Forum: HoseHeads Sprint Car General Forum (go)
Moderators: dirtonly  /  dmantx  /  hosehead

New Crew chief for Schatz Steve Swenson, Warner going to do RD.  Sounds like the Ford is going to be coming also. It is in speed sport.  This possibly opens up the championship for 2019

MINTHESS WHERE ARE YOU? WE NEED YOU MORE THAN EVER RIGHT NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

     On the surface, this would appear to be a good thing-right? A second major brand engine to choose from should make for more competition-right? The reality looks like at least one team has so much money that they can have 2 crew chief type positions on the payroll and presumably have the financial might of Ford behind their engine program. If the engine pans out, everybody else has to spend Tony Stewart-like money just to keep up. In the end, is that good for the health of the sport? Google Dreadnaught.

There was an interview with Schatz a year or so ago (Winged Nation I think) and when they asked him about the Ford he said that they were working on building their own engine that they wouldn't allow suppliers to sell to other customers. Sort of like the deal that Jason Myers had with Charlie Garrett being on his team's payroll. If nobody else can buy it the only way that costs go up is someone comes up with a new "Chevy" design to compete that is more expensive. 

No doubt! It sure looks like the sport became more costly. So in regards to thoughts about the 2019 championship maybe being up for grabs, let's take a look at that possibility. 

First, by driver: 

1. Schatz: New crew chief, promotes former crew chief to a full time RD position and a new engine program. 

2. Sweet: Appears as though everythng remains the same.

3. Gravel: Gone to a new ride that has yet to finish in the top five in points.

4. Pittman: Off to the Roth team which has struggled to keep a team on tour in recent years.

5. Stewart: Has since 2015 finished 2nd, 6th, 5th and 5th respectively in the points chase, is now to drive the #5 car.

And now by car:

1. #15: Improved team

2. #49: Remains in tact

3. #5: Different driver

4. #9: No longer exists as a full time ride

5. #2:Different driver

Looks to me like the only teams in the top five that really know shit are the #15 and the #49. It is too bad that the sport has gotten so costly that "smart ?" multi milloinaires are unable to compete with a couple of mega rich millionaires. Change seems to be all they know. But it's usually the wrong kind of change. Start debating who finishes 3rd on back, because I think 1st and 2nd are a lock.

     If nobody else can buy it.....

      Wouldn't the teams that don't want to always finish behind Stewart and Ford's money then be forced to come up with a new and expensive design to compete?.....Or move to a different series or ..... I guess that works for Formula 1. Are those guys still in business?

The quote "are getting closer to the development of the Ford engine".  What does closer mean?  Another 12 months, another 24 months, good Gawd, its been 2+ full years of duping the public now with nothing but blue oval decals on the sheet metal.  And Schatz says, they are building their own engine and no one else will be able to have one, what, Warner is building it?  We know Shaver is building it as that's what's been printed in Speed Sport more than once, and Shaver will not make that motor available to anyone. Don't see it. That alone would make the engine a quarter million dollar+ engine.  I mean 3 years of working on it ain't cheap. Shaver has to recoup that labor at $50 to $100 an hour, possibly a thousand hours over 3 years at 300 hours a year!!  I doubt that anyone in the Schatz organization has more engine knowledge than Ron Shaver.  They've been dominant for years in the bowtie engine program with Shaver.  A change will obviously come, if testing proves out and who knows when they will rent a track and be able to test it, could be a long wait just for the testing which could take a year. Test, work on it, test, work on it, test, work on it, etc.   If Shaver's has been supplying him with 937HP motors last year, according to Shaver, they'll have to have a thousand HP, and sure, HP isn't the only thing that makes a car go fast, but tell that to a driver.  They all want more HP.

Lawlessness + liberalism = HELL -  NYC, Detroit, Chicago, 
Seattle, LA  Who the H runs those cities. 

Seems like I remember an interview with Schatz on Winged Nation a few weeks ago where he said that Ricky Warner had lost a kidney to cancer.   Maybe he's just wanting to be home more?   Just speculating and hope he is doing well.   I'm sure he'll be a phone call away and Donny's performance won't suffer.   

But when they come to Williams Grove, they're still going to have their hands full with a blue 69K that has an 84 year old crew chief with a home built motor, a 53 year old driver who most people thought was washed up just 4 years ago. It gets towed to the track in a one of a kind transporter that sounds worse than Jay Reichards Ford motor used to sound but is somehow still making it from point A to Point B every week and the team is based out of a small shop that looks more like a shed than the headquarters for the most badass fast team in Pennsylvania. I heard about Ricky's health issues. I hope all is well with him. I had a coworker who died from Kidney cancer that spread. It was a bad deal.

do not know why they are not looking at GM LS engines for sprint cars

It might be this year or next or five years from now but all good things come to an end. Wasn't long ago we thought nobody could regularly beat Stevie Smith and Rhamer but that ended also as all good teams do.

Right now, Ricky and Donny are at the top of the sprint car universe so why move Ricky to R & D? I would think Tony would hire somebody from an established Ford engine program like Doug Yates. I just don’t understand why he is breaking up the most dominant team of the last 12-15 years. Maybe Ricky want to get off the road?

I agree,maybe Ricky wanted to get off the road after all these years and with his health issues this past year? Just throwin' that out there?????

Won't be surprised to see him around at the big money shows. RD work and him back home in pa, hummmm, I wonder if a posse team is going to have a ford under the hood ?

I think the LS would be successful.  They have done well in Late Model and other dirt track classes.

There was one LS sprint car engine that won a track championship this year.

Tommy Worley Jr. won the track championship at St. Francois County Raceway in Farmington, Missouri.
He was driving the Quintin "Peanuts" Campbell Baldwin Racing Engines number 7C.
The car is powered by a Baldwin Racing Engines LS410 engine with Engler Injection and All Pro Heads.
The engine showed 907 horsepower at 8,600 rpm and 700 foot-pounds of torque at 6,400 rpm on the dyno at Englers.
It is believed to be the first successful use of an LS engine in a sprint car.

The chassis is a ten-year-old XXX running $200 shocks against competitor's $600 shocks.
Three firsts, one second, four thirds, and only one finish out of the top five due to a broken shock mount.

Sprintfanatic, I was at SFCR on occasion this year and saw this car be pretty badass without the top notch equipment of some others at the track! A few upgrades to the car would probably make this car dominant! Hopefully the LS catches on in sprintcars because this is one badd ass engine!

Look what not controlling cost did to Nascar.

They've got plenty of notes they will be fine they same setup most of the time will get the the W. 

Fake news

Where have you been??? Gravel  has finished 3rd in points for  3 consecutive years with WOO

No shit?!  What I stated was that he is going to a ride (the #41) that has never finished in the top five in points. And if you take note.....I had him in the #3 spot of driver category for a reason....you know, like I had Donny #1, and Brad #2 etc.......You must not comprehend what you read very well.