Legends Racer Cotton Spry Calling It Quits Due To New Engine Rule
Masters Racer Ready To Sell Out Due To Frustration Over 1200cc Compression Changes
By Jason Buckley
LegendsNation.com
Cotton Spry is a fixture at every Legends race at Lowe's Motor Speedway. (LN Photo)
For just about as long as there has been Legends Car racing at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, there has been one driver showing up to race in every major event at the track. George “Cotton” Spry and his blue and yellow #16 Legends car has been a fixture in the Masters division, regardless where he is running on the track.
Now, with over 12 years of racing Legends Cars under his belt, Spry might run his final Summer Shootout Series this season as his whole operation is for sale.
The 54-year-old racer isn’t giving up the driver’s seat due to age, lack of competitiveness, an injury from a wreck or loss of desire to compete. Rather Spry, along with others in the Legends Car world, have expressed displeasure in the new engine rules 600 Racing and INEX put into play in May of this year.
“With this new engine deal, Ragan (Ken Ragan, 600 Racing’s General Manager) is wanting me out, so I think I am going to hang it up,” said Spry. “I am going to run until I can get someone to buy my stuff, then I am going to be out of it.”
On May 1st, 600 Racing and INEX released a rules change, effective just 15 days later, that changed the allowable maximum cranking compression on a 1200cc unsealed engine. Many feel this change put the 1200cc unsealed engine owners at an extreme disadvantage to the sealed in-house 1250cc engine program at the 600 Racing headquarters in Harrisburg, North Carolina, and essentially forcing them to either purchase an engine from the company to be competitive or be at a disadvantage at the track every week.
“I have been on them about the sealed engine,” explained Spry. “Now they are telling me to cut my compression back. That tells me one thing. The sealed motor has been illegal the whole time and they can’t keep up. Since they’ve got an engine builder that is in house and building a legal engine, now I have to cut mine back because it is too strong? That is crazy.”
To conform to the new rules, Spry had to spend extra cash to get one of his seven engines legal so he can run the Shootout, which starts next week. Due to the rule change as well as the recent sudden announcement that H.A. “Humpy” Wheeler will no longer be the President at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, Spry feels the 15th Annual Quaker Steak & Lube Summer Shootout Series might just be his last.
“More than likely it will be my last (Shootout). If I can get someone to buy all my stuff, then yes. With Humpy being gone too I don’t know what is going to happen.”
Cotton Spry has seen his fair share of wrecks, like this one at Orlando, but it isn't an accident that might retire him from Legends Car racing, rather the new engine rules.
(LN Photo)
Spry not only feels his engine package is at a disadvantage now, but also feels the rule change is a reaction to the sealed engine program now producing underpowered legal 1250cc engines, something that he feels hasn’t been the case in the past.
Spry told LegendsNation.com that while his Legends career might be coming to an end, he could entertain other forms of racing, including the Pro Challenge Series. While the Pro Challenge Series doesn’t use the same 1200cc complete Legends engine configuration currently, LN has heard testing of the 1200cc air-cooled Legends engine inside a Pro Challenge machine might be in the works sometime during the month of June.
