Andy Harpell quote in Gater

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dennis

Rookie
In last weeks Gater column by Eric Zwirlein, Andy was said
to have announced that there may be a plan to blend the
SST/Weeky mods and the ROC tour type mods into one
Modified division. With some simple rule tweeks. I proposed
this idea earlyier this summer here on raceny with limited
intrest. I really hope Andy can get this idea to gain some
momentum early this winter for a strong launch in 2012.
it would be great for the ROC guys to be able to race weekly
and give the weekly racer an oppertunity to race the ROC
competitively.
 
J

jimmy consi

Veteran
well wtg now you and andy are turning the mighty mods into sk mods on 10 inch tires...the reason why we all love asphalt modified racing is the big tires, the fast motors and the light weight car. that combination makes them the most entertaining class of stock car out there. so all your doing is killing the division that we all love.
 
D

dirtraceguy

Rookie
jimmy consi said:
well wtg now you and andy are turning the mighty mods into sk mods on 10 inch tires...the reason why we all love asphalt modified racing is the big tires, the fast motors and the light weight car. that combination makes them the most entertaining class of stock car out there. so all your doing is killing the division that we all love.
Click to expand...

It already killed itself, why not try and at least salvage something so we still have some cars to watch 5 years from now?
 
R

rocket5973

Veteran
So does anyone know what the plan is as far as motors? Carbs? I've been keeping quiet about this deal but I have a very bad feeling about it. I like my 8,000 mouse motor and I like my 1070 tire. If they want to run on the 10 inch tire why doesn't ROC just pick up where SST left off and sanction races where they can draw cars from the weekly tracks that run around here. Try and get us all under a similar rule package. I don't see how they are going to make the two classes compatible horse power wise without sticking a big carb on our sportsman motors. Our motors aren't made for those carbs, its a whole new cam....new everything. Its different. Its more money then I have to spend and I think most of the guys in the sportsman division are in the same boat. Were blue collar weekly races. i save all my pennies so I can do a little traveling and thats about it! Besides that its a division that designed for less experienced drivers to get a feel for open wheel modifieds, aka drivers that aren't ready to drive 500+ hp cars. Did anyone else see the US Open Sportsman race? Do you really want to give them another 80 horse with a 4 barrel? Looks good on paper for car counts but its not gonna fly.
 
F

frontstretch

Veteran
What Andy J. says makes a lot of sense. I know for sure there are some guys on the tour that do not want to give anything up in the motor department. Why? Because they know if they do there is going to be someone who doesn't. The demise of the current "full blown" modified will be a sad day for me and many others for sure.
I understand Andy Harpel's dillema though. It will be impossible for him to have a tour next year and ask promoters to put up a purse equivelent to last years given the car counts he had at many tracks. Pretty sure there has been talks about this with all the current promoters already.
 
H

Hoosierfan22

Veteran
Does it really matter what tire you put them on? Tires are tires as far as cost goes. The teams are going to buy the same amount of tires every week. No money saved.

Why not leave the tires alone  on the real mods and but the SST cars on the mod tires? What makes a modified a modified is the big tires and motors.
 
M

MODiFried

Guest
Hoosierfan22 said:
Does it really matter what tire you put them on? Tires are tires as far as cost goes. The teams are going to buy the same amount of tires every week. No money saved.

Why not leave the tires alone  on the real mods and but the SST cars on the mod tires? What makes a modified a modified is the big tires and motors.
Click to expand...

EXACTLY !  ~When is a Modified not a Modified ? when it doesnt Look Sound or Feel like a Modified~ ...but im Bias MODs with Big Motors & Tires are my Preference always will be ...probably jumping the gun here ~ looks to me like that might become a Whelen ONLY thing
:mad:  :eek:  ...not liking this @ all be like taking a step backwards imo
  i say if anything...keep the BIG tires ! & AMP-up the SST/B motors
 
M

modmavin

Newbie
I wrote more about what his plan might entail in my column this week. Might being the operative word! haha. Anyway, For sure it will be difficult and require some bending on everyone's part. Not everyone will be happy at first but the upside could be huge if it happens.

