NJSPEEDER
07-31-2006, 03:51 PM
we had two races last week and things didn't work out.
wednesday night was a charity race to benefit the MS society. nice event, basically had to go because the track was handing out 50 championship points to everyone who showed up. the car was ok in the heat, made it into the feature but the weather was changing fast. this is where the fun begins :roll:
since it was hot as hell and they were doing a little bit of grooming to the track before the features we figured the track woudl react the same way it did last time they did prep work before the features. we expected a dry, smooth, slick condition and set the car up accordingly. if this was baseball i woudl say getting 1 out of 3 right is ok, but since it is racing you can guess the results. randy was left fighting a car that handled more like a dump truck than a race car and had to baby it home for a pathetic 12th place finish.
fast forward to saturday night, jsut when we thought we had it all figured out again.
randy goes out for warm ups and the track was soaked. during hot laps he hit a puddle and the result was the #99 spinning into the turn 3 fence....hard into the fence. two wheels, the front axle(these cars used beam type front ends), and some misc. bolt on goodies took teh shot.
here is the set up for the decision we made, randy is in 11th in points, only 25points out of 8th, teh 8th place driver has been banned for the year because of on/off track incidents, the 9th place guy got wadded up two weeks ago and isn't back together yet, and the 10th place car hurt a motor wednesday night and didn't amke it. we saw this huge point opportunity and sprung into action, we thought to save the day.
since there were only 24 cars and that is how many they start in the feature we had time to get the spare front axle and everything else sorted out. we set the car up as best we could with randy's **** spares and sitting on uneven dirt instead of a nice smooth garage floor.
randy goes out for the feature, starts 22nd and takes it easy for a few laps to feel the car out. everything is going fine, car isn't right, but good enough that he can race with it.
so he proceeds to start picking guys off one at a time, i couldn't believe it, the car was actually getting better with every lap. we finally guessed right and the track was coming to us!!!
and then.......................it all went to ****.
caution came out, not normally a big deal, but the track was extremely slick and smooth. green flies, everybody makes it through one and two ok, they all get into turn three and someone at teh front of the pack got a bit crossed up. in the course of everyone checking up(remember, we are talking about bumper to bumper racing at 100+mph) randy got tapped from behind, 2 drivers got stuck with no place to go and piled into him.
the result for the evening is a bent front clip($750 for a new one installed), 3 bent wheels($75 each to repair), 6 radius rods($60 for a new set), front panhard rod($45), at least 3 heim ends(about $12 each), 2 front axles bent($25 each to press straight), assorted suspension brackets(about $400 worth), left rear bird cage($150ish), and 2 tie rods(around $75 each plus two heims each at $12 a piece)
the body is also going to require a few hours of work to repair and he may need to buy a new left side rub rail if we can't hack this one back into place.
i am home long enough to make some dinner and then i will be running to the shop. we will get it all back together in time for saturday night, it is jsut gonna take some elbow grease to get it all done.
also, jsut to add to the excitement, randy cut his hadn very badly working on the car last night. he now has 3 stitches in his thumb and can't really tighten anything himself. this week is gonna be a blast. thank god the hot weather is here to help too :roll:
wednesday night was a charity race to benefit the MS society. nice event, basically had to go because the track was handing out 50 championship points to everyone who showed up. the car was ok in the heat, made it into the feature but the weather was changing fast. this is where the fun begins :roll:
since it was hot as hell and they were doing a little bit of grooming to the track before the features we figured the track woudl react the same way it did last time they did prep work before the features. we expected a dry, smooth, slick condition and set the car up accordingly. if this was baseball i woudl say getting 1 out of 3 right is ok, but since it is racing you can guess the results. randy was left fighting a car that handled more like a dump truck than a race car and had to baby it home for a pathetic 12th place finish.
fast forward to saturday night, jsut when we thought we had it all figured out again.
randy goes out for warm ups and the track was soaked. during hot laps he hit a puddle and the result was the #99 spinning into the turn 3 fence....hard into the fence. two wheels, the front axle(these cars used beam type front ends), and some misc. bolt on goodies took teh shot.
here is the set up for the decision we made, randy is in 11th in points, only 25points out of 8th, teh 8th place driver has been banned for the year because of on/off track incidents, the 9th place guy got wadded up two weeks ago and isn't back together yet, and the 10th place car hurt a motor wednesday night and didn't amke it. we saw this huge point opportunity and sprung into action, we thought to save the day.
since there were only 24 cars and that is how many they start in the feature we had time to get the spare front axle and everything else sorted out. we set the car up as best we could with randy's **** spares and sitting on uneven dirt instead of a nice smooth garage floor.
randy goes out for the feature, starts 22nd and takes it easy for a few laps to feel the car out. everything is going fine, car isn't right, but good enough that he can race with it.
so he proceeds to start picking guys off one at a time, i couldn't believe it, the car was actually getting better with every lap. we finally guessed right and the track was coming to us!!!
and then.......................it all went to ****.
caution came out, not normally a big deal, but the track was extremely slick and smooth. green flies, everybody makes it through one and two ok, they all get into turn three and someone at teh front of the pack got a bit crossed up. in the course of everyone checking up(remember, we are talking about bumper to bumper racing at 100+mph) randy got tapped from behind, 2 drivers got stuck with no place to go and piled into him.
the result for the evening is a bent front clip($750 for a new one installed), 3 bent wheels($75 each to repair), 6 radius rods($60 for a new set), front panhard rod($45), at least 3 heim ends(about $12 each), 2 front axles bent($25 each to press straight), assorted suspension brackets(about $400 worth), left rear bird cage($150ish), and 2 tie rods(around $75 each plus two heims each at $12 a piece)
the body is also going to require a few hours of work to repair and he may need to buy a new left side rub rail if we can't hack this one back into place.
i am home long enough to make some dinner and then i will be running to the shop. we will get it all back together in time for saturday night, it is jsut gonna take some elbow grease to get it all done.
also, jsut to add to the excitement, randy cut his hadn very badly working on the car last night. he now has 3 stitches in his thumb and can't really tighten anything himself. this week is gonna be a blast. thank god the hot weather is here to help too :roll: