Toyota and NASCAR

I just got in the April issue of Motor Trend and there is a nice article on Van Cleef Racing's Toyota Celica Goody's Dash racer. For those unfamiliar with the Goody's Dash Series, it has similar rules to NASCAR but uses cars about 7/8's size with V6 powerplants instead of V8s. The series used to be known as the Baby Grand National series back in 1975 when it was started. Goody's Headache Powder took up sponsorship for the series and thus the name. The series runs 20 events through the southeastern section of America with superspeedway races at Daytona and Charlotte. The series is very popular with racers interested in racing on a much smaller budget. A Busch grand National car campaigning the entire season in competitive fashion can cost over US$1 million dollars, while a top line GDS car can be raced for US$300,000. A turn key car runs about US$60,000.

While imports are not new to the Goody's Dash, overhead cam motors are. Van Cleef's car uses a 3.8 liter DOHC V6 with a single two barrel carburettor with distributor and points fired ignition. Compression is limited to 9.0 to 1 with an uneven firing order crank. His engine started out making 275 hp as compared to the 300 hp Pontiacs favored in the series. Van cleef says that Toyota and NASCAR have been working hard to create the equivalency formula so that OHV and OHC engines can be raced together competitively.
An idea of the performance of the car came at USA Speedway in Lakeland, Florida where Van Cleef was sharing track time with Ricky Rudd's Robert Yates WC machine. Van Cleef lapped within 2 seconds of Rudd's best time on the 3/4 mile oval.
Check out this article, looks very interesting for the future of the various NASCAR rqacing series.

I tuned in for the Goody's Dash series race at Daytona (a great race by the way) but to my surprise, no Toyotas were in the field. I wondered if this team (or any others) decided to bypass Daytona or if they just failed to make the grid in qualifying. I know that almost the entire field was comprised of Pontiacs. Usually when you see almost an entire field comprised of one make, that particular manufacturer has offered substantial bonuses to those who place in the top point paying positions or for those who win races in their particular make. That is why almost all the teams in ASA run Pontiacs--extra cash bonuses from Pontiac. The theory here is if you are going to race, you might as well scoop up the most money while you are at it.

It will be interesting to see if Toyota steps up to offer the same bonuses in the future. If not, then I don't see too many teams running Toyota Celicas.