PHOTO: A PASS Super Late Model (top left) and and ACT Late Model (top right) may look similar, but they’re very different. At the same time, a Modified (bottom left) and a Coupe (bottom right) look very different, but are quite similar. (Photos by VMM, Speed51.com, and Alan Ward)

–by T.J. Ingerson
VMM Correspondent

The hot topic this week has been the Kevin “Bono” Manion-owned No. 7NY on the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour driven by Ryan Newman. I applaud NASCAR for taking the sanctions they did against the team, and I believe Shawn Courchesne echoed a lot of people’s thoughts on the subject.

Yet, what actually did NASCAR find and what exactly was wrong, and how did they find it?

NASCAR found an issue in post-race inspection with the leakdown test. With NASCAR utilizing a restrictor plate for Modified action at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, officials want to determine if any air is escaping from areas where it’s not supposed to. During the test, NASCAR determined that the engine was losing air at a faster rate than it should have been and impounded the car, bringing it back to its R&D Center in Concord, North Carolina. As you may already know, they had found holes drilled (extremely small) into the intake allowing extra air to go through the intake, bypassing the restrictor plate. They also were found to be using an illegal intake gasket, lifting the intake up and allowing air to enter there as well.

The gains of this are huge, and are why Newman was so dominant during the race. Yes, they have the best equipment with the best resources, and probably have the best handling car. But, where drafting plays a huge role at New Hampshire, Newman shouldn’t have been THAT dominant.

And now I think we all know why.

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I attended the Valenti Modified Racing Series event at Canaan this past Saturday for “Ricky’s Race For Kids 112,” and I believe the officials of the Modified Racing Series, Canaan Fair Speedway, and the Miller family deserve huge kudos for their efforts. It’s great when the racing community can come together for a great cause, as over $30,000 was raised for Ricky’s Race For Kids, which benefits David’s House for the Children’s Hospital at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, New Hampshire.

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When the Pro All Stars Series comes back to the Oxford Plains Speedway, some fans may wonder, “How much difference is there between these cars and the ones we’ll see for the TD Bank 250?” For fans in the stands, and sometimes crew members, they may wonder, “What is the difference between a Tiger Sportsman/Super Street-type car and a Renegade/Hobby Stock/Strictly Stock/Pure Stock-type car.” How about that Saturday night they go to Bear Ridge and see the DIRTcar Sportsman Modifieds and then the Sportsman Coupes. What’s the difference between those two?

You could take the time to sift through hundreds of pages of rule books, reading the technical jargon that comes along with them. A casual fan may not understand the technical terms and will give up, but the same could be said for the casual crew member who wants to learn more about different series. Fortunately, we’re here to sift through the technical terms and bring you the straight basic differences between divisions and series.

The main full-bodied stock cars this weekend at the TD Bank 250 weekend will be the ACT-type Late Models and the PASS-type Super Late Models, but what are the major differences between them? Well, a lot in fact. Nearly everything is different, from the engine, tires, and chassis to the shocks, weights, and much more. A few weeks ago in my discussion about crate motors, I mentioned the GM 604 crate motor and the Ford D347SR crate motor being options for Super Late Model cars. These motors carry about 50 more horsepower than the the GM 603 and the Ford S347JR, the crate motors used for the ACT Late Models. That difference in horsepower is also generally true for the Super Late Model “open” non-crate motors.

While ACT Late Model cars are strictly perimeter-type chassis, Super Late Models can be either perimeter or straight rail. The difference between them comes in the name. A perimeter, or offset, chassis does just that, goes out to the perimeter of the car on the right side (out to the doors) after the front clip, and continues that way until coming into contact with the rear-end housing area. A straight rail is exactly what it says it is