highline edition 4
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Dirt track speedway magazineTRANSCRIPT
ISSUE 4 AUGUST 2014
SUPER MODIFIEDS....
Queen of the KidsHayley Sayers
Fuel For ThoughtPocket Rocket Gets All Techie
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Just days out from the 53rd Annual Knoxville Nationals, Kerry Madsen has emerged as our best ever chance of winning the world’s most prestig-ious Sprintcar event, or at least standing on the podium, something that no Aussie has ever done.
Madsen is in career best form and knows his way around Knoxville hav-ing been amultiple track champion and part of the weekly circus until heading out full time with the Outlaws. In the past couple of months Kerry has hardly ever finished off the podium and has probably been even more consistent than Donny Schatz.
Last night(Saturday 3rd August) Kerry ran 3rd in the Capitani Classic at Knoxville which was won by younger brother Ian Madsen giving the Aus-sies further hope of some level of Nationals Suc-cess. Just days before this however, Kerry won the Ironman 55 at I-55 in Pevely, MO for a $20,000 payday which when add-ed to his historic win in the Kings Royal (worth
$50,000) in late July and a number of runner up positions in-between means his form is as hot as the multiple Aussie Champion has ever been.
James McFadden has also been in super-hot form of late with a charge to 3rd place at the Iron-man to add to a third just two events previously where he was again charged forward in an outlaw race. The only hold back here for James is his relative lack of ex-perience on the Knoxville half miler but with no real expectation of a result, he can just enjoy the ride and is well capable of a great result.
McFadden also made further Aussie speedway history by running third in the tough Ohio Speed-week something that he can be extremely proud of as well as taking a couple of other big wins.
Ian Madsen has won three events at Knoxville this season and currently leads the track champion-ship, and Ian admits his equipment is a good as any. The win on Saturday
Editorial
Editor: Brett SwansonContributors; Brian Van De Wakker, Grant Woodhams, Artist/layout; Andy Ticehurst / PRM Publishing
Photographers:Brett Swanson – Pirate MediaKieran Swanson – Pirate MediaMatt Hines – Jigsaw PhotographyAndy Ticehurst – AndyTicehurst.comRachel Cooper - Inaction PhotosLeigh Reynolds - Inaction PhotosYou – The Speedway fansFacebook
Contributions / Criticism welcome.
High Line MagazineBrett Swanson0410 198 [email protected]
Who is Highline Magazine
Front Cover, Front Cover, Hay-ley Sayers on her way to 12th in the Sydney Speedway Track Championship, Photo Matt Hines – Jigsaw Pho-tography.
was more than a local win as 71 cars were in action including a lot of outlaw top guns and veterans. With a little luck Ian could well spring a surprise.
My pick for the Nationals however (Aus-sies aside), is another local ace in Bri-an Brown. Brown has just won his first Knoxville 360 nationals and was then sandwiched between the Madsen broth-ers in the Capitani classic and was also last year’s Nationals runner-up. If an Aussie can’t win it would be great for Brown to get the job done.
This issue we welcome The (former) minister for speed Mr Grant Woodhams who has been busy on a speedway sa-fari but who also found the time to pen a great personal look back at the original national Super Modified revolution and it’s more recent re-evolution in his home state of WA. I’m sure you’ll enjoy his story, especially those of us who either
remember the cars or who just appreci-ate our speedway history.
Bill Willis was not only a great racer but
an author as well. Willis has collaborated with Ian “motors” Grant to produce the “The Beginning. The story of Tracey’s Speedway 1955 to 1964. story of Trac-ey’s speedway. Best of all this is only part one of the story. (See our full review elsewhere in the magazine).
For all the Aussie fans in the USA right now I am envious but wish you all a safe and great time and most of all, good luck to all our Aussie’s in action.
Until then, race safe
Brett SwansonEditor
From Stock Cars and Hot Rods to Sprintcars
Part One: The Drivers, The Cars, The TimeBy Bill Willis
Don’t get confused by the title, this book, authored by Bill Willis, the 1963 Austra-lian Hot Rod Champion, is not a compre-hensive history of the famed speedway
The BeginningThe story of Tracey’s Speedway 1955 to 1964
by the Maribyrnong River, in suburban Melbourne, Victoria, but rather an at-tenuated view of a particular class for a particular period.
The book does not cover the venues previous life as Maribyrnong or Kirjon Speedways but purely the time when Fred Tracey was at the helm. Similarly it concerns itself only with the Stock Car and Hot Rod classes and is written pri-marily from a personal point of view of the author.
The book, which is also only part one of this particular story, lays claim to the fact that the Victorian Stock Cars which due to tragedy and Government regu-lation morphed into Hot Rods and then became the pre-eminent class nationally (Solos, sidecars and speedcars/midgets aside) that lead to the evolution to Super Modifieds and of course from there onto the fearsome Sprintcars that we love so much today.
