Robert Yates told me one time after renting an engine to Herb Nab, when I think you have a car that can run in the top 10, I will rent you an engine that will/can run 10th, capable of running top 5, I will give you an engine that can run 5th! When I landed in LA LA Land in 1985, I quickly realized all Winston Cup teams were not created equal. The statement from Robert Yates was bold but giving a team a winning engine when they have a 20th place car was a waste of effort. My curiosity about the difference was answered shortly after I went to work at Baker Schiff racing. Teams were in constant research mode; two tenths were only good if they turned into three tenths next week it seemed. We had engine builders capable of winning races and championships, Bob Burum, Randy Clary, J E Beard. The irony of Baker Schiff team was that by 1992 8 of 16 employees in 1985 had championship rings. After a few weeks in the body shop with Robert Gee Jr and Jimmy Gee, Robert Gee Jr made the statement that ole California Bob had a 600 hp thermostat. He called Bob a Osterlund refuge, and under Robert “Boobie” Harrington had made a number of questionable choices one that included launching a chunk of Mallory metal used for balancing a crankshaft through the hood and into a competitor’s tire. Bob took the head engine building job for Baker Schiff. Racing has a strange rhythm some crew chiefs are shock gurus, some chase front end alignment, some are all engine, some chase tires, few master all, engine guys are the same. Baker’s team had a baseline engine, there was a history of lubrication issues, Randy Clary a Jack Tant disciple had an answer to the oiling issue a grove behind the main bearings with multiple bearing shell holes. This cured the oiling problem, added life but not power, Bob chased the parasitic drag associated with oil build up on rotating parts, the answer a scraper. The team started using a Hamburger dry sump pan, Dave Roberts took a new pan that had generic scraper and cut the pan bottom off to make a fixture to make a custom scraper. Bob pre-assembled the short block Dave would spend hours fitting the scraper to the rotating assembly our original goal was .250 with a directional windage screen in the scavenge area. Conventional wisdom was being more efficient with minimum stages, this changed as teams realized that you share 2hp to gain 10hp, or in some instances gain longevity in the hp life in races. Example: In 1985 it was not uncommon to lose 20% of total horsepower measured by leak down / post-race dyno horsepower equivalencies in a 500-mile race, start with 700 hp finish with 560 hp. If you lost 10 hp in a parasitic function but guaranteed 10 hp or 2% of longevity it would be critical. Top teams realized that they could lose 10% in practice, imagine being 50 hp down from Davey Allison from the start, then loosing 10% in practice, your down to the Robert Yates powerplant then they install a new engine right after practice, you are 110 hp down on the first lap. It is a linear decline for Davey and your team equally, he starts with 700hp finishes with 560 hp, you start with 650 – 10% 585 hp finish with 468 hp. These numbers are written in stone. It took several years for NASCAR to realize that teams there were 2 schools of thought, one included a “qualifying engine” on the edge tuned for 2 laps, most teams left the shop with this engine, most were 20 hp plus over race engines. Practice and qualifying then change to race engine, 720 hp – 10% = 640 hp. Yates practiced then installed race engine before qualifying. Imagine qualifying with 700hp + 10% in qualifying trim = 770hp. Even Dale Jarrett could win poles, races and championships with that power.
Back to the mechanics of the system, chasing oiling system options in a rear steer car was an issue. Many teams started to migrate the oil tanks forward from the trunk area into the left front. As the car weights dropped the importance of the balance, car builders concentrated on location of key components between the wheels, moving the oil tank from trunk to left front saved about 40 total pounds and transferred another 30 lbs. from behind the wheels to in between the wheels. The Baker Schiff team’s first attempt with the 4 stage Hamburger/ Roberts/ Burum scraper and directional windage screen was 20 hp on every engine we tested across the board. This oil pan scavenge system also option dropped oil temperature across the board in dyno tests and at the track. The next step was to perfect the oil tank, the tank had to fit the car, left front, vulnerable area, transfers a lot of heat to driver/cockpit area. The mechanics of the tank include a baffle system that allows aerated oil/ foam to turn liquid again on contact providing the proper volume needed to lubricate and cool the engine. Most custom oil tanks are scalene quadrilateral (no sides parallel) in shape, later versions included Oberg style filters, with complex baffle systems that drop in from the top, easy to clean, with plenty of surface area to complement air cooling of the hot oil. In race conditions the Baker Schiff data verified 30-degree reductions in oil temp from rear tank cars to front tank cars. 35 lb. reduction in total weight, 1% reduction in rear weight. The Baker Schiff car fleet consisted of 2- New Hutchison Pagan Front Steers and 2 – New Hutchison Pagan Rear Steers and 2 – Used Hutchinson Pagan Lead Sleds, and