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2006 news
September 23rd 2006
Well, it took us a while, but we finally have a definitive idea of the
cause for our intake valve breakage this season. Seems the lower gear we
changed to for this season which only allowed an additional 150 RPM on the
racetrack under load, would allow the engine to spin over 8400 RPM in a
WOT spin (verified on the tattle tale), allowing the valve train to float
and bounce the valves and eventually break the intake valves (Our max RPM
for Safety of the valve train is 7700 RPM). Failures would occur within
the 25 laps following a spin and we finally put 2 and 2 together. While we
are busy fixing our engines, we will be doing 2 things for the 2007
season. We will lower the gear ratio and we will install a rev limiter
chip in the MSD. We never ran a rev limit chip in the past because we had
never seen this high an RPM before (7800 max in a spin in the past). Live
and Learn.....
September 9th 2006
Well, we put our 2004 chassis into the shop last week and put another
new motor in the car and set it up with a new shock package. No Chance to
practice on Friday, so we went into Saturday's event with a car that has
been sitting since last year. We had brake problems and didn't get much
practice, so we headed into Saturdays qualifying with an unknown. Drawing
the first slot for qualifying, Scott laid down an 18.42 lap which would
end up only 18th for the start of Saturdays main event. While moving
through the field in the feature, we were hit in the rear exiting turn two
by the 37 car and spun a complete 360 down the backstretch and kept going,
but a couple of cars checked up behind us and caused a caution, and by the
rules, sent us to the back. Restarting back in 28th place, Scott drove the
car to an 11th place finish. Our luck seems to be improving....
August 19th 2006
Well, at least we're consistent, Broken Intake valve in our 2004 car
put it in the trailer after 1 lap in Fridays practice and left us with one car for
Saturdays "twin 50" race. So we worked hard on the 2006 car and made it
better, but unfortunately only qualified it in 16th. I say unfortunately,
because another first lap crash in turn 4 got us. The impact with the
spinning cars tore the right front wheel and suspension off the chassis
ending our night. I will never understand these drivers that try to win
the race on the first lap....
July 29th 2006
Well the race today was challenging but it turned out OK at the end.
Started early practice by breaking a rear axle track locator bracket and
bent the left lower trailing arm, in the process cutting down the left
rear tire and sending Scott spinning through the grass. No other damage,
no problem, we thrashed the car back together and qualified 17th (one
tenth off the pole- tight field) and ran the car up to 7th in the main,
getting passed late in the race to finish 9th. Another top ten is OK. We
make the car 1 to 2 tenths faster every week, hopefully it will have a
little more in her....
July 8th 2006
Lots of testing and practice and we are starting to get a handle on
these tires and what our new car likes. Too loose all night, qualified
15th but it was fast and predictable during the feature and Scott drove it
all the way to 7th and got the hard charger trophy!! We would still rather
be in the top 3.....
June 24th 2006
Terrible Luck Continued as we were collected by an out of control car
2 rows in front of us on the start and tore the entire nose off the car at
the start/finish line before getting even 1 lap into the race.....We are
making progress with the set up though....
June 3rd 2006
We had good luck all night, but not such a good chassis set up for the
main event. We had an ignition box fail during qualifying, allowing us to
qualify only 12th. But the worst thing about the ignition problem is we
weren't able to see just what our tire/chassis set up could do and in the
main, it wasn't good. At least mechanically it was a great night and we
put it into the trailer in one piece. We will test again on Friday the
9th, hopefully we can get the chassis figured out....
June 2nd 2006
All was good at practice last night, turning laps of 18:30 on old
tires and a greasy Friday night track. Hopefully we will have some luck
tonight! Come out and cheer us on, racing starts at 7:00pm, hope to see
you there! Be sure to come by our trailer for free Pictures!
June 1st 2006
Geez....haven't had anything to say for a while. Broken valves hurt
all of our engines, and like Rome, the pistons we needed can't be made in
a day. Finally got our custom made pistons from J&E and had our main
engine on the Dyno last Wednesday. Thanks to James at Auto Pro Racing
Engines for helping!! This engine made great power, so it's in the car for
practice on Friday June 2nd and if all goes well, racing this Saturday
night June 3rd!! (we all have our fingers crossed!)
Saturday April 15th
Well, believe it or not it
rained again last night, so again, no practice on Friday night. Sounds
like a broken record huh?!? Anyway, with both of our main engines hurt,
we were forced to run our emergency engine for Saturdays event. This motor
is down about 50 HP but is very reliable and durable and got us qualified
in 7th for the main event. This also got us into the trophy dash
(finished 7th after Scott missed a shift on the start) and we finished a
very solid 11th in the main event. All in all an excellent outing for our
wounded program. Hope to have both of our main engines done for May......
Friday March 31st
Finally a practice date
without rain, and unfortunately another broken valve, this time an exhaust
valve! Wow, what is that old saying, "if it weren't for bad luck, we
wouldn't have no luck at all...." Obviously we will not be able to make
the race tomorrow night.
Saturday March 25th 2006
Well, still no Friday
testing as rain cancelled open practice again. We were 4th fastest in
practice on Saturday only to make a change to the car that made it
un-drivable for qualifying. Started the main event in the back only to
break an intake valve in the #3 cylinder on lap 7. We ran it anyway
finally pulling off with only 2 laps to the end as the car was starting to
expel some oil and we didn't want to wreck anyone else. Hopefully it will
be dry and we can get out on the track on Friday to test......
Saturday March 18th 2006
Friday nights practice
session rained out, so still no laps on a brand new car! Surprisingly it
came out of the trailer and ran a 18.20 second lap for 7th fastest in
practice. Unfortunately, it rained before much else happened and the race
was cancelled for the second week in a row. That's ok, we need the rain
right? We will have both cars and the new hauler at the track for this
coming Saturdays scheduled 75 lap race- hope to see you there!
Saturday March 11th 2006
Opening Night Rained
out...we were ready! Still no practice with the new car so we don't know
what to expect.....They have rescheduled opening night to March 18th.
Hopefully we can get some practice with the new car next week.
Wednesday March 8th 2006
Opening night this
Saturday March 11th- weather permitting! We have been working hard
preparing both cars and we are almost ready, but it looks like rain may
delay the season opener. The new car is an awesome piece of equipment and
will definitely give us the opportunity to run well this year. Be sure to
stop by pit spot #1 and check it out!
Friday January 20th 2006
Well the new year is here
and coming up, a new racing season (YAHOO!!). We spent the winter in the
race shop on Jay's 1967 Chevelle, with a major back half project
(pics
here).
Our new Super Late Model Chassis is due to arrive from Greg Voigt Race
Cars in the next few weeks. We will have 2 cars ready for this season so
hopefully no repeats of last August (see below). We have updated our
schedule page, but this schedule is undoubtedly going to change. So far,
opening night is scheduled for Saturday March 11th.
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Super Late Model Racing Team