Weedsport DIRTcar Modified Droop Rule Test Rated A Success; Race Results Don’t Change

Weedsport DIRTcar Modified Droop Rule Test Rated A Success; Race Results Don’t Change

By LEN SAMMONS
Weedsport Speedway hosted a DIRTcar droop test on Saturday and Sunday during their Empire State Showdown event. While the field of big-block Modifieds was shorter than expected, the finishing results were much the same. Despite being restricted to a one-inch droop, the Northeast’s winningest driver, Mat Williamson, won both features.
“Naturally, what they’ve done is the car can’t raise, tip or move around as much. Inside the car wasn’t night and day different,” said third-place finisher Matt Sheppard after Saturday’s feature.
“It was different, but the fast cars were still fast. I don’t know if it changed the racing a whole lot, but if you can save everyone a race car a year it’s worth doing.”
The cars didn’t lean over hard right in the corners, they appeared to be more squared up, like they had been in the past.
“You can’t get the car tipping as much. It’s a tamer beast, but it didn’t affect the racing,” Sheppard added.
Williamson was positive about the test before taking to the track.
“My hats off to the Weedsport staff for working with DIRTcar. They were willing to let us try this knowing they might lose a few cars. It shows how much everyone is trying to improve Modified racing,” said Williamson. “I’m often critical of Dean Reynolds (DIRTcar Northeast Director), but I think he does do a good job involving the drivers into the decisions of leading the Modifieds in the right direction going forward.”
Did The Droop Rule Make A Difference?
Sheppard was also upbeat about the test. He felt afterwards that one inch is probably the correct number, that going any further could cause undue issues.
“I’ve had some conversations with people. I do believe there is a tipping point where if you keep going more, the car will change a lot more,” said Sheppard. “What they’ve done is a definite change without a real different outcome. Honestly, I don’t know how far you go or don’t go.”
Drivers, crew chiefs and shock specialists agreed the changes needed to make the required one-inch droop rule were easy to achieve. It appears several teams had already restricted droop for driver feel and have found grip elsewhere.“I didn’t have to move mine a ton; some might not even have to move theirs at all,” said Williamson.
“It’s a good starting part. They talked about doing 1 1/2 inches, but the problem with that is you’d have to come up with different shock mounts. Right now it’s easy. I had to cut a jam nut in half to put a jam nut on the bottom, so it was easy to change it over; that’s why they did the inch for now.”
Reynolds was following the test closely both nights. It was his opinion that the test went extremely well, but at the same time, he’s not interested in changing rules mid-season. It was felt, however, you’ll see a rule change, if at all, before the 2027 season begins in Florida at Volusia Motorsports Park.
“After one night, I don’t see any problems with what they’ve done, but I don’t know how everyone else feels about making it a rule this year,” said Sheppard.
For this event, the Modifieds were required to meet a one-inch droop rule. Each car was checked before racing, with fast cars and top finishers after hot laps, qualifying, and the feature.
All cars on hand passed tech inspector Mike Welch’s post-event check at the scales. The droop was easily checked by unhooking the right-rear shock, jacking up the car, and using a simple tool produced by Bicknell Racing Products.
The one inch Droop was the distance allowed between the bottom of the left-side  2 x 4 frame rail and the bottom of the left-side axle tube when the right side is sitting flat on the right-side slung bar. The objective was to stop the cars from getting over hard on the right rear, to improve racing and driver safety.
“It was a positive. I don’t think we saw a huge difference in the racing persay, but taking an inch of droop out of them is going to make it easier on the drive-train, u-joints and the frame,” said Sheppard after the feature on Saturday.
“It’s probably also going to be safer on a high-speed racetrack as far as tipping them over. It’s going to be easier on everything, including the drivers. Even if the racing doesn’t change, you could still view what they’ve done as a little bit of a positive if you can save the racers a lot of money through wear and tear without costing anyone any money.”
The droop can be obtained by adjusting the shocks or adding a restricted chain. According to Welch, only one team, Tim Fuller, used the chain to achieve the one-inch droop. Bob Slack rented Weedsport to test the droop rule in advance with his No. 3R driven by Sheppard. Jimmy Phelps’ HBR team, housed on the grounds, was also given a chance to see how his car reacted in advaced.