a Osterlund Custom built road course car. All the cars were fitted or retrofitted for front tank cars. The engine fleet consisted of 10 engines in rotation by mid-summer. By march/ Darlington Bob’s “quote” thermostat had risen to a consistent 650 hp + or – 5 at any given time. Rumors were rampant that teams had hit the 700 hp mark, Buddy grabbed the bait. Racing in 1985 chased a few measures of success, winning races, finishing races, winning poles. Bob was on the team that had won the 1980 championship with Osterlund/ Earnhardt. Roland Wlodyka was team manager with a fast but dependable racing model. The Osterlund business model included a strong team/ talent pool, a consistent top five car, and a driver that can win with a top ten car. The Baker Schiff business model was Buddy liked Daytona, Darlington, Charlotte, Michigan, Talladega, the rest he hated. The engine shop’ product was consistently in the top 10 in power, Robert Harrington/ Steve Crowe had top 15 cars no doubt, and Buddy Baker won 19 races from 1959 to 1985. Bob’s approach was 3 engine combinations, all engines in each combination were the same, on the safe side, reputation was based on finishing every lap, wins were a byproduct, and poles were not worth the investment. The engine shop had real racers in the shop, their nature was winning, building generic engines tested their very soul. Buddy wanted more, he drove for top engine builders, his 19 wins were all a product associated with a superior car and /or engines. The team optimized the ring tension packages based on gains in the scraper, scavenge, oil tank. The worked-on efficiency in cooling, oil/water, water pressure, this allowed the car team to adjust the front downforce by decreasing the grille openings. 8 out of 10 of team engines were 4.00 inch bore engines, 12 to 1 compression, 6.0 Lentz rods, JE pistons. Nothing over 355 cu in. Aggressive teams were pushing cubic inches to 358 bores to 4.150, 6.5 lightweight rods, coated pistons & pins, compression 14 to 1. This left Baker Schiff 20 -50 hp down on the others in the top 10 teams. The Baker Schiff engine shop’s “reputation first” centered approach to NASCAR racing proved they had legit dependable engines, 7 top 10, 11 to 15, no DNF’s, average finish 19.1. Buddy at the end of the year chose to leave the Harrington operation, his statement was “I would rather be a slut in victory lane then a dude that’s a virgin with no DNF’s and a 19.1 average finish.” The irony was that the key players that engineered that 19.1 average finish season like refuges leaving a 3rd world country chased Buddy to the next stop. The winners within the team moved on to get their championship rings.
The Baker Schiff experience led to a friendship with Mike Beam, the new crew chief for Curb Motorsports. Mike Curb a “music mogul” California Politician, had a “Jones” for racing, but from the any employee that ever graced the Curb Motorsports campus, the quote would be “Mike Curb never wanted to do it right”. After the 1984 199 & 200th victory, greatest photo opportunity ever, Curb Motorsports jumped into 1985 with Beam as crew chief, a few new key team members, and while Richard had gotten the team away from the fractious Curb-DiGard engine agreement, an agreement that included but was not limited to, Yates rental engines, and Buddy Parrott as crew chief, he lobbied and was now stuck with racing engines from of all people, Dan Gurney’s All-American Racers, an open-wheel team in which Curb and lifelong friend Cary Agajanian had an ownership stake. 1985 Curb Motorsports performance suffered greatly as the team dealt with 14 engine failures, posting a single top-five race finish all year. By mid-season, The King was looking to get out of his deal with Mike Curb. The irony included a second team with Rick Hendricks. The Curb Petty fleet included a number of outdated PE cars, mostly junk, few were hybrid at best, crazy one-off designs. Mike Beam’s vision included systematically transforming the fleet back to Laughlin front steers, the first car in the new generation was Curb 009, first race was fall Charlotte, the car lead 1985 Atlanta, and Rockingham in the fall race until the engine exploded. The Baker Schiff engine program compared to the top 10 teams was weak at best, no dnf’s made them looked like superstars against Curb, in fact Curb rented a Baker engine for Riverside in 1985. Comparing the 2 seasons tells an interesting tale, Baker no DNF’s, Petty 14 DNF’s, Baker 7 top 10, Petty 13 top 10, Baker completed 6296 laps, Petty completed 7767 laps, Baker won $235,476, Petty won $306,142, Baker finished 17th in points, Petty finished 14th. From an engineer’s mind on the ground Mike Beam’s direction to right Curb’s ship with a strong car program had merit, Bob Burum’s engine program for Baker Schiff guaranteed finishes, only in the top ten 7 times 25% of the races, with an average finish in the top 20 in 100% of the races. Curb finished only 50% of the races but out raced Baker Schiff with a yearly average of 17.9 for the year. From a statistical approach, pull out DNF engine failures, Petty/Curb finished with an average finish of 9.5 for races completed. 1st Darrel Waltrip averaged 7.5, 2nd Bill Elliott averaged 8.7, 3rd Gant averaged 10, 4th Bonnet averaged 10.5, 5th Geoff Bodine 10.9, based on average finishes in 1985 for races completed Curb would have finished 3rd in points.
