Quick Post...
We set 3 traps last night and we finally caught the rat.. Fuck yeah!
Now I am going to get ready to go we are going out to Yuma, AZ for the weekend.
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Friday, December 30, 2011
12-30-2011
So I am sitting here with my thumb up my ass.......
Not literally but there really is not much for me to do at work today. I have gotten some tests done, and my desktop has been completely swapped out for a laptop now.. yawn...
Been doing some more reading on the LeMons forums and some of these guys are really nuts. The motor swaps they do are way beyond anything I would ever want to tackle. I am sure glad there is a class C and other people running shit slow car’s like us. I am expecting and hoping for a much larger C class this year with the prize money for each class now. This will be more fun but lower our already low chances of winning our class, but I will take even competition with close racing in crap cars over the prize win any day.
I spend some time almost everyday looking at local car sales ads on criagslist with the price range of $100-$1000 to see what I can find. I have noticed one thing, there are not many manual transmission cars left in this price range. This is kind of sad, as I am looking for a second car that is a stick shift so I can teach my girlfriend how to drive stick. Our original plan was to just put an extra seat in the Spitfire but I realized it would be a bad Idea as it is not street legal and attracts lots of attention. I figure we could possibly find a running car for under a grand to teach her in then sell it off to someone else after or if it seems alright, keep it as a back up. I have seen some cars today that would work, but I am broke from Christmas gifts and small paychecks.
Man, they canceled the Mid-Ohio LeMons race this year, what a bummer. We were not going but still I know many LeMons people were very excited about this race and Mid-Ohio is a great track. It was replaced with a race at the Autobahn Country Club. There will still be a race but a lot of guys will still be bummed out, how sad.
So Spank has this old car a 1929 Mercedes Gazelle that he plans to race in LeMons. For some reason or another concrete was poured into the front of the car. Spank posted a video of himself working on the car and it is quite comical. Check it out for yourself.
It just occurred to me that I may have not added any pics of the Spitfire yet to this blog.. huh well here are some just to give me something to do.
My favorite pic so far with me at the wheel racing the Zombee MG.
The current motor set up.
The dash
Yes we brought her to a car show and actually did get a lot of attention...
On track shot from an in car cam of us racing the Zombee MG again.
One of our drivers ready and waiting with the car before the track opened in the morning.
And here is another shot of the motor right after a race covered in oil..
Not literally but there really is not much for me to do at work today. I have gotten some tests done, and my desktop has been completely swapped out for a laptop now.. yawn...
Been doing some more reading on the LeMons forums and some of these guys are really nuts. The motor swaps they do are way beyond anything I would ever want to tackle. I am sure glad there is a class C and other people running shit slow car’s like us. I am expecting and hoping for a much larger C class this year with the prize money for each class now. This will be more fun but lower our already low chances of winning our class, but I will take even competition with close racing in crap cars over the prize win any day.
I spend some time almost everyday looking at local car sales ads on criagslist with the price range of $100-$1000 to see what I can find. I have noticed one thing, there are not many manual transmission cars left in this price range. This is kind of sad, as I am looking for a second car that is a stick shift so I can teach my girlfriend how to drive stick. Our original plan was to just put an extra seat in the Spitfire but I realized it would be a bad Idea as it is not street legal and attracts lots of attention. I figure we could possibly find a running car for under a grand to teach her in then sell it off to someone else after or if it seems alright, keep it as a back up. I have seen some cars today that would work, but I am broke from Christmas gifts and small paychecks.
Man, they canceled the Mid-Ohio LeMons race this year, what a bummer. We were not going but still I know many LeMons people were very excited about this race and Mid-Ohio is a great track. It was replaced with a race at the Autobahn Country Club. There will still be a race but a lot of guys will still be bummed out, how sad.
So Spank has this old car a 1929 Mercedes Gazelle that he plans to race in LeMons. For some reason or another concrete was poured into the front of the car. Spank posted a video of himself working on the car and it is quite comical. Check it out for yourself.
It just occurred to me that I may have not added any pics of the Spitfire yet to this blog.. huh well here are some just to give me something to do.
My favorite pic so far with me at the wheel racing the Zombee MG.
The current motor set up.
The dash
Yes we brought her to a car show and actually did get a lot of attention...
On track shot from an in car cam of us racing the Zombee MG again.
One of our drivers ready and waiting with the car before the track opened in the morning.
And here is another shot of the motor right after a race covered in oil..
Well I guess that's it for today, taking a 1/2 day because work is slow and I am off to Yuma for New Years this weekend. Then it will be back to the grind starting Tuesday next week.
I really wonder what awesome crap 2012 has in store for everyone...
Laterz
Thursday, December 29, 2011
12-29-2011
Got some good info from Spank about the cost of LeMons racing...
Spank has been giving me hints along the way about how to survive in LeMons racing which I have been listening to but not had to deal with thus far. This is because I am spoiled by my dad who pretty much covers everything from the towing, food, new/used parts, and the team/drivers entry. I have just been handing him checks for the obvious things like my share of the entry fees and main costs like tires, and welding work at the track. Otherwise the only things I pay for are oil, spark plugs, and some fuel for the races. He has covered the cost of all sorts of parts I never kept track of or add up the costs. All of this is changing... I took on the responsibility to get our 4th driver for Infineon and I am forking out more money this time. We were not sure what to charge the new driver so my dad just said to ask for $400 which caught someone’s eye the day I posted the offer. The $400 is better then we normally would have to deal with which is a loss of $230 by only having 3 drivers. Though after this new break down of racing cost Spank sent me I am realizing we should be charging around $550. The driver we found has experience and if he drives well and pays $400 then we will be happy. The next race will be a different matter as we are upgrading from a 13” wheel to a 15” wheel and we’re picking up six wheels and tires before that race. This will end up costing us close to $1k or if we risk it and go for just a set of four and save a few hundred dollars. Now I have spent way to much time today looking at tires trying to figure out how much they will cost us and if we can run a 195/50/15 tire to have better prices and more variety.
Well I took the latest cost break down Spank sent me and modified it for my own team and this is how it breaks down for Infineon, haha break down...
$500 Car entry
$400 Driver entry ($100 x 4 drivers)
$390.00 Tow vehicle fuel (1028mi Round trip @ 10 mpg towing = gallons @ $3.80/gal)
$240 for 60gal on track fuel of 91 @ $4.00/gal
$35 Oil and filters (6qts oil VR1 @ $5/qt & 1 Filter $5ea)
$15 spark plugs
$33 Brake pads - we have used the same set for 3 races @ $50 pair
$275 Tires ($500 for 4 tires $50 mount/balance and they last 2 races so price reflected is 1/2)
$1,888 Total
$472 per driver-- and that's just my obvious out-of-pocket expenses.
Hidden costs for a season of racing ???
These things I have no Idea what was spent or will be spent on them - Motor Seals, Gaskets, General sprays glues lubes cleaners, Brake Master cylinder, Clutch Master & Slave cylinders, Clutch Plate, Motor Work, Brake rotors, nuts, bolts and other random hardware....
So I am thinking we should be charging $500-$550 for the arrive and drive people depending on where the race is located and what we have done to the car. For the other people that race with us it will all depend on how much work & money they put into the car, and what ever else they do for us like hauling spare motors and transmissions. But for this next race my dad is working out a deal with our other driver and we already offered this new driver the spot for $400. Oh well, no one said racing is cheap.
Time to go home and contemplate existence....
