"We have decided to let the motorcycle engines to continue to race beyond 2008 because while the new Ford engine will be the future of Pro Challenge racing, there are still plenty of motorcycle engines out there that can be competitive for as long as they last," said John Litzinger, Owner of Pro Challenge Race Cars and President of PASCAR, the official sanctioning body of Pro Challenge Racing.
Since being introduced to the Pro Challenge Racing world in the spring of 2007, the new Ford four-cylinder has been a giant leap forward into the future for the country's leading scale car racing series. The Aaron's Pro Challenge Series has seen an equal level of competition between the Kawasaki motorcycle engine-powered race cars and trucks competing with the new four-cylinder Ford machines. When originally introduced, the Ford engines were set to replace the motorcycle engines by the end of the 2008 season, but Pro Challenge officials felt there was a need to change that original idea for the benefit of their competitors.
"There are several reasons why we are allowing the motorcycle engines to continue into the future," added Litzinger. "First, we received the engines from Ford a little later than we were expecting this past year. That put us a year behind our plan.
"Secondly, we had an inventory of Kawasaki motorcycle engines as late as the end of 2006. To only allow two years on an engine, which historically has been in competition three or four years before needing to be rebuilt, would not be right. Rather than cause additional expense to our racers by making engines that are still good obsolete, and recognizing that conversion costs for the current car are not as low as we'd like them to be at this stage, we are going to let the motorcycle engines continue to race."
While competitors who have been running the Kawasaki ZX1100 or the ZZR1200 engines may continue to do so for the life of their engines, the decision to allow the motorcycle engines to compete beyond 2008 does not mean that Pro Challenge is backing away from its position that the Ford four-cylinder engine will be the standard for Pro Challenge racing as it continues to break ground in the scale-car racing industry.
"Our new engine program will continue to be through the four-cylinder Ford engine package," added Litzinger. "All new cars will still come with the Ford engine, and we will continue to convert existing cars to be compatible with the Ford engines like we have done all year.
"We know that there is always going to be a little bit of skepticism out there with a new product like this, but the new Ford engine has been meeting or exceeding all of our expectations this season. While the new engine has not won a race yet this season, we have had two second-place finishes, one by a Pro Challenge rookie and one by our three-time past series champion in the first Playoff race starting from the last position.
"The Ford engine package is good and will continue to improve as we go. We went through a similar transition during the 2004 and 2005 season when we introduced the ZZR1200 engines as a comparable product to the established ZX1100 engines. While it took time to get the ZZR1200 perfected, they have become a successful option for Pro Challenge racers and we are confident that the new Ford engines will follow the same trend as the ZZR1200."
Further information about the four-cylinder Ford engine available from Pro Challenge Race Cars, conversion of a motorcycle engine-powered Pro Challenge racecar into a Ford-powered machine or for more details on the specs on all engine packages for Pro Challenge vehicles, contact John Litzinger or Raymond Williams at (866) 323-4315 or via the web at www.prochallengeseries.com
On the track, the Aaron's Pro Challenge Series will continue with round two of the four-race Pro Challenge Playoff to determine the 2007 Aaron's National Champion on October 6th at Franklin County Speedway in Callaway, VA.
For more information on the Pro Challenge oval track and road course series and racecars, contact Matt Kentfield at (704) 788-2134 x 5 and visit www.prochallengeseries.com.
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