The book contains many great photos and statistical results and is an easy read and speaks of legends like Graeme McCubbin, Ray (Nippa) and Frank Lac-ey, Bill Willis, Ron Clarke and lists all Stock Car/Hot Rod competitors as listed
in the programs for the period.
The book was published also to com-memorate the 50th anniversary of the tracks closing.
One interesting fact was that Bill Willis had a car known as “Suddenly” with the number 88 back in his early days well before the famous Fisher owned Wigzell driven “Suddenly #88” Super-modified.
At $30 (including postage) the book is good value but is probably not a book for the casual fan. However, if you are a fan of speedway history, or a former compet-itor from back in the day, you will enjoy the book.
Personally, I can’t wait for Part Two.
The BeginningThe story of Tracey’s Speedway 1955 to 1964
Article
Many a time a speedway fan sitting on the hill or in a grandstand has looked infield and eyed a local track photographer and thought enviously, “those guys have the best seat in the house.” They are up close to all the action (sometimes too close) and generally don’t get mud thrown at them like us poor souls here on the outside.In many ways that is true, but let me tell you it is not all beer and skittles. The sensation of speed is lost or foreshortened from the infield, and really you only get to see
Corey Knox gives it everything trying to keep his Marsh Modfiied Sedan in front of frequent winner Rob Taylor, at Wangarrattta City raceway.
Many a time a speedway fan sitting on the hill or in a grandstand has looked infield and eyed a local track photographer and thought enviously, “those guys have the best seat in the house.” They are up close to all the action (sometimes too close) and generally don’t get mud thrown at them like us poor souls here on the outside.In many ways that is true, but let me tell you it is not all beer and skittles. The sensation of speed is lost or foreshortened from the infield, and really you only get to see
Images: Inaction
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Louis Rodriguez hot footed it out of his burning Grand Prix Midget in the final heat of the Victorian Championship/Rod Quarrell Memorial held in March at Alexandra Speedway. Ash Booker went on to take the title add-ing it to his Australian championship from earlier in the season.
Image: Inaction
Image: Inaction
The ladies go at it just as hard as the testosterone filled lads as here Bianca Lindell [54] & Bree Hall [34] get together at Drouin Speedway on 16th Feb 2014 .
Colby Lunt (75) and Courtney Meakins (84) are just a couple of kids out playing together. Really!!!
Image: Inaction
Image: Inaction
one end of the action, not all of it. Worse still, there is always the danger of being hit and injured by an errant car or competitor. Both myself and fellow photographer Corey Gibson know how much that can hurt. Addi-tionally, while concentrating on getting that “action” shot or that specific customer order,
you lose the flow of the race and what is actually going on with moves throughout the pack. On top of that when the race is over you still have plenty more work to do review-ing, categorising and cataloging every photo and sending them off to magazines or clients or posting them on websites. In one way the
Oh My GOS.! Goulburn Ovens Sedans stack em’ up neatly through an Alexandra turn.
digital age has made certain things easier but not to us photographers who now instead of having up to half a dozen rolls of film to worry about, have hundreds of photo’s per day to be concerned with and clients who in the film days had to wait for them but now demand them instantly. Don’t get me wrong,
being on the infield is the best place to be in my eyes, but like everything there are pros and cons.
One man who knows better than most is Leigh Reynolds from Inaction Photo’s who has quickly established himself and his busi-
Image: Inaction
ness as Vitcoria’s pre-eminant supplier of speedway photo’s.
In just a short time Leigh has gone from fan to fotog. A cheerful, fun loving bloke, Leigh is a welcome addition to the small band of travelling Victorian photogra-phers, who unlike most other states, don’t have one central major track and spend the summer traversing back and forth across the garden state. Photogra-phers are very territorial, which probably harks back to the past when each track had their own “track” photographer who was there every meeting and had the rights to sell his photo’s at that partic-ular venue. They also had last say on who else, if anybody, that they would let out onto the infield to take some happy
snaps. Believe it or not this still occurs at some interstate tracks.
Having slotted in as one of the accepted shutterbugs, Leigh has put a lot of time into taking care of fans and competitors alike and has added other members to the Inaction line-up to further broaden the coverage and reach of the Inaction brand. Leigh is assisted by his partner and former competitor Rachel Cooper whose bubbly personality and cheeky wit helps market the brand endlessly.
Newcomer Shane Sharrock was quickly added to the roster after the pair saw his artistic eye even going so far as to help fund the purchase of some better equip-ment for him, and Kimberley Scott is also
part of the crew as is Robyn Ryan who as a rule covers the north eastern corner of the state.
Attempts have been made to poach the Pirate Crew, who have so far resisted.
The Inaction crew certainly cover some ground during the speedway season and in order to cater to as many groups as possible it will often be that a member of the team can be found at Rosedale (south east), Portland (south west), Wan-garatta (north east) and Mildura (north west) all on the same night or some-where in between. During the high time of the summer season, the crew can cover a dozen shows in a weekend with Friday and Saturday nights and Sundays
forming a triple treat.
