2019 Dodge HEMI® Challenge Champion

2019 Dodge HEMI® Challenge Champion

On August 30 2019 second-generation racer Jimmy Daniels won his fourth straight Dodge Hemi Challenge at Lucas Oil Raceway Indianapolis in this vintage 1968 Dodge Dart equipped with a HEMI® engine from Ray Barton Racing Engines.  Dodge displayed the winning car, the specially designed Dodge trophy, which is a cylinder head from a Mopar HEMI® Engine, and the $15,000 winner’s check from Dodge at the 2019 Performance Racing Industry (PRI) trade show in Indianapolis, Indiana.

For the past nineteen years the Challenge has featured heads-up competition between HEMI®-powered Dodge Dart and Plymouth Barracuda factory race cars built specifically for the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) Super Stock competition in 1968. The factory-built lightweight, purpose-built package cars dominated Super Stock class competition over five decades ago with their high-compression 426-cubic inch  HEMI® engines equipped with a pair of Holley carburetors.

Dodge Production code L023 denoted the model designed specifically for competition in Super Stock racing. Only 80 HEMI® Darts were built, and they differed substantially from regular production models- it was more than an engine swap. Partially assembled Dart chassis were shipped to the Hurst Performance facility in Madison Heights, Michigan, to complete the transformation. Hurst technicians had to literally hammer out the shock tower sheet metal to create clearance for the valve covers.

1968 factory photo courtesy FCA US LLC

Other modifications included metal work on the rear fenders to accommodate the big rear slick tires, fiberglass hoods and front fenders, light weight front and rear bumpers and Plexiglas™ windows for secured by seat belt straps rather than window cranks. Although the cars in theory were street legal, the vehicles were delivered in primer sans warranty with a sticker that stated the car’s    “intended only for use in supervised acceleration trials.”

The 23-year old Daniels is unbeaten in the special event since his debut in 2016 and now has an unblemished 19-0 record in elimination rounds.  Daniels  the number one qualifier for the Challenge with an run with an elapsed time of 8.473 seconds, defeated first-time finalist Rich Locker’s 1968 SS/AH Plymouth Barracuda with an ¼-mile elapsed time run of 8.576 seconds to Locker’s 8.629 seconds in the finale.  

All color photos by the author  

A close look at a NASCAR Whelen™ Modified at PRI 2018

The NASCAR (National Association of Stock Car Racing) booth at the 2018 Performance Racing Industry (PRI) trade show displayed the #46 Goodie Racing 2018 Chevrolet NASCAR Whelen™ modified driven by Craig Lutz and sponsored by Riverhead Building Supply. Goodie Racing is owned by Riverhead Building Supply owners Russell and Jeff Goodale with crew chief Douglas Ogiejko. 

The 106-inch wheelbase LFR Enterprises chassis built in West Boylston Massachusetts is powered by a 610-horsepower NASCAR-spec  364-cubic inch Robert Yates Racing engine  based on  GM LS2 block  with LS2 CNC ported heads fed by an 830 CFM (cubic feet per minute) Holley carburetor. The Spec engine is not “sealed” and NASCAR rules do allow teams to assemble, disassemble and rebuild the engine but no modifications to the components are allowed. 

Craig Lutz from Miller Place New York finished in fifth place in the 2018 NASCAR Whelen™ modified tour points in his first full season with Goodie Racing.  With three races completed in the 17-race 2019 NASCAR Whelen tour Lutz is in 14^th place in the standings with one top ten finish.

 Check out the NASCAR Whelen™ site at https://hometracks.nascar.com/regional/whelen-modified-tour/ and LFR Enterprises at https://www.lfrchassis.com/

Midget auto racing on display

at the 2018 PRI show 

There was a wide selection of midget auto racing displays at the 2018 Performance Racing Industry show in Indianapolis Indiana. 

