Spank the Builder - 24 Hour of LeMons - Thunderhill Race - September 13th-14th 2014

What an awesome weekend! The Moke ran great and everyone loved Mike's (Spank) theme based on the Bob the Builder children's show. It was wonderful to be back at a 24 hour of LeMons race again and being on this team just made it all the sweeter. Thunderhill is a really fun track, and the new section bringing it to over 5 miles per lap just added to the enjoyment. On top of all that, there was also something quiet special going on at this race...


Starting Grid Photo - Judge Phil (AKA Murilee Martin)



This event had so many cars start that it was officially a world record attempt for the most cars in an endurance race! As long as the data is accepted it will soon become official. There were some 222 cars in the picture above, but the recorded number was 217 as a handful of cars broke down before the green flag dropped. So many fantastic piles of junk...





In the typical 24 hour of LeMons event fashion, there were lots of great themes and things to see.. but damn it was hot so I did not spend much time away taking pictures. There was one team (besides ours) that really stood out beyond all the rest...




Limping around Peugeot Photo - Judge Phil (AKA Murilee Martin)

The Peugeot Daddy 1963 Peugeot 404 sedan - this team was horrible in all the right ways.. slow awesome car, annoying yet well done theme, and they even played french music out of the car all weekend. Man did that car look awesome racing limping around the track. Word is their fastest lap time was actually under full course caution! Congrats to this team for completely dominating...


ZomBee Hauling Ass Photo - Judge Phil (AKA Murilee Martin)

Just because I like the car and the team so much.. it was great to see the ZomBees back on track whom, by the way, got a rebuilt motor put in and ran some amazingly fast laps for a little british car. Shout out to ZomBee Nation! Sadly though, with all this greatness there were a few bad moments of the weekend..


Damaged Volvo 1800 Photo - Judge Phil (AKA Murilee Martin)

The guys who run a Volo 1800 put their car into the wall, but thankfully no one was hurt. The car had a well built cage by the Evil Genius Racing shop that stood up to the hard impact. Hopefully the team will shake it off and return with an equally sexy ride. Also a VW rabbit flipped and I heard a lady crashed her quad in the pits.. Yikes!


Tractor on track Photo - Judge Phil (AKA Murilee Martin)

Now back to the grand team I was a part of.. we were told many times over how sweet the tractor looked going around the track and course we all agreed. The theme came together nicely, Spank's Moke ran great all weekend, and was so damn much fun to drive. I remember clearly the first 15mins of my last stint on Sunday just smiling and laughing while racing the Moke Tractor side by side with the other cars.. it was surprisingly quick and handled pretty nicely to boot! Well and would't you just know it....?



We won an award!!! The highly desired "Organizer's Choice". This basically means you're team & car put smiles on the faces of the event organizers and kept out of trouble.. from all the positive feedback, it was not just the organizers that were smiling, many others at the event got a lot of childhood joy seeing a tractor go around the race track. I am just glad I was apart of it and that people liked my Spud the Scarecrow costume head.

Ah what a weekend but for now it is.. back to the cubicle.

More LeMons Race Prep - Mini Moke for Thunderhill

It was a hot weekend - lots of wrenching and sweat on Saturday. We got the better seat in to be more comfortable, some brake work done, had pizza, a few beers, and lots more bull shitting around.



The car was running, the brakes worked, and was basically ready for tech.. but then I decided to start taking the cooling system off the car because Mike/Spank had a better radiator to put on. But, well... I did not get very far, it is only half mounted, and the hoses are not hooked up yet. It won't take much more to get it running again. Hopefully Mike can get more done this week, but we always have Friday night at the track. The theme work has not been started yet on the car either... so there is still that. Speaking of theme work, I finally got started on mine.



It began with me reading up on how to make a mascot costume head and the main parts where a cheap hard hat and stiff insulation foam board.. so I bought the foam insulation board, the hard hat, and opted for duct tape over glue because LeMons. I figured, how hard could it really be?



Well I got to work and what a mess.. I did not have the proper tool to cut the foam, which would be an electric hot knife, and used a small hand saw to cut the starting shape. The head of my character is basically big and round.



