Just Dues

by Phil Elliott

As I’ve written before, I spend some time (like most of you) on websites and chatrooms. Because of my love for model cars, one of my mainstays is Straight Line Modeler, a Yahoo-powered place where as much 1:1 chat happens as that of 1:25. Usually, it starts with a question regarding the technical aspects of some historical car which usually means some skilled modeler is about to undertake a highly detailed replication. Somebody else posts a digital image or two, others share memories and opinions and even parts and pieces, and the site moves on.

A few days ago (around May 23, 2004), there began a slightly different discussion on the potential for cheating in Pro Stock. There were recollections of nitrous oxide use as well as a few other things, both humorous and dramatic. Then, traction control and whether Greg Anderson was using it in his obviously dominating efforts hit the screens. Interestingly, my close friend Buzz Baylis and I just had a fairly involved discussion on this subject less than a month ago so it was all still fresh in my mind.

Although I don’t have the origins of this string, I did extrapolate a couple messages that begged to be answered…

“I'll be inclined to like (the Anderson team) a whole lot more when it is PROVEN to me that they aren't cheating. In this day and age, no one can dominate in Pro Stock like he is doing. Best guess? As the smartest guy in drag racing (Warren Johnson) says, ‘It's probably something in the electronics, most likely acting as a traction control device.’ Yeah, I know, they have to run specific MSD boxes with a light that goes on if ... yada, yada, yada. But who's to say they don't have something else hidden doing it. Look how long Orndorf and Eckman got away with a nitrous bottle in the oil pan. And of course, you do know Bob Glidden was caught with nitrous many years ago and it was hushed up, right? All I can say about Greg Anderson is that I like Pontiacs and they're painted pretty. If it's ever proven that they're legal, I'll apologize.”
Hal Sanguinetti

Hal owns TNT Distributing, which among other things, reps for Torco Oils in the Tucson area. He also has a Chevy-powered nostalgia B/FD (Tigger's Digger) under construction that’ll run on real fuel.

I immediately responded to his Glidden allegation with the following:

“Bob Glidden was NEVER caught cheating with NO2. His two crazy sons proved to all that it was not only possible but likely that others were. And it wasn’t hushed up – it was all in very bold print."

“I saw the car, an aging Probe. Billy and Rusty came to an IHRA meet and claimed they had ‘some of dad’s old big inch stuff’ and wanted to play. What they truly had was a 500ci NHRA engine with the bottle on and they barely missed Q’ing at Bristol. Since they hadn’t been discovered there, they ventured on to NHRA and actually ran 2-3 meets, managed to get in the six-second club, and raced well before they (not Bob) revealed what they had been doing. They went through tech inspection then disassembled the car and showed just what could be accomplished and what to look for. It was a lesson NHRA didn’t take too well."

“The major cover-up that you remember was of a certain Michigan shop a year or so earlier, as well as rumors about several PS teams. I’ve gotten in trouble on that subject before but one day I’ll reveal exactly what I know...”

So, with those points made, back came the traction control suggestion.

I forget who had these responses.

“A traction control wouldn't result in a big MPH number like Greg runs, right? ET and MPH are not that closely related.”

“From what I understand, PS cars are often ‘loose’ all the way to the traps. In a situation like that, traction control would help MPH.”

Hal came back with this:

“That's a good point, but keep in mind that in most cases a normally aspirated car that accelerates harder with good traction (because of the traction control) will reach the other end quicker and most always register a higher speed.”

I made a rather weak suggestion to look into internal engine components and a slighter better combination instead of digging out controversial theories and slinging dirt.

Tim Burkhardt, a well-known modeler in many circles, and a very knowledgeable automotive kind of guy, jumped in with the following:

“Guys,

“Valve train and cam design have made major improvements throughout the history of drag racing, especially in Pro Stock. Remember back when stock blocks were mandatory and cam lift was limited by the physical space available within the parameters of the block? Do you remember what Bill Jenkins did about that through his hard work and research? He was able to give the cam more lift by reducing the cam lobe base circle to minimum size. This in turn created more lift. It also made the cam look really cool."

