Glen Plake stands by the IMCA Modified he races at area tracks. A legend in skiing, he’s also a long time race fan and driver.
During a heat race Glen Plake drives through Turn 4 at the Fernley 95A Speedway as the setting sun gives everything a reddish glow.
Glen Plake is known around the world for his exploits on skies. But he’s also a long time fan of racing and drives an IMCA Modified when he’s home from Europe. At last week’s I-80 Challenge event, at the Fernley 95A Speedway, Plake shared his opinions of a class he feels the local oval track community needs.
For the past couple of years he’s been talking about breathing new life into the defunct Bomber Class. A division he feels would increase the car counts as well as put more fans into the stands.
“I know from my history, that’s how I got in the sport as I got sick of sitting in the stands and I wanted to race a Bomber,” he said. “I wasn’t going to race a Late Model, I was going to race a Bomber.”
He feels the class would also help the sport as a whole.
“The Bomber class is like the foundation,” he said. “You can have the late models or modifieds but you don’t have any support in the crowd unless you have the Bomber Class as that’s what brings the people here. They bring all the families; The modified racers bring two danged pit crew and that’s it so nobody’s in the stands.”
Plake added he had seven enjoyable years of bomber racing and knows why the class disappeared.
“It was only when they opened up the rules, when the racers started making the rule changes instead of the actual track that the bomber class died,” he said. “The Hobby Stock is too opened up, in the rules there’s too much stuff to interpret. The Bomber Class has to be truly entry level, that means, easy to get into, easy to afford, and then also it needs to be great competition, regardless of the speed.”
And those rules he feels were the key to the bombers success.
“The Fallon bomber rules were designed by a group of guys that knew racing, the history of racing and that’s why they came up with the rules that they did and were as competitive as they were,” he said.
In fact Plake would like to see those rules reinstated. Things like open, not locking, rear ends, the secondiares on Quadrajet Carburetors wired shut so they can’t be used.
“I don’t care if you’ve got a late model motor, a 429 Ford or a small block Chevy,” he said. “Everybody runs the same. We saw B mains, we saw C mains and everybody having a great time.”
He did admit that many or most of the cars used for bomber racing have been crushed. They had a 120-inch wheelbase and there were no Camaros or Novas running as a bomber, those cars race today in the Hobby Stock division.
“So where do we go to find our race cars?” he asked. “Half ton pick-up trucks are where we find our race cars. They’re all over the place and laying in everybody’s yard.”
In the rules he wants to see an 8-inch rule for tires so they can’t wider than that. This means a driver can use any size tire and wheel he or she wants but the tires cannot be wider than eight inches.
And he wants to see Automatic transmissions and cast iron intakes where possible.
“We need to look at the state of wrecked cars, we need to look at the state of junk yards to see what’s there,” he said. “Then make the rules and lock them in stone so nobody’s allowed to change them. It lets the racers become racers.”
He also found that other people are talking about the same thing he’s advocating. Currently Plake and another man are discussing building a now Bomber as a spec car so everyone can see what he’s talking about.
“I saw someone on one of the forums talking about it then all of a sudden I realized that some guys were talking about it. And immediately I jumped right in and said, ‘if you’re talking about it,’ then I seriously want to talk about it,” he said.
As in the past, he feels the rules will be the key to success.
“It’s those things that make the class great, it’s not just the car rule but the actual regulations of the race itself,” he said. “There was a wonderful set of rules that slowly but surely became bastardized then it became hobby stock, then it became street stock then it became, who knows what the heck what it is.”
Then he gave two examples of what the rules would cover.
“As far as the cage is concerned there are two bars to the back, only for the structure of the cage and not to stiffen the car. And a radiator hoop only, let’s face it Bomber cars get into each other but you don’t want to have a guy lose his radiator,” he said.
In the past he knows the effect the class had on Rattlesnake Raceway but looking ahead Plake knows it’ll take some work although he’s certain the bombers will be a winner.
Asked about the future he said, “We’ll see. I hope some guys are interested seriously but at the same time you know racers are funny. I just know that Rattlesnake went through this and I remember when there were 12 cars in the pits the came up with that bomber and the next thing we had 30.”
Glen Plake stands by the IMCA Modified he races at area tracks. A legend in skiing, he’s also a long time race fan and driver.
During a heat race Glen Plake drives through Turn 4 at the Fernley 95A Speedway as the setting sun gives everything a reddish glow.
Plake feels bringing an entry class from the past to compete in the present might be the ticket to reverse falling car counts and increase fan attendance at area tracks.
