We had the opportunity to sit down with Bill Martens, the resident Circle Track guru at GM Performance Parts, and talk about the sport with him. Bill shared with us his insight and opinions on many aspects of the Circle Track world, and we’re happy to be able to share the conversation with you.

Bill, if someone was interested in getting involved with this sport, what sort of insight would you offer?

Circle Track racing, either asphalt or dirt, has a class for everybody. From the most basic street or import stock vehicle, all the way up to super late models at the top of the grassroots-type classes, there’s a direct equation that comes to mind, which is: Speed costs money. How fast do you want to go? If you’re interested, the best thing to do is find a local track in your area and go down and just spend some time in the pits. Look around at the various classes of cars and talk to the drivers. These drivers are — for the most part — very accessible, and pit passes are generally included as part of your ticket. The drivers will tell you what it takes to get involved and stay involved in this sport.

If you want to get started, especially for the really young guys, the best avenue is to offer your services to another team. You’re probably going to be working on a volunteer basis, but you’ll absolutely get a real taste for what this sport is all about. And once you see the sheer amount of time and hard work that goes into this behind the scenes, you’ll be able to decide if this is your cup of tea or not. It’s a significant investment of time and money, and it’s a lot of hard work. The pits at many of these tracks are not paved, so you’ll spend a lot of time on your back in the dirt and mud.

Who are the major sanctioning bodies?

The three that GMPP is partnered with for 2010 are Dirt Motorsports (a new partnership for this year), IMCA, primarily in their sport-mod class, the ASA Late Model Series (which is an asphalt series and uses the 8604 motor), and Fastrak Racing, which is a late-model series on dirt based primarily in the Midwest and southeast United States. And last but not least is the Nesmith Chevrolet Late Model Series, which runs primarily in the southern tier states, Mississippi to Georgia, and uses both of GMPP’s most popular engines, the CT350 and CT400. These are supplemented around the country by rules options that allow these engines to participate in many classes at many tracks. Definitely check with your local track regarding allowable engines in their specific classes.

One thing I do want to point out, however, is that the GMPP is all about value —durable, affordable horsepower. You can spend a lot more money and make a lot more horsepower, but it really comes down to how big your checkbook is. GMPP offers the CT350, CT355, CT400, and new for 2010, the CT525. Many classes around the country will be launching the use of this engine this year, and we’re excited. Even though the CT525 was released in 2009, it takes a little while for racers to embrace new stuff. All racers are from Missouri; they want you to “Show ‘Em.” It’s proven to be a strong engine and we’re encouraged by what we expect to be very healthy growth in 2010 and beyond.

What is your position at GMPP?

I’m the Special Programs Manager at GM Performance Parts. I came here seven years ago to help launch the Circle Track program to grassroots racing. And it evolved from what was then a product offering into what we have today, which is a bona-fide circle track racing program. We’ve had great growth and progression over the years, and we certainly enjoy getting the Bowtie out there to grassroots racers.

You’ve been involved this sport for quite a while. What do you enjoy about Circle Track racing?

Short track racing is arguably the most exciting racing going. I enjoy drag racing and I’ve spent a lot of time involved with that sport, I enjoy the NASCAR long tracks, but for constant, always-changing action, you can’t beat short track racing. You will NOT fall asleep on the couch waiting for something to happen during a short track race. There’s a lot of opportunity in the sport; it’s “affordable” (as much as any hobby or sport is affordable, depending on your level of participation). And it really gives most people a fantastic opportunity to get a hands-on taste of racing. It’s a great proving ground and can give you the opportunity to work up, if you’re successful.

What were the circumstances around the development of the sealed create engine program?

The program is a direct outcome of requests from within the racing community, from both the racers AND the promoters, to develop a more affordable racing engine. Racers being racers, everybody wants to go faster, and the escalating cost of engines over the years has knocked a lot of people out of the sport. So General Motors and GM Racing were approached to developed a more “grassroots,” if you will, powerplant. Due to GM’s high production-level capabilities, we can build a high-volume engine at a more-than-competitive price. While we can’t service every niche in grassroots racing, we can definitely service a segment that desperately needs help in their budget. Simply put, it was a question of, “Hey, can you guys do this?” and GM stepped up, with the help of a couple of dedicated folks at GM Racing who spent their time on this “side project.” And the program has evolved from there.

