Put a pan car on a dirt track? Ridiculous! Put a GAS powered Pan Car on dirt; as soon as I stop laughing, I’ll tell you how stupid that idea sounds! The suspension will not work enough. I’m not going to tear my car up like that.  It’s too dirty for open bearings! ……….

Those were some of the many objections I heard when some of us started talking about trying our .09 nitro pan cars on the dirt oval and up to now I could not get anyone to try it. I had “threatened” to do it when Gary, Larry and I ran Norris Cooper’s asphalt track. His indoor dirt oval track was right there but with all we had to do on race day, I never seemed to have the time to give it a shot. After we left there, there always seemed to be other things that took priority over trying the car on dirt. Bottom line: it never got done and the idea got pushed back to the “maybe someday” file.

However, at the end of last year’s race season, some of the guys brought the topic up again. The main reason for it I think was twofold. One; the Cherryville track is right in the middle of oval country in North Carolina (C&S Raceway, 224 Sunbeam Farms Road, Cherryville, NC 28221) and a lot of guys are switching over to dirt racing in the winter because it is indoors but they can still run nitro. Using the pan car that they already have would make good since because it will be a lot easier to make the change without buying a ton of new stuff.  A third reason can be added in as well; dirt tracks are a lot smoother than they have been, making it more compatible to the small suspension movement of pan cars. 

As of today though, I STILL haven’t put a pan car on a dirt track BUT Sam Presnell has and I thought I would pass on his experience with it as well as starting a small series of articles on converting the car while throwing in what the dirt tracks are like with a 44 oz. car with a graphite chassis, no transmission, very little suspension movement and a NASCAR body with a wing. Who knows, this may be the start of something new.

This first article will be based solely off of the email that I received from Sam and the subsequent phone conversations that I had with him and his dad, Jim.  

Making the change over.

All that Sam did was put a short track setup on the car to start with and raise the chassis up. He used IRS 3.5 axle spacers in the rear and .030 spacers in the front and did not cut the tires; they were 2.45 (right out of the box). He grooved the fronts and rears and added another cross groove to the rears.  There was also no stagger used. With this setup the car had no chassis drag what so ever and the thought was that he could probably have gone even lower to the track.

McLin NOTE:  Cutting the tires a bit smaller will get the chassis closer and also allow for a better range in gear choice. It will just remain to be seen how that will affect the handling.  

As you can see in the above picture, even with the body still on, the car is just not “that” dirty. Also note the narrowed tire on the left side to clear the chassis.

Different while staying the same….

Because of this being considered as a series race, we want to stay with the NASCAR style bodies and wings that we use on paved tracks. If this does work out, no one will have to buy a bunch of extra stuff to do it. So, Sam used his “Yoda” body and a wing on the pod just like he would on our regular paved racing. Of course, the wheel wells had to be opened up to accommodate the bigger, wider tires but that’s no big deal at all.  In fact, I plan on using a more “race seasoned” body for my first time out. It’s been 20 years since I raced dirt, I can see a wall or two in my future so it may be easier on the wallet to use a body that has been in a race or two before moving on the something “purdy"!

 He used RC4Less White compound tires all the way around in this test and after four runs they were just starting to come in. This leads me to believe that the tire wear will be real comparable to the capped tires we are use to running and one set will last a long time.

To get this series race going, Mobile Hobbies has volunteered to get the tires and use them as “hand outs” so it will cut back even more on the expense of the racer. I’m sure there will have to be some type of understanding that if you break it you buy it but that is all down the road yet. Right now, I just want to be sure that this will be a doable deal.

The gearing seemed to be a bit of a problem and with the tight corners of Cherryville a lower gear than what he had on it was needed. However, he was able to keep the car in the 6.0’s which is a pretty good pace for that track and is about what the 13.5 Late Model cars run.  Sam only had time to make four runs so this test was without the benefit of a great deal of chassis tweaking and according to him, there is probably a lot that is still left in the car. Also there is that deal about cutting the tires smaller to get the gear radio lower.

So, what were the conclusions of this test? 

First of all it answered the question that YES, a pan car on dirt WILL work. But it also added to that by letting us see; not only will it work but it will work quite well and can become a competitive race class.

Second, by the pictures that Sam sent me (and are shown here), you can see that the dirt is there but not near in the abusive amount that even I would have thought. These pictures  show the car after four runs and shows me that a visit to the air compressor after each run will be quit sufficient to keep the bearings in good shape.

Third, it created a lot of interest among the racers that were at the track that night. Enough so that some of the old paved track racers were talking about bring out there .09 cars to give it a shot and that was the most encouraging news of all. It’s great when you see something that looks like it’s going to work but when guys that race dirt on a weekly basis want to try it, there must be something to it.

I have a set of tires on order and hopefully I will be able to give it a shot myself in a few weeks.  I certainly have a couple of bodies that can be cut out for the big tires and there is not much trouble to raise the chassis. Maybe after all this time, I will finally get a chance to get back on the dirt again but more important, maybe I can do it with my favorite car!

As time goes on, I’ll keep everyone posted on the testing that we are doing and how feasible it will be to race a pan car on dirt. Who knows, maybe things will work out well enough to be in Custom Works dirt race next year!