TRACTION CONTROL TRIGGERS SPRINTCAR INTRIGUE
There’s a dirty little secret lurking on Australia's speedway ovals these days.
No-one is talking openly, but there is a very real chance that illegal traction control devices are being used in the sport’s premier category - the 950 horsepower winged Sprintcars.
Quietly and with almost zero attention, the governing body of the category down under – the imaginatively named Sprintcar Control Council of Australia (SCCA) – has been sniffing around to try and discover if there are any rule breakers pounding the clay ovals.
"I'm not close enough now to really know, but there is talk about it," Sprintcar legend, Garry Rush, told Race.news.
"One guy I know told me there are some cars using it."
In a sport where grip is everything on the gladiatorial clay ovals, traction control could be the make-or-break ingredient for winning.
So, even though it's illegal in Australia, are some dodging the letter of the law?
The whispers from within seem to indicate that it’s not 'if' but 'how many'.
Make no mistake, Sprintcars are big business in Australia as the headliners of the dirt-track speedway realm, with big dollars up for grabs for those at the top of the pecking order.
The prize money is, in local terms, staggering. In an upcoming race in WA, headlined by NASCAR superstar Kyle Larson, the winner of the three-day 'High Limit International: Perth' will walk away with $100,000.
Over in the USA, sprintcars are allowed to use two different types of rather rudimentary (but better than nothing) traction control aids.
One is a magneto-retard system and the other is crank-trigger switch, the choice being based on the engine configuration.
Both are illegal in Australia.
In October the SCCA instigated an out-of-nowhere traction control chase on randomly-chosen competitors at a Sprintcar meeting at the Perth Motorplex.
Four cars were selected by ballot to carry a uniquely Australian developed monitoring device, which basically tracked whether a magneto retard system was being used.
It didn’t work as hoped, proving nothing.
The SCCA said on its own website this was not the case, but things have gone quiet ever since.
Race.news sent an email to the SCCA asking about the current state of play in the 'Where’s traction control Wally' game, but . . . crickets.
What difference, then, does traction control make to a Sprintcar? To give the non-scientific answer, it is “s...loads”.
A methanol gulping winged Sprintcar monster produces more power than a Peter Dutton-approved small nuclear reactor which means these things are like rabid beasts, wheel-standing in a straight line and laying black licorice strips on hard-packed clay.
One summer night I raced a Sprintcar at Parramatta City Raceway and I find the term “I pooped myself” to be woefully inadequate.
It really doesn’t matter how 'sticky' the clay track may be, when you unleash over 700kW of power (let’s say 950 horsepower) you quickly find that your friendly right foot can easily become a deadly enemy.
But if the SCCA is on the hunt for traction control cheats using either of the two US accepted systems, what chance do local sprintcar racers have to game the system. Not to say any are, but – What If?
Based in the US motor racing heartland of North Carolina, Davis Technologies (https://moretraction.com/circle-track-traction-control/) has established itself as traction control central for just about any category, and – according to its official website – seems to specialise in speedway racing on both asphalt and dirt, plus drag racing.
As the website boasts: 'Traction Control Is What We Do'.
Based in the picturesque town of Weaverville (Google it, it’s a pretty nice little town), Davis Technologies has been in business for over two decades and acknowledges, if you follow the astrix down to the red writing at the bottom of the web page, that its products “may not be legal in some series”.
Really?
Race.news emailed the company headquarters asking just how many satisfied customers the company might have in Australia, but, so far . . . crickets.
Although a couple of traction control work-arounds are deemed legal in US Sprintcar racing, the Davis Technologies system looks like it's a definite no-no.
However, given that its traction control chip is smaller than a credit card, weighs a measley 57 grams, and slots into the engine control MSU box underneath the exisiting motherboard, it’s probably harder to find than true happiness.
There are no external sensors on this smart little stowaway, but it has a built-in accelerometer, data acquisition, reacts within the space of one cylinder firing, and can be controlled wirelessly using a handheld Bluetooth unit.
There’s also a self-learning capability that allows it to adapt on the run.
The top-of-the-line Davis Technologies unit, the smarter-than-Sheldon Cooper CT-3-SL unit will set you back between $6810 and $9840, depending on the parameters needed, while a hand-held remote display unit is just under $400 extra.
Then, just to sweeten the deal, the company will give you a free T-shirt for orders exceeding $1500, although anyone seen wearing one around the Sprintcar paddock may be giving something else away.