Spank has been giving me hints along the way about how to survive in LeMons racing which I have been listening to but not had to deal with thus far. This is because I am spoiled by my dad who pretty much covers everything from the towing, food, new/used parts, and the team/drivers entry. I have just been handing him checks for the obvious things like my share of the entry fees and main costs like tires, and welding work at the track. Otherwise the only things I pay for are oil, spark plugs, and some fuel for the races. He has covered the cost of all sorts of parts I never kept track of or add up the costs. All of this is changing... I took on the responsibility to get our 4th driver for Infineon and I am forking out more money this time. We were not sure what to charge the new driver so my dad just said to ask for $400 which caught someone’s eye the day I posted the offer. The $400 is better then we normally would have to deal with which is a loss of $230 by only having 3 drivers. Though after this new break down of racing cost Spank sent me I am realizing we should be charging around $550. The driver we found has experience and if he drives well and pays $400 then we will be happy. The next race will be a different matter as we are upgrading from a 13” wheel to a 15” wheel and we’re picking up six wheels and tires before that race. This will end up costing us close to $1k or if we risk it and go for just a set of four and save a few hundred dollars. Now I have spent way to much time today looking at tires trying to figure out how much they will cost us and if we can run a 195/50/15 tire to have better prices and more variety.
Well I took the latest cost break down Spank sent me and modified it for my own team and this is how it breaks down for Infineon, haha break down...
$500 Car entry
$400 Driver entry ($100 x 4 drivers)
$390.00 Tow vehicle fuel (1028mi Round trip @ 10 mpg towing = gallons @ $3.80/gal)
$240 for 60gal on track fuel of 91 @ $4.00/gal
$35 Oil and filters (6qts oil VR1 @ $5/qt & 1 Filter $5ea)
$15 spark plugs
$33 Brake pads - we have used the same set for 3 races @ $50 pair
$275 Tires ($500 for 4 tires $50 mount/balance and they last 2 races so price reflected is 1/2)
$1,888 Total
$472 per driver-- and that's just my obvious out-of-pocket expenses.
Hidden costs for a season of racing ???
These things I have no Idea what was spent or will be spent on them - Motor Seals, Gaskets, General sprays glues lubes cleaners, Brake Master cylinder, Clutch Master & Slave cylinders, Clutch Plate, Motor Work, Brake rotors, nuts, bolts and other random hardware....
So I am thinking we should be charging $500-$550 for the arrive and drive people depending on where the race is located and what we have done to the car. For the other people that race with us it will all depend on how much work & money they put into the car, and what ever else they do for us like hauling spare motors and transmissions. But for this next race my dad is working out a deal with our other driver and we already offered this new driver the spot for $400. Oh well, no one said racing is cheap.
Time to go home and contemplate existence....
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
12-28-2011
Just realized the date gets put on the blogs anyways, but would rather not think of a title...
So I went to Gamestop yesterday to trade in some games and pick up a used copy of Deus Ex Human Revolution for the PS3. They have this 50% trade in bonus towards used games so I figured with the new sale price being $26.99 for a used copy with the extra 50%, bonus plus an additional 10% off used games with the membershi,p I would be getting this game for close to nothing... Well I missed the last used copy by 20 minutes or so and I ended up picking it up new for $29.99 and with my trade in it cost me $17 in the end which not bad but not free. The best part about this purchase was one of the guys who works there has no forearms. I am not making fun of this dude, but he had to be the best customer service person I had ever met at a Gamestop and he did the rest of the job as good or better then the rest of the knuckleheads that work there. Props to this guy and hit bad ass attitude with his bad ass stubby arms!
Work is very slow this week and I am having trouble keeping busy. I have managed to find enough work to justify, at the most, six hour days for the rest of the week. This is going to hurt the wallet as I already had Monday off and I do not get paid time off which is the main downside of being a contracted worker. The bonus here is I will get to go home and play Deus Ex. Since I should not spend any more money anyways this is about the only fun thing I can do. I need to wait until work picks back up before I can really spend money on anything else with rent due in a few days and I will be spending a chunk of change on entry fee for our next LeMons race soon.
Recently I keep spending so much time thinking about things we can do to improve the Spitfire and forget we need to concentrate on the things we need to do to keep it running. I spent a lot of time reading on this guys site which is full of great information that I feel we can find useful.
http://auskellian.com/paul/links_files/performance_enhancements.htm
I got into another site where a guy was explaining a rebuild of the rear transverse leaf spring for $35, after which I was excited and interested in doing it. After I emailed it to my pops he reminded me that if we stiffen the rear spring it will take away some of the negative camber we added (or add back camber we took out, how ever you want to look at it). He was right of course and I remembered we just need to leave it alone as it handles pretty damn well, and if anything we can just cut ½ a coil of the front springs to make the car sit level. Really what we need to do is ignore it and focus on the motors. If we can keep the car running and have a good spare motor we will be much better off, lasting to the end of the race is more important then a slight improvement in handling or a few more horses under the hood.
Well short day today..
So I went to Gamestop yesterday to trade in some games and pick up a used copy of Deus Ex Human Revolution for the PS3. They have this 50% trade in bonus towards used games so I figured with the new sale price being $26.99 for a used copy with the extra 50%, bonus plus an additional 10% off used games with the membershi,p I would be getting this game for close to nothing... Well I missed the last used copy by 20 minutes or so and I ended up picking it up new for $29.99 and with my trade in it cost me $17 in the end which not bad but not free. The best part about this purchase was one of the guys who works there has no forearms. I am not making fun of this dude, but he had to be the best customer service person I had ever met at a Gamestop and he did the rest of the job as good or better then the rest of the knuckleheads that work there. Props to this guy and hit bad ass attitude with his bad ass stubby arms!
Work is very slow this week and I am having trouble keeping busy. I have managed to find enough work to justify, at the most, six hour days for the rest of the week. This is going to hurt the wallet as I already had Monday off and I do not get paid time off which is the main downside of being a contracted worker. The bonus here is I will get to go home and play Deus Ex. Since I should not spend any more money anyways this is about the only fun thing I can do. I need to wait until work picks back up before I can really spend money on anything else with rent due in a few days and I will be spending a chunk of change on entry fee for our next LeMons race soon.
Recently I keep spending so much time thinking about things we can do to improve the Spitfire and forget we need to concentrate on the things we need to do to keep it running. I spent a lot of time reading on this guys site which is full of great information that I feel we can find useful.
http://auskellian.com/paul/links_files/performance_enhancements.htm
I got into another site where a guy was explaining a rebuild of the rear transverse leaf spring for $35, after which I was excited and interested in doing it. After I emailed it to my pops he reminded me that if we stiffen the rear spring it will take away some of the negative camber we added (or add back camber we took out, how ever you want to look at it). He was right of course and I remembered we just need to leave it alone as it handles pretty damn well, and if anything we can just cut ½ a coil of the front springs to make the car sit level. Really what we need to do is ignore it and focus on the motors. If we can keep the car running and have a good spare motor we will be much better off, lasting to the end of the race is more important then a slight improvement in handling or a few more horses under the hood.
Well short day today..
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
12-27-2011
Had a nice 4 day weekend and Christmas.....