Early next month, Rachel and Leigh will get to live out a dream when they make their maiden US trip to shoot at the hal-lowed Knoxville Raceway for the 2014 Nationals. No doubt they will have a ball and make lots of new friends while over there. We hope to bring you an Inaction Knoxville spread in the next issue.
So next time you look infield at the pho-tographer dodging errant racecars and think “you lucky bastard”, think about how much effort goes into getting you that $5 photo.
In the meantime enjoy this “Inaction” per-sonal selection.
SUPER MODIFIEDS – RESTARTStory by Grant Woodhams. Photo’s by Grant Woodhams and Pirate Media.
Article
SUPER MODIFIEDS – RESTART
In the mid 1970’s the great era of Super Modified rac-ing was coming to an end. On the speedway tracks of the United States and Australia, the Super Modi-fieds were being replaced by Sprintcars.
I was there to witness the change and I have to say I found it both exciting and captivating. Most of
the drivers (my heroes) remained the same. The cars just changed in shape and performance. It might be that they all started to look the same but they all started going faster, much faster. It was quite incred-ible stuff. I loved it at the time and it would take me many years before I real-ised something had gone missing.
I’d been following the Su-per Modifieds since 1962. In those days they were called Hot Rods. The early years were truly fantastic. Nearly every week brought another new creation to the track. Some failed miserably, some were almost laughingly different, but some left a huge and lasting impression.
Image: Pirate Media
A couple of American vintage Super Modifieds (this page and previous page) put on a show as support for the 2013 Penn-sylvania Sprintcar Speedweek round at the beautiful Hagerstown Speedway in Maryland.
A couple of American vintage Super Modifieds (this page and previous page) put on a show as support for the 2013 Penn-sylvania Sprintcar Speedweek round at the beautiful Hagerstown Speedway in Maryland.
Image: Pirate Media
There are many great names from the early days. Because the Hot Rod boom was sweeping across Australia at the same time, each State had a brand new group of speedway heroes. I was growing up in Sydney and mostly going to Westmead Speedway.
For me it was Geoff Wicks and Ian McManus who first stood out. I didn’t really get to see the Hot Rods at Syd-ney’s other winter home of Windsor but I knew that Ray Forrest and Don Parker were a couple of the stars there.
Interstate it was names like Queensland’s Keith Blickarski and Pe-ter Dykes, Victoria’s Bill Willis and Ray Lacey, South Australia’s Rollo Heine, and Western Australia’s Geoff Brown and Nick Grasso.
I was pretty hooked on this new division of speedway and while I continued to love my Speedcars, Solos and Side-cars, the Hot Rods grabbed a piece of my speedway heart and soul.
In 1963 I convinced my Mother to take me to a meeting at Kembla Grange Speedway, south of Wollongong. There was going to be a Hot Rod Test Match, New South Wales versus Victoria. I’d never been to Kembla Grange before and while the novelty of going to a new track was great, nothing could match the excitement of that big field of Hot Rods, most of which I had never seen before.
There were a couple drivers I’d seen at Westmead, but most were there from Windsor and the NSW South Coast, and of course the Victorians who from the very first race were a sight to be-hold. Victorian Ron Clarke was the dominant driver winning every event. One of his team mates’ was Billy Willis.
Ex Minister “for gettin old disrespectfully” Grant Woodhams
Ex Minister “for gettin old disrespectfully” Grant Woodhams
ARTICLE
And while he didn’t set the world on fire at Kembla Grange, Victorian Billy Willis was to return to Sydney later in the sea-son to contest the first ever Australian Hot Rod Championship at Windsor. He duly won the title race from New South Welshman Ray Forrest and fellow Vic-torian Graeme McCubbin. Both Forrest and McCubbin were also at Kembla Grange for that Hot Rod Test Match.
If I I have one regret about those times it was that I didn’t go to the first Australian Championship at Windsor back in 1963. Unfortunately it was on the same day as Westmead Speedway and Westmead was far easier for me to get to.
In those early years new names and new cars were at the track week after week. I remember the now legendary Bill Warner turning up to Westmead. He drove a yellow and black coupe style racer number six. He wasn’t always there because Warner was listed in the program as coming from Newcastle so it would’ve been quite a drive to West-mead.
He was one of the better drivers but all that changed when his father imported a CAE (Culbert Auto Engineering) Su-per Modified from San Jose in California in late 1963. Big Bill was soon the best driver. That one single purchase turned the Hot Rods into Super Modifieds. The name might not change for a few years, but the standard of equipment and the quality of racing seemed to take off like a lunar launch.
More and more people were going to the speedway just to watch the Super Modifieds. They were now challenging the main acts, grabbing their own head-lines.
