The future?
This is going to be a huge issue for the racers of Florida and those who want to go to Florida to race. It reared it’s ugly head at SpeedFest when we northerner’s saw what this package was capable of, and then blew everyone off the track at Speedweeks.
I agree with the earlier comments about Choquette. He is a very talented racer and is one of those racers that could win with a rubber band for an engine. He’s that good! His recent performances are not the sole indicator of the issue, however.
If I’m not mistaken, this Florida spec package won most or all the Sunbelt races this year.
We have a similar package in the north, but they are rpm limited and weren’t built to outshine the overall performance of traditional super late model engine packages. In fact, just this past season, Chris Gabehart won our CRA Championship and the most races with a typical Super Late Model 9 to 1.
When we developed our sealed engine it was to be competitive with existing power plants, not to exceed them. That didn’t happen in Florida.
What happened at SpeedFest won’t happen again. Many North of Florida have expressed that they won’t venture back to Florida to compete against the Florida Spec engine again in that format. And the backlash will be even worse for SpeedWeeks.
Jack Landis (from the North), could see the writing on the wall and had to buy an engine that he could only use in that format at Speedweeks. He’s fortunate to have an owner who can afford to do that…how many other Northerner’s are going to buy an engine they can only run that way in Florida? I hate to see what that means for Speedweeks. It was always fun to go to New Smyrna in February and see racers from all over the country. If something doesn’t change it will mean seeing mostly Florida racers in February.
The logic behind building the North’s Sealed engine package was to give the racer an affordable alternative for a Super Late Model engine…a step to save super late model racing, without displacing the teams that wanted to use the traditional engine packages. The idea that the rpms aren’t limited on the Florida spec engine, in my humble opinion, is counter-intuitive to the whole idea behind making it affordable. I was told there was no rpm limit, “because we let the car owners budget determine how hard he wants to turn it.” What? That makes no sense for a plan that was devised to save the racers money.
It’s easy to see why they’ve not been allowed to run most places outside of Florida. We do allow them in our CRA rules, but our rules say they must have a 7200 rpm limit (same as our Northern Sealed engine). And its only out of respect to Don Nerone, because of earlier efforts of working together, that the Florida package is even in our rules, even with the rpm limit.
I won’t deny that our Northern Sealed Engine has been very successful, but it does not exceed the performance of starndard super late model engine packages, and it does serve the legitimate purpose of saving money for the racers with an rpm limit. Because of that rpm limit, the engines exclusively built by McGunegills are guaranteed by the builder for a calendar year, no matter how much you race it.
If Florida wants to be an island to itself and not be concerned with what’s going on in the rest of the world, their current package will work for the weekly in-state racing. But, in its current format, it won’t work when trying to bring the rest of the world together to play. I hope something changes for the future.