A droop rule in Dirt Late Model racing has been credited with greatly improving the racing. That rule is checked, however, in a much different way.
“The rear spoiler in a Modified is all over the place. It’s not consistent from car to car as a Late Model is,” Williamson explained as to why DIRTcar is doing it differently. “With the Late Models, they check the droop to keep the spoiler down, keep the left-rear out of the air. So they measure off the spoiler; for us it’s a little different, they are so different from car to car.”
Williamson was on board with the rule, but worries about policing it, especially at weekly events.
“It’s certainly a good idea. The biggest thing is there has to be policing. The Super DIRTcar Series obviously has good tech officials, but when you go to a weekly race on a Saturday, someone has to be checking the droop rule,” said Williamson. “As long as it is enforced and everyone is on the same playing field, it will be good for the sport. Hopefully this will transition to something they’ll know how to check easily, and it will be a seamless deal.”
Tim Sears Jr. took a night off from 358 Modified competition at the Fulton Speedway to be part of the Droop test at Weedsport on Saturday and Sunday. The leader of the Troyer campaign in DIRTcar racing, Sears believed it’s a move in the right direction before he tested it on Saturday.
“I think there are other things that can be done, but I feel the Droop rule is a step in the right direction,” said Sears.
Why Not Return To Right-Side Panhard Bar?
The major change in dirt Modified racing suspensions began with the moving of the panhard bar from the right to the left side. At the same time, torsion bars were replaced by four coil-over shocks rather than just two in the front.
For the 2025 season, the PA 358 Modified tracks of Grandview and Big Diamond required only a right-side panhard bar. No one else, however, in dirt Modified racing followed their lead.
In New Jersey, Bridgeport went in a different direction, requiring the one-inch droop rule now being tested by DIRTcar. On an island by themself, that rule was removed from their rulebook this season.
“Anything that goes back in time is tough in my book. Once you learn what creates speed, we’ll do everything we can to recreate that,” said Williamson.
Larry Wight was more worried about current rules being enforced than making new ones.
“I think it’s more of a witch hunt. They are just throwing darts at the wall to see what sticks,” said Wight of the one-inch droop rule after winning the feature at Brewerton the night before.
“I’m not one that likes rule changes; they just need to enforce the one they have. There are also rules that don’t make sense or contradict each other. Tightening them up and enforcing them would be a better option.”
Williamson believes the learning curve for the change from the right to the left panhard bar and the coils has been narrowed over the years. People have caught up to the teams with the resources to have figured it out quicker.“The same guys are not winning all the time right now except for Stewart Friesen. Guys have caught up; Stew is the only one ahead of us all right now,” said Williamson.
“The race for second is probably the tightest it’s been in years. The racing is good, yet we talk about rules to unhook the race cars. If we go back to a right-side panhard bar, we’re going to change the divide between the haves and the have-nots even bigger.
“People like myself, Matt Sheppard, Stewart Friesen – the guys that have people behind us that are really smart that can manufacture and build stuff- we’re going to go out and make our cars do the same thing as a left-side panhard bar.
“A guy with a full-time job or a business is racing for fun; I don’t think he’ll keep up with the change that quickly. We learned that soft coils with a spring rubber make grip. There is nothing we can do to take away that knowledge. We are always thinking about how to make these race cars faster. When they come with rules that are against what we’re doing, we’ll do everything we can to come up with something to do the same thing.”
Rule changes were talked about at a DIRTcar meeting with its big-block Modified drivers before a recent event at the Mohawk Speedway. Safety of the drivers was the big concern, but the topic changed to improving the racing as well.
At the recent meeting, several ways to protect the driver were discussed. Bob Slack of Bicknell Racing Products outlined a few ideas at the recent Platinum Member driver meeting.
“Bob Slack had some good ideas about building somewhat of a cage around the driver. But I think that should almost be up to the driver if they want that on their race cars,” said Williamson.
