While Chevrolet crate engines dominate weekly dirt-track racing, Chandler Hickman runs a Ford crate engine where he can. With it, he has started to inch closer to victory in the sportsman late model class at Smoky Mountain Speedway. Hickman started the season with a 10th. Then earned a fourth. And last weekend took a third.
“I grew up a Ford fanatic because of my dad and my grandfather,” said Hickman, of Harriman, Tennessee. “My dad used to run only Ford motors when he owned late models back in the ’90s, before I was born.”
Last year, Hickman ran a Chevrolet 604 crate engine, winning at Smoky Mountain Speedway last August. He had intended to run the Ford earlier. When other racers in his class complained about it at another track, officials made him move up a class. Hickman then sold the Ford. In February, he discovered at the Outside Groove Racing Show that Smoky Mountain Speedway will permit the Ford crate engine in 2025. Hickman found his old power plant and bought it back.
“I would rather have a Ford,” Hickman said. “They are more driveable than a Chevrolet. For my motor specifically, it’s halfway between a 604 crate and a built sportsman motor, so it’s the best of both worlds.”
Hickman uses the D347SR. Ford Performance retails it at $15,000. A race-ready, IMCA-legal Chevrolet 604 (aka CT400) sells for $9,681.99 at Speedway Motors, making the Bow Tie more than $8,000 cheaper.
Chevrolet rates its 604 engine at 404 horsepower and 406 lb.-ft. of torque.
Ford advertises its D347SR at 415 horsepower and 400 lb.-ft. of torque.
However, a key difference lies within the Ford engine. Ford says it built the power plant for racing, implying it is more durable than a Chevrolet.
Ford uses a racing-purpose block based on the Boss 302, not a production block like Chevrolet’s. Inside the Ford comes fully balanced Scat forged crankshafts, Scat forged steel connecting rods and Mahle forged pistons (Chevy uses cast aluminum) with full floating piston pins.
The parts built to withstand the rigors of racing and the different driveability characteristics are the key differences between the Chevrolet and Ford options, according to Chandler Hickman. Other than, he feels the Ford competes with the Chevrolet 604 on a level playing field.
“I’ve made four feature starts this year with this [Ford] motor–three at Smoky Mountain and one at Golden Mountain [Speedway],” said Hickman. “Smoky Mountain is a 3/8-mile oval … prepared very slick, and I’ve been out-qualified by two 604s all three starts there. Golden Mountain is a 4/10, more circular track. It was what should have been a water-truck rainout the night we went. I got out-qualified and out-raced by a 604 that night. The Ford and 604 are very comparable, as intended.”
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.