“Greg Anderson is making great horsepower but I don’t think that he makes much more than Kurt, Warren, or even Larry Morgan. However Greg and Jason’s 60-foot times are awesome and very consistent. Now I’m not saying that a traction device is responsible for that because I don’t think he has one. I think that Greg has stumbled on to something that the others haven’t found yet. It may even be a combination of things."

“You can have all the HP in the world, but if you can’t manage to successfully get it to the ground it doesn’t much matter. Top end mile per hour is a good indicator of HP. Many times Kurt and Warren have run very close to the same mph as Greg and Jason. That’s why I don’t think it’s mainly a HP issue. It has to be something that is responsible for the 60-foot times being quicker and more consistent. Clutch management, tranny gear combinations, engine torque are just a few major factors involved with achieving great 60-foot times. Naturally tires and rear end gear ratios also help, but tires are very hard to hide any secrets and all the teams get the tires from the same source. Whatever Anderson has found, if it is legal, I’m sure that when everyone finds out what it is we’ll all say, ‘Why didn’t I think about that?’ If Greg is cheating, then he’s done one heck of a job hiding it from officials in not one car, but two. How do you explain that?”

Burk

A rumor on another site recently, offered up “berillium” (sic) engine components as a possible answer to Greg Anderson’s performance.

Here is my shot at bringing this topic back to reality:

JUST DUES

To surmise that anyone is cheating, just because they are quicker, faster and winning, conflicts horribly with the supposed American way of striving until one gets ahead.

Tim touched on Jenkins’ camshaft breakthrough of years ago. Many racers have “stumbled” into similar discoveries that have given them a leg up for a period of time. In PS, there were the Jenkins and Sox & Martin times, when nobody else, seemingly, could win anything. There was a time when Reher & Morrison couldn’t be beat, another when Bob Glidden was the king, and other times when Warren Johnson earned his “Professor” nickname.

Throughout most of that time, basically all the competitors were wrapped around the same bbChevy. BG of course had his Fords but the rest (yes, even Team Mopar) used the same GM-derived block and heads. This sucker has been thrashed. The components, ratios, ports, camshafts, etc., have been R&D’d to death. And, with literally hundreds of similar engines available, even on rent/lease programs, a class that once was exciting to watch has evolved into absolutely duplicate cars making absolutely perfect (spelled b-o-r-i-n-g) runs. The only excitement ever is when somebody gets out of the groove.

That said, please don’t misconstrue that I think any racecar with 6.6/205 potential is a boring racecar, or that I think it is easy to make one perform that way. Far from it. I have high respect for the breed and the men and women that choose to build/race them. I also believe that a current Pro Stocker is one of the toughest vehicles to tame and drive to those perfect, boring runs. Sounds like a dichotomy, doesn’t it?

I go along with WJ in the fact that many of the teams do buy their way into Pro Stock. A person with a checkbook can go to one of three chassis builders and have a car every bit as good as the top teams. He then can arrange for an engine lease program from one of a half-dozen sources. With the proper monkey in the seat (credit goes to Gene Adams for that one) and the right person on the screws, this brand new team could qualify at any national event. However, I don’t believe they could win more than a lucky round or two.

So, in this sea of similarity, where does a team come up with an advantage without cheating?

With hard work, long hours and imagineering.

It is the way Jenkins, S&M, R&M, Glidden, WJ and now GA did/does it. And, more importantly, not one of those teams ever leased an engine from a competitor.

OK, so down to Greg Anderson. He worked with WJ for more than a decade, and might just have learned a thing or two during that tenure. He then stepped away and started his own deal. At first, he went some rounds and was considered one of the “players,” but that’s all. The domination factor has come since he built a new shop and moved to NASCAR’s backyard.

For many years, NASCAR teams relied on dragrace engine builders for help in gaining more RPMs. Our guys taught their guys how to build big power for short times. They learned how to really trick out qualifying engines with lighter reciprocating assemblies than the ones that were relied upon for full race distances. I saw it. They whittled weight with abandon far beyond what they were taught. I was flat amazed that a NASCAR “Q” crankshaft weighed five pounds less than the very latest knife-edged B/ED crank! Those cranks had much smaller rod journals -- Honda size -- with smaller (big-end) connecting rods.