Got to look over my daily driver the breaks have plenty of meat on the pads and shoes, but they still make some noise. I think they are just sold old and the discs are worn down. They still stop fine and everything looks safe so I shall just drive on.... We did a small amount of work on the Spitfire as we are still waiting for a response back about the safety and tech upgrades. The throttle is fixed, I marked the Tow points, and found a few more useful things off the parts car. After the new year we will get back on the grind, we are doing leak down tests on the motors and getting some work done on the heads. The rest of the work is simple maintenance work. What I really need to do is get the motor in the 3rd started so we can decide if that motor is good. We then can sell the overdrive transmission and take other parts as needed. The big problem right now is getting rid of the stripped down parts car, with no rear end it is a pain to move. might have to use a winch and a flat bed trailer to get rid of it. Oh well, we will have just under 3 months to get it done. We also got Forza 4 set up for learning the Infineon Raceway. I got the Datsun 510 set up to drive close enough to the way the Spitfire handles and about the same power to weight ratio. Should be plenty good to learn the track, plus it is Forza 4 gotta love it. I am trying to get an idea of what track lay out we will be running at Infineon this year for our Forza practice....
There are 2 track lay outs they can pick and choose corners from. The Indy layout and the Long Course layout. The corners they can change are 7, 9 and 11. From what I have gathered on the forums it sounds like they use a mix of the 2, but every time they have used 9a from the Indy lay out, which is good and bad. The 9a corner is a tight chicane after a strait away. This means a tight fun corner and that people will be hard on the breaks and likely to dive bomb into the corner and t-bone people. I will have to bring this up with my team to watch out for this and maybe even suggest that we take the inside line away early, though that could be dangerous as well. I guess there has not been many issues with it thus far so we will just roll with it.
INDY COURSE
LONG COURSE
The rest of the holiday was also good, my girlfriend enjoyed the gifts I got her, but they do not compare to the IPad her mother and step dad bought her, kinda hard to top that. She bought me a home brew beer kit which is awesome, another excuse for beer! I would like to make it and bring it to the LeMons race at Infineon. I will put our team logo on it, should be fun. We both got other nice stuff, nothing exciting, and got plenty of gift cards for places to go eat, couple movie tickets, Target, and Walmart gift cards.
Oh speaking of which, we went to Walmart yesterday and the assistant manager rang us up. She could not figure out how to use gift cards (even the Walmart specific ones) to save her life. Stupid bitch tried to tell us “The card must be empty” We could see on the screen it was telling her what to do but she would not read the damn screen and follow directions, also refused to ask anyone to help her. She is lucky I was hung over from Christmas and just wanted to get the hell out of there so we just paid and left. Any other day I would have made a total fool out of her by having her ask for help from one of her lower employees who knows how to do his or her job, then politely say, “ah there are people here who know how to do their job.” The lady behind us was laughing at the horrible way this assistant manager was acting, which was pathetic, but I guess typical of Walmart. Fucking Walmart....
Gah... I can not believe we went shopping so soon after Christmas... Was not all that bad though..
Thursday, December 22, 2011
12-22-2011
The Rat did not come back and I am a Fat POS...
Last night we went out for more Christmas shopping, and I think we are finally done. I was done awhile ago but the point is we are done. One of our stops we went to Home Depot and I got the new rat trap, but the rat did not come out last night, there was no turds to be seen, and the trap was not triggered. I hope it did not die up in the wall.
The thing that really got to me last night was while at Fry’s Electronics I used a scale to weigh myself and well lets just say I am not doing well on my weight. I need to get back to the eating and exercise habits I had last year. Not that I need to be on such a strict routine but I should lose a good chuck of weight I gained back over this year and learn to keep it off. I fell into the happy relationship lazy mode, that I promised I would not. It’s not what others think or even how I look, I am just strait disappointed in myself. But I know how to take care of it, I just hope that I balance it with the rest of my life and not let my self centered ways cause friction in our relationship.
Why do people get all pissed and say anti-christians are taking the Christ out of the holidays? The fact is it's corporate bull shit that turned the holiday into a materialistic waste. “Happy Holidays” came from people being to lazy to say “ I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year “ not from trying to be religiously neutral. So they did it to them selves. The tilt of the world is the reason for the season, which was the original reason people celebrated a holiday at this time i.e Winter Solstice. Christians came in and made their holidays at the same time pagans had theirs, during the seasons, to convert them. Now your letting money and greed turn your holiday, that you stole, into something else. It is your fault, just as the pagans let their holiday be turned. Get over it or be the change you want to see. Douche bags......
Now I am not a religious person, I don’t believe in the existence of any god, but i celebrate the holidays because I enjoy the time with my friends and family. Sure it means something different to me, but the reason why people get together and celebrate should not matter.
Work is slowing down and lots of people are just hanging around talking today. I got to drive one of the rental cars to be returned. Gotta love getting paid to drive a rental car, listen to music, burn gas, and put miles on a car you do not care about. I don’t take advantage of it though. I drive strait there and obey laws, it’s not worth losing a job over. Most of the day I have found myself spacing out.....
After today I have four days off for Christmas. Will spend some time working on my daily driver, some time working on the Spitfire, and I am setting up my Xbox 360 at my dad’s place so we can play Forza 4 and learn Infineon Raceway which is where our next race is. Christmas day, Sunday, will be a bit hectic going to three different houses. Should be a good day though with family and my girl. I just want this four day weekend to fucking start already..... Tonight we are going to look at Christmas lights, should be nice and relaxing.
Haha, just going through the 24 hour of LeMons forums and found this analogy of the classs.
“I look at LeMons like it's a knife fight:
Class A guys bring guns of various caliber and capacity
Class B guys bring knives and fight fair
Class C guys bring spoons and beer”
Yeah we run C class, and I would say our Spitfire is comparable to a spoon, well one that has been run through the garbage disposal a few times. They also got me on the other point, I never forget the beer... ever.
Getting out of here for my 4 day weekend... laterz grandma.
Last night we went out for more Christmas shopping, and I think we are finally done. I was done awhile ago but the point is we are done. One of our stops we went to Home Depot and I got the new rat trap, but the rat did not come out last night, there was no turds to be seen, and the trap was not triggered. I hope it did not die up in the wall.
The thing that really got to me last night was while at Fry’s Electronics I used a scale to weigh myself and well lets just say I am not doing well on my weight. I need to get back to the eating and exercise habits I had last year. Not that I need to be on such a strict routine but I should lose a good chuck of weight I gained back over this year and learn to keep it off. I fell into the happy relationship lazy mode, that I promised I would not. It’s not what others think or even how I look, I am just strait disappointed in myself. But I know how to take care of it, I just hope that I balance it with the rest of my life and not let my self centered ways cause friction in our relationship.
Why do people get all pissed and say anti-christians are taking the Christ out of the holidays? The fact is it's corporate bull shit that turned the holiday into a materialistic waste. “Happy Holidays” came from people being to lazy to say “ I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year “ not from trying to be religiously neutral. So they did it to them selves. The tilt of the world is the reason for the season, which was the original reason people celebrated a holiday at this time i.e Winter Solstice. Christians came in and made their holidays at the same time pagans had theirs, during the seasons, to convert them. Now your letting money and greed turn your holiday, that you stole, into something else. It is your fault, just as the pagans let their holiday be turned. Get over it or be the change you want to see. Douche bags......
Now I am not a religious person, I don’t believe in the existence of any god, but i celebrate the holidays because I enjoy the time with my friends and family. Sure it means something different to me, but the reason why people get together and celebrate should not matter.
Work is slowing down and lots of people are just hanging around talking today. I got to drive one of the rental cars to be returned. Gotta love getting paid to drive a rental car, listen to music, burn gas, and put miles on a car you do not care about. I don’t take advantage of it though. I drive strait there and obey laws, it’s not worth losing a job over. Most of the day I have found myself spacing out.....
After today I have four days off for Christmas. Will spend some time working on my daily driver, some time working on the Spitfire, and I am setting up my Xbox 360 at my dad’s place so we can play Forza 4 and learn Infineon Raceway which is where our next race is. Christmas day, Sunday, will be a bit hectic going to three different houses. Should be a good day though with family and my girl. I just want this four day weekend to fucking start already..... Tonight we are going to look at Christmas lights, should be nice and relaxing.
