This past weekend, Joe Wilder drove to a pair of runner-up finishes with a 6.1-liter Dodge Hemi engine in a car from the Mopar Mafia stable. This felt like a victory as Wilder competed against many cars powered by former NASCAR Cup Series engines in the Grand National Super Series at Carteret County Speedway in Swansboro, North Carolina. Wilder’s engine started as a junkyard find for only $300.
However, the ringleader of the Mopar Mafia, Jody Cash, had to start from scratch in building a Hemi for oval-track racing.
What did that effort entail?
Fortunately, Cash could readily secure many of the internal components — such as connecting rods, pistons, crankshafts — from the aftermarket. The stock cylinder heads came off the 6.4-liter version of the Hemi. The bolt-on stuff, though, that’s where it got tricky.
Cash built his own flywheel, constructed a clutch with a pressure plate from a blank, and fabricated his own headers. KRC Power Steering helped with the pulley system, but Cash built all the bracketry and created a pulley system to have the fan run off the water pump.
The carbureted 6.1-liter Hemi, producing about 725 horsepower, debuted at Tri County Speedway in Hudson, North Carolina, on August 5. It didn’t make it past 10 laps.
“We pulled the intake — we found water in the ports, so we knew we had major problems,” says Cash, of Dallas, Georgia. “The valve had hit the piston … it had split a cylinder wall. I found Chuck Lawrence, he worked with Jon Kaase Racing Engines, and they were drag [racing] guys. Blake Wilder, Joe Wilder’s dad, knew him. In a week and a half, he put a sleeve in the block, fixed the heads, prepared another set of heads, and got it back to us. The cam was too big, which was one of the problems. So, I called Dale at Prefix to send me another cam.”
The team got it back together in time for the next race, on September 2, at New River All-American Speedway in Jacksonville, North Carolina. Cash said the engine developed a skip in it, so they opted to put Wilder back in the back-up car.
“When we got back, I figured out the rocker arms came loose,” Cash says. “So, we wire-tied everything — simple fix.”
The next race, September 30, at Dominion Raceway in Thornburg, Virginia, a bad throw-out bearing destroyed the clutch. They once again went to a backup car.
Then, finally, on October 14 at Carteret County Speedway, the 6.1-liter Hemi ran the full night. With it Wilder, Cash and crew earned a pair of seconds.
“Since we put [the 6.1-liter Hemi] in and had all these problems, that was almost a win,” says Cash. “We were within four hundredths [of the leader]. It was a victory.”
With the Grand National Super Series 2023 finishing at Carteret, one might think Jody Cash and the Mopar Mafia would pack the Hemi up and prepare for next season. Not so.
Cash looks to put the Hemi into a dirt late model for the Peach State Classic at Senoia Raceway in Georgia on November 9-11. After that, other dirt late model specials beckon, such as the Ice Bowl at the Talladega Short Track in Eastaboga, Alabama. Then, Cash will put it back into the GNSS car once the season begins for the series.
So, hold on tight, Jody Cash isn’t done yet seeing what the Hemi engine can do, both on dirt and on pavement.
The Outside Groove Executive Editor has covered motorsports since 2000. His many awards include the 2019 Eastern Motorsport Press Association (EMPA) Jim Hunter Writer of the Year and the 2013 Russ Catlin Award for Excellence in Motorsports Journalism.
