I was pulling one time at the National GOTO out in Hutchinson MN and there were a few guys in the modified class talking about running their WD's and WD45's in 3rd gear. Some southern stuff and if I rember correctly one out of Ne. and Mo. I know one from MN. that does regularly on good hard tracks and out in Hutchinson the track is not to tough so it's no problem at all for him.
I pull a WC with 38" tires and had decided to run 2nd, my engine revs pretty high compared to the others and figureing the RPM and the gear ratio I figured I was better off in 2nd than lugging it in 3rd. They were giveing me a hard time about my decision in the pit area and for kicks I put it in 3rd and gave it a try. I've got a twin disc clutch so I could rev the engine and slip it to get going. Usually try to take off a little over 4000 RPM but in that tall of a gear I knew it would not rev up so I ran it up to 6500 RPM slipping the clutch and left the line.
When things sorted themselves out I think 2nd place was 60 or 80 feet behind me. 400 cubes were useless for some of them guys, they were in a tall gear but the engine couldn't hold many RPM.
Last summer I ran out in Hutchinson again and ran 3rd, the engine was still over 3500 RPM when the tires spun out.
3rd gear in a WC is 35 to 1 gear ratio. 3rd in a WD if I rember correctly is only 42 to 1 and a WD45 is 46 to 1, going from memory though I'd have to look in my notes. 2nd in a straight WC is slightly slower than 3rd in the others.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure final gear ratio and RPM's and see if a guy should run a high reveing engine in a lower gear or a slower one in a faster gear. Generally the RPM can more than make up the difference. We see this in the Super Stocks also, someone with 3000 HP may be running a slower gear than someone with 2500 HP, but the 2500 HP engine may run 6000 RPM and the 3000 HP around 7000 RPM.
Good luck if you wan to run 3rd, it's not to tough to do at low RPM. But someone with the ability to run 5000 RPM down in a 42 to 1 gear is still going to be faster...... I've seen it a lot of times.
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