Haha, just going through the 24 hour of LeMons forums and found this analogy of the classs.
“I look at LeMons like it's a knife fight:
Class A guys bring guns of various caliber and capacity
Class B guys bring knives and fight fair
Class C guys bring spoons and beer”
Yeah we run C class, and I would say our Spitfire is comparable to a spoon, well one that has been run through the garbage disposal a few times. They also got me on the other point, I never forget the beer... ever.
Getting out of here for my 4 day weekend... laterz grandma.
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
12-21-2011
So we have a rat.....
I have been seeing a small number of rodent turds around the apartment here and there over the last month or so. I bought plastic mouse traps and one was set off but it did not catch anything. I did not see the turds for a few weeks so I figured the trap scared it off. Over the last week we started to find a few turds again and my girlfriend was not happy about it. Then last night I finally saw the bastard in person. When about to fall asleep I heard some things bang around outside our room and went to check it out. A ruler had been knocked on the floor and a pan had fell off the dish rack, I then looked across the counter and saw a small rat that looked like the ones from the pet store, not a gross sewer rat, a rat none the less, but not just a mouse. So I got the traps back out and set one on the counter and one on the floor and went back to bed. Ten minutes later I heard a trap snap so I went to have a look and I saw the rat scurry under the stove. DAMN IT! So I then set both traps on the floor around the stove and went back to bed. Twenty minutes later I heard a trap snap and the cries from a struggling rodent. Finally, I thought, this was going to be over with, but as I was getting up I heard a click and the cries stopped. When I got out there the trap was empty, he got out.... Fucking shit balls, the mouse traps aren’t strong enough... I reset the traps hoping he would be stupid enough to come for it again but the traps were not triggered for the rest of the night. Now here is the big problem, the rat could have been mortally wounded and will die up under the stove or in the wall, who knows. The last thing we need is the smell of a rotting rat. I will pick up better traps tonight on the way home from work, and I hope we catch him this time. The damn humane traps, that actually trap the thing in a case, are a lot more expensive. A this point though I guess it’s worth it, as I want to catch it not smash it’s guts everywhere. Hopefully for our sake it isn’t dead, yet...
Found myself busy at work today doing more SQL ….simple stuff enjoy...
select sum(inumfwdaxle)-sum(inumindnetaxle) AS "SHT" from tbCollectorSummary cs
join tbCollectorTour ct on cs.iCollTourId = ct.iCollTourId
where iStaffId =1113 and cs.iPlazaID =4 and dBusinessDay = '2011-11-04'
Damn it ..
I have been seeing a small number of rodent turds around the apartment here and there over the last month or so. I bought plastic mouse traps and one was set off but it did not catch anything. I did not see the turds for a few weeks so I figured the trap scared it off. Over the last week we started to find a few turds again and my girlfriend was not happy about it. Then last night I finally saw the bastard in person. When about to fall asleep I heard some things bang around outside our room and went to check it out. A ruler had been knocked on the floor and a pan had fell off the dish rack, I then looked across the counter and saw a small rat that looked like the ones from the pet store, not a gross sewer rat, a rat none the less, but not just a mouse. So I got the traps back out and set one on the counter and one on the floor and went back to bed. Ten minutes later I heard a trap snap so I went to have a look and I saw the rat scurry under the stove. DAMN IT! So I then set both traps on the floor around the stove and went back to bed. Twenty minutes later I heard a trap snap and the cries from a struggling rodent. Finally, I thought, this was going to be over with, but as I was getting up I heard a click and the cries stopped. When I got out there the trap was empty, he got out.... Fucking shit balls, the mouse traps aren’t strong enough... I reset the traps hoping he would be stupid enough to come for it again but the traps were not triggered for the rest of the night. Now here is the big problem, the rat could have been mortally wounded and will die up under the stove or in the wall, who knows. The last thing we need is the smell of a rotting rat. I will pick up better traps tonight on the way home from work, and I hope we catch him this time. The damn humane traps, that actually trap the thing in a case, are a lot more expensive. A this point though I guess it’s worth it, as I want to catch it not smash it’s guts everywhere. Hopefully for our sake it isn’t dead, yet...
Found myself busy at work today doing more SQL ….simple stuff enjoy...
select sum(inumfwdaxle)-sum(inumindnetaxle) AS "SHT" from tbCollectorSummary cs
join tbCollectorTour ct on cs.iCollTourId = ct.iCollTourId
where iStaffId =1113 and cs.iPlazaID =4 and dBusinessDay = '2011-11-04'
Damn it ..
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
12-20-2011
12-20-2011
Youtube upload and Self Improvement......
I just remembered that I was able to upload an hour long video to my youtube account. So I uploaded one of my entire stints from the Arse Freeze Apalooza 2011 at Buttonwillow. There are a lot of yellow flags, and a lot of cars passing me. I compressed the video from 5GB down to 350MB so the sound and video quality is not the best, but it will give you an idea of what it is like to race in a slow Class C car at a LeMons race. I do some funny things like wave, point people by, give multiple thumbs up, yell, curse, and I think what appears to be dancing. Have a look and, if your bored with an hour to kill, watch the whole thing. You may notice the car shimmying back and forth under breaking. This is do to our right front breaks having air that was taken in from a bad bleeder valve. We bled it a few times, and again after this day was over. We are fixing it before the next race. There are a few notable moments in the video. One of which I remember thinking, man that guy could have taken me out. If you fast forward to about 26:50 and watch and listen, screeching tiers are heard followed by a car flying through the dirt. Not exactly sure what this guy was doing but he was obviously not watching ahead. Another can be seen if you fast forward to about 39:30 and watch the car in front of me blow the corer. Anyway here is the link to the video....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3a9eEKWfjjk&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Now if you look through my account there are some other videos I have uploaded. One is from a ChumpCar race at the same track back in June 2011 we has a weaker motor and there were much fewer cars. Others are from video games and then there are some XtraNormal videos I made awhile back. These cartoon videos contain explicit language so viewers be warned, but if you have a twisted sense of humor you may very well enjoy them so check them out as well.
The work load given to me for the week seemed like more then it was and there will be plenty of time for me to continue this nonsense so continue it shall, aren’t you excited?
I have spent more money this year Christmas shopping then I ever have. Money is now kind of tight, but I am determined to make it work. I only have one debt left and my goal was to pay $500 a month towards it until it was paid off. Thankfully it is a personal debt and when I bought the new MAC last month, combined with the money spent racing, I was able to skip this payment. This month, on top of Winter Solstice shopping and unpaid days off, I still plan to make this payment which will leave very little money to do anything on New Years. But that is fine by me, staying home and out of trouble always works.
Just not feeling it today with out the coffee. (which is day two without coffee). This for me is a struggle having been addicted to coffee/caffeine for many years. The only real reason for the lack of coffee is every once in a while my body needs a break. Fuck I love coffee though, and man could I go for a cup. Good thing the flavor of the coffee served here at my work resembles more of a fertilized mud water then coffee so the temptation is meager.
select SUM(iTotalAmt) from tbBankReceiveConfirmation bc
join tbBankReceiveFile bf on bc.iReceiveFileID = bf.iReceiveFileID and iCollectorID =1113
where dBusinessDay between '2011-11-01' and '2011-11-30'
The realization hit me recently that people walking by my cube must often see me picking my nose. The cubicles here are very open and, with my back facing the entrance to mine, I often indulge in this habit while spacing out at work. Oh well, fuck it though I get my work done and if it bothers them, they will get over it. I guess I should work on minimizing my disgusting habits which my girlfriend also does not always appreciate either.
