THE RULES
Section 1 - People - Who can participate and how to get involved
Section 2 - Teams - Most cars are fielded by two driver teams
Section 3 - Cars - What cars are eligible and what is needed to pass tech
Separate document - Complete 2006 Rule Book
Who can participate and how to get involved
Empty Jug Racing is a private club, but we do accept a limited number of new members each year. How many new members we accept depends mainly on how many active race teams we have. We need a minimum of five cars for a race date to be worthwhile. Six to eight cars are ideal, and we have fielded as many as twelve, but that's too many for our scorers and the pits get too crowded. Ideally we would like to have eight teams to ten teams registered and 80% show up each race of the season.
The main qualification for joining the club is that you have to be agreeable with how we operate, willing and able to pitch in and do your share of the work, and get along with everyone else. We race for fun. It's not fun when someone argues over calls made by the officials. It's not fun when someone overdrives their car or ability to control it and causes incidents, especially when they involve damage to other cars. It's not fun when one team has so much money, experience, or even talent that they outclass the field and win most of the time. What is fun is when the cars are evenly matched and the driving is clean. Don't get us wrong, we race hard and everyone likes to finish ahead of everyone else, but we don't tolerate bad decisions on the track and everyone knows a bad decision when they see it.
Most cars are fielded by two driver teams
Most Empty Jug cars are fielded by two person teams with two drivers. We have structured our race days so there are two sets of heat races and two features. Typically we run three 15 lap heats for the "A" drivers and three for the "B" drivers, then we finish up with a 25 or 50 lap "A" feature and the same number for the "B" feature. All points go to the car, not the driver, and all points scored in an "A" race count only toward the "A" series totals, likewise "B". There are one man teams in which case the driver runs both "A" and "B" races. We have never had a one woman team, though we have had women driving in two person teams.
Most Empty Jug racers come to us with experience from racing at commercial tracks, but we also get some complete novices. Many of our experienced drivers have been out of dirt track racing for years, having given it up because of the demands of time and money required to field a competitive car on a weekly basis at a commercial track. By joining Empty Jug Racing with our four "A" and four "B" races eight to ten Saturdays per year they can drive in a lot of races without having to give up their other interests in life for the summer. The cars are inexpensive, tires are pretty much free, and the whole purpose is to enjoy yourself.
Several of our current teams started out as father & son efforts, with kids as young as 16 co-driving with their old man. We do have an age restriction of 21 years old on all drivers, but we have made exceptions for the special case of father and son teams; the father must always be present when the son (or daughter?) drives.
Finally, we allow passenger seats in our racecars if properly installed and in compliance with strict safety rules. This is unique, and provides an opportunity to let people who otherwise would never have a chance experience the thrill of real racing. It's a great recruiting tool for generating interest and new teams.
What cars are eligible and what it will need to pass tech
We run two different types of car at the Jug, but we run both types together in the same races and score them as if they were all the same. The two types would be classified as Street Stocks and Late Models at a typical commercial track. Street Stocks have front clips (suspension) that originated on a standard passenger car; Late Models are purpose built race cars. All our rules are written to allow Late Models to compete, so the Street Stocks have their work cut out for them to be competitive.
Why do run two kinds of cars? We started out years ago running Pure Stocks, basically curs right off the street with the glass removed and a few safety mods. The cars evolved a little each year, then someone bought an old Street Stock and we let it in. In the early days we had a lot of problems keeping the track smooth, the narrow street tires dug ruts in the corners. Eventually one car put on a set of wide wheels and some cast off modified tires. The tires made the car almost unbeatable, and we were about to outlaw them, but we noticed that those tires didn't dig ruts, in fact they tended to polish out the ruts. We also learned that the competitive modified racers only run a race or two on a set of tires, and they are always looking to get rid of their slightly used cast offs. So we changed our rules to disallow narrow tires and we've run that way ever since.
The Rule Book (click here) spells out everything a car needs to pass tech to compete at the Jug. The safety related rules are enforced 100%, but we do allow variation on some of the performance related rules in the interest of filling out our field on race day. If a car that doesn't strictly conform to the performance rules starts to win too often we can at any time tell the team that they have to have the car in compliance before the next race date.
A Summary of the basic rules follows:
- Cars must weigh 3100 lbs in full race trim, but not including the driver.
- Engines are limited to 360 cu. in., must be carbureted and may have only one carburetor (four barrels are allowed).
- Tires must be treaded dirt track racing tires (no street tires) and must be a minimum of 10" tread width.
- All cars must have full NASCAR spec roll cages and four point racing harnesses.
- One passenger seat is allowed and if included the passenger side of the car must have the same side impact cage design as the driver side. The passenger must have a four point harness and a grab bar to keep their hands in place.