Originally posted by Allen Brown
All the sprint and supermodifed stuff confuses this poor Englishman completely. Did all these types of racing overlap or did one evolve out of another? I can't really see how they relate to each other.
Allen,
Now, to explain Super Modified racing...the more I explain, the more confusing it might get
...which is perfectly understandable.
Both types of racing had overlap, were concurrent and one part of one evolved into the other and yet both still exist
Basically, Super Modifieds evolved out of Stock Cars. As rules were relaxed mandating "stock" parts, the cars became known as Modifieds. Later, when rules were relaxed even more (and to add a cool name), they became
Super Modifieds. and both still exist today, although Super Modified racing is far from it's 1960's heyday.
The evolution of Modifieds to
Super Modifieds occurred in the late 1950's/early 1960's. Modifieds continued to exist (and still do), especially in the Northeast U.S. and a small pocket in the Carolinas. In fact, the first championship NASCAR ever sanctioned was for Modifieds. Modifieds themselves have evolved, primarily into a division between pavement and dirt (but, that's for another discussion and would only muddy the already cloudy waters here).
Super Modifieds likewise evolved from a driver running the same car on different track surfaces on consecutive nights to a split in ranks amongst pavement and dirt. Super Modified racing on pavement went through a period where it became a wide open affair, sort of like Group 7 Sports Cars on short paved ovals, with a similar amount of experimentation: Ex-Indy roadsters, rear engined cars (both home built and ex-Indy machines), 4WD, supercharging...virtually everything was tried. Pavement Super racing flourished in Central/Northern California, the Pacific Northwest (including the Western provinces of Canada) and around the Great Lakes (including some tracks in Ontario, Canada). There also was some pavement Super racing in Florida and in some places at invidual tracks in cities like Houston (Texas), Salt Lake City (Utah), Denver (Colorado) and even some isolated in the hot bed of Stock Car racing like Jackson (Mississippi) and Birmingham (Alabama). Some tracks did maintain more strict rules than others, which caused problems (see second paragraph below).
Many Super Modified associations would not allow Sprint Cars (generally much lighter) to race with them and vice versa. Though there were exceptions as some tracks did allow Sprints to run with Super Modifieds. And there were large money "open competition" races that combined Sprints and Super Modifieds.
But, as usual with U.S. short track racing, it was highly localized and many times the rules from one track to the next were disparate. This is bad enough in "Stock Cars", let alone something like Super Modifieds. The "open" races were often the only chance to get cars from different areas together and many promoters wouldn't even attempt it because of the headaches of trying to get so many different rules packages together (or because their track ran more rules than others).
Super Modified racing on pavement continues, though usually as a touring series. In the 70's, use of offset chassis became popular and now it is the standard. Pencil thin bodies with the engine sitting outside the frame rails for weight benefits. Super Modifieds rarely ran on tracks larger than 5/8 of a mile, though yearly events on the mile oval at Phoenix International Raceway have run for years (and they've also run the Pike's Peak International Raceway oval near Colorado Springs). At one point, speeds came within 20 or so mph of Champ Cars at Phoenix!
Super Modified racing on dirt was strong in the Plains states, Midwest, the Southwest and Central/Northern California with other pockets as well. Since there were a lot more dirt tracks than paved, I'm sure there was even more Super Modified racing on dirt than pavement. Dirt Super Modifieds primarily stayed in an upright configuration, much like Sprint Cars or Champ cars that ran on dirt. From the late 60's into the 80's, more and more of the tracks running Super Modifieds switched to Sprint Cars. Prior to that, Sprint Cars were much more a touring form of racing than something seen weekly at the local track. There weren't many short tracks that ran Sprints weekly until the late 70's. Of course, by that time, many of these dirt classes were Super Modifieds in name only as many had waived the rule allowing Sprints in with them. There were some hold-outs. To give you an idea, some Super Modified groups required steel box frame rail chassis construction versus tube frame chassis of varying metals allowed by Sprint Car groups. Box frame rail is along the lines of Stock Car chassis construction. Experimentation on dirt didn't last as long (though seeing the occasional Watson roadster on dirt was quite a shock), but was exciting and great competition. There is some Super Modified racing on dirt to this day, though not much and more often than not the class is run as a smaller cid engine stepping stone or as an economy type support class to Sprints.
And wings were a big issue. Some sanctioning bodies and tracks did not allow them, some did. To give you an idea, the use of Sprint type tails was also a major issue. Some Super Modified groups allowed them while others refused on the basis of keeping the appearances different (which if they had already allowed tube frame chassis was beyond me, but I digress).
And as I mentioned in an earlier post, some Sprint Car groups allowed rear engined cars for a period, but eventually legislated them out, as did most of the Super Modified groups.
And, of course, when I say pavement here in the states...that's asphalt, tarmac or macadam to your respective locations
I hope this was reasonably succint and not too confusing. This is an area of keen interest to me. It was a fascinating and unique period of short track racing, the fact that this same blueprint evolved differently from town to town and region to region, the experimentation and great variety of cars...with almost every car distinct, only adds to that. That and the fact that some of the first races I saw on TV and in person were Super Modified races as the class was dying out in Southern California probably sealed it for me. Many Super Mod grads from the 60's and early 70's went on to Indy: Joe Leonard, George Snider, Bill Vukovich, Dick Simon, Art Pollard, Jim Malloy, Tom Sneva and Sam Sessions just to name some of them. Sneva had likely never raced a front engined car until he moved to the Midwest!
Sorry about the length...didn't mean to write an essay
, but it's rather complex.
Jim Thurman
Ignore?? Or maybe try to sample our collective knowledge about sprint cars? For starters, does anybody know how long the IMCA Sprint Car Championship was run? I have a list of champions going onto 1963, and White mentions a 1968 championship. Anyone able to complete my list?
