Brent
02-08-2010, 06:31 PM
Here is my run down from the TracksUnlimited Lemons team.
I left my house on Thursday as soon as I could possibly get off work(4pm). I had to run and pick up some parts for my yellow car at a speed shop in Nashville(an hour drive) before 6pm. So after getting home from work, I quickly loaded up my stuff and hit the road. I pick up my parts, drop them off with Dan, then I head to Laura's house. BTW, all of these places are on the way so I'm not going out of my way. I got to Laura's house around 8pm. Watch the office with her and eat dinner. I leave at 8:30pm. I get to Dalton, GA around midnight. I get up at 4am, get ready, and head to our meet up point at Dave's house in Chatsworth, GA. We link up and hit the road at around 7 or 7:30am. Temporary side track...
I had went to Discovery Parts on Monday to try on and purchase my gear. My suit wasn't in stock but Ron told me Alpinestar's is really good about shipping and meeting deadlines. He assured me that my driver's suit would be at my house on Thursday. On Thursday morning Ron calls me and says "your suit just showed up here." He then informed me that he was going to overnight it to me to the track or my hotel. I then realized that we would be going through Atlanta so Ron said it would be no problem meeting me in Atlanta as I drove through.... which he did. As you guys already know 100x over, Ron and Discovery Parts are top notch. Ron earned my business the good old fashion way.
It rained the entire drive to CMP as well as all day Friday. We arrived at the track at around 2:00pm or so. We then couldn't find our tech inspection form so one of the team members went to see if he could find one. The tech people said they were charging $100 for a tech form. We decided to drive 30 minutes back into town to find somewhere to print one off :D We arrived back with the form an hour later and we went through tech without issue. We bribed the BS judges but still received 4 penalty laps for our radiator. We were ok with that. Because it was so nasty, we didn't stick around the track and headed to the hotel.
After a good nights sleep, we arrive at the track, go to the driver's meeting, and get ready for the race. The car was running well.
http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb31/memphisraines82/Lemons%20Race/LemonsCMP10001.jpg
http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb31/memphisraines82/Lemons%20Race/LemonsCMP10002.jpg
my radiator ducting:
http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb31/memphisraines82/Lemons%20Race/LemonsCMP10003.jpg
After the first hour, we switched driver's. 30 minutes in to the second driver's leg, we had a castrophic engine failure:
Is this bad?
http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb31/memphisraines82/Lemons%20Race/LemonsCMP10025.jpg
http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb31/memphisraines82/Lemons%20Race/LemonsCMP10026.jpg
http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb31/memphisraines82/Lemons%20Race/LemonsCMP10027.jpg
http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb31/memphisraines82/Lemons%20Race/LemonsCMP10028.jpg
So we talk a little to decide what we want to do. We go to the timing tower to utilize the wifi internet and get on craigslist. We found an engine in Monroe, NC for $200 out of an 81 Bronco. It "ran" when it was pulled, but ultimately we were taking a risk on it. Nonetheless, we decided to pull the trigger. Two team members went and picked up the engine, two team members went to the parts store to get all the necessary gaskets and supplies, and two team members stayed at the track. A couple hours later, everyone was back at the paddock working. Since the engine was out of a bronco, the oil pan obviously wouldn't work. Adam welded up the old oil pan and put a little jb weld on it just for good measure and it was as good as new:
http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb31/memphisraines82/Lemons%20Race/LemonsCMP10029.jpg
http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb31/memphisraines82/Lemons%20Race/LemonsCMP10030.jpg
http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb31/memphisraines82/Lemons%20Race/LemonsCMP10031.jpg
I guess we were getting talked about quite a bit in the paddock as we had a ton of ppl come by and offer to help or just keep us company while we worked. One guy that helped us out is a guy named Disney from Cookeville(my hometown). He is the rainman of ford engines and, without his help with timing and what not, we prob. wouldn't of been as successful.