I knew that the center and widest part of the head needed to be just above my eye level so the hard hat would have to go above it. I cut a hole in the center to fit my head. Following, with absolute detailed precision, I cut some arches to make a frame for the top.



As I started to duct tape the hard hat in place, I thought it would be smart to use some stick shaped objects to hold things in place better.. really not needed but figured, this shit is serious so might as well. It all was then cleanly secured with duct tape.





With the top frame complete, I cut out some more pieces for the bottom and also, with my amazing handy work, securely attached them. Now the frame was done. Mind you this was hours later in humid hot weather, I believed getting to this point would only be 30-45mins.. haha no.





Using the high quality materials at my disposal, whatever scrap was laying around in my father's garage and some more duct tape, the top of the head took form. Things were coming along so nicely, I was in awe of my artistic abilities. (At this point, my back hurt and I was sweating and needed a beer. It was a Lagunitas IPA, which was damn good too. There went 15mins.)



Once stuffed, it was sealed up using exactly measured and placed strips of duct tape.. just look at it.. are you impressed yet? I had to give it a test ride to see how it would work..



Totally freaking rad, am I right? Damn I'm sexy... It takes time and effort to achieve such greatness, but of course it is not complete. The details of the face must be applied and are to be finished over the next few nights after work. To see the costume completed, you will have to check back next week as this is my last post until after the race. Only a few days left!

For now, it's back to the cubicle

The Mini Moke - Prepping for the LeMon's Race at Thunderhill

The team got together to work on this fine racing machine in preparation for the 24 hour of LeMons - Vodden the Hell Are We Doing? race at Thunderhill Raceway Park. The first plan was to pull the motor out of another Mini to swap in the race motor to test.



While Spank worked on the race motor, the rest of the team (Rob-above right, my Dad-above left, and I) took the motor out of the other Mini. Pretty much that was about as far as we got before my Dad and I had to take off.



Pretty basic day.. was nice to get wrenching again and b.s. with the team. Next weekend we have a lot more to accomplish but also more time to work. Being on a team with the two guys who got me started into this wonderful mess of a racing league, is a great spot to be in.



No matter the result and as long as no one gets injured, the race should be a blast. I have raced a classic Mini before, but never this heavily modified beast crap can. Still haven't started my theme costume and the race is only 8 days away.. time to get busy.

24 hour of LeMons - Thunderhill - Sept 2014 - Vodden the Hell Are We Doing?

Ann Arbor MI -- Today Car and Driver reported that Colin Craft, against the advice of mental-health professionals, will compete in the 24 Hours of LeMons -- a wheel-to-wheel car race for heaps that cost $500 or less. Craft's team -- the unpromisingly named "idioti curse o masina pentru idioti" -- hits your local track on 09/13/2014 to 09/14/2014, where therapists and junkyard operators are already standing by. 

One relative, on condition of anonymity, described Craft's family as "...saddened but unsurprised" by the news. "Unfortunately, we've come to expect such lapses in judgment," the source told C/D.

Friends, coworkes, and relatives interested in staging an intervention and/or watching Craft do something incredibly embarrassing can find more information at Car and Driver's LeMons minisite or LeMons' race-info page.

Yes you read that right.. I will be joining up with a different team for my next 24 hour of LeMons race. It will be at Thunderhill Raceway on the new 5 mile long track September 13th-14th. The team owner and captain is none other than the famous Spank. I have not driven and wrenched for him since back in 2010 at my first LeMons race when we failed to get the Spitfire to the starting line. He was kind enough to give me some wheel time in a Citroen DS which was one of his many awesome cars. This race for me will be about fun (wrenching, driving, and partying)and I can't wait!

Arse-Freeze-Apalooza Dec 7-8th 2013 - Sonoma Raceway

It was a mess of a weekend... things went wrong from the start with the Spitwad and ended wrong in the RX7..



The weather was not so bad during the day, the sun was out and there was no rain. The nights were freaking cold.. As for the race.. The 1300 motor in the Spitfire did not last the first green flag lap of the race. So we ended up spenind a majority of the track time Saturday swapping back in old faithful, which got us through it, allowing each driver to get their share of seat time.



