With a little help from our competitors we managed to put it up... up... up... and over. At this late point in the season, things are coming together for Scrat Daddy Racing. We finished in third place for the second week in a row in our heat race. The finishing place is not as exciting as our proximity to the leaders at the close of the race. Our main events have been riddled with potential both last week and this week. We were off to great starts holding with the leaders for five or six laps before being spun by a competitor (a different on each week)pushing our rear bumper around. Spinning us out two weeks in a row.
The full consequences of the being spun out on lap 6 were realized on lap 20 when our left rear wheel tore from the rotor just past the flagman. The car quickly slowed on the fastest part of the track. Mikol Westling quickly found himself working to avoid both a rapidly slowing car as well as a renegade Wheel and tire. Mikol danced through, but Shawn McCoy wasn't so fortunate. With only enough time to remove his foot from the gas pedal, Shawn's #60 plowed at full speed into our rear bumper; then frame: then fuel cell; and finally leaf springs before scooping up the car and flipping it over on our lid. When all havoc came to rest, I found myself still in my seat hanging from my belts, with both hands on the wheel. The only way out was to release the belts and drop to the roof and crawl out of my car.
The whole back end of the car is toast. We will be taking this opportunity to make some changes to the rear of the care that we were going to do in the upcoming off season. We hope to have the car back together and back out on the track for the last race in Aug. as well s the two in Sept. I've post some additional pictures of the carnage on the photos page. I'll update with our progress on the repairs.
Paul
July 11th 2005
We have finished 7th in the first two races of July. Despite finishing in the back half of the field, our racing program has made significant improvements over the last month. We tracked down our motor problem encountered in late June to an Ignition issue that was robbing us of some horsepower and throdle response. With a new distributor in place the car has come to life. We are much more competitive on the starts and restarts.
The July 2nd race was a breakthrough night for us. The Motor, the set-up and the driver were all working together for the first time. In the main event we were battling it out for fourth place 20 laps into the race with the leaders still in sight when we our left rear tire blew. Hamish and Greg did an outstanding job changing the tire in order to get us back on the track without loosing a lap. Great Job Guys!. With only a few laps to go, we were only able to pass a few cars that we had already lapped.
July 9th we found ourselves with a tacky track once again. After an earned 3rd place heat finish, we went for the same setup that had worked so well the week before. Once we got into the race, the track continued to get more tacky as the race progressed to the point that the care was too hooked and we found ourselves pointed towards the wall on more than one occasion scrubbing off valuable speed. This was the heaviest track we have run on to date. The good news is that we still have things we can do in terms of setup to handle it.
Keep your ears pealed at our next race. We will no longer be the quiet stealthy car on the track. Gary at A1A Performance Muffler fixed us up with some louder pipes so you'll be able to hear us coming!
June Update...
June has been a month of learnings... We are not performing as well as I would have liked by this point in the season. While we are have made great strides in keeping the car pointed in the right direction, we have run into mechanical issues during the last two races contributing to two consecutive DNFs.
On the positive, After 2 1/2 months of racing our Super Stock I have got a good feel for how the car should handle. Now we are working on getting the Driver and the Car working together. We have opened up dialog with the car in terms of setup. We changed the springs up front before the last race and it made the car much more friendly in the corner. Unfortunately we were not able to fully realize the benefits of the change due to a motor problem that dropped us out of the race. We have has some trouble tracking down the cause of the loss of horsepower. We will not be racing for the remainder of June as we are working to resolve the motor problem and the track will be dark on the last weekend of June.
We will be back for three and possibly a fourth in July and on through the remainder of the season.
May 28, 2005
Click... Click... Click... . If I was ten years old and had attaching playing cards to my bike I would consider Click... Click... Click... a good thing. If I had just won the lottery and was spinning for millions... Click... Click... Click... Would be a good thing. But when I am pushing the Scrat Daddy Racer into the garage on Sunday morning, and Click... Click... Click... is coming from the car, that's not a good thing.
Turns out our transmission was having some issues stemming from the race on May 21st. We pulled out the transmission and took it to Dave and his talented crew down at TRANSCO Transmissions for some T.L.C. The fellas at TRANSCO repaired the transmission, put it back together and got it back to us in plenty of time for Saturday's race.
