we could figure every driver that made that 25 car field had been a track or series champion with in the last few years. They were the best of the best! For most of those cars I believe that it was a combination of horsepower, driver , and chassis, because it was one of the best modified races I have ever seen. I think that a lot of drivers I have heard of or been in contact with are realizing that in order to be the driver they are or once were they will have to step up the horsepower, and I hope when they do that they take the time to tune their chassis to that horsepower also.
If you were looking for an answer to the topic when you started reading it, I am afraid I do not have one. I have my opinions but they are sometimes wrong and since I am a female they are definitely subject to change. To a lot of fans I think they misjudge driver for horsepower. Those that have watched this class at different tracks and over time probably know who the real drivers are. I do believe that it won't be long, as I said earlier, that the playing field will soon even out as drivers began to see that stepping up to some more horsepower could benefit their driving talent.
I sure would be interested in your feed back. This is something that I have really noticed this year, and was wondering how some of you thought about it.