There’s been a lot of discussion surrounding these engines. Do you think these sealed crate engines are good for the sport?

Absolutely, and I’m not just saying that with my sales hat on! We’ve received many, many testimonials from racers over the years who have told us, “Man, I couldn’t race if it weren’t for your engine.” In many cases, our product is replacing custom-built engines that were two, three, sometimes four times the cost of the engine found in our catalog. Without that reduction in cost, these fellas would not be racing.

Eventually, if cars are parked, then the tracks have no racers. With no racers, tracks close down, and the whole cycle winds itself down. So I think that while the custom engine builders and the parts manufacturers out there would have a bit of contention with what I’ve said, but the fact remains that we have kept thousands of grassroots racers behind the wheel that would otherwise not been able to continue. That’s good for the overall health of the sport.

The fact that machine shops and/or individual component manufacturers feel that this is their territory, and I’d point out that we’re in total agreement that they’re there to build custom race engines. Through GM Performance Parts and GM Racing, we sell a whole catalog portfolio of bowtie Chevy racing parts, and that’s how we really got started in this business and we are by no means wanting to yield or ignore that segment. What we did was provide a niche product that nobody else can offer at our level of quality or at our price. We take an engine to a certain level, and if a racer wants to go faster or if they need something more suitable for a longer track, that’s where a custom engine comes into the picture.

Obviously the affordability of these engines is a strong point. What are some of the other features of the CT engines that have made them so popular?

For starters, the architecture of these engines is the tried-and-true small block Chevy. We’ve produced over 200 million of these engines since the original inception, and it’s been the backbone and lifeblood of hot-rodding, be it drag racing, street performance, and circle track racing. So we use that familiar architecture and we apply the cost-savings that GM is able to bring to the party.

The reality is, it’s very durable, it’s powerful, and the dollar-to-horsepower ratio is extremely favorable.

We still make these engines new today, unlike the others, who have dropped their basic architecture small block V8 engines. GM has never been out of the marketplace with this engine since its inception back in 1955. So even though we don’t use this particular architecture 350 engine in any production vehicles today, we still produce 100% new blocks and assemblies every day of the year for our service and our performance parts markets.

The CT525 is arguably the hottest engine to hit this sport in quite a while. What’s all the noise about?

Well, it was very similar to how the initial product line was developed at the request from racers. Almost immediately following the launch of our CT350 and CT400 engines, the racers (being racers) wanted more horses. They said, “You know, these engines are great, but I really need something putting out 500 or 520 horsepower.” You know, late-model series horsepower. Well, at the time, we wanted to devote our time and effort to the development of our first 3 engines.

In a parallel development, the LS family of engines (the Gen III and Gen IV engines) were on the drawing board at the same time. So after a couple years of development, with the technology being 50 years newer in some cases (at least 20 years since the last design of the 350), we took that technology and found that we could make a lot of horsepower very easily. The engines responded extremely well to the tuning and all the typical tricks of the hot-rodding trade.

When we took that knowledge and paired it with the latest iteration of LS engines (which was the LS3 engine found in the Corvette), it was a matter of throwing a carburetor on it so everyone felt comfortable. And in one stroke, we came up with an engine that was producing 525+ reliable horsepower. And it’s an engine that is more affordable than a custom-built powerplant that produces comparable levels of power. While I’d have to say that our Gen I 350 engine is a workhorse, the ability to build bigger power out of these new components (again, given the benefits of design technology) makes it a real treat to work with engines that respond so well to these horsepower-building tricks.

Can you give us a peek behind the curtain at any upcoming CT engines?

The short answer is, we’re ALWAYS looking at new opportunities. While the current CT525 engine is carbureted, we’ve had a few requests for a fuel-injected version of this engine, simply for the tuneability and the technical side of the sport. What I mean is, the sanctioning bodies and the technical inspection groups can easily manage horsepower output amongst the classes by swapping out ECUs (Engine Control Units). So there is some exploration going on into a fuel-injected version across multiple classes of circle track racing that we’re not currently involved in, and I’d suggest that our next engine will be something along these lines. There really are no plans at this time to build a bigger/higher output engine based upon this current architecture.