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It was late in the evening of
December 30, 1967, and the phone call was akin to an unexpected
blow to the stomach. "Jim, we lost Sorokin tonight. It was
a clutch explosion at Orange County Raceway." Every word
was problematic.
At the time, Funny Cars didn't
exist at we know them today. Top Fuel "diggers" were
the darlings of the drag racing sport, although Factory Experimental
extensions of high-end Super Stock cars were heading in the direction
of T/FC. For T/F cars, it was locked-up multi-disc clutches,
"light the tires" the length of a quarter-mile, and
a "stab and steer" driving technique. Spectacular,
at the very minimum. But then, from all reports and quite by
accident, something happened that changed the landscape of Top
Fuel (and Top Gas) drag racing.
Among the more prominent T/F
teams, the ones of Roland Leong (owner/crew chief) and Mike Snively
(driver) were guided by master engine builder and mentor to many
racers, Keith Black. Roland's mother, Teddy Leong, had mandated
that if Roland was to be involved with his chosen class of drag
cars, Keith was to be his "director of activities."
In fact, Keith not only built the engines, he was almost always
trackside when the car was raced. After all, Teddy trusted Keith
with the fortunes of her son's interests and felt comfortable
in so doing. Then came the unexpected.
Keith was also heavily involved
in the racing efforts of Chrysler's marine division and often
required to attend off-shore boating events. And so it was that
on a particular weekend when Roland had planned to race the car
at the renowned Lions Raceway in Long Beach, Keith was out of
town. In his absence, Roland had gone through the time-honored
process of disassembling, inspecting and reassembling critical
components of the car, particularly the clutch package that consisted
of a sintered-iron, two-disc and single "floater" unit
matched to an aluminum flywheel. Here, you can take note.
There was a dimensional difference
between the leading and trailing portions of the clutch disc
hubs. Although slight, it was sufficient to prevent total contact
of the sintered iron friction faces, once the pressure plate
and centrifugal levers applied the clutch's total clamping force
if either of the discs happened to be accidentally installed
facing the wrong direction. Even when fully released, the clutch
could not become totally compressed, resulting in a measure of
uncontrolled slippage.
So, at the Beach, Snively makes
his first pass of the afternoon. It's virtually smokeless and
the elapsed time drops, accordingly The pits are in a flurry.
As you would reckon, the belief is that Roland has taken away
clutch pressure to produce the drop in time. Roland didn't even
know why it had happened, at least for the moment. It wasn't
until Keith returned, heard about the events and examined how
the clutch had been assembled that the reasons became known.
But neither he nor Roland wanted anyone else to become aware
Racers are racers.
Almost immediately, T/F (and
Top Gas) competitors began dropping spring pressure in their
clutches. It was purely experimental. How much was enough? How
much wasn't? And in the process, clutch packages quickly overheated
and were short-lived. On more than one occasion, particularly
during night racing, I saw white-hot clutch parts shoot high
into the darkness. Cars were cut in half. Floaters and discs
were thrown into spectator areas. Racers were injured or killed.
By now, most knew what had been behind Snively's first smokeless
run, but the genie was already out of the bottle. Clutch package
experimentation was on the loose and leaving a trail of damage
in its wake. The accident involving Mike Sorokin, driver for
the then-popular Surfers T/F team, was the last straw.
Then I received another phone
call. It was Paul Schiefer, owner of the company producing many
of the clutches being modified by racers. In short he said, "Jim,
we're losing our friends and I'd like to work with you to solve
the problem." At the time, I was in the process of leaving
Petersen Publishing Company to join Edelbrock, but a few months
stop-off at Schiefer seemed appropriate. Besides, Paul was a
very dear friend, genuinely concerned about racer safely and
an innovator extraordinaire. Plus, Bruce Crower was also on the
trail of a solution although, in reality, it wasn't about competition
among clutch manufacturers but a matter of solving a widely-spreading
problem.
During the course of the next
few months, Paul committed considerable funds and time to developing
a solution that would enable clutches to slip (in a controlled
fashion) and stay in the cars. It was a herculean effort but
the problem was eventually resolved, including the Crowerglide
from Bruce's creativity. Meanwhile, Mike's death had spawned
the Mike Sorokin Safety Foundation (created by the then-manager
of Orange Country Raceway, Mike Jones) to conduct further investigations
into ways for improving racer safety. It was a delicate time
in drag racing's evolution, but it turned out that those who
had contributed to the problem ultimately became part of the
solution.
Schiefer Patent info below. |