How quickly things have changed - By: John Sullivan

Posted Jody Shannon on November 12th, 2007 | Filed under Articles, Commentary, The DRC

By: John Sullivan

I really love a good debate, and to say a new addendum to the UMP rule book has sparked a debate, is something of an understatement. Rumors began spreading early in the season, that the folks of UMP had discussed allowing quick changes in the modified division. Before anything even became official, the message board servers were begging for mercy of the discussion about it.

This fall, the announcement became official, that the sanction would allow a quick change rearend, with steel axle tubes. I would say the reaction it drew was split right down the middle. The quick change advocates celebrated quietly, while the critics did anything but. As the member of a first year modified team, I can say that I can see points on each side of the fence.

Proponents of the quick change debate of 2007, saw them as a way to save themselves quite a bit of money and time. A complete quick change rearend can be purchased for just a little more than the standard 9″ Ford rearend that has dominated the class for years. The big cost saver comes in the gears. One set of quick change gears averages around $65. The beauty of a quick change rearend is that you actually get two gear ratios from one set of gears. For example, a car with a 4.86 ring and pinion installed in the rearend, can buy a 5.63 ratio gear, and, by flipping the small and larger gear from top to bottom, can also get a 4.20 ratio from the same gear set. With the 9″ Ford setup, the ring and pinion is installed in a gear case, and runs around $350 and up depending on which spool and gear is installed.

The second argument from supporters is that of time saved. To change the gears in a 9″ you must remove caps on each drive flange, remove the axles, remove the driveshaft, drain the fluid, remove 10 nuts, remove the heavy gear case, wash, rinse and repeat tore-install. A quick change, requires the removal of a handful of bolts, swapping out 2 small gears, and putting it back together. The fastest I have ever changed a 9″ Ford gear was 20 minutes. That was an all hands on deck kind of ordeal. By myself, it usually takes me around 45 minutes. A quick change rearend takes one man less than 10 minutes. Now, it may not sound like a big ordeal, but believe me, changing gears every time you go to a different tracks, sometimes twice a week gets very old, very quickly.

Not to be one sided, I can understand the points of the naysayers as well. First of all, the ease of changing gears becomes a fine-tuning device throughout the course of a night. Racers on a quick change setup, will be able to tune there RPMs as the night progresses and the track changes, while a driver with a 9″ Ford setup will be much less likely to do so. Now, the real reason for the complaint goes straight to the pocketbook. United Midwestern Promoters originally founded their sanction of modifieds as an economy class, designed to allow racers with a smaller budget to have fun racing. With the rule change, coupled with an open motor rule, you have large budget teams with a trailer full of gears at their disposal.

Another concern facing the skeptics is that a flood of 9″ Ford parts will began filling the market, making it harder on them to sell their older gears, so that they can replace their stock. On the other hand, this would also affect a racer wanting to sell his quick change setup in order to switch over to a quick change rearend.

As long as I have been around racing, I have always heard racers talking about equipment that the other guy has, that he does not, and thats the reason he is being beaten. Hey, present company is included here, so I won’t go too far on that note. The point is, the rules were dealt, and support it or not, quick change rearends have hit the modified scene. I honestly feel that the racers deciding to stick it out with their 9″ Fords will not be at as much of a disadvantage as they think.

I guess we won’t know for sure until sometime in the middle of 2008. My prediction? This will be an after-thought by then, and another major dilemma will be the talk of the scene by 2009.

The views in this article are in no way meant to be entertaining, educational, offensive, comical, crude, or serious. They are just there. By the way, they are soley mine. You can contact me at jcsullivan@insightbb.com, but I may not respond.