The #21 KS midget race car driven by Karter Sarff from Mason City Illinois in the 2019 Lucas Oil POWRi National Midget League was on display in the PAC Racing Springs booth. The car is powered by a Stanton SR-11 engine. PAC Racing Springs is the racing and aftermarket division of Peterson Spring Company  Check out their entire product line at https://www.racingsprings.com/

The Automotive Racing Products (ARP) booth featured the Honda engine that Scott Hatton used to win his fifth Badger Midget Racing Association championship in 2018 on display. The development  engine was built by  Haisley Machine of Farimount Indiana and used ARP fasteners throughout. Check out ARP's website at   https://arp-bolts.com/ 

The Mobil One display featured the Keith Kunz Motorsport Spike.Toyota that won  the 2018 United States Auto Cub (USAC) P1 Insurance National Midget championship driven by Logan Seavey. Seavey from Sutter California is only the third driver in USAC history to win the national midget championship as a rookie. 

Seavey started the 2018 season out right with a win in the season's first race in March at Southern Illinois Center indoor race, then added wins at Sweet Springs Missouri and Bakersfield CA on his way to the championship. Logan was a model of consistency thorough 2018 as he scored 15 top-ten finishes and started every feature event. 

All photos by the author 

     

What did you build today?

 

 

 

 

 

While touring the show floor at the 2017 Performance Racing Industry (PRI) trade show, the author encountered this unique display at the K1 Technologies booth. K1 USA made "RACEREADY" connecting rods and crankshafts are a cut above the average and are held to some of the tightest accepted tolerances in the racing industry. Both the rods and cranks are made from premium 4340 steel and the original design of the K1 Technologies line of connecting rods saves weight without sacrificing strength.

 

 

Before any finish work is done, K1 rods are 100% magnetic particle inspected and after they are honed in-house they are weight-matched into sets and boxed, with the rotating, reciprocating and total weights noted for convenient use in the balancing process. K1 crankshafts are core hardened for increased tensile strength and fatigue life and are 100% mag particle inspected with bearing surfaces are polished and gas nitrided surface hardened for wear resistance.

 

For more information visit http://www.k1technologies.com/


Photos by the author

A replica Porsche 917 at PRI 2017

The Gulf Racing Fuels booth at the 2017 PRI (Performance Racing Industry) show at Indianapolis featured a very nice replica of a Gulf Racing Porsche 917 produced by RCR (Race Car Replicas) of Fraser Michigan.

 

 

 

RCR produces a series of eleven race car replica kits which besides the 917 include modern versions of the Ford GT40 (in either Mark I or Mark II versions), Ferrari P4, Lola T70 (in either coupe or spyder versions), Jaguar D-type, Jaguar XJ-13, Porsche 962, Aston Martin DB3S, 1958 Ferrari 246 F1 car, and a F5000-series inspired car.  

 

RCR advertises that customers get “accurate vintage bodies with modern technology and engineering backed by racing pedigree, for the vintage look of the original, but modern underpinnings that make them a joy to build and drive.”

According to RCR, they have in-house Haas Automation CNC (Computer Numerical Control) machining centers that run three shifts a day to manufacturer the CAD (Computer Aided Design)-designed billet aluminum chassis and suspension bits, and that the company has access to laser cutters, waterjet cutters, CNC tube bending equipment, as well as an in-house CNC lathe.

 

 

The RCR 917 has a gel-coated fiberglass body but unlike the small-tube frame design of the original RCR uses an aluminum gas tungsten arc-welded monocoque center with tube-frame design front and rear, which mimic the look of the original when the nose and tail are removed. The driveline choice is left to the owner, but RCR suggests a Chevrolet LS engine or a Porsche flat six engine. RCR claims that the RCR 917 is even “streetable,” with a DOT-legal windshield, headlights and taillights. The suggested price of the RCR 917 chassis and body kit is $43,995.

Gulf Racing Fuels representatives told the author that the company was at PRI 2017 looking to secure specified fuel sponsorships of race series in the United States, to expand its retail dealer network and close fuel supply deals with club tracks.

http://race-car-replicas.com/

http://gulfracingfuels.com/

 

Photos by the author

 

 

High-tech inspection at PRI 2016

Approved body components specified under the INDYCAR aero kit rules are off limits to alterations by the Verizon Series teams, but if you are at all like the author you have wondered “how do officials know what is legal or not?”

