Having a conversation with Super Rod Stalwart and legend John “Snoop” Verhoeven recently at their annual banquet led to an interesting statement by John – “We’re the most overrated class in speedway!” Excuse me I said, don’t you mean underrated?
“No, overrated!” he confirmed. How do you figure John? “Well, for a club of only around 30 members, we have a profile well above our size. We are known effectively world-wide (the speedway world).”
How is this possible and is there even any credence to John’s statement? Anyone who’s ever seen these unique, fast and loud V8 machines can understand their attraction.
They are car bodied, short wheel-based machines, that sound great and look spectacular when they back them in, in a hard sideways old school style, while running the opposite direction to nearly all other speedway classes.
If you’ve ever watched them tear down into turn 1 (for them) at Simpson Speedway, you’ll know exactly what I mean. They are unique in so many ways and have their own style and following and are relatively cheap to build and race. I mean where else in the world can you find a V8 powered Lada Nikki or Daihatsu Charade or Fiat Topolino?
Okay, so they are crowd favourites at many of Victoria’s regional speedways, but that doesn’t give them international standing. The Premier Speedway club and its prestigious event – The Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic – are partly, if not mostly to blame for that.
For many, many years the Super Rods have been the support act and work horse at “The Classic” as it’s known. Need to wheel pack and run the track in? Get the Super Rods out there. Need to fix the track after a rain interruption? Super Rods! Need to entertain the fans between heat groups and finals? Super Rods.
Don’t get me wrong it’s a two-way street. The Rodders get to show-off in front of huge crowds at the venue and to a world-wide audience on Clay-Per-View and its affiliates. I’ve personally stood at the Premier pit gate while American Sprintcar legends like Joey Saldana have looked out to the racetrack and said, “Man I’d love to have a go in one of those! They look like fun.”
And he’s not the only international driver to express that desire. With that in mind I said to Snoop, why hasn’t the club put an American in a car at The Classic?
“Oh! we’ve got owners that are willing to do that, but the problem is that their Sprintcar team owners have put a lot of time and money into bringing the likes of Ryan Timms, or Carson Macedo out for the week around The Classic and don’t want to risk them getting hurt.” He explained. “And maybe their egos won’t let them go out and potentially be embarrassed without some previous testing.” He said smiling.
And that does makes sense. “But don’t worry, we’re trying to make something happen at next seasons Classic.” He said with that cheeky grin on his face.
Photos copyright Pirate Media Group/Highline Magazine.