That’s right self improvement....
Self improvement is something I have been running circles around many years now, starting with going back to school years ago for a better job, getting said job, personal weight management (was once a 315+ pound fat POS and I have since put back on a large chunk of that from my lowest point of 190 lbs), and paying off my debt. Though I do rather well these days, I am still struggling to find a good center in my life balance. Recently I have become quite lazy and eating too much, but last year I was eating so well with regular exercise and lost over 100lbs in 12 months. Then I got into a relationship and, after we got comfortable, things went down hill health wise. Though this year I paid off all but a small personal debt, have improved on my career path, and have gotten more involved with crap can racing. So it is not all bad. Just need to stop being a lazy pile and go for a hike or a bike ride a few times a week and walk the other days. I do not in any way blame it on my girlfriend, she does not force me to eat and does not tie me down to the couch, though I might enjoy the latter.
Hmmm It’s only 4pm and I really want to get out of here, how to pass the time.... I guess I could rant about something and I think I found just the thing. Check this article out...
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/showtracker/2011/12/pat-robertson-blasts-snl-tim-tebow-jesus-skit.html
It is about Pat Robertson complaining about how SNL did a sketch on Jesus telling Tim Tebow to take it down a notch. The sketch is fucking funny and Pat’s reaction is just a riot. Here is a part from the article that just got me rolling...
“Robertson, who’s quick to criticize Hollywood entertainment and pop culture, said the comedy sketch is part of ‘the anti-Christian bigotry in this country that’s just disgusting.’
‘If this had been a Muslim country and they had done that and had Muhammad doing that stuff, you would have found bombs being thrown off and bodies on the street,’ he said.”
Anti-Christain bigotry, that is just the cutest thing. The thing about the USA is we are not “supposed” to be a religiously run country, and that it is not all Muslims who would resort to terrorist actions. Or maybe he is saying this is how he wants his supporters to act? Inciting terrorism maybe? I really don’t know what nuts like Pat Robertson are thinking, and I would never want to claim to understand or claim to know, as they are just twisted in the head. Fucking Pat Robertson, you douche. Oh and by the way it gets better …
“Bob Beckel, speaking on Fox News’ ‘The Five,’ called the sketch ‘despicable.’
‘First of all, it’s despicable to display Jesus Christ, our Lord and savior, like that on ‘Saturday Night Live’ and they should be ashamed of themselves,’ Beckel said. ‘And the fact that this keeps drawing attention to Tebow and Christianity and faith and Jesus and they make it into some sort of a commercial operation … there’s nothing funny about that.’’
Oh yes Bob, there is plenty funny about that, and people like you and Pat only make it funnier. You seem to lack the understanding that it’s a fucking joke, and not to be taken seriously. The fact that you take it seriously shows how stupid and out of whack you really are. Your religion is one of many that are all very similar, none of them individually more important or correct, and are all free game for everyone to reflect on how they choose. So Bob Beckel you sir are also a douche and for being one should be ashamed of yourself.
Guess I am done for the day.. I wonder what kind of free midget porn I can find on the interwebz tonight? Sorry Little Person Porn, my bad...
Youtube upload and Self Improvement......
I just remembered that I was able to upload an hour long video to my youtube account. So I uploaded one of my entire stints from the Arse Freeze Apalooza 2011 at Buttonwillow. There are a lot of yellow flags, and a lot of cars passing me. I compressed the video from 5GB down to 350MB so the sound and video quality is not the best, but it will give you an idea of what it is like to race in a slow Class C car at a LeMons race. I do some funny things like wave, point people by, give multiple thumbs up, yell, curse, and I think what appears to be dancing. Have a look and, if your bored with an hour to kill, watch the whole thing. You may notice the car shimmying back and forth under breaking. This is do to our right front breaks having air that was taken in from a bad bleeder valve. We bled it a few times, and again after this day was over. We are fixing it before the next race. There are a few notable moments in the video. One of which I remember thinking, man that guy could have taken me out. If you fast forward to about 26:50 and watch and listen, screeching tiers are heard followed by a car flying through the dirt. Not exactly sure what this guy was doing but he was obviously not watching ahead. Another can be seen if you fast forward to about 39:30 and watch the car in front of me blow the corer. Anyway here is the link to the video....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3a9eEKWfjjk&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Now if you look through my account there are some other videos I have uploaded. One is from a ChumpCar race at the same track back in June 2011 we has a weaker motor and there were much fewer cars. Others are from video games and then there are some XtraNormal videos I made awhile back. These cartoon videos contain explicit language so viewers be warned, but if you have a twisted sense of humor you may very well enjoy them so check them out as well.
The work load given to me for the week seemed like more then it was and there will be plenty of time for me to continue this nonsense so continue it shall, aren’t you excited?
I have spent more money this year Christmas shopping then I ever have. Money is now kind of tight, but I am determined to make it work. I only have one debt left and my goal was to pay $500 a month towards it until it was paid off. Thankfully it is a personal debt and when I bought the new MAC last month, combined with the money spent racing, I was able to skip this payment. This month, on top of Winter Solstice shopping and unpaid days off, I still plan to make this payment which will leave very little money to do anything on New Years. But that is fine by me, staying home and out of trouble always works.
Just not feeling it today with out the coffee. (which is day two without coffee). This for me is a struggle having been addicted to coffee/caffeine for many years. The only real reason for the lack of coffee is every once in a while my body needs a break. Fuck I love coffee though, and man could I go for a cup. Good thing the flavor of the coffee served here at my work resembles more of a fertilized mud water then coffee so the temptation is meager.
select SUM(iTotalAmt) from tbBankReceiveConfirmation bc
join tbBankReceiveFile bf on bc.iReceiveFileID = bf.iReceiveFileID and iCollectorID =1113
where dBusinessDay between '2011-11-01' and '2011-11-30'
The realization hit me recently that people walking by my cube must often see me picking my nose. The cubicles here are very open and, with my back facing the entrance to mine, I often indulge in this habit while spacing out at work. Oh well, fuck it though I get my work done and if it bothers them, they will get over it. I guess I should work on minimizing my disgusting habits which my girlfriend also does not always appreciate either.
That’s right self improvement....
Self improvement is something I have been running circles around many years now, starting with going back to school years ago for a better job, getting said job, personal weight management (was once a 315+ pound fat POS and I have since put back on a large chunk of that from my lowest point of 190 lbs), and paying off my debt. Though I do rather well these days, I am still struggling to find a good center in my life balance. Recently I have become quite lazy and eating too much, but last year I was eating so well with regular exercise and lost over 100lbs in 12 months. Then I got into a relationship and, after we got comfortable, things went down hill health wise. Though this year I paid off all but a small personal debt, have improved on my career path, and have gotten more involved with crap can racing. So it is not all bad. Just need to stop being a lazy pile and go for a hike or a bike ride a few times a week and walk the other days. I do not in any way blame it on my girlfriend, she does not force me to eat and does not tie me down to the couch, though I might enjoy the latter.
Hmmm It’s only 4pm and I really want to get out of here, how to pass the time.... I guess I could rant about something and I think I found just the thing. Check this article out...
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/showtracker/2011/12/pat-robertson-blasts-snl-tim-tebow-jesus-skit.html
It is about Pat Robertson complaining about how SNL did a sketch on Jesus telling Tim Tebow to take it down a notch. The sketch is fucking funny and Pat’s reaction is just a riot. Here is a part from the article that just got me rolling...