While the cars might have continued to
Image: Pirate Media
While it might not be the Larry Burton car, this car is still a significant machine. It was built by Gene Welch and Ed Clark and was driven by Italian born American Mike Wasina. Both were brought out by Liverpool management in 1972.Other notables to have driven this car include Larry Burton himself, the late Gary Patterson, and Aussie guns Jim Winterbottom and Bob Kelly. Owner Graham Scott has done a fantastic job of restoring the car back to its “Wasina” period glory while in the background this beautifully restored machine begs the question “Hot Rod or Super Modified????” It doesn’t really matter.
While it might not be the Larry Burton car, this car is still a significant machine. It was built by Gene Welch and Ed Clark and was driven by Italian born American Mike Wasina. Both were brought out by Liverpool management in 1972.Other notables to have driven this car include Larry Burton himself, the late Gary Patterson, and Aussie guns Jim Winterbottom and Bob Kelly. Owner Graham Scott has done a fantastic job of restoring the car back to its “Wasina” period glory while in the background this beautifully restored machine begs the question “Hot Rod or Super Modified????” It doesn’t really matter.
FANS POINT OF VIEWbe built in back yards, garages and local workshops, the presentation and power plants was improving dramatically. Part of the great attraction of the division was that each car looked different.
I can’t recall when Bill Warner first put the aerodynamic wing on the top of his orange Corvette #26. And to be honest I don’t know if he was the first driver to try a wing on his car. But he was the first I remember doing it… and it caused a sensation. The Westmead crowd went nuts. They couldn’t get enough.
I am sure many of us turned up at the speedway to see what the Super Modi-fieds were going to do next. They were the trend setters, they were the ones who did things differently.
Incredibly I recall those races in the first couple of seasons I watched Super Modifieds were all ‘standing starts’ or ‘clutch starts’. They were handicapped too, with the fastest cars and drivers of-ten starting half a lap behind. It was part of the pleasure of speedway to watch them work through the pack.
Even when the races moved to ‘rolling starts’ the top drivers were always at the back of the field. It was first class enter-tainment.
The next step was to bring out America’s best and legendary Adelaide Promoter Kym Bonython did just that. He brought Californian ace Marshall Sargent to Adelaide’s Rowley Park and then the next season Sargent appeared on the eastern and western seaboards where he created massive publicity over the summer with his big Super Modified and his even bigger driving ability. He broke records everywhere. No one had ever seen the likes of it. So where to next?
Super Modifieds were now equal to the best product that speedway could offer. Solos and Sidecars were traditionally brilliant and the Speedcar racing in the 60’s unparalleled, but the Super Modi-fieds were totally amazing. They were unpredictable, the ultimate crowd pleas-ers.
While many were now running with wings, the body shapes and motors con-tinued to be incredibly different. Race starts, particularly when the popularity of the Super Modifieds saw them regu-larly programmed on the narrow Sydney Showgrounds track, were often filled with drama and mayhem.
Another import was brought down un-der to test the local fields. Larry Burton, ‘the Roseville Rocket’, came from the West Coast of the US for an Australian tour. In his second meeting of the trip on January 7th 1967 at the Sydney Show-ground’s he contested the International Championship. The field contained ten of the best drivers out of NSW including Bill Warner, Dick Briton, George Tatnell and Sid Hopping plus two from Victoria Billy Willis and Graeme McCubbin and two from Queensland Reece Jackson and Dutton Stibbard.
Burton was on the back mark out of position fifteen. Warner was in front of him out of position fourteen alongside Victoria’s Graeme McCubbin. The front row was occupied by Ralph Grant and Bob Tunks.
History records that the race ran the en-tire thirty lap distance non-stop, Warner charging through the field with Burton on his tail. They ran this way the entire distance with the 20,000 spectators at the Showgrounds all on their feet, yell-ing and screaming. It was truly a stun-ning race and a huge privilege to be part
ARTICLE
of the crowd that witnessed it. Warner won by inches, the two drivers entering the main straight on equal terms. In a portent of things to come a young Gar-ry Rush who had started in position six finished third.
That race has gone down in history as one of the best ever held in any divi-sion on any track in any era in Australia. More than anything else though the race was a defining moment. It pointed the way forward. Totally out of the shadows now, Super Modifieds were expected to perform at their every appearance. The spectators wanted them and the promot-ers were willing to oblige.
It didn’t seem like it could get much better. In every State there were drivers with their cars that just oozed person-ality. Warner had set the standard but within a year or two there were dozens of fast pretty Super Modifieds with so-phisticated power plants.
Yes the cars had absolute personality. They were great to look at and each one seemed to behave differently on track. In the West it was David Rockford, Alf Barbagallo and Ray Geneve. In South Australia Ray Skipper, Zeke Agars and Bill Wigzell, in Victoria Bill Willis, Graeme McCubbin and Les Harrower, while up in Queensland Ron Wanless, John French and Reece Jackson.
Warner’s “Mooneyes Corvette” was still the national benchmark and in Sydney he was joined by at least a dozen driv-ers in state of the art cars, Dick Briton and Sid Hopping being two of the most prominent.
