Dirt Late Model Project Update

The next race we decided to run was a regular Friday night show at Ocala Speedway in Ocala, Florida. With our cross weight fixed we still had plenty of time to refine the setup. We decided, based on the loose condition we experienced at Lake City that we might need to reduce the RR spring rate. So, we installed a 550 ppi spring which would be equivalent to a 300 rear hole rate and 216 ppi front hole rate. We would again start out with the RR shock in the rear hole when the car was tight and move it to the front if the track slicked over.

At the track in Lake City we had 4.5 inches of stagger across the rear, so we changed that too. We ended up reducing the rear stagger to 3 inches.

We had hoped to get to the track in plenty of time and be really close on our setup so we only had to make very small adjustments after the heat race, but things didn't work out that way. On the way to the track we ran into a problem on Interstate 75 (a tractor-trailer accident) that delayed us about 21/2 hours. Once we arrived at the track, the heat races had already started. Not being able to run a heat race the track owner, Mike Peters, let us start last in the feature. We weren't racing for points or money as a result of not running the heat races like everyone else, but we did get a chance to race.

In the race, we started dead last and moved up until we had a fender come loose. During a caution, we pitted and fixed the problem. Once back on the track we only had 12 laps to go and were again in last place. In the run to the end we were able to move up to finish 11th out of 22 cars. Considering what we had been through, not having any practice, and being thrown into the feature, it was a good night after all.

After the race I was so excited even though the car didn't finish up front. Strange you might say, but for the first time the car had a slight push. Now, I have driven this car in about 30-35 races and I have never had a push, it was always loose. Now that we have been able to reverse that, I know we are a lot closer to making this a front running setup.

One thing that was painfully evident, other than the push, was that as I came off the corner the car would bog way down. It didn't want to "go" until half way down the straightaway. I suspected we had the wrong gear in it. After talking with a few other drivers who finished up front, my suspicion was confirmed. The gear we ran was about 30 points too low.

We talked to Bob after the race and all agreed that two things factored into our performance. First, we raced without the benefit of practice or heats on a track we had never run. Second and perhaps even more problematic, was that we had too low of a gear. We should be able to come back and change only the gear and make some other fine adjustments and maybe run up front. The little bit the car is tight will probably go away with the correct gear which will help free the car up off the corner.

Our next scheduled race is with the United Dirt Late Model Challenge Series and will be at Ocala Speedway on June 6th. Now that the car is close, hopefully we will be fast again and be able to report back with a great finish.

We discovered that the lack of rear steer did help eliminate the extreme loose condition this car always had. We also found that we could not run a stiffer RR spring rate on tracks with a slicker surface. Reducing the RR spring rate was the right thing to do and actually made the car tight for once.

We will continue to experiment with the rear spring rates. We will not introduce rear steer at this point because it just isn't needed. We will probably soften the RR spring more so in the coming races to see how far we can go before the car pushes on dry slick. But so far we have proven what we set out to do, that excessive rear steer in these cars is not desirable.