“Robertson, who’s quick to criticize Hollywood entertainment and pop culture, said the comedy sketch is part of ‘the anti-Christian bigotry in this country that’s just disgusting.’
‘If this had been a Muslim country and they had done that and had Muhammad doing that stuff, you would have found bombs being thrown off and bodies on the street,’ he said.”
Anti-Christain bigotry, that is just the cutest thing. The thing about the USA is we are not “supposed” to be a religiously run country, and that it is not all Muslims who would resort to terrorist actions. Or maybe he is saying this is how he wants his supporters to act? Inciting terrorism maybe? I really don’t know what nuts like Pat Robertson are thinking, and I would never want to claim to understand or claim to know, as they are just twisted in the head. Fucking Pat Robertson, you douche. Oh and by the way it gets better …
“Bob Beckel, speaking on Fox News’ ‘The Five,’ called the sketch ‘despicable.’
‘First of all, it’s despicable to display Jesus Christ, our Lord and savior, like that on ‘Saturday Night Live’ and they should be ashamed of themselves,’ Beckel said. ‘And the fact that this keeps drawing attention to Tebow and Christianity and faith and Jesus and they make it into some sort of a commercial operation … there’s nothing funny about that.’’
Oh yes Bob, there is plenty funny about that, and people like you and Pat only make it funnier. You seem to lack the understanding that it’s a fucking joke, and not to be taken seriously. The fact that you take it seriously shows how stupid and out of whack you really are. Your religion is one of many that are all very similar, none of them individually more important or correct, and are all free game for everyone to reflect on how they choose. So Bob Beckel you sir are also a douche and for being one should be ashamed of yourself.
Guess I am done for the day.. I wonder what kind of free midget porn I can find on the interwebz tonight? Sorry Little Person Porn, my bad...
12-19-2011
So I turned 31 yesterday...
and meh it is no big deal. I was able to go our drinking with an old friend on Friday night. We met each others girl friends and drank too much, in other words, it was a good time. That led to me being miserable all day Saturday and watching 13 episodes of How I Met Your Mother on Netflix, and hours of playing Uncharted 3. Man what a Saturday that was. I was planning to go change the break pads and shoes on my daily driver and work on the Spitfire some. Non of that happened, I just laid around like a lazy pile of shit and feeling just the same. Sunday was more video games and How I Met Your Mother until we went to my girlfriend’s work Christmas party. It was rather nice, a harbor cruise with a good buffet and a few drinks, to bad I was still feeling like shit. Once home we go to, wait for it..... …....
watch the finale of Survivor! Oh I can not express the joy, this also was 3 hours long and kept us up late. The only good thing about that show is a guy used religion to manipulate people. So I guess in a way the show does reflect real society, as the girl in the shadows hiding behind the preacher, pulling his strings, was the one who left with all the money. Cute...
So Kim Jong Il died. I don’t really have much to say about it because I like many others can only think of the comedy Team America and how lonely the guy is. I do not think his death will affect my life much, but who knows the power vacuum could stir up a large war, who knows. Reading an article about it http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/movies/team-america-world-police-surges-twitter-topic-kim-jong-il-death-article-1.993855 and the thing I find most interesting about the article is this quote...
“Kim Jong Il, Colonel Gaddafi, Osama bin Laden & Saddam Hussein all dead within the last 5 years. Conclusive proof that Team America exists,”
Shit, my boss just dumped a bunch of work on me for this week, guess that means I am done with this for awhile...
and meh it is no big deal. I was able to go our drinking with an old friend on Friday night. We met each others girl friends and drank too much, in other words, it was a good time. That led to me being miserable all day Saturday and watching 13 episodes of How I Met Your Mother on Netflix, and hours of playing Uncharted 3. Man what a Saturday that was. I was planning to go change the break pads and shoes on my daily driver and work on the Spitfire some. Non of that happened, I just laid around like a lazy pile of shit and feeling just the same. Sunday was more video games and How I Met Your Mother until we went to my girlfriend’s work Christmas party. It was rather nice, a harbor cruise with a good buffet and a few drinks, to bad I was still feeling like shit. Once home we go to, wait for it..... …....
watch the finale of Survivor! Oh I can not express the joy, this also was 3 hours long and kept us up late. The only good thing about that show is a guy used religion to manipulate people. So I guess in a way the show does reflect real society, as the girl in the shadows hiding behind the preacher, pulling his strings, was the one who left with all the money. Cute...
So Kim Jong Il died. I don’t really have much to say about it because I like many others can only think of the comedy Team America and how lonely the guy is. I do not think his death will affect my life much, but who knows the power vacuum could stir up a large war, who knows. Reading an article about it http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/movies/team-america-world-police-surges-twitter-topic-kim-jong-il-death-article-1.993855 and the thing I find most interesting about the article is this quote...
“Kim Jong Il, Colonel Gaddafi, Osama bin Laden & Saddam Hussein all dead within the last 5 years. Conclusive proof that Team America exists,”
Shit, my boss just dumped a bunch of work on me for this week, guess that means I am done with this for awhile...
Friday, December 16, 2011
12-16-2011
So yeah........
Last night I started to work on compressing the large 5GB 60min in car video of me driving. I got it compressed down to 350MB, but I am still learning how to encode, and compress down videos on our new MAC with free software. The video looks and plays well on the MAC but wont play on my phone. There are a few settings I need to change with the audio that should do it. I will then cut out a few good sections and put them into a 5-10min video on youtube I will post later. My Girlfriend and I had some holiday shopping to do that got in the way of me finishing this, and tonight we are going out to see an old friend of mine. Then I have plans to work on my commuter car, and the Spitfire with my dad this weekend, along with some partying as it is my birthday Sunday, 31 wooo hooooo, and holiday time. The video can wait, as I know not many people I know find it very interesting, but I think it’s fucking cool.
There is a LeMons race this weekend at Eagles Canyon Raceway in Dallas Texas. Man how I wish we could just travel to all these races even if we race or not. The track design looks fun. http://www.eaglescanyon.com/2008/facilities.php though I am not sure the layout LeMons is using. I will just browse the forums and check the LeMons facebook page watching for informational updates on how the weekend is going. We have 4 races planned next year, which is plenty for the time and funds I can put into the team, though I wish we could do more. Speaking of our team, it is called te Sex Pistons. It is a spin off of the Sex Pistols. As our car is British and having a British punk rock theme, doing a spin on the Sex Pistols was easy. The flag my sister painted on the hood that says “God Save R Spitfire” looks amazing. This was a play on the Sex Pistols logo of the flag and their song “God Save the Queen”.
I have started a Facebook page for our race team, but have yet to put much effort into it. Here is the link https://www.facebook.com/pages/Team-Sex-Pistons/ I have to say that this team has had it’s ups and downs. When we originally decided to start it was sweat, lots of work, but good times were had between my father, one of my best friends, and myself. The story of our racing team follows (warning it’s rather long).....
The first race we attempted to do, Arse Freeze Apalooza 2010 at Butonwillow, did not go as planned. It in fact went horribly. We got everything loaded up and ready, we were going for it with the three of us, 1 driver short, but my father was willing to take the wallet hit as well as paying for himself and I already. Then while I was at work the day we planned to leave, I got a text or call (can’t remember which) from my friend stating that he would not be able to go do to personal reasons I do not feel is necessary to share. From work I met with him and unloaded the spare parts from his vehicle into mine and drove to my pops to give him the news and explain how it would only be the two of us. We were not going to quit and were still excited to go racing. We got there late Thursday night, it was cold, dark and quiet in the pits, we relaxed, had a drink then went to sleep. When we woke up I went outside to find many teams with insane cars, it was like Disney Land for junk car nerds. We got the car through safety tech inspection with no problems When the Bull Shit inspectors saw what the car was they had us pop the hood and just laughed. A Spitfire? Good luck! was basically the attitude, but in LeMons that means AWESOME! So we rolled away happy.
