Mixed Ending to the Season for the #99(long)

[NJSPEEDER]

the year in review is sorta ending on a sour note after some good times and good finishes this year.
in randy's first full season racing for points in a sportsman car he managed a 9th place finihs in the points. a few highlights were several trips inside the top ten, highlighted by a 6th place mid season.
finishing this far up in the points in his first season is really a big deal. it really says a lot about his ability to think his way around the car both on and off the track.
i am sure some of you read, and those that are closer to us prolly heard me cursing about, the two serious on track incidents randy was involved in this season. even though the outdated equipment and bent frame coudl still be worked around to get through the season, it appears that it is now destined for the scrap heap.
the minimum, if everything pulls back straight on the first try, it will cost to repair the frame is somewhere in the $1700-1900 range. with a brand new chassis only costing about $2400 you can see why the decision is so clear cut.
a used chassis is an option, but not much of a savings since Lawrence Engineering is more of a boutique company and many of the teams current bolt on parts would not transfer over.
the sponsorship hunt has already started. if anyone has any suggestions, contacts, or friends who would be interested in throwing a few bucks in to get their name on the car shoot me a PM, we need all the help we can get.
the real shame of it is that the car, even when all bent up, never stopped working. even at the last race of the season, before some motor trouble(ate some debris and pinched a header tube shut), randy was fighting in the top 5.
the team did achieve most of it's goals this year, top 10 in points, some top 10 finishes, and making every feature of the season. only one we missed was that we wanted to get a few top 5's, came close to that one a few times.
next year, the plan is to get wins and get into the championship hunt.

/rant

[Bandit]

Good news finishing in the top 10 Join SEMA, I am looking into sponsorship for our race corporation and there is alot of red tape you need to fill out.. OMG

Its not an easy process thats for sure and looks like you get parts instead of money.

[NJSPEEDER]

we have no problem with anyone who wants to offer up new parts for our team. lol
that is one of the biggest issues we had this year, 99% of the car is 5 or more years out of date. we started the season with a new chassis(thanks to a sponsor) and 4 new wheels(thanks to another sponsor), everything else on the car is second , third, or even 4th hand.
to give you an idea of the shoestring budget this was done with, big dollar teams buy new rears every other week, moderate teams will buy new rears once a month, randy only had enough money to buy new rear tires once all season, and one of them was only bought because it the one on the car got cut. the rest of the tires we burned through this year were cast offs from other teams. lol

[Mike]

tim, ill have my dad ask around hit me up on aim for some pricing ideas, and if he gets any serious bites, ill pm you phone numbers

[johnjzjz]

What do you use for a motor and how many do you guys have ?? i think i asked this before but cant remember hahahhahha jz

[Tru2Chevy]

The motor is a chevy 350, with a 500 cfm holley 2bbl carb. He has two motors, neither are very good. Last I heard Randy wasn't 100% sure what he is going to do as far as motors go, but I think he is going to have the one he finished the season on freshened up this winter, and then see if there is anything he can do to fix the problems with the other motor.

- Justin

[johnjzjz]

i need more info about what can be done cam heads porting if any compression rod length maybe i can help --- never been involved with roundy cars but i won 3 AMA National championships -- one on a Harley buell and 2 same year same bike 2 different classes suz 650 twin its in my shop being converted for street driving will send pictures --- the 1998 is the harley and the rider was given one on the 2000 plates from us same rider 3 #1 plates and now we are building 2 1920 j series board track racers for my rider dont have the link but if you type in board track racer it will come up what we are involved in can send pictures also -- jz

[NJSPEEDER]

the rules are based on older DIRT engine rules.
limited to 358 inches, must use a holley 500cfm 2bbl carb, no limits on compression, must use a DIRT stamped intake(it is just an off the shelf dart intake really), and there is a very very short list of heads that can be used.
dart IE 180's are the hot ticket right now, old style bow ties are legal but not good enough anymore, and you can run vortecs but you are limited to 9:1 if you do.
officially there is no porting, gasket matching, or other machine work allowed to the head casting itself. in reality a winning set of heads will cost in excess of $4k pretty easily, that is on top of the pruchase price of bare heads.
you are allowed to run any cam you want, it jsut can't have any kind of roller tappet.
the bottom end is pretty straight forward, based around stock stuff mostly. SBC's can only use 5.7 steel rods and very very few aftermarket cranks are appoved for use.
the guys with all the top shelf **** wil routinely spend 20-25k on a motor to give you an idea of what we are up against. you can prolly tell that this is a big budget cheaters paradise. someday we hope to join them. :D

[johnjzjz]

OK what is it you have with the broken motor and how broke is it -- so flat tappet ( solid ) 2 barr carb w/ fixed intake 358 is a motor with an after market crank 3,50 stroke instead of 3.48 stock crank -- i am guessing i one or 2 piece seal blocks ?/ - i don't get the cost on the heads if you cant do anything to them -- acid dipping what does drive the cost if you cant port --- 180 s are iron or alloy ??? - do you or can you get me a real rule book on the motor -- i had been told the guy checking had left and the cheating is rampart in dirt now don't know that to be true -- in road racing we added dye to the fuel and re corrected the ports on the heads after every race but its a lot of work --- not porting -- correction -- hahahahaha porting anyway -- let me know how broken the spair is maybe i can help -- jz

[NJSPEEDER]

everything you can think of is done to the heads. it is just covered up and blended to look "as cast". half the money is jsut in parts, titanium **** costs dough.
these motors are not very advanced, but they are researched to hell. every shop has a "secret" cam and no head service will realease any flow numbers.
basically, if you actually built an engine with in the rules, or even with in site of the rules, you wouldn't have a snowball's chance in hell of winning.

[johnjzjz]

i would still like to see for myself if what you have is REAL OR SMOAKING MIRRORS -- JZ

[NJSPEEDER]

well, it isn't what we have. what we have is crap. lol
the guys who spend themoney really do get big numbers. like 500+hp on the dyno from some of them. some of the companies even gaurantee the motor will dyno 475+ on any dyno you wanna take it to.
i jsut talked to randy. the one engine will be heading to bitner race engines in trenton. i know for a fact that the old bowtie heads aren't going back on it. i will see if i can grab them for you to check out.

[johnjzjz]

i you want let me see the stuff your guy is throwing away maybe i can make you guys a back up motor for next to nothing i am willing to look at all you have and than deside if theirs enough to make a go at it --- jz

[NJSPEEDER]

we will see. no money will be spent on back up parts until we have a really solid primary set up together. we need to get the whole car up to date to win a championship, so there prolly won't be anything left for a back up motor.