There was some confusion and conflicts on our team, and between the two teams (RX7 and Spitfire) that took a lot of the joy out of the weekend. Don't get me wrong, I had my fun, got my wheel time, and had some laughs.. but this race has brought me to understand some people just don't see eye to eye, and it was not even all about the racing.. some of it was about personal space. Basically from now on.. no more cramming into the same RVs.. Lucky for us our friend Paul, who raced the RX7, let us sleep in his RV or I don't know how we would have gotten through the cold. My dad also had two guests sleeping in his RV. The cost.. well I took a pretty large hit this race. It is going to be hard.. but I will now have to require people to pay more because I was not including other expenses. I also will be arranging my own space to sleep as well. It is just not worth the conflict. We do this to have fun.. and when the fun is stripped away because of the social aspect.. why bother. So we will take a long brake and only do a single race in 2014, with a single car. The RX7 is finished and being parted out.



Now enough with the downside.. Before the wreck in the RX7.. it was hauling BUTT! The drivers were having a blast in it. My dad had finally got that thing sorted and out. I wish I could have had a chance to give it a go before it demise. .. Also once we swapped the motor in the spitfire, it ran great till the last 10mins of the race when something in the drive train failed.. Sure it was a little loose in the rear, but it was still fun to drive. I learned some more lessons with the setup and have a plan to get it hooked back up right before it hits the track again.



Paul made it out just fine.. not even a scratch from the crash. Understandably though, he likely wont be returning to race LeMons with us anymore. Every race he has been in with us, he gets hit, and now this one.. someone spun in front of him with no where to go. From his prospective it is just not worth it, he has a classic MGB to race anyways. It sucks because he is great to have around, but that is just how shit goes.

I took some photos at the race, some of them I uploaded HERE. I will go through the rest of them eventually, collect others from cellphones, and get them uploaded later. I also have some video to work on.. only one is done so far... check it out HERE. The video of the RX7 crash can be found HERE

Racing is something I will continue doing.. More LeMons races for sure, but a much needed break is going to be taken. I have a wonderful girl to marry in 2014 and that is much more important.

24 Hour of LeMons - Button Turrible '13 - HOT HOT HOT

No really.. it was freaking HOT. Local air temp was 110F and the asphalt in the pits and on the track exceeded 140F.. which means while standing on it you are basically in 130F... If that is not technically correct.. I don't really care my brain and body are still recovering from the heat. I lost 7 lbs between Friday morning and Monday morning.. and I ate food and drank beer so it was all water weight .. Brain is still not functioning normally.. I almost passed out on the tow home, my fiance got sick from the heat at the track... 30 people were hauled off in an ambulance even though there was a cool down tent run by the local fire department giving away free water and gatorade. Anyways on to the good news !!



The Spitwad took it like a seasoned hooker and just kept on taking it! We ran all weekend without any failures. Sure the motor rings are going bad letting oil blow by out the dipstick then onto the headers leading my teammate Justin to believe the car was on fire and consequently distracting him just long enough that he went off track... but what-the-fuck ever. The team survived the whole race from start to finish and placed (as we have been labeled by The Rusty Hub) a "less-than-stellar" 88th out of 155 and somewhere in the middle of the epic Class C.



The team drove well with Justin outpacing the rest of us by a huge 10 seconds a lap average.. I could make excuses like "I was saving the car" or "I kept getting stuck in traffic" but naw.. that kind of data just went to show he was on it while I was tickling my taint and having a jolly time cruising around the track all weekend. My fiance, already messed up from the heat, went out on Buttonwillow Raceway for her first time completely lost and managed to turn laps for 25mins before safely returning to the pits. Michael, our new arrive and drive driver, drove great all weekend keeping up a respectable pace only going off track once in one of the more deceiving corners of the course. That pretty much sums it up.. oh except for when I was hit on track but that has already been settled and nothing bad really came of it.

Videos are being gone through and uploaded but I am too lazy to embed them now so go to my youtube page Here and check out the latest videos.. maybe some more pics will come up... otherwise that's pretty much how the dump was taken.

So.... lovingly from the Sex Piston's Team Captain,

Never Mind the Bollocks.. and... Piss off!

