CARS Tour has a restart and shifting problem right now

There is a bit of a restart and shifting problem developing in the CARS Late Model Stock Tour over the past 15 months.

Unscientifically, it seems like there is an issue at least every other race where a stack-up occurs near the front of the field, and sometimes causing a big multi-car pileup as well. For example, right from the start of this season, Jake Bollman missed a shift at Coastal Plains and caused a big wreck.

And then there were a few at Cordele Motor Speedway on April 12, including one by Carson Loftin in front of Dale Earnhardt Jr. that caused a collision between those two drivers and resulted in the Hall of Famer missing out on at least a top-five by the finish.

Earnhardt made a point to have a conversation with Loftin, in his first year driving Late Model Stocks after driving Tour Types in the SMART Modified Tour, and told him ‘this will be the hardest car you will ever drive to get into gear,’ because it only gets easier with sequential shifters becoming more commonplace at the highest levels.

The topic was discussed by drivers Dylon Wilson and Brandon Pierce on their latest ‘Big Time Auto Racing’ podcast episode.

“We’ve got some new talent this year and guys coming from other cars where the shifting is different,” Pierce said. “… They will deny it and try to tell you until they’re red in the face but they get too excited. They got nervous. It’s the end of the race and I know we had one in the middle of the race but there’s nerves at the end of the race and it’s unexcusable … I don’t know if with the throw, not pulling it far enough back, and then it’s hung up and it’s like, ‘oh shit.’ (This is around the 50 minute mark of the above episode.)

Wilson pointed out that there is a new clutch this year, available for Late Model Stock teams, and that the Tilton model is stiffer but Mini Tyrrell also agrees with Pierce that it is just driver inexperience.

“I mean, our shifter and transmissions have been the same as they’ve been for years and the only change is the Tilton package and I’ve been told that theirs is kind of funny when you depress the pedal and where it engages and disengages,” Tyrrell said. “This is what I’ve been told, and I haven’t done the research, but I’ve been told that if you depress the clutch fully with the Tilton, sometimes it just doesn’t disengage like halfway down to a quarter as its being depressed.

“So again, I could be completely wrong on that. That’s just what I’ve heard down the grapevine that maybe some of these drivers are putting the clutch all the way to the floor and having trouble and it’s actually not disengaging so they’re not getting into the gear.

“But I do kind of stand by my assessment of the missed shifts when I originally kind of got questioned on it. I just think it’s a little bit of a lack of experience.”

That’s where championship leader Connor Hall of JR Motorsports landed on the matter too.

“I don’t want to throw names under the bus because, especially the one from last week, and I really like the kid (Loftin) but I think it’s just not enough reps and the pressure of starting near the front at the end of the race,” Hall said.

“Drivers don’t always understand how slow and easy you can shift and still not lose ground. They get in a hurry and try to overcomplicate things. And if you try to pull the shifter slight right before you push the clutch, you just need to be mindful of the release before you’re back in the gas.”

Hall said shifting on restarts should be ‘like a free throw.’ Automatic.

“You should make that 95 percent of the time. In basketball, 95 percent is a really good free throw shooter. That should be a routine. Muscle memory. It’s like anything in life, it’s about building the process and not making a mistake, because if it’s like a setup, your results are going to vary if you don’t get in those routines.”

Chad McCumbee echoed the same sentiments.

“It’s just the age gap, right,” McCumbee said. “It is what it is. Its literally this era we are in in life. There are very few manual cars you buy and drive around town. And even the cars these young drivers come up through but I’ve never driven a Legends car but I think that is a sequential. I drove Allison Legacy and that was six speed and you had to be very good because you could easily go from third to second or sixth.

“When I was coming up, that was even more of an education. That was an amazing tool for young drivers. Our Mazda sports car program is sequential. Most of our field doesn’t even know what a heel toe technique is and it’s no fault of their own.

“I certainly don’t want to see sequential gear boxes in Late Models so I hope the start to figure it out.”