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

In talking to a friend who runs a B Modified also called Midwest Modifieds out here in middle America, he was telling me about the new motor he had built for this year, said it cost him almost $4,000. Many many years ago in Minot ND where I grew up watching races, they had a $3 or $400 claiming rule in street stock and modified classes and a claim happened 3 or 4 times a year. Most often the driver claimed, just took a penalty of sitting out 4 races and not losing his motor.

So I asked my friend if they still have a claiming rule here and he said yes, a $500 claiming rule but added the drivers sort of have a "gentlemen's agreement". Said he can't remember the last time a driver had his engine claimed. Yet in that B Mod class the motors all seem to have the same or nearly the same horsepower and no one dominates.

XXX?  I thought Triple X was a wrestler

the claim rule as to which your referring too is common practice in the IMCA type cars,stock, mod, ect the evolution of crate motors is starting to take over, the claim commonly just pissed a bunch of guys off and in my opionion, it took away from the real effect of strict rules and guidelines to be abided by, sure, it has its time and place, but lack of close inspection opened the door for claims.. thus the rule was effective , but not tailored to fit so to speek, IMCA supernationals in September the claim is almost expected everynight , I believe the track purchases the motors and then auctioned off to the racers, I raced IMCA modified in the 2001-2005 years we found ourselves underpowered and underfunded to teams with much better motors, the roller cam was legal back then, we attened the IMCA supernationals in 2004 and placed 131 out of 357 cars I believe that year, we used a solid camed 377 with hypernutecick (sp) pistons and ported heads, balanced ect, just mild racer stuff nothing fancy, we returned home and got out asses handed to us again, I grew to the conclusion either I claim a roller motor , or build a full roller motor, a deal came up on a friends sprint in the meantime, so we assembled the car, we bought a roller tierd (injected/drysump) 360.. and never looked back, was the best move weve ever made.

In my experience if someone claims someone else all it does is start a claim war against the person. You claim a motor good luck showing up somewhere else and not get claimed.

I think IMCA wants all the sportmods to run the 602 and Amods to run the 604. Those engines can't be claimed and are wining all over the country. About ten years ago I got claimed in the hobby stock class. There was no way I was going to give up my 3k JR Motorsports engine for $400 and a junkyard 350 engine. I just raced other tracks until the following year.

two weeks ago I seen the 604 win against a strong field of open claimable mills, the first place 604 car was chipped at 6200, second place was 7400 and consistently bouncing off the chip all feature, I would have not believed it if I hadent seen,feel and touched both cars with my own two eyes, both chips were inspected and both boxes tested with a 3000 chip, the Crate mill, drove off into the sunset, very impressive and proubly 5-6k less invested..