Super Modified racing continued on its upward spiral. In Sydney it had to deal with the closure of two of its original bases, Westmead and Windsor, but the
opening of Liverpool and the now reg-ular appearances at the Sydney Show-grounds compensated for the loss of Westmead and Windsor which are still spoken off as spiritual homes of Austra-lian Super Modified racing.
But now wherever Super Modifieds ran they either shared or were top billing. One of the consequences of the phe-nomenal success and growth of Super Modifieds is that people all over the country wanted to build and race them. While Super Modifieds can’t claim all the credit, because the sedan car revolution started to happen at roughly the same time, tracks were being built at a rapid rate across rural Australia. More often than not they were referred to as Hot Rod tracks.
Some of the big boys at these ‘Hot Rod tracks’ wanted to try their hand racing in the major league and many ventured to capital cities to test themselves out. The racing continued to improve and the imports continued to roll in. Billy Anderson came in from California and drove Larry Burton’s car to victory in the NSW Championship at Liverpool in 1969, finishing on three wheels when an axle broke near the finish. His win is still talked about.
They were heady days. The Super Mod-ified was the new boss of Australian speedway. Leading drivers alternated between Speedcars and Super Modi-fieds. Bill Wigzell, Ron Wanless, Garry Rush and George Tatnell were some who regularly ran both divisions and ran them very successfully.
New cars were regularly imported from the United States, mainly out of Califor-nia. And scores of new cars were built at home. Many were copies of the famous Don Edmunds car, another Californian
FANS POINT OF VIEWopen wheel manufacturer.
By the early 1970’s on a summer Friday or Saturday night you saw the Super Modifieds at their absolute peak. Beau-tiful body shapes, chrome shining under the track lights, V8 engines roaring in unmuffled delight. They had captured a new generation of race fans and there was no turning back.
But little did those of us who loved the Super Modifieds know that in the winds of their outstanding success were the seeds of their demise.
In the United States in the 1970’s, Super Modifieds meant different things to differ-ent people. On the West Coast the cars were much like those that ran in Austra-lia. In the Mid West the cars were some-what different, running without wings and on a larger wheel base, and further east totally different again.
However the one thing that no one had seemed to have taken into consideration was the popular United States Auto Club Sprintcar division. From an Australian perspective, these cars were like an overgrown Speedcar. All most of us knew was that they were open cockpit, they were fast, they were dangerous and they ran on dirt.
But there was pressure on the Ameri-can Sprintcars to tighten up their safety standards. Too many drivers were being killed or seriously injured in Sprintcar racing. One of USAC’s responses was to mandate roll cages.
Once the cage was on, the cars were es-sentially another version of a Super Mod-ified. And with many US Super Modifieds running wings, some of the US Sprintcar associations followed suit. It was only a matter of time before many owners and
drivers saw the logic in merging the two divisions.
During these times, in 1972 to be pre-cise, the Liverpool Speedway manage-ment in Sydney was looking to import another leading US Super Modified driv-er to do battle. The story has essentially been distilled down to them (Liverpool’s management) asking Johnny Anderson (brother of Billy) to come out and bring a Sprintcar (as opposed to a Super Modi-fied) with a cage and a wing on it. There are many details about the importation of the ‘Anderson Sprintcar’ that I’m sure could fill a book, but effectively this car set Australia on the same path that the US was heading down i.e. the extinction of Super Modified racing as we knew it.
It took a few years and some very con-troversial racing moments particularly in Sydney for the car’s main driver Garry Rush to rise to the top, but in the end the superior technology and considerable crowd appeal that the Sprintcar gathered around it won the day.
In 1971 the name Super Modified dis-appeared from the Australian Champi-onship, replaced with Modified Sprintcar and although the Super Modified styled cars raced on through the seventies their numbers were dwindling rapidly as the winged and caged Sprintcars started to dominate the scene. The writing was on the wall, and by the mid seventies half the field in every state were Sprintcars, and this was generally the better and faster half of the field.
In 1979 the National Title became known as the Australian Sprintcar Champion-ship and effectively Super Modifieds in their many forms, shapes and varieties were no longer part of the Australian speedway scene.But by then the Sprintcar had already
ARTICLEsurplanted the Super Modified as Austra-lia’s premier and most popular division. And to this day it has remained the un-disputed, unchallenged King of the Aus-tralian speedway world.
Like the many thousands of Super Modi-fied followers I thought little of the chang-es and continued to follow the fortunes of the world of Sprintcars. I went to the Knoxville Nationals in the United States. I went to the Classic at Warrnambool, Victoria. I went to Australia’s Sprintcar mecca of Parramatta. I saw the World Championship at Claremont in 1987. I went to as many World Series Sprintcar meetings as I could. I went to various Australian and State Championships. I travelled long distances just to see Sprintcars race.
But when I think about it, my love of Sprintcar racing started to unravel in the early 1990’s. I may be wrong but it seemed that big, big money had taken control of the sport. Massive sponsorship was favouring the major drivers and their teams. It was becoming very corporate. It was almost becoming predictable, the fun and the sport seemed to be ebbing away from Sprintcar racing. It presented itself as purely a product.