I was paid the day before and Decided to spend some of the little money I had to test the car that day on track. After a good 30min run that was a blast and put a huge smile on my face, I came in and we looked the car over and then I went back out for another 40min run. On my way in on the last lap only a few turns from the pits, I felt a clunk and saw out of the corner of my eye the left rear wheel go flying away down the track. I kept the car under control and aimed it into the dirt. After being shamefully towed in we looked over the car. The hub had stripped the axle-hub key off the axle and was still bolted to the wheel. At this point I thought well some welding and we can make it work. Little did I know that these Spitfires have 3 types of metal between the axle, axle-hub key, and the hub. When the track welder took a look at it he said, I can not do this, and I do not recommend anyone try as it will not be safe on the track and someone will get hurt. We then made some calls, looked on the internet, and the closest axle and hub we could find was a racing kit that was $3500.00 way out of our budget and would be worth more then everything we put into the car so far. We went around the pits, got some suggestions on people to call. One guy was two states away at a classic car race, another was a 7 hour drive each way. We pretty much gave up. It was a sad feeling, but reasonably after all the money my father had spent, having only his old RV, and I having spent my last part of the budget, we were done. Sure many people came over excited, we can do this, but many realized the same thing, it can not be welded. We chose to stay the night Friday in case anyone responded to emails for our need. After seeing the crap situation we were in, the team camping next to us pointed out they had a keg of Arrogant Bastard Ale and told me to enjoy, which I thoroughly did. We received no offers reasonable on the parts we needed and knew we were done for sure. We decided to hang out a bit on Saturday and watch and just enjoy being there and we had a good time. My father then asked me that afternoon if I wanted to go home or stay for the next day. I told him, lets stay, camp, watch the races, and help out, we were going to be here another day anyway. So that is what we did and man I am glad we did. The racetrack pits were like a party that night, drinks, music, cars putting around, people wrenching, and movies projected on the building walls. It was cold, but not cold enough to scare people inside.
The next morning I awoke with quite the hang over after two drinking nights in a row. That day I got the feeling that my dad has been asking, or maybe begging, Spank to let me drive one of his cars he brought to the race. If I remember correctly he had 3, the Turbo Mini, a Moke, and this Citroen DS. Whether Spank did it out of pity, or to shut my dad up, ( really I know he did it cause he is a good guy) but he gave me some wheel time in the Citroen DS. What a pig this thing was, and it has a column shifter which I had to ask how to use. I got instructions from Gram, (who if I remember correctly is a classic Minni Cooper mechanic and has a classic English accent,) he told me something in the order of; “Fist is up, second is down, third is up and behind first, the breaks work well, now go out there and just drive the piss out of it until the over heating light comes on, then bring her in”. That was good enough and I went out and had a blast. The ride and breaks on this large car was amazing, and by knowing how to drive over the Phil Hill Corner I was able to pass much faster cars. When I brought it in after each of the 3 times they let me go drive(30 mins each), there was no water left in the radiator and once it was out of gas. We would just dump in more fuel and water and send the next person out. Oh and I forgot to mention, this Citroen ran on only 3 of the 4 cylinders. (Thanks again Spank) The weekend was a horrible failure for our team, but fun for me and filled me with the desire to continue this hobby. On a final note on that Citoen DS for those of you who do not know, Spank drove it out to the east coast to enter it in a race then I believe he gave it away.. haha classic.
The next race we planned to do, we ended up not having the funds for, the RV needed work, I was in between jobs again, and my friend could not make the event anyways. We skipped it, and waited until June 2011 for the Chump Car race at Buttonwillow when we had the Spitfire ready, had the money, the time off, and found a 4th driver to join us. My father’s neighbor had shown interest in our crap can racer and came along with his father to help out for the weekend. We had a great time, did some drinking mostly between my friend and I, and had a solid 14 hour strait race with only some oil leaked and burnt off. We used up an extra 4 quarts of oil but that low compression 1500 motor slowly got us around the track the whole 14 hours. My friend called me the Sunday driver cause I was limping the car around the track in the 98deg heat in the worst part of the day, while he managed our fastest lap for the weekend. I never wanted to push the car, I wanted to finish. Giving the car time to cool during my runs may or may not have saved the motor, but it felt like the right thing to do. Once it cooled down we all ran much faster stints. The last few, I might add, where in pitch dark and we had stock headlights. This lead to 2 scary last stints for my friend and I but we managed to do it. The Chump Races are great, but they are a different world from LeMons. Yes the cars are $500 before safety gear, but it is one class and normally only 25-40 cars. Nothing like the 120+ cars LeMons races have, with cars in our lap time range. In other words, our Spitfire does not compete in Chump very well. We did end up being awarded the Chumpiest Chumps award for our horrible car amazingly running the whole 14 hour race. Good weekend, we learned a lot and met the first goal of finishing the race while having fun.
Our next race we had to drop my friend as a driver, he got his licence restricted. We picked up my father’s neighbor who has been a great help and good driver, and a MG driver from VARA. This was another Chump Car race but at AutoClub Speedway in Fontana mid October. For this race we put in a motor from one of the parts cars we picked up which had a little bit more power. We also dropped the over drive transmission for a standard 4 speed. We were not using the over drive anyway and people who build Spitfires for the road really want them so we sold it. Also added a Weber carburetor, replaced the motor driven fan with an electric one, and replaced the stock catalytic converter containing exhaust for strait through headers and pipe. The car ran much stronger with this set up. We started out running rather well and all were enjoying the day. It just so happens there is this drift pin in the transmission bell housing that holds the clutch arm in. My dad had pointed out to me (while pulling the 4 speed transmission out of the parts car) that under race conditions it gets so hot this pin will just slide out. We agreed we would change it..... Well we didn’t, we forgot, completely spaced on it. After about 5 hours into the 7 hour day, the poor driver who we had on the track all of a sudden had the clutch arm slam into the clutch and lock the car up. We got it towed into the pits and after some wrenching and fussing with it someone figured it out. We grabbed our 3rd transmission and swapped it in that evening. While looking over the car we noticed we had a nasty flat spot on one of our tires. We grabbed the hard low traction spare tires and by a vote of 3-1 against my dad, we mounted them on the back and put the good tires on the front, thinking it would be best to have the steering. We then had dinner, my father and I had some beers and we all went to bed for the night.
The next morning we went out racing again, not the slowest car on the track, and now with horrible rear tires, the first driver spun many times. Our second driver went out and got hit, this lead to us being black flagged, and the decision was made to swap the low traction tires to the front for a controlled push. We ran a couple more hours then we started to hear this horrible knocking sound coming from the rear end. The car was pulling funny but was still drivable so we just kept going. It was quite funny hearing that knocking sound from the pits as the Spitfire went by. Then we were meat balled (black flag with red dot indicating the car has problems) off the track. The car was blowing oil on the track and smoking. We stood there and looked at it and thought we blew the main seal, and with the unknown issue causing the knocking sound, and only two hours or so left we called it quits. Not a bad weekend, not a great weekend, but was fun, we all got plenty of track time, made some passes, and we learned. 10 hours out of 14 was not bad for us. We did not win any awards, though I did not expect too, besides that is not the point.