I went into pretty good detail including a pre-emptive worry about the track operators ruining it after a couple years trying to "protect" what they have.

Eric
 
M

MODiFried

Guest
i am not a suck-up lol ~  i look forward to your column every issue even moreso now...yeppers we'll see how it pans out    Thanks Eric ~ for keeping us/me informed  8)
 
M

modmavin

Newbie
Thanks MODiFried! I do what I can! Great screen name too, I am not a suck up either! haha!

I'd like them to keep the big tires too.... and they might wind up doing just that. It depends on how everything works out. IF a deal can be reached it could be huge and the 10 inch tires won't be an issue IF it works out.

Eric
 
R

rocket5973

Veteran
Just as long as the local tracks don't adopt the 13 inch tire that would be fine. But keep it on the tour! I still hate that idea though. The last thing this class needs is a tire that can't even go 2 weeks on a weekly basis. I've driven on old modified rubber and its not fun. All the guys mid pack that run 4 week old tires as it is would be more out of control then they already are. The class would be dead in a year. I still don't like that idea though. You can stick big tires on a sportsman and call it whatever you want to make the fans happy, I call it going broke. You also have to take into account that the Modified tires are smaller, which means they turn more RPMs. There are alot of tracks where our SST type motors are on edge as it is. Now your going to put us on smaller circumference tires and give us more corner speed? I was walking around Shang II this weekend and some of the Mods are at 8300 RPMS doing 17.7s around a half mile track! 4.86 gears. Thats par lap time wise for a mod at Lancaster or Oswego when you consider the size. The parts in the SST motors aren't built to do CLOSE to that. 7500 TOPS. I did a start and park on old mod tires and it sounded like my engine was about to explode and I was letting off at the start finish to try and conserve the motor as it was. With a 2 barrel on still.

I hate to be negative but I just don't see this being a good thing in the long run. The sportsman class has been successful because the rules are designed the way that they are, please don't mess with them.
 
2

2ol2

Veteran
leave the mods alone, i pay to see the mods. b mods are b mods, most guys run both classes any way if they have the money.  do not make these things into mud turtles
 
Z

zmodguy

Rookie
I agree with pretty much everything Andy J has stated.  Adapting the sportsman class to become "modifieds" isn't the answer.  There isn't a single bmod/sportsman/SST track that had solid car counts all year, and this would only be dividing the existing cars even more.  Andy's point about engines and rpm are spot on.  The sportsman motors are at or beyond the design intentions as it is, adding a wider tire only makes that worse.  The counter point to that would be to put 10" tires on the current mods, and that is not the answer either.  Unfortunately I do not have an answer, but I see too many downsides to the road we're currently headed down.

Quality vs. quantity is another point, just because there are 25-30 cars on the track doesn't automatically mean it's something people want to watch.  The US Open was a perfect example of this, the sportsman race was a joke, however the mod race with 15 cars put on a much better show.  Do you really want to create a mix of what was on display that day?

So hypothetically say there are rule changes for 2012 that combine the 2 classes, what will happen in 2-3 years?  This possible combination would be a very short term fix and your quality of racing would not go up.  This may be just my opinion, but I feel I am far from alone with my thoughts.

Zach Truesdail
 
oldguy

oldguy

Champion
I typed in a wonderful post, then deleted it.  Modified fans are not ready to admit that the "Big" Modifieds are dying.
SST founders changed tire rules, I heard, and that tipped the apple cart for rules consensus for the Modified Sportsman.

"Maybe John White was right," was heard many times this weekend.  I'm not smart enough to have the answers to save the Modifieds of old.  I would wish that the great minds like KT could come up with a plan that works.
 
B

bakes

Veteran
I have no idea what the answer is.  kt had a number of great discussions on here a few months back; maybe something from those would be the genesis of the combined mods? 

Aside:  Seems to me that, as soon as they went away from the "sorta like IMCA mods" stock clip cars and started letting tube chassis into the sportsman mods/B mods/sport mods, things started going downhill.  That genie is long out of the bottle though.

 
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