I always considered the Beam family friends, I first met Mike thru Laughlin, I was 18, Mike was in his early 20’s, the reality was he was part of a front steer click, Mike / Jack Laughlin, Bobby Allison, Butch Lindley, Rick Townsend, Morgan Shepard, that all chased the Chevelle front steers, that intrigued me.
Mike had just joined Petty Enterprises in the engine shop but was doing everything for Kyle. Flash forward to 1985, I was working for Buddy, just got custody of a 5-year-old daughter, chasing the fabricator thing, my boss Robert Harringtons sister Nancy Clark had a gig watching the racers young ones, she lived next door to Mike Beam, so our friendship had a chance to mature. Mike and I had a similar history with OEM front end alignment making a living flat rate plus commission. Beamer had a racing history that complimented Curb’s monetary limited investment plan at the time, and Richard had confidence in Beam’s direction. Richard was asked by the press why Mike Beam, his answer was stoic in nature, “of all the current Winston Cup crew chiefs he is the only one I would trust with my reputation!”
I later understood the depth of that confidence as I realized Richard was counting days, still had ability with a given car on a given day to get 201, but he knew he needed the respect of a team that accepted the responsibility to give him that given car without demanding he/ Richard carry the team. Mike was thrown into a situation running a race team but not running the whole business. Curb had a fractured business team, a vision that you can make a profit in racing without making an investment. In the only team meeting in 1986 that I ever seen Mike Curb, Ron Bouchard, Rich leader of the business team together in one room in Kannapolis, Curb outlined the Valvoline deal, $1,000,000 which included a driver guarantee $300,000 based on 50% winnings, $300,000 administrative stipend to Curb Records for running the business. That left Mike Beam with $400,000 plus winnings to run a team. Valvoline later verified that their contract with Curb included dollar for dollar matching with Mike Curb, we learned quickly how politicians did math. Curb had made a deal with Dale Jarrett, there was some sponsor income, but it was limited at best based on the promises made to the Jarrett’s. Mike Beam got his first taste of selling his soul.
Back to racing stuff, as I stated Mike Beam was part of the NASCAR front steer click. My history with front steers includes a introduction by Huey Mercer, a close friend, drag racer, to a concept that was a tread with the spurt racers. Huey’s dad was a Waycross, Ga Ford parts man, and dirt racer, Mac Mercer. Huey a racer at heart, joined the Navy to get out of a potential to join in trouble. He chased the idea of owning a 3rd party-built racecar, Yenko, Nichols, Baldwin. He purchased a 1968 SS/RS Baldwin Motion sending a down payment, and a promise one payment at a month forwarded from his future wife on Navy paydays, to send to Baldwin, only to find out Miss Sue bought a trailer house instead. One of Huey’s navy contacts was working as a machinist building parts for a program GM/ Bobby Allison was pushing. My dad and I chased the information, as GM launched the 1964 Chevelle produced by Bobby Allison as the go to for short track racers. Franklin Racing, Tom Hamilton/Stock Car Products, Frank Deiny/Speedway Engineering embraced the 1964 Chevelle front steer direction. The Carolina’s crowd chased BA’s lead. In our neck of Florida, Dickie Ferry switched from the Tri 5 platform to the Chevelle/ Sportsman format in 1974 and the rest was history.
The alignment specs between 1955-1957 changed little, but the mechanics of the system improved with the Chevelles, with that baseline alignment not changing all the way to 1972. The steering axis inclination degrees changed from 3* to 8.5*. The chassis spindle and suspension redesign by Bunky Knudsen’s team was based on NASCAR racing input, (Smokey Yunick). The overall marketing concept was to renew the TRI 5 fire, the Chevelle in Bunkie’s mind was the animal. Bunkie surrounded himself with racers, their input included lowering mass, 3000 lbs. max on big block cars, a chassis that had a corrected performance geometry stock from factory, front steer, all suspension components that had a factor of safety to 4000 lbs, the component mass envelope was located between the front and rear axles, open engine bay, for bigger oil pans, exhaust. In a1999 a discussion with Smokey Yunick about Bunkies Chevelle plan, (not Smokey’s mystery Chevelle), confirmed that the collective design, as a whole was the 1964 Chevelle was designed to be a racecar. The only thing Smokey felt Bunkie screwed the pooch on was the rearend, GM owned the truck arm deal, but the car design mafia (engineers) wanted a 4-link design that was remedial at best. With that said Bobby Allison matured Chevy’s direction with the pickup trailing arms, BA Racing, Franklin, Stockcar Product came up with a kit style package. Others copied the concept with one off cars. The truck arm Chevelles dominated on dirt asphalt, NASCAR, outlaw, clay, oiled clay, super speedways, short tracks.