The New Egypt Speedway management and technical department have completed the 2023 rules and they will be made available to the public this coming week. However we would like to announce immediately the following two very important rules changes / additions: 

1.) Per New Jersey state law, All cars in all divisions are required to have an approved fire suppression system installed. See each division’s respective rules for minimum specifications.

2.) To all New Egypt Speedway 602 crate and wingless sprint racers:

We, the management and technical department at NES have been well aware of the questionable and so called “cheated” crate engines out there, and we assure you all that this has not gone unnoticed. However the detection, inspection,and confirmation of these engines has proven very difficult. IE the inspection and dyno process which would be required is very time consuming, labor intensive, and not to mention very expensive. 

In an effort to maintain a fair and level playing field for all involved, we are implementing the following changes. As always, it is strictly forbidden to tamper with any of the original factory seals and all must remain fully intact and all 602 crate engines that compete at New Egypt Speedway must have a second set of NES seals attached as well. This will not change.

First, we have acquired several new technical inspection tools that we have added to our arsenal of tools and equipment that will better enable us to be able to detect cheated engines.

Second, our technical inspector(s) have undergone extensive training in the detection of illegal engines.

While the New Egypt Speedway rule book does say that all new 602 crate engines must be purchased through the New Egypt Speedway, due to pricing issues and availability issues, this has gone largely unenforced. Until now.

New Egypt Speedway has entered into an agreement with a General Motors parts supplier who will supply us with engines at a fair and reasonable price.

Effective immediately, New Egypt Speedway will no longer be sealing any used 602 crate engines or any new 602 crate engines obtained from an outside source other than the New Egypt Speedway. In the event that any one needs to purchase a new engine, he or she is to call the NES office and make financial arrangements. The engine will then be delivered to a location in close proximity to the speedway where it will then be NES sealed. The owner of the engine will then be notified when it is ready and may then pick it up at his or her convenience. 

This is mandatory and will be strictly enforced and there will be absolutely no exceptions.

Any engine that is currently NES sealed will be grandfathered and will be honored throughout the remaining life of the engine. However, these engines are not exempt and are subject to further inspection at any time which may be deemed necessary.

Any outside racer who wishes to visit NES and give us a try will be permitted to do so with a non NES sealed engine one time only, provided that all factory seals are intact but as always these engines may be further inspected if deemed necessary. After the grace period, a legally NES sealed engine must be obtained.

We at New Egypt Speedway appreciate your support and understanding as we make an effort to provide a fair, equal class of racing in all of our 602 crate divisions.

Sincerely,

NES Management & Technical Department

This crate class has turned into a joke the only way you can enforce the engine rules is with the use of a dyno. I think what the managment is really afraid of if they start dynoing  they'll find a majority of the engines illegal. 

top 10 guys at new Egypt all have illegal engines. I mean come on top 3 crate drivers some nights were running 17.5s. that's mid pack in the modified field. take the gm seals away and open them up like mod motors. 

I raced them for five years. I laughed at them at first, but gained a ton of respect for them very quickly.

1. They were $3400 and you barely had to work on them. Changed plugs every three weeks along with the oil. No valves to adjust.

2. Early years of crates, there were no fake seals or other cheater parts available, so everyone was basically equal.

3. You can't blow them up unless you're an idiot! The first three years of crates at Wall, I don't think one engine blew up other than one guy who thought 44 degrees of timing would make him faster, he admitted it.

4. I ran the same engine three straight years without freshening. Replaced valve springs only.  Pat on the back time, 14 wins and 3 championships, we were making money other than the initial investment of the car.   WHAT A SAVINGS!

5. It put people in the back gate to help pay the Modified purse. On Dirt, at most tracks today, the back gate income from the Crate guys pays the whole Modifed purse.

6. I can go on and on! The cheating involved now and the expense of the engine, almost $6000 new, it may not be worth it anymore. One guy told me he had $9000 into his crate to keep up with my "cheated engine". When I told him mine was $3400 and not cheated, he turned blue!  LOL  It's setup and driving.

It gave me and many others an opportunity to continue racing because the engine was very affordable.

And I'm guessing each track has their own set of rules for Crates making it difficult to travel around if one desired.

Tracks have their own rules on the sealing and rebuilding of crate engines. What started out as a good idea that was affordable to many low dollar racers has turned into a nightmare. With aftermarket "original" seals available, many racers and even engine builders have been "tuning" engines and resealing them. It is a hard job trying to keep track of what should be a reasonable division. The Short Track Super Series runs the 602 crates at it's tour races. With the cost of the crates increasing, not sure it's much saving to some of the guys who were building their own sportsman engines.

On a side note, racers are their own enemy. As long as there is racing, racers will try to out smart other racers, officials and tracks. As long as there is racing, there will be racers willing to outspend everyone else no matter what the purse is.

At the risk of ripping the band aid off old wounds .......i think after what happened 2 yrs ago with the seals that were mandated and paid for ny teams in the preseason  being a total sham. Track management showed us that depending on their own discretion they can ignore the seals force a team to tear down a motor and put the screws to who they want or by the same token spare a team from the scrutiny if they choose.  This caused teams, fans and sponsors to leave.  The truth isn't always pretty, but its still the truth.  Make and enforce the rules for all or ignore them for all.  We all know what everyone is wishing to happen. I hope the rumors are true though.

Who is putting out this statement, Fred V. or the Grosso family? Have we heard who the tech team will be?

I am told there is nothing in this week's AARN about a possible/pending sale of New Egypt, and that there has been no update since the original blurb that was found in the 12/6 edition of AARN.

Here is what I posted back on 12/12, including the source:

In a story by Lenny Sammons (12/6/22 Area Auto Racing News - page 5) about improvements being made to Georgetown and Brett Deyo's STSS series plans for 2023, near the end of the article it mentions about how some of the STSS dates might get moved around.  The article states that there is an STSS date for Bridgeport of Saturday March 25th, and that there is a 2nd visit for the series planned for July...   which is followed by: "The potential sale of NJ's New Egypt Speedway to Ricky Grosso will likely move the STSS date to August."*

I know absolutely nothing about it, other than what I noted above that is from the AARN article, but certainly thought it was interesting in that it was just a sentence found in the 2nd to last paragraph of a story about Georgetown....

*Source:  (12/6/22 Area Auto Racing News - page 5 - "Del's Georgetown Speedway Improvements Underway, Delayed Opener Expected")

For those who subscribe to AARN and get the paper digitally, or for those who need info on how to subscribe to AARN, here's the link:  https://aarn.com/

I interpret the lack of any update in AARN as that nothing has happened regarding the ownership of New Egypt to date.  I would further wait until AARN does a follow up on their original note from 12/6, or possibly check out this year's Motorsports event as New Egypt usually has a booth/display each year, before assuming that any change in ownership has taken place.

The press release regarding crate engines was posted on our board by the 2022 (now 2023) authorized registered users from New Egypt Speedway.