“Look at a Sprint car, there isn’t that much protection around the driver. We’ve had a few freak accidents within the last year, so everyone has safety in mind and jumps to make these cars safer – which is great – but at the end of the day it’s still a dangerous sport. It’s racing; you’re never going to make it so there isn’t another injury, no matter what you do or how safe you make these race cars; there will always be freak accidents in the future.”
Performance vs. Safety; Eliminate The Rubber Floor
The rubber floor, an area below where the driver sits, allows the car to flex. A move to ban it after Stewart Friesen’s crash a year ago has been a hot topic, not agreeable to all involved.
“They are trying to keep the left side of the car down so the right side is not so down into the racetrack. They want to flatten the cars out a little bit and make them less hooked like they used to be,” said Williamson.
“It’s also about safety. They talked about changing the version two rubber floor to something solid underneath your feet, but the problem is we all know that’s what makes us go fast, and we’re all racers. If they come out with a rule on that, they really need to enforce it, and I don’t think they have enough tech guys to do that.”
Unlike Williamson, Wight would be on board with removing the rubber biskets and supporting the area under the driver’s seat to make it rigid.
“I’m all for the safety rules they are talking about. We all know where the issue is, we know what the fix is, but we got to get the sanctioning body to pull the plug on it,” said Wight.
“We need to go to solid floors, get rid of the rubber floor. Tie the two by fours together instead of relying on a 3/8ths bolt to hold the car together. The only bar between the motor plate and the rear bumper that actually holds the 2x4s together is the bar we sit on. It should be done straight across the board.”
It is DIRTcar’s worry that lower-end teams or hobbyists would do the welding themselves and create a bigger issue. Wight had a solution. “It can be done easily; I’ve done it on multiple cars. Cut the tabs for the rubber floor out, slide a Gen 3 floor into it and weld it in,” said Wight.
“They could get to everyone and figure out what it would cost and put a set cost on it. If it cost $200 to weld that piece in, cap the price so everyone charges the same and guys don’t get ripped off. Get authorized repair centers in different areas to help out the newer teams to make sure it’s done right and is safe.”
Those in favvor of eliminating a rubber floor believe without the flex it allows, the chassis will last longer and it will elminate broken welds consistenly found.
“When I ran Gen 3 floors, we ran our cars forever. We would easily get 25 more races out of a car than we do now,” said Wight.
“It would also make the car a little more rigid; you won’t have the drop rails falling out of the car or welds breaking. Right now there isn’t much holding these cars together.”
A commonly shared belief is that enforcement of a ban on rubber floors would be challenginging, at both the series and weekly level.
“Qualifying is everything today. If they are willing to lay under every car after qualifying, then it wouldn’t be a bad idea to ban the floor,” said Williamson.
“But rules are only as good as the people policing them. Mike Welch at DIRTcar is a really good tech inspector, but if there are 30 cars in the pit area and he has to look at every one, that’s a lot on his plate.”
Sears felt much like Williamson did when the topic of making rubber floors illegal was brought up.
“The floors in our cars are pretty much the same as they are in a Bicknell car. I don’t think welding them up is the right direction; they need to do something you can just bolt on. If they decide to weld up the floors I’m worried a lot of people would do that themself and that could create a big mess.”
In another aspect of safety, Sears said it’s often hard to see a driver who pulls alongside with the left side of the car tilted so much in the other direction.
“You got to be pretty far alongside of someone to see them. You have to have your right front to about the front of their door if you’re under someone to know you are there,” said Sears.
“People are starting to believe that aero is starting to play a bigger factor in the game. Everyone is trying to just get as much air on the body as they can.”
Williamson is in favor of another rule that he feels can easily be policed and save teams both time and money.
“There is so much tire work being done. You have to spend a day a week on tires just to run one night a week,” said Williamson.
“It’s tough for the average guy to do. That’s something simple to do without forcing everyone to change panhard bar locations, birdcages, chain limiters. It might be as simple as saying you can grind a tire, but you can’t sype it. Been down that route before, but no syping tires is easy to police. Just walk down the line-up area and make sure they’ve not been syped and we’d all be unhooked more.”