From the setback of a transmission, Scrat Daddy Racing came out stronger in two ways. We have a transmission that is in much better shape that when we began the season, and we have a new sponsor in TRANSCO Transmissions. We are looking forward to working with Dave to help prevent future destruction of our transmissions as well as finding just the right combination of equipment and gearing for a reliable race car.
As for race action on May 28th... Mechanically the car worked perfectly. We were fortunate to get 25 un-interrupted green flag laps during the main event. Even though we were lapped by Woody and Mikol on ~ lap 20, we managed to tuck in behind and run with them for a few laps holding our own. (too bad we were a lap down). From the long run we were able to learn some things about the car and will be making some changes for next week. I believe the car has to potential to run with the leaders. Now that the driver has logged some seat time, we will work hard on getting the car and driver working together.
April 30, 2005
We achieved a few significant accomplishments this week.
For the first week, at no time was our car facing the wrong direction!
Even though is cost us positions at times, we managed to avoid all the spins and wrecks on the track (there were quite a few)
Through attrition and staying with the pack, the other cars' misfortunes opened the way for our 4th place finish in the main.
This weekend we were able to run the car an a smooth heavy track during the heat race. It took our driver most of the race to figure out how to best negotiate the corners. But, by the end of the heat race, we were ready to drive the main.
Unfortunately, the track began to dry up about the time of our main. During the main, we saw cars go from the front to the back, back to the front and back again. Through the main we had the opportunity to race just about everyone on the track at one time or another. The #59 Scrat Daddy Racer held it's own on several drag races on the front and back straight. Some how we managed to avoid the kayos while staying in the middle of the pack. Avoiding a wreck of the leaders on the final lap landed us our 2nd top 5 finish.
We will not be running for the next two weekends and will return to action on May 21st.
April 16, 2005
The taxes are done, and it's Race Day!
No rain all week and everything was dry, including the track! I found myself on the pole for the first time in the heat race. We got a really good start and managed to take the lead coming out of the Turn 2. No more than 1/2 lap later I found out just how dry the track was. I spun the car in Turn 4 and faced all those who were behind me. After getting the car headed in the right direction I joined the end of the pack due to a yellow caused by another car. Six laps into the race, there was another pile up in turn four. I managed to avoid, (well, I kind of drove over) the pile-up. This put me in third place. Coming to the checkered flag we were about three car lengths behind the #73 car when he spun in four giving us 2nd place.
Greg made some changes to the car so we could get some hook up on the dry slick. We started the main inside second row. The first fifteen laps went off without a hitch. We ran fourth for the first ~8 laps when Shawn McCoy took a trip through the infield yielding third place. On lap 15 a caution flag slowed the race. 3/4 of a lap into the restart, Shawn McCoy drove through our left rear, taking us out and leaving us with a flat left rear. Nice meeting you Shawn! My crew quickly went to work changing our tire and got me back into the race a few laps down. We finished the race somewhere in back, but had lots of fun doing it. As always, Thanks to my Crew, G. , Larry, Hamish, and Pops.
Thanks to Streamline Painting for the new wheels and tires (They came in pretty handy this week) and to Jay and Bill"s Tire Service for mounting them up in time for Saturday's race.
April 2, 2005: Our 2nd outing in the Scrat Daddy Racer saw some break throughs in our program. After working with the jetting both last week and this week I think we have the motor dialed in. Our heat race was a bit lack luster as I spun the car in turn four while trying to pass the next to last place car.
The main event is where everything came alive. Greg made some adjustments for the drying track while Freddie coached me on getting the car set into the turn and Mikol told me the "dry slick eggshell dance." (I think I broke the eggshell about lap ten). From the drop of the green flag we were right in the thick of things. About half way through the race we received a rear bumper destroying hit from one of our fellow racers after taking the yellow flag. I managed to balance the bumper abuse when I spun in turn 4 and found myself nose to nose with the number 2 car. Once we got things straightened out on the track, we found ourselves running in 3rd place with two laps to go. In the excitement to the sprint to the finish, I buzzed the tires on the restart and lost 2 positions. We finished 5th but were bumped up to 4th due to another car ahead of us being DQ'd.
March 26, 2005: This was our First night out in competition with the Scrat Daddy Racer. Our goal for the night was to Keep the car in one piece, headed the right (or left) direction, and learn something every lap. Mission Accomplished.
March 12, 2005: Playday First Public appearance of the #59 Super Stock (Looking a bit naked without its letters)
