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The Central Pennsylvania racing season is underway.
Lincoln Speedway opened last Sunday afternoon with 24 sprint cars on hand. Greg Hodnett successfully defended his opening day victory from 2015. Hodnett took advantage of good starting position while enjoying some luck to collect the win. Hodnett is one of the most savvy technical racers in the country.
Last week Hodnett gave me a lesson. Let me state the cost of a sprint car engine continues to climb. An area racer recently took possession of his builder’s best motor at a cost of $53,000. That should ensure any racer success. Not so fast.
Hodnett explained the sophistication of today’s sprint car race team. In days of old, the driver and mechanic would select and set fuel mixture to their engine by experience and gut reaction. Pick the wrong fuel line pill and your engine doesn’t run right. If the mixture is too lean, the motor burns or melts down a piston. Good mechanics missed the mark. How times have changed.
Hodnett and car owner Michael Heffner are using technology that is used in other forms of racing. Their team’s trailer has a computerized weather station installed inside. They measure barometric pressure, temperature, humidity and other factors, which are evaluated by team personnel. When proper data is gathered, changes are made to optimize engine performance. In a perfect world, DNF’s due to wrong fuel mixture selections will be minimized or eliminated. There’s still room for error but that has significantly decreased.
So there you have it. A sprint car team is quickly approaching the time when an engineer could be necessary. There are a number of area racers currently able to analyze engine and shock absorber data. Hodnett is at the top of the list of those drivers.
Port Royal Speedway’s scheduled test and tune session this afternoon was canceled due to weather. The Juniata County oval will attempt to operate Thursday from 6-9 p.m. for practice. Racing is set to begin next Saturday with 410 sprint cars and super late models. 31 race dates are on the schedule. Speedway officials have placed pocket schedules in area establishments for race fans.
Lincoln Speedway also canceled today’s program. They will attempt to operate Sunday at 2 p.m. with 410 sprint cars headlining the show. An open practice session follows for cars planning to compete this year at the Pigeon Hills oval.
Next Saturday a new era begins at Selinsgrove Speedway when Steve Inch, Alan Kreitzer and Heffner take over promotion of the Snyder County oval. Up first is the Icebreaker 40 Race of Champions for the small block modifieds. The program has been lost to weather the last three years.
The NASCAR Sprint Cup racers head to Las Vegas Motor Speedway for tomorrow’s Kobalt 400. Fox has TV coverage starting at 3 p.m. The cup cars will race two more weeks on the west coast before returning east.
Until next week please drive safely!
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Craig Rutherford writes about motorsports for The Sentinel.