I won’t say I turned my back on Sprint-car racing but in 1998 I stopped going to the speedway just to watch Sprintcars. I began to take much more interest in the other divisions running. It’d be fair to say that we parted company. It would also be accurate to say that Sprintcars were no longer my favourite division. The whole scene had changed.
It was in the late 1990’s that I rediscov-ered Super Modified racing in Western Australia. The division which now prefers to call itself Supermods is alive and well with regular races at several regional
tracks. They have organised a Statewide competition and conduct a State Cham-pionship. However unlike the original class they have a range of restrictions on what you can and can’t do with your motor, chassis, wheels etc.
It is not Super Modified racing as I re-member it, because their modern name-sakes are very much a budget division, with substantial performance restrictions. However the competition is close and the camaraderie first class.
The rediscovery of the Supermods even-tuated in my organising a major race at my home track Geraldton, and although we didn’t have any locals racing at the time the meeting was a success. Several years down the road a group of drivers started racing Supermods regularly at Geraldton, and I became involved in some of their promotion. They ran as an independent group of racers with a loose rule book, with no affiliation to the State based sanctioning group, the West-ern Australian Supermod Association (WASA).
Eventually the locals saw the wisdom of joining WASA and last year (2013) we staged our first major invitational Super-mod race in twelve years. The Geraldton Supermod Grand Prix was born and the division stepped up another notch or two in the public eye.
But it isn’t just in Australia that Super Modifieds are starting to race again. In some of the original hotbeds of Super Modified racing in the Unites States; Cal-ifornia, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas the division is starting to make a comeback. What started as a gathering of vintage enthusiasts with static shows and exhi-bitions has now turned into full racing schedules and brand new ‘Vintage’ Su-per Modifieds being constructed.
FANS POINT OF VIEW
Another generation of race fan is now becoming addicted to ‘Vintage’ Super Modified racing. The cars are based on old body styles and configurations, but many utilize modern manufactur-ing techniques and current technology. However they are not factory built. If you want one, then you virtually have to build it yourself. (Ed—famed chassis constructor Brian Schnee builds brand new vintage super modified cars as ei-ther bare chassis, kits or complete cars www.schneechassis.com).
In California the ‘Vintage’ Super Modi-fieds have a calendar of racing at half a dozen tracks, both paved and dirt, with promoters keen to sign them up for more.
In Kansas the Vintage Highbanks meet-ing at Belleville plans to have a field of over one hundred and fifty old open wheelers at its August 2015 show!
It is quite incredible. Where has this seemingly amazing development come from? Perhaps it’s just a good old fash-ioned desire to see beautiful cars, with drivers who really respect them and know if they wreck then there isn’t an-other factory built replacement sitting in the pits. I am planning a trip to the Unit-ed States to see some of the Vintage Super Modified shows. They still do the
occasional run at the famous Roseville Speedway near Sacramento, California. The now paved track is called All Ameri-can Speedway, but just to see a demon-stration race there, the place where Larry Burton reigned is a great ambition to have for a lifelong Super Modified fan.
Only time will tell how successful the Su-per Modified ‘comeback’ is. It’s been a long time in the making. And realistically there is still a long way to go. For those who saw it and knew how good it was all those years ago wouldn’t it be great if the magic that went missing with the Su-per Modifieds in the 1970’s comes back again on a wing and prayer!
Pleasingly like their predecessors fifty years ago the new and restored ‘Vintage Super Modifieds’ have real personality. They are all built in backyards, neigh-bourhood garages and local workshops and they are all different! Viva la differ-ence! Long live the Super Modified!
Grant Woodhams, Geraldton Western Australia, April 2014.
Grant Woodhams is a recently retired former Government minister and speed-way tragic, who edited and published Speedway Sedan Digest for 10 Years before converting it to an online mag at www.speedwaysedandigets.com.
au. Grant also produces one-off publications like “Winter Sundays in the 60’s The Westmead Stock Rod Story”. Copies of which are still available and can be obtained from Grant directly at [email protected]
2013 REVIEWGirl Power, Hayls StyleImages: Jigsaw Photography
Brian Van De Wakker
Girl Power, Hayls Style
She’s not your typical lady like girl, instead of dressing up and going out on a Saturday night in summer, Hayley Sayers jumps into a race suit, straps on a hel-met and belts herself into a 900hp methanol breathing Sprintcar.
She loves getting out there, get-ting dirty, but more importantly sticking it to the men.
Ever since Hayley was young, she had this burning desire for racecars. Some girls dream of being a fusionist (are you sure about that Wakka – Ed), or a model, but Hay-ley was different, and would always dream of being a racer. Instead of just watch-ing her hero’s race out on the racetrack, she dreamt of one day becoming some-one’s hero.