We worked until around 1:30am and finally drove back to the hotel. Once frost starting forming on the wrenches... we knew it was time to call it a night. We were all really tired and needed to finish the job after getting some rest. Here we were sometime late:
http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb31/memphisraines82/Lemons%20Race/LemonsCMP10032.jpg
http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb31/memphisraines82/Lemons%20Race/19150_561029016718_52702919_3279230.jpg
We arrived back in time for the driver's meeting and went straight back to work. We worked all morning and had the car fired thanks to all the hard work of everyone on the team and a few other people, by 11am... which is quite hour. We went back on track and the car was doing great. We were still working out some bugs, but the car ran great. I was the second driver. I got in the car actually being a little nervous... I had never driven CMP or this mustang, which I'm sure was tail happy. I got in the car and went out and had some fun. I was really surprised, the car handled great for what it was! It would break loose occasionally, but it was very predictable and controllable. I wanted to take it easy on the car to ensure everyone had a chance to drive in the event that something else happened to the car. I'm not going to lie though, I was having a blast passing people left and right even taking it easy. The car had some giddy up. I also played it smart, instead of trying to dive bomb past people(brakes weren't that strong anyways), I would brake early and get back in the gas early, carry more speed through the turn and suck the paint off of them when I went by... not really, but it was enough to get around them. I later found out I ran a 1:04 lap time "taking it easy". The fastest lap of the weekend was a 1:01. It's obviously a marathon race and not a sprint, but it was kind of cool to find that out. Anyways, we battled minor issues the rest of the day but it ended well. The guy who drove after me wrecked head on into the tire wall(30mph according to the datalogger) when the throttle return spring broke and stuck the throttle open. He was fine and it didn't do anything to the car other than dent the fender. We fixed the car and got it back out there. Here he is getting into the car:
http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb31/memphisraines82/Lemons%20Race/19150_561057020598_52702919_3279304.jpg
And afterwards:
http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb31/memphisraines82/Lemons%20Race/19150_561059550528_52702919_3279306.jpg
The video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgBXwA-A388&feature=player_embedded
An RX-7 friend of mine who drove on a Saab 9000 team actually won the race:
http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb31/memphisraines82/Lemons%20Race/19150_561071621338_52702919_3279327.jpg
To the victor go the spoils... $1500 in nickels:
http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb31/memphisraines82/Lemons%20Race/19150_561072649278_52702919_3279330.jpg
We were awarded the "most heroic fix" award:
http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb31/memphisraines82/Lemons%20Race/LemonsCMP10037.jpg
I finally arrived home at 4am this morning. That's it.
Brent
I left my house on Thursday as soon as I could possibly get off work(4pm). I had to run and pick up some parts for my yellow car at a speed shop in Nashville(an hour drive) before 6pm. So after getting home from work, I quickly loaded up my stuff and hit the road. I pick up my parts, drop them off with Dan, then I head to Laura's house. BTW, all of these places are on the way so I'm not going out of my way. I got to Laura's house around 8pm. Watch the office with her and eat dinner. I leave at 8:30pm. I get to Dalton, GA around midnight. I get up at 4am, get ready, and head to our meet up point at Dave's house in Chatsworth, GA. We link up and hit the road at around 7 or 7:30am. Temporary side track...
I had went to Discovery Parts on Monday to try on and purchase my gear. My suit wasn't in stock but Ron told me Alpinestar's is really good about shipping and meeting deadlines. He assured me that my driver's suit would be at my house on Thursday. On Thursday morning Ron calls me and says "your suit just showed up here." He then informed me that he was going to overnight it to me to the track or my hotel. I then realized that we would be going through Atlanta so Ron said it would be no problem meeting me in Atlanta as I drove through.... which he did. As you guys already know 100x over, Ron and Discovery Parts are top notch. Ron earned my business the good old fashion way.
It rained the entire drive to CMP as well as all day Friday. We arrived at the track at around 2:00pm or so. We then couldn't find our tech inspection form so one of the team members went to see if he could find one. The tech people said they were charging $100 for a tech form. We decided to drive 30 minutes back into town to find somewhere to print one off :D We arrived back with the form an hour later and we went through tech without issue. We bribed the BS judges but still received 4 penalty laps for our radiator. We were ok with that. Because it was so nasty, we didn't stick around the track and headed to the hotel.
