image credit: The Hell Tour

The World of Outlaw Late Model schedule is considered to be very grueling. And make no bones about it; it is a very tough schedule. 45 races or events over 52 weeks. But let’s break it down further. There are 45 A-mains scheduled from when the season kicks off on February 17th through November 5th at the World Finals. This means they will race 45 A-mains in 261 days.

Now let’s compare the Hell Tour. The Hell Tour, in which you can see the schedule posted at the bottom of this page, currently has 25 events on their schedule with more to be added before the season kicks off June 15th at Brownstown Speedway in Brownstown, Indiana. The season’s finale is July 16th at Oakshade Raceway in Wauseon, Ohio. That mean’s from June 15th to July 16th there is (as of the time of this  writing) a total of 25 A-Mains in 32 days! If they fill the open dates on the schedule, it will total 28 A-Mains in 33 days.

The Travel – 4,493 miles

This would be easy if it were 25 events at the same track, but that is not the case. This is 25 events at 25 different tracks across the Midwest. At the time of this writing, the schedule currently features one race in Iowa, three races in Indiana, twelve races in Illinois, two races in Wisconsin, one race in Michigan, two races in Tennessee, one race in Kentucky, one race in Missouri, and then finally two races in Ohio.

That is a grand total of 9 states featuring the U.M.P. Summer Nationals in 33 days. By my count, and depending on how the teams travel they will have crossed the border of these nine states 30 times while traveling from event to event. This might end up being more when they do fill the three open dates in the schedule.

We couldn’t help ourselves here at OneDirt, so we Mapquested the route to every track on the schedule. The total came to 4,493 miles. This doesn’t include the travel time it takes to get to the first event. So, for some teams it could possibly stretch to almost 5,000 miles!

Let’s take a look at one particular stretch of travel that these teams will face. The series is gracious enough to give one day a week or so off to teams, but from June 28th to July 4th there are seven straight days of racing. The first night of action is Tuesday the 28th in Putnamville, IN.  After the event teams then will travel 199 miles that night to Belle Clair Speedway in Belleville, IL for a race on Wednesday the 29th. After the featured races in Belleville, teams will pack up and make the 254 mile haul to Clay Hill Motorsports Park in Atwood TN for another race on Thursday, the 30th. Then it is a relatively short 98 mile haul to Paducah, KY for the event on Friday, July 1st at Paducah International Raceway.

With no break, teams will pack up from Paducah and travel 158 miles to I-55 Speedway in Pevely, MO for the race on Saturday the 2nd. The next day might be Sunday, but there is still no break as teams will leave Pevely Saturday night and drive 158 miles to Lincoln Speedway in Lincoln, IL for the event on Sunday the 3rd. Then finally teams will make the 143 mile haul to 34 Raceway in Burlington, IA for their Monday, July 4th event to finish off seven straight days of racing. Teams will be greeted by a day off on Tuesday July 5th, only to pick it back up the next day in Peoria, IL. Are you starting to see why it is called “The Hell Tour”?

During that week alone, that is 1,010 miles of travel in between the times that teams are racing. There is no other series out there that tests a driver’s dedication to the sport of dirt track racing.

The Temperature

I grew up in the Midwest; there is nothing fun about the temperature during summer months in the Midwest. Except maybe days on the lake, and then nights at the dirt track. This isn’t NASCAR .  These teams will unload their cars early in the morning at the track they are racing that evening and then work on making the necessary setup changes, fix any damage caused the previous night, and perform maintenance to their cars.

Teams will often change engines, drop rear-ends, and other big maintenance items at the track or sometimes even in gas station parking lots. Teams will do this in 85 – 100 degree temperature for 33 days.

So After All That, Why Do It?

image credit: The Hell Tour

That’s a good question, and I think it boils down to three things:

• The Competition

• The Money

• The Challenge

The Competition

You would think that after all that travel and hot temperatures that there would be no way the best names in dirt racing would show up, but you would be wrong. At the 2010 season opening UMP Summer Nationals event at Brownstown Speedway, 50 dirt late models competed with Billy Moyer taking home the checkered flag. Dennis Erb Jr, Jeep Van Wormer,  Shannon Babb, Brian Shirley, and Jason Feger were all in the A-main.

Nine drivers competed at every event of the 29 races in 32 days that made up 2010. But even more impressive that throughout the 29 races over 300 drivers competed in at least one event. Common thinking would be that as the season wears down, less and less drivers would show up. But, the season started off strong with 50 cars at their season opener. Even more impressive, the tour only dipped below thirty cars at four events, and averaged 38 cars throughout the grueling month.

Kenny Wallace, when asked about why he races the Hell Tour stated the same reason, “… The Summer Nationals have created such great race car drivers. You’re talking about Shannon Babb, Billy Moyer, Erb, Oneal, the list goes on and on. There are so many great race car drivers throughout the United States, but especially through Illinois, Missouri, Wisconsin. The Summer Nationals bring out the big boys, and have made big names.”

The Money

Let’s face it, if there wasn’t money involved, then we wouldn’t have teams putting themselves through this amount of torture. The races vary on the winner’s check but the rule of thumb is that the events during the week are $5,000 to win and the events on the weekends are $10,000 to win. For 2011 (at the time of this writing) there are seven $10k to win races and 18 $5k to win races, for a grand total of $160,000 in winner’s checks. Some drivers have quite simply made a living off of the Hell Tour. Billy Moyer is a great example.

Billy Moyer and his son Billy Moyer Jr. shown here, frequently visit The Hell Tour

In 2009 Billy Moyer pocketed $46,000 just off of winner’s checks. That doesn’t include when he finished second or third. In 2010 Moyer ran a limited Summer Nationals schedule but captured six victories and still walked away with winners checks that totaled $40,000. Quite simply, if you can consistently run up front, you can expect to be rewarded for your efforts.