Getting Ready for Button Terrible '13

Well here we are again... only a few more days till the race. We are hauling up to Buttonwillow Raceway to putt the Spitwad down the ever so long drag strip. At Buttonwillow, some of the cars can do over 125mph and we do a blazing 75mph. So it is really on me to make sure my drivers understand they are to stay on one side of the track when going down the strait and do not cross over. No sudden moves ... Really this is my only worry at this track, otherwise we do alright.



Another issue we face at this race is the weather.. it is going to be Hot. So that means the car will likely be drinking as much water as we do...

Anyways, no reason to draw this out as we are pretty much ready to race. Safety upgrades are made, the car has been gone through and driven around. The only things left are the pre-race maintenance checks we do at the track.

Oh and we need to pick up a large quantity of beer...

Work Days Spring 2013..

Well.. there hasn't been much going on since our last race back in March with the RX7. My pops got the new setup tested on the RX7 and now we are getting the cars ready for Button Terrible which is coming up quickly on June 29-30th. The Spitwad needs a lot more work including some safety upgrades so I dove in and started hacking up the car and my pops helped me get the fabrication done.



I then had a friend of mine come over and properly weld in the new cage modifications. This guy can really weld, unlike me, I am freaking clueless..



Pretty damn sure between the thick steal plate, DOM tubing, and proper welds.. it is almost as strong as the frame of this pile of British excellence. Really glad he does the work for us, in the safety aspect, we need all the help we can get..



Speaking of improved safety... I threw down some cash and picked up a Necksgen for my fiance and I. Racing is not all that dangerous, relatively, but only if you're properly protected. So I really felt it was worth the cash which is over 1/2 my estimated value of the spit in its awesome current condition. The Necksgen helmet posts were quick and easy to install and it is very comfortable. A great feature I did not expect is how easy turning your head is with it on. Compared to the HANS my pops has, that I used to borrow from him, the movement is much better. This will increase our visibility so we can better watch for all the cars we are passing, er well, being passed by. Really glad I went with it verse another brand plus it came with a cool hat and two LeMons get out of jail free cards. Who doesn't love a free cool hat?

Now that the welding is done, the last safety work is to install a new bulkhead/firewall between the fuel cell and the driver compartment. After that, we can finally get to the maintenance work.. and shit it is British so there is plenty to do. Not all of it is required, but the more of it we get done the better. I also bought all the parts to rebuild the brakes and would like to get that done before the race as well. We will see...

Videos from Sears Pointless '13 and Updates on the Sex Pistons Spitfire - 4/2/2013

So I have poorly put together and uploaded two videos from the Willy Wankel Grumpy Nerds RX7 at Sears Pointless. The first is the scary moment my pops had ...



That could have ended up much worse.. thankfully it did not. He was fine, but may have been a little wet in the pants. He checked out the car afterwords and went back out on track. - Balls of Steel

The next is a goofy mix of me behind the wheel. I am kinda a spaz, the camera and mic tell all...



And now onto the future.. or well the past cause it is the old car? Well whatever screw it.. The Team Sex Pistons Triumph Spitfire is to make a return at the 24 hour of LeMons race - Button Terrible '13 @ Buttonwillow Raceway.


My Spitfire is bad ass but does not photograph well. It's like a dirty hooker who could have been a model 10 years ago but took up a healthy habit of slamming heroin instead ~ Colin Craft

So it appears like we will have the same basic team we had at Chuckwalla back in December but one of the other girls is going to race as well. Another rookie to suffer the fate of a first LeMons race in a underpowered British tin can that is managed by me of all people. Haha sucker!

The Spitwad did start up, has good oil pressure, and ran cool this past weekend. The new rubber comes this week and the safety upgrades plans are solid. We have to remove the old backstays and install new ones that land in front of the rear most point of the rear tires. With a very precise plan, precision cutting wheel, and eyeballing... I used a fancy green garden pole to mark it out.





Will get the new tires mounted this Saturday but then I leave for two weeks on a work trip. When I return I will purchase the materials for the new backstays and spreader plates, then a friend and quality welder will help me install it properly.

Wish I had more time to work on the car, but work pays for this filthy affliction...

Sears Pointless 2013 - The Willey Wankel RX7

What a freaking awesome weekend! The weather was amazing and my dad's RX7 was a total blast to drive. It was the first race the car ran and there are some setup changes to be made like correcting the terrifically tail happy