After a good nights sleep, we arrive at the track, go to the driver's meeting, and get ready for the race. The car was running well.
http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb31/memphisraines82/Lemons%20Race/LemonsCMP10001.jpg
http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb31/memphisraines82/Lemons%20Race/LemonsCMP10002.jpg
my radiator ducting:
http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb31/memphisraines82/Lemons%20Race/LemonsCMP10003.jpg
After the first hour, we switched driver's. 30 minutes in to the second driver's leg, we had a castrophic engine failure:
Is this bad?
http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb31/memphisraines82/Lemons%20Race/LemonsCMP10025.jpg
http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb31/memphisraines82/Lemons%20Race/LemonsCMP10026.jpg
http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb31/memphisraines82/Lemons%20Race/LemonsCMP10027.jpg
http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb31/memphisraines82/Lemons%20Race/LemonsCMP10028.jpg
So we talk a little to decide what we want to do. We go to the timing tower to utilize the wifi internet and get on craigslist. We found an engine in Monroe, NC for $200 out of an 81 Bronco. It "ran" when it was pulled, but ultimately we were taking a risk on it. Nonetheless, we decided to pull the trigger. Two team members went and picked up the engine, two team members went to the parts store to get all the necessary gaskets and supplies, and two team members stayed at the track. A couple hours later, everyone was back at the paddock working. Since the engine was out of a bronco, the oil pan obviously wouldn't work. Adam welded up the old oil pan and put a little jb weld on it just for good measure and it was as good as new:
http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb31/memphisraines82/Lemons%20Race/LemonsCMP10029.jpg
http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb31/memphisraines82/Lemons%20Race/LemonsCMP10030.jpg
http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb31/memphisraines82/Lemons%20Race/LemonsCMP10031.jpg
I guess we were getting talked about quite a bit in the paddock as we had a ton of ppl come by and offer to help or just keep us company while we worked. One guy that helped us out is a guy named Disney from Cookeville(my hometown). He is the rainman of ford engines and, without his help with timing and what not, we prob. wouldn't of been as successful.
We worked until around 1:30am and finally drove back to the hotel. Once frost starting forming on the wrenches... we knew it was time to call it a night. We were all really tired and needed to finish the job after getting some rest. Here we were sometime late:
http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb31/memphisraines82/Lemons%20Race/LemonsCMP10032.jpg
http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb31/memphisraines82/Lemons%20Race/19150_561029016718_52702919_3279230.jpg
We arrived back in time for the driver's meeting and went straight back to work. We worked all morning and had the car fired thanks to all the hard work of everyone on the team and a few other people, by 11am... which is quite hour. We went back on track and the car was doing great. We were still working out some bugs, but the car ran great. I was the second driver. I got in the car actually being a little nervous... I had never driven CMP or this mustang, which I'm sure was tail happy. I got in the car and went out and had some fun. I was really surprised, the car handled great for what it was! It would break loose occasionally, but it was very predictable and controllable. I wanted to take it easy on the car to ensure everyone had a chance to drive in the event that something else happened to the car. I'm not going to lie though, I was having a blast passing people left and right even taking it easy. The car had some giddy up. I also played it smart, instead of trying to dive bomb past people(brakes weren't that strong anyways), I would brake early and get back in the gas early, carry more speed through the turn and suck the paint off of them when I went by... not really, but it was enough to get around them. I later found out I ran a 1:04 lap time "taking it easy". The fastest lap of the weekend was a 1:01. It's obviously a marathon race and not a sprint, but it was kind of cool to find that out. Anyways, we battled minor issues the rest of the day but it ended well. The guy who drove after me wrecked head on into the tire wall(30mph according to the datalogger) when the throttle return spring broke and stuck the throttle open. He was fine and it didn't do anything to the car other than dent the fender. We fixed the car and got it back out there. Here he is getting into the car:
http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb31/memphisraines82/Lemons%20Race/19150_561057020598_52702919_3279304.jpg
And afterwards:
http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb31/memphisraines82/Lemons%20Race/19150_561059550528_52702919_3279306.jpg
The video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgBXwA-A388&feature=player_embedded
An RX-7 friend of mine who drove on a Saab 9000 team actually won the race:
http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb31/memphisraines82/Lemons%20Race/19150_561071621338_52702919_3279327.jpg
To the victor go the spoils... $1500 in nickels:
http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb31/memphisraines82/Lemons%20Race/19150_561072649278_52702919_3279330.jpg
We were awarded the "most heroic fix" award:
http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb31/memphisraines82/Lemons%20Race/LemonsCMP10037.jpg
I finally arrived home at 4am this morning. That's it.
Brent