Racers being racers, it wasn’t long before folk gave those light cranks with teensy conrods a full race try. Some blew, others didn’t. Over time, everybody raced what had only been used for qualifying. The teams then cried for even lighter stuff for qualifying. When NASCAR outlawed special qualifying engines, many of the Q parts merged into the race engines. This evolvement has been very secretive and extremely intense.

Many other experiments have been tried and recently, valvetrain components have been pared to an extreme no one thought possible. And, for every exploded carbon fiber pushrod, there has been a different heat treat method that has helped valve springs stay alive. Each component has been viewed the way Richard Simmons looks at a group of overeaters. All the teams have Spintrons, a machine that tests components until they fail. When that inevitably happens, R&D departments find out why and the info goes to help in redesigns.

As many of you know, individual pieces are weighed down to the closest gram. If a pushrod can be lightened by five grams without turning into a pretzel -- 10x16 is 80 grams – there is a degree of free power. The same is true with every single piece. The engineering of this lightening process is the same as a design team figuring out the exact size beams a bridge will need at full capacity during the height of a rain-drenched rush hour in a 50mph wind. Too thick is just adding unnecessary weight/cost, too thin is a catastrophe waiting to happen.

So, Greg Anderson was suddenly transplanted amidst some of the deepest thinkers in pushrod racing history. He was not their competitor so they needed not worry about divulging secrets. An ex-dragracer from Greg’s homestate (Jason Line) was known to the local boys as the dyno-darling — he could squeeze more out of a dyno test than anybody around. He stopped by to see his old friend and offered to test Greg’s engines too.

Those two things might add up to just enough extra to give GA an edge, but wait...

Some of the Charlotte area engine-building gurus began to stop by to see what this dragrace guy was all about. Questions were asked. In a secret world where things are kept quiet behind pieces of cardboard taped over intake manifolds and tightly zipped awnings, suddenly a lot of knowledgeable eyes saw the exact pieces inside a competitive Pro Stock engine.

So, with questions upon questions, things began to change.

I am NOT privy to the exact numbers here. Lets hypothetically say that awhile back, PS teams were running a 2.40” valve with a 3/8” stem that weighed 102 grams. By changing to an 11/32” or a 5/16” stem, a severe pile of weight comes out of the mix, as much as 5 grams per valve! Do the same with the spring using smaller diameter wire and better material. Then lighten the pushrod, the lifter and the rocker arm. With each component smaller and lighter, less mass needs to stop and start during each revolution.

This technology is nothing new -- no breakthrough, no wildly revealing secrets, no traction control, no hidden nitrous oxide, no ultra expensive beryllium connecting rods/pistons -- just putting common sense into common practice.

So, lets say GA’s engine produces exactly the same HP as WJ’s, but with a lighter valve train. It will accelerate through its range quicker, making for unbelievable split times, especially in 60 feet. And, we all know that most drag races are won in the first 60 feet, that quick burst of low end is an advantage. That lighter valve train may not give huge horsepower dividends but enough to give Anderson a few hundredths of a second in each run. In a class where races are won and lost by infinite margins, a few hundredths can be an eternity.

And, since for the most part, Greg Anderson is also leaving the starting line close to or better than the driver in the other lane, he is winning an inordinate amount of the time. I fully understand why competitors and fans are concerning themselves with what Mark Donohue termed an “unfair advantage.”

But cheating?

When racers race and lose, they form a society. It is a good-ole-boys, jovial, friendly, close-knit group willing to help each other out of any jam.

But place any one of them into a Winners’ Circle and a strange metamorphosis takes place. The change is rarely factual; it only takes place in the minds of the remaining members of the losers club. Suddenly, their previous buddy is a total asshole, a cheater, and the worst human since Simon Legree.

I don’t know Greg Anderson personally. I don’t even know for sure he has a “real” advantage. From all indications he is a great individual with tremendous experience, a great backer, a cute wife, and 1% more desire than anybody else in PS. He currently has hit on a combination of pieces and an overall situation that has given him a very slight edge.

Imagine the feelings Greg has after trying so hard to excel, then finally achieving that goal only to have his peers and the public point accusatory fingers. It asks the major question, Why try at all? I say give Greg Anderson the credit he so justly deserves.