From a young age she would show up all the boys on the kart track. For years Hayley honed her skills behind the wheel of a go-kart on the smooth tar sur-face. She would then switch that for the dirt, where she would race a quarter midg-et regularly around Nowra Speedway.
From one step to another, and Hayley made the big decision in season 2009-2010, to step into the wild-est machine of them all, a Sprintcar. It was a dream come true, hard work and dedication finally paid off, but it was the start of a new experience.
In terms of competition, Parramatta is one of the toughest tracks in the coun-try. Week in, week out, Hayley would pitch her skills against some of the best local drivers this country had to offer. Each and every time she came out onto the racetrack, she would learn something new. Now, everything is starting to fall into place, as she consistently makes the feature race line-up.
2013/2014 Season Highlights12th - Sydney Speedway Track Championship
2nd - NSW Country SeriesTeam of the Year
Hard on the gas, Sydney Speedway
2013/2014 Season Highlights12th - Sydney Speedway Track Championship
2nd - NSW Country SeriesTeam of the Year
ARTICLE
The goal for now is to continually chip away, before heading inter-state and competing at tracks across the country. With the bright colours of the number 87 machine, it’s hard to not recog-
nise Hayley out on the racetrack, ohh, and not to mention the crew shirts that stand out more than a than the bright lights lighting up the venue.
The shirts however reflect the family that continues to support Hayley. They are a family of bright and bubbly people that continue to make everyone laugh and smile in the pits. Each and every single week they support their daughter from the stands and would not miss a single race for the world.
Hard on the gas, Sydney Speedway
You can hear them cheering louder than a twelve year old at a Justin Bieber con-cert.
With a lot of exciting things on the hori-zon for Hayley, she continues to set the
standards as to which all racers should live by; continue to work at it with a big smile on your face. Being a woman in a male dominated sport, she doesn’t let the males get to her, but instead loves ruffing them up on the racetrack and
Hayley’s social media experts, Dyllan Bryce and Kaylee McCorkell
saying that they got beaten by a girl. She is a role model for other young lady racers in the sport and works hard at making sure she can help other lady racers in any way possible.
Girl power, we’ve gotta love that! But look out, Hayley is looking to make a statement in season 2014/15, we wish her all the best.
Brian Van De Wakker
Hayley’s social media experts, Dyllan Bryce and Kaylee McCorkell
Well racer’s, looks like I made the cut after the first article. The goon (editor) hasn’t given me the ar#$ yet which means either most people that read my first column liked it or no-one actually read it. (Probably no one read it – the goon).
Anyways, I asked the goon if he had anything in mind he wanted me to have a go at writing about, and he said “I’d really like to see one about methanol vs race gas”...... .which, I was just soooo excited about.
To be honest, I don’t know a heap about it - some basics and that’s about it. I think this is one of those specialist sub-jects that shouldn’t really be spruiked about unless you really know your sh^& – which I don’t. (What??? I don’t believe it – the goon). So I’m really only going to give a basic run down, which is most likely nothing more than about everyone in the game already knows.
So let’s start with the very first thing that I have noticed many racers get confused about. Methanol, although close, is not 100% alcohol. Ethyl is 100% alcohol. The reason Ethyl is not normally used as a racing fuel is because the flame/burn/explosion can’t really be controlled and is unreliable. Yes 100% alcohol can be used as a fuel, but it’s not really that great. So it is mixed up with a few other bits to make methanol. However, there are different blends of methanol, for various uses. I’m no chemist, so I can’t really give you the full run down, and
realistically, does it matter? No. We buy a drum and pump it into the race car, that’s about all we really need to know.
Why is Methanol used in race cars? Basically because it with-stands detonation and pre-ignition very well. This allows for an en-gine to have a higher compression ratio, which generally increases torque and allows for other chang-es to maximise horsepower. An added bonus is that it burns quite cool in comparison to other fuels, which makes keeping high horse-power motors cooler, much easier.
However, there are some serious downsides to Methanol when be-ing used in our application (late model/super sedan). As most would know, it takes about twice as much Methanol to achieve the same result as gasoline (it’s actually something like 1.8 times, but it doesn’t really matter). This has a massive effect on the balance/set-up of the car over the course of the race distance. If we were drag racing, I wouldn’t think it wouldn’t be much of an issue. But in speedway, that fuel burn just alters your whole set-up so much. For sh$%s and giggles some time, scale your race car the way you would nor-mally (probably 20 gallons of fuel). Get all your numbers correct to where you would want them. Now, without chang-ing anything else, fill the tank to the top or close to it. This is where you would likely need to be to start most feature
Fuel for thought or thoughts on fuelWarren “pocket rocket” Bishop
Fuel for thought or thoughts on fuel
races. You will have gained a bunch of rear weight percentage (obviously), but take another look at your wedge/bite. You’ve probably gained a significant amount there too. Now go back and check your ride heights. Bet they’re way different too. When your ride height changes significantly, so too does your bar angles, which in turn chang-es your dynamic rear steer and so on and so forth. When you hear/read of guys talking about everything is a compromise and that one change ac-tually changes multiple things, and you have to allow for it, they are not bull-sh$%^*ng,. This is exactly what they’re talking about. Now go ahead and pump 20L out at a time and check your scale numbers. This is what is happening as the race goes on. Remembering that
you will likely be idling removed 40 or more litres, how do your scale numbers look now? Way different from your origi-nal scaling base line. Again, check your ride heights and bar angles, probably see some variance there too. All that fuel variance is weight. Basic rule of 20L is 20kgs or 40lbs... it’s hard to consider how much of a difference that might ac-tually make.... so go and pick up a bag of cement, that’s about the same 20kgs. Now try and run slalom style down the nearest hill carrying that bag of cement – makes a noticeable difference huh. Now double that weight, hang it off the end of a broom stick and try swinging it around – that’s exactly what it is like hanging all the way out the back of your race car. So after all that, what can you do about it? The answer
is absolutely nothing. The guy next to you will be having the same issues. But it pays to know how much of a differ-ence it makes, so you can make more informed decisions regarding your car setup prior to a race.
