PHOTO: JOE MCHUGH
you learn. After you’ve learned you can apply that, and a lot of the things
that we’ve learned in RvW, we’ve transferred over to a Pro 275 program.
DW: Years ago, you never looked at split times. Now you get that time
slip and you’re looking for a hundredth or a half of a hundredth trying
to improve each one, whether it’s your 60-foot, what you’re running to
330, 330-660 or the back half. You’re taking each one of those segments
and break each one down looking to improve. Now you’re tuning around
segments of the track looking to make up time.
CC: Having a power adder is what makes the difference, too. I mean,
Pro Stock, they’re awesome with what they do, and they’re trying to find
thousandths and we’re trying to find hundredths at least all the time, but
having a power adder is what makes that difference or that gap different.
It makes it a wider gap with us, but there was always a natural evolution.
If you had new parts one season, you could usually run them a couple
of seasons on it and then if you were improving that part or your parts
during that time, then you could sell and move up to new parts again, and
you could stay in that top 10.
But with the influx of all the money that came into the class 10 years
ago or whenever, when it was during the ADRL days, it took that natural
evolution and raised the bar higher than a guy like me could keep up with.
Now with the technology that’s out there, the stuff has come back to a
point that a guy like me can do it.
We’re doing it with stuff that’s [2015], ’16 model parts and we’re not
going to run at the front, but we can run in the middle, and there are other
cars just like me out there. A 10-year old [Jerry] Bickel car, there’s nothing
wrong with them. The cars, they work great, and so a 10-year old Bickel
car and a 3-5-year-old engine combination with the latest add-ons and
stuff like Brandon Switzer with his fuel injection, and you’ve got Mark
Micke’s transmission and converter, with that stuff you can run. You can
compete and be right there. If you get in the middle of the field and just
go down the racetrack every time, you put yourself in a position to win.
CS: Unfortunately, what makes [MMPS] look stagnant from the outside
is that there’s no fast gains on the scoreboard. The field didn’t move
forward that much faster. The lead numbers and the top four or five cars
are pushed up against the front. And yes, they’ve nicked the world record
here and there, and they’re a little bit faster, a little bit quicker just working
on the old combination, get new cars, better racetracks, better tires, all of
it. So you’ve got three or four cars that kind of hang in the front and they
work forward a little at a time.
As time evolves, the guys way in the back of the pack move up tighter
and tighter and tighter. So you’ve got a guy that could have been 2-3 tenths
off the field, now he’s five hundredths off the top three or four.
Everything, every round, every time you make a decision, everything has
to be right in order to move forward, and one thing needs to be wrong to
go the same or backwards. And it’s pretty easy, like simple things — you
miss a shift by a little bit, you miss on the clutch, you put a half a degree
too much or too little timing in the engine, all of a sudden you didn’t
go anywhere.
And you have to buy good engines. You can’t go buy a slouch engine and
be on the top of the page. You’ve got to get some good power because it’s
really all you race with. You could be the best racer in town, drive the car
the best, got the best light, if you don’t have enough horsepower to get in
the game, you’re going to be in the back of the pack.
That evolution has included a lot of advances in different technologies
that has aided performance. Again, for your specific class or area,
what do you see as the biggest advancements in technology?
MW: Well, the transmission converter technology, no matter if it’s a
five-speed Liberty and a screw blower, or if it’s a M&M transmission, a
three-speed 400 turbo lock up deal, that’s been the biggest advancement
JOHN MONTECALVO AND CREW
CHIEF TOMMY LEE HAVE SEEN IT
ALL IN MMPS, FROM THE GLORY
DAYS TO THE CLASS TRYING TO
FIND ITS PLACE IN 2020.
July 2020 DragIllustrated.com | Drag Illustrated | 71