Once home and rested and a week passed, we got to working on the car. What was that knocking sound? We got under the car and noticed some of the problems. One of the u-joints was falling apart, one of our rear shocks had busted. My pops said he would order the parts and next weekend we could replace the u-joints and rebuilt the others, and we can mount the shocks John from Chump Car gave us next weekend. We did exactly that, then when we putted the car around the back yard, I could still hear that clunk clunk clunk. We got the car on jack stands and spun the back tires while my dad watched and he noticed that only one wheel spun and the other shook. He then tried to stop the tire that spun and could not. The diff was shot to hell. There was only power going to one wheel, the other side gear was just skipping. This was causing the car to pull and turn better one way then the other and make that horrible clunking sound. I then said I will go rip the diff and leaf spring off the parts car and come back another night so we can swap it. This we did, and we added a spacer under the leave spring lowering the rear end and adding more camber. In the end it was all worth it. My dad got the front seal changed but noticed it was not that bad. He was kind of confused as to how all that oil got everywhere.
We got the car back together, and bought new tires. Damn, I do not recommend anyone race with 13” wheels in LeMons anymore. With the tire selection allowed with the LeMons rules (190 tread ware or greater) your stuck with horrible highway tires, or struggling to find tires with good traction that will put you back over $550.00 for the set of four, plus mounting costs. In crap can racing spending that much on tires for us is not acceptable. We will be upgrading to a 15” wheel after we finish off these tires we have decided. As we were changing the oil, plugs, and tightening everything down, my dad noticed the oil filter was cranked down really tight and the rubber seal was smashed. I was the one who put it on, and believe it was my fault. We could have finished that race if I would not have not over tightened he filter, or we figured out where the leak was from at the track, but still the diff could have gotten worse and cause a crash. I still felt dumb about cranking down the oil filter, I must have not been thinking as I know better. We were now set for another attempt at Arse Freeze Apalooza Dec. 3-4 2011, and man was I excited. We had 3 drivers, plenty of spares parts, and high hopes.
My dad ended up selling his classic VARA racing Spitfire and put the money towards a new motor home and at the last min decided to move everything over from the old motor home so we could take it to the race. It is a nice ride, we managed to get everything we needed to the track with us and it was nice to sleep in. This selling of his classic VARA racer gives my dad more time, and having the newer motor home, the eagerness to drive and tow further. wWich means more LeMons races. So no Chump races planned for 2012 only LeMons which I think is awesome, I enjoy Chump Car, but LeMons so much more.
Back to the Arse Freeze Apalooza ‘11, we hit a snag in a form of not passing safety tech inspection. My fault mostly, as team captain it is my responsibility to check the rules. So we went there under the wrong assumption that because we passed last year, and we passed ChumpCar’s tech all year we would have no problems. Oh we were wrong. The new rules required larger spreader plates, and after there being a pretty bad wreck at a different LeMons race earlier this year still in their minds, they failed us. We needed to buff up the spreader plates on the bottom of our cage and add more padding around the driver. We did not have a welder with us so we wheeled the car down to the race shop and the guy quoted us $300.00. Shit... We decided it is not worth trying to scramble up the metal and welder from someone in the pits and handed over the car. We were not the only ones, many teams faced this problem. The shop was backed up, it took him six hours to do a max of a three hour job. What frustrated us, is the guy wanted to charge us $100 an hour, not for the actual work time he put in to the car. My pops worked it out with this eh hem, gentleman, and he paid $349.00. This was just one more thing we did not need to be paying for but we were there to race and race we did. I later paid my dad for half this expense though, being the way he is, he was not going to ask me for it. With the car back and safety tech closed till morning, all we could do was hang out. So we ate, and put back a few and relaxed. That night got so cold. We were outside drinking and people were playing pool, yes pool, on a table Spank’s team brought as a bribe. We awoke early Saturday morning, ate breakfast, got the car started and warmed up. I decided with my dad being frustrated the day before with the whole tech failing and money situation that I would take the car to tech and handle it myself. While there I could tell we did what they asked and Jay was going to pass us, but I could tell he was not at ease with our car, the fuel cell is very close to the rear bumper, and this old shit can has no modern impact crumple zones. (This is what led me to recently email him pics asking what he would like us to do for 2012 so we wont face a tech failure again).But he passed us, I thanked him and we got registration done. .. more boring stuff .. blah blah.. We put our other driver in the car to start the race and off he went. He came in to early, he was black flagged for passing under yellow, then debated with the LeMons judges which is a no no. This sucks, but was partly my fault. This is his first Lemons even and I forgot to give him a heads up on how crazy it is on track with 120+ cars and hot to treat the LeMons crew. When he came in he mentioned the car was still pulling to the right under breaking, a problem we thought we fixed. The car was drivable so we just dealt with it for the day. I got a clean stint done then handed the car over to my dad. He went out and soon also got a black flag for passing under a yellow flag. I was off watching the race with my girlfriend and her friend as they had just arrived. I noticed the Spitfire was not on track so I went and found my dad cooking food and not driving. He had to make them lunch because of it being our second black flag, part of the strange punishments in Lemons. While our other driver was on track, just shit luck, he was rear ended. LeMons has an “all fault” contact rule. So we were black flagged again and received a one hour penalty. I was kinda frustrated and at this point told my other drivers “We are slow, there are only like 3 cars on that track you should be passing, if you are passing any other cars, your doing something wrong. Don’t pass unless you can see the flag station and there is no yellow flag.” This is something I should have told them before we started, LeMons racing is chaotic, you need to be very aware. Now I know my dad knows better but he has been doing lots of short sprint racing in his classic VARA racer and the mentality is different. So I was not mad, just frustrated. I sat out there with the car in the penalty box until the judges came to me. The said they were going to forgive one of our black flags and let us back out on the track, but if we get another its a 3 hour penalty and a 4th we are finished for the weekend. I explained to them what I told my other drivers and they laughed and said it sounded about right. They realized I was the driver with no incidents yet and said go out there and show us a clean hour. I did just that, then we finished out the day clean. We worked on the car some that night to get the breaks as even as we could for Sunday, then had dinner, drinks and watched some live punk music. I got pretty loaded and swapped some stories with this English guy who was racing on one of the Camaro teams. The next morning I went out first and we had a great day, no black flags, and only one issue when the throttle got stuck open. No big deal. Good times a great day to finish out our weekend. Now we originally were up for the big prize in LeMons racing which is call the Index of Effluency. But with our rough start on Saturday, and just some other wild, crazy, funny moments by other teams, we were out shined. They gave it to Spank and his four car twelve person team, no surprise there. His cars are horribly awesome and the group did a great job and got less penalties with four cars then we did with out one. We ended up finishing fourth in class C and 61st out of 131 teams over all. I was happy with it. A notable team was the winners of class C the Zombees. They drive this beat up 70s MGB made up to look like a bee and racing with them was a blast, they had more power and we had better handling. We once again learned, improved and had a great time.
After that weekend it brings us to now. Our next race is March 23-24 2012, Sears Pointless at Infineon Raceway. We have a list of things to do and I believe I have found us a 4th driver for this one, as my friend won’t have his licence back until April. Things are looking good and I can’t wait to get working on the car again.
OK so now to a complaint... Did our government really take away our civil right to a trial in favor of detaining citizens without trial, on terms of suspicion? That is nuts! We have just lost one of our fundamental rights. Now I am not saying I would vote for the guy but Ron Paul was right when he said,
“We’re talking about American citizens who can be taken from the United States and sent to a camp at Guantanamo Bay and held indefinitely,”
And that shit is scary......
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