Now, back to the second down-side of methanol; it is maintenance intensive. Methanol, like most fuels, absorbs mois-ture, which makes it go bad. Oxygen also makes it go bad. When I say bad, I mean really bad. It stops burning prop-erly (because of the moisture) and can
turn into like a jelly (stops flowing like a liquid). This is the reason why you need to make sure you always keep your drums sealed and if you’re going to not be racing for a while, drain the fuel system in the car and keep it sealed up, or, plan your fuel usage/supply so that you haven’t got any sitting around. There is nothing worse than fuel system problems in your race car. You’re bet-ter off wasting a few litres of Methanol (disposing of it), (or drinking it in your case – Ed) and avoiding dramas on race night, than you are trying to run it and
have your car pop and bang race after race, before you finally concede that the Methanol you’re using has gone bad.
To add to this, Methanol is also highly corrosive. I think because of the mois-ture absorption (but I don’t really know). The stuff will corrode aluminium, partic-ularly if it is not coated/anodised and it will rust raw steel/iron (such as cylinder walls) at the drop of a hat. You really need to keep on top of your fuel system maintenance when running Methanol. However, it is not all bad news for Meth-
anol. Using Methanol does have the potential to make more torque. Although you can run a racing gas motor on alco-hol with success (and most guys here running US built motors do), if you want-ed to spend some more money, you can have the camshaft changed to a differ-ent profile that can maximise the use of alcohol, and this will normally net an in-crease in torque. However, when you’ve got 400+ cubic inches of motor, torque is rarely something that is lacking.
Comparing this to racing gas;
First of all, racing gas is not Av-Gas (aviation gasoline), contrary to popular belief. If you buy a full on racing gas fu-elled dirt late model motor from the USA and try running it on Av-Gas, even if you retard the timing, you better make sure you buy 2 motors, because you will hurt it - without doubt. Others have already tried and failed.... you will too. These motors aren’t like what used to be raced in an EH Holden, back in the day. Av-Gas is for the aviation industry, leave it there.
There is a multitude of different racing gasoline blends on the market, all with specific uses in mind. Unfortunately in Australia, nobody seems to import the circle track specific fuels on a commer-cial basis. What you can buy is drag racing blends and possibly some circuit racing specific blends. Would this hurt your dirt motor? I have no idea, and consequently I wouldn’t try it. If you were to, I would suggest talking directly with the fuel manufacturer’s tech line guys, not with the local sales dude (he won’t have a clue and will sell you any-thing).
The advantage of running racing gas, is quite simply, that it addresses all the above mentioned issues of running
Methanol except the cost factor. The racing gas’ I’ve seen commercially avail-able in Australia are
extremely expensive. Racing gas ob-viously burns at a much lesser rate, so the exercise we did on the scales ear-lier would be noticeably different. Yes it (being your scaling numbers) will still change - you have to use fuel. But the more constant you can keep things, the better off you will be. Any time you can minimise/control variables, the more consistent you can make your race car.
Racing gas has all the regular additives that most other fuels would have that minimise the corrosion issues and they are available in extremely high octane ratings which deals with the detonation and pre-ignition issues. They even do some real tricky stuff to it (buggered if I know what) that assists in cooler burn-ing, which obviously helps the cooling issues associated with making lots of horsepower.
Make no mistake though, Racing gas is no different to any other fuel, it does still absorb moisture and it will still “go-off” but it doesn’t do either as readily as Methanol.
So after all that, whats the end result? If I had the choice and would offer a rec-ommendation, it would be to run racing gas any day over Methanol. But, given the current supply situation in Austra-lia, I would choose methanol and just deal with all the other associated issues accordingly. The cost is really the only reason why I would favour using Metha-nol here in Australia. I’m sure there are lots of issues and costs with importing racing gas from the US, but, if you can deal with that, go the racing gas route. Warren “pocket rocket” Bishop.