The series paid $25,000 to 2010 champ Jason Feger who used a late season charge to capture his first ever Summer Nationals crown. Feger  finished in the top five 18 times with 22 top ten finishes. Over the course of the last 10 races, Feger made a hard charge for the championship posting two victories and four runner up finishes.

The Challenge

Ultimately, no matter what you do, everyone is looking for some sort of challenge. It’s the same reason people climb Mount Everest - because of the challenge it creates for men and women. And that’s what this series has brought to the drivers - a challenge. The nine drivers and teams that made it to all of the events throughout 2010 can look back and say “I conquered the Summer Nationals.” Sure, there can be only one series champion, but those teams have accomplished something that the other 300 drivers couldn’t. They drove the 5,000 miles of grueling travel, they battled the temperature and elements at every track, and they fought against the toughest drivers in the Midwest day in and day out.

If you haven’t seen a UMP Summer Nationals event in person, you really are missing out. I will never forget when I watched my first race at Lake Ozark Speedway a couple years back and couldn’t believe that I was seeing some of the biggest names in dirt track racing; racing on a Wednesday night and driving like it was the last laps at Eldora.

This series gives fans what they want; dirt track racing 7 days a week. It provides fans with multiple options of race weekends to be able to go out to their local short track and not only watch 800 horsepower dirt late models, but also the supporting divisions of modifieds or street stocks. So make sure you check out the current schedule below, and show up at the track to watch this incredible series. I guarantee you when the green flag drops and as some of the best late model drivers barrel off into turn one, they will  leave you muttering “What the Hell!”

For more information on the series you can check out the schedule below, or visit their home on the web at TheHellTour.com

Leading the final day session was Dr. Andy Randolph from Earnhardt-Childress Racing.  Dr. Andy, as he likes to be called, holds a PhD in Chemical Engineering from Northwestern University which probably explains why he likes to watch things burn. A true firebug, Dr. Andy held the audience’s interest with stories about burning various things over the years. Randolph definitely found the perfect job as a combustion expert at ECR.

Dr. Andy Randolph from Earnhardt-Childress Racing was the final speaker of the conference.

Dr. Andrew L. Randolph –  The Advanced Science of NASCAR Cup Engine Optimization

Dr. Andy started off by explaining the typical engine that he works with now, the NASCAR Sprint Cup engine, which is a small block V8 with cast iron block and aluminum cylinder heads. He explained that they are limited to a 12.0 max compression ratio with a single Holley 850 four barrel carburetor. Randolph says that these engines develop 870 horsepower and 560 ft-lbs of torque in the open engine configuration and 490 horses and 380 ft-lbs of torque with the restrictor plate.  That is, depending on the restrictor plate size.

Randolph explained using individual cylinder timing to achieve greater efficiency.

Summarizing the engine, Randolph said; “It’s pretty remarkable. We’re using 1960′s architecture with 2000′s materials and coatings.  For old stuff, we’ve polished that turd pretty good by now, but there’s still power left to find.”

Randolph explained the best way to go about gaining more power was to consider the V8 engine as “Eight individual engines that share a single crankshaft.” According to Randolph, each of the cylinders must be optimized to obtain maximum performance. “When you optimize each cylinder to it’s peak performance, that’s free power.”

Randolph detailed the horsepower losses to the potential horsepower available.

He went on to explain that there were several problems with getting each cylinder to the same level. “Individual cylinder air-fuel ratio maldistribution also reduces total engine peak power.” By his measurements, this maldistribution costs about 7 horsepower when global spark timing is used and about 4 horsepower when individual cylinder spark is used. “Individual cylinder spark optimization will help you recover some of what you lost.”

Another issue that Randolph addressed was thermal efficiency loss. “Because the center cylinders are surrounded by the outer cylinders, you will experience some loss of thermal efficiency. In addition to thermal efficiency losses, there are other efficiency losses in volumetric efficiencies, and mechanical efficiencies.  Volumetric efficiencies, as he explained, “are losses through intake or exhaust restrictions, charge [air-fuel] dynamics, and mechanical dynamics [valve train].”

In order to achieve the most from your engine, Dr. Andy explained that you must improve the thermal efficiency, volumetric efficiency and mechanical efficiency to their optimal levels. Randolph went on to state that the current Sprint Cup engine is only achieving 35% efficiency. Backing that statement up by saying that these engines are using 2430 horsepower of potential energy to produce 860 horsepower actual at the output. For engineers that are trying to find more horsepower in these engines, Dr. Andy says; “The good news is: we all have jobs for the next few years.”

Randolph went on to breakdown the losses in great detail. Heat to water costs 150 horsepower, heat to oil costs 35 horsepower, unburned fuel costs another 145 horses.  Remarkably, in Dr. Randolph’s testing, blowby only cost 2 horsepower from the total potential horsepower numbers.

According to Dr. Randolph, “567 horsepower of losses are via mechanisms that can be addressed through engineering innovation.”

The conference roundtable discussion featured all the speakers over the three day conference and selected guests.

Following Dr. Randolph’s presentation, all speakers from the conference along with a couple of selected guests, held a roundtable question and answer session where the audience could present any question to the panel. The roundtable discussions alone were worth attending the conference.  COMP Cams Scooter Brothers addressed the panel and audience, getting everyone to think about the future of racing as we know it, and the things that we can do to spread that passion.  Brothers particular concern was how to make racing “relevant” to the OEM companies and the population as a whole.  That is a dilemma whose time has come, and according to Brothers, “If we don’t start addressing it now, we might not like the way the future plays out for racing.”