Steve Herrod's car is a 1983 Hayashi, chassis
number 04, one of seven imported to the United States. Five chassis were
later converted into prototype Formula Mazdas (FM) by Dwayne Anderson and
Mark Bahner. Steve's car uses FM front suspension rockers. In fact, Steve
purchased his chassis in 1992 as a roller from Essex Racing Services of
Cumming, Georgia, complete with red Georgia clay in the tub!
The power plant is a Honda CBR1000
motorcycle engine. Steve added a
Quaife differential,
as well as Wilwood
4 piston calipers. The engine installation was done by Larry Kano, who
later went to work for the Muzzy's Superbike team in the U.S., and then to
Germany with the World Superbike team. The body was built by Ed Groene in
Kansas, and was the first body off his second generation sports racer
design. Ed later began building bodies for Paul Shinsky in Houston based
on the Lola S2000 design, but scaled to fit
LeGrands.
The car weighs approximately 1150-1175 lbs.
as raced, with driver. In the early to mid 90's, the car was very
competitive, running 0.2 second off the old lap record at Hallett. That
record was set in 1978, I think someone in T&S did the math wrong!
Steve also set a lap record at Hutchinson, Kansas, when that airport track
was last run, and won six of eight races in '94. Although the car is
heavy, it may still be a competitive car. The weight debate on the
DSR Forum has shown that!
Steve began in DSR crewing for Bob Atknison
from Wichita, Kansaa, in the early 80's. Bob started with a Beach/Suzuki,
and then moved into a Lola T644/Nissan with a Wynnfurst body. He later
switched to a Groene body. Bob was quite competitive, holding lap records
at seven tracks in the Midwest, earning several Divisional championships,
and two June Sprints wins out of three attempts. Unfortunately their luck
never seemed to follow them to Road Atlanta for the Runoffs, where Bob's
best finish was a 10th (if Steve remembers correctly). After Steve built
his car, Bob and Steve never got a chance to compete against each other -
Steve jokes that he thinks Bob was avoiding him! Steve's doing his best to
get Bob, "a great guy and a fierce competitor", back into the
class.
Due to health problems (blown spinal
discs), Steve has not run any races in a few years. But, he's feeling
better now [September, 2001], and his mechanic, Richard Legg, owes him for
a bunch of work Steve did for him the past year. So, they may dust off the
car and join the fun in '02. Hallett has been repaved, and is smooth and
very fast. Steve's been drooling over the cars on this website, as well as
enjoying the
DSR Forum immensely. He says, "I have to get back on the
track soon!"
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