 

Online Resources Inc. demonstrated the system on the PRI show floor

using Ed Carpenter's Fuzzy's Vodka DW12 INDYCAR

 

At the 2016 Performance Racing Industry (PRI) show in Indianapolis, Online Resources Incorporated demonstrated their Creaform Handyscan 700 scanner, Surfcam and Geomagic software which is used to create a 3D model as an inspection and quality-control service for INDYCAR.

 

 

“A laser line is reflecting over the car and cameras built into the scanning unit are capturing the position,” said Jay Schaumberg, president of Online Resources Inc.  "The Geomagic Capture compares the scanned results to the files provided by INDYCAR with different colors on the monitor used to represent tolerances accepted or outside the rules."

The laser scanning inspection complements areas measured and weighed during the technical and safety inspection process during INDYCAR race weekends.

 

Learn more at http://new.onlineresourcesinc.com/

Photos by the author

“500” Platolene gasoline

 

Recently on an episode of the History Channel "reality" program 'American Pickers,' during a visit to Southern Indiana, one of the two protagonists bought a large old porcelain service station sign that read “500 Platolene” which used a checkered flag  The owner of the sign mumbled something about the people that ran the Indianapolis ‘500’ had owned this service station chain. Hearing that, the author had a new research project, namely where did that name come from?

Anton “Tony” Hulman Junior, who bought the Indianapolis Motor Speedway from Eddie Rickenbacker in 1945, was born in Terre Haute Indiana the only child of grocery magnate Anton Hulman and his second wife Ada Grace Smith Hulman.  Ada’s family owned the Princeton Mining Company and the Deep-Vein Coal Company both bituminous coal mining operation as well as Princeton Farms all in the vicinity of Princeton Indiana about 80 miles due south of Terre Haute.

Henry P. Smith Junior operated those businesses after the death of his father as well as the RJ Oil and Refining Company which in addition to its refinery RJ operated 100 service stations in Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky. Henry’s cousin, Tony Hulman was a partner in RJ Oil and Henry’s son, Donald Smith (later a Hall of Fame racing promoter) was RJ Oil’s sales manager.

In 1953 RJ Oil undertook a one million dollar expansion of its refinery that was completed in August 1953. The refinery was the first such plant in the area that used a new process developed by Universal Oil Products of Des Plaines Illinois known as “platforming”

In an article published in the Terre Haute Tribune,  Smith promised motorists that the company '500' service stations  will have “the most powerful, cleanest burning, most economical gasoline that has even been refined” because of “the specially developed catalyst in this secret new process.” The process used “precious platinum, a metal more costly than gold;” in 1953 an ounce of platinum cost $70 compared to $40 for an ounce of gold.  The name of the new gasoline was “Platolene” - the “gasoline made with platinum.” The name and logo ‘500 Platolene’ was trademarked in 1953.   

 

A matchbook from the author's collection combines two

Tony Hulman businesses - 500 Platolene and the

Meadows Shopping Center (Terre Haute's first mall)

 

 

Today the Smith and Hulman family business interests remained intertwined. Tony George, Tony Hulman's only grandson, recently re-installed as chairman of Hulman & Company currently sits on the board of directors of First Financial Bank N.A. (once run by Don Smith), Deep Vein Coal Company, Princeton Mining Company, and R.J. Oil Company.  

Postscript

 

 

 

There is one final racing connection to this story. In the early nineteen seventies Universal Oil Products (UOP) developed a new process known as ‘CCR platforming’ that allowed refineries to produce high-octane lead-free gasoline. To help promote their new process, in August 1971, UOP signed a sponsorship deal with Don Nichols’ Advanced Vehicle Systems.

The series of sinister black race cars in the SCCA Can-Am and Formula One series were known as “UOP Shadows.” The UOP Shadow DN4A driven by Jackie Oliver and powered by a 494-cubic inch Chevrolet engine powered by lead-free gasoline won the 1974 SCCA Can-Am championship.   

Postscript 2

Tony Hulman became a partner with RJ Smith in the Princeton Farms the primary product of which was popcorn. Around 1940 Smith and Hulman hired the former Vigo County Farm Bureau extension agent to run the Princeton Farms. The agent who ran the Farms for 12 years later became world-famous for marketing his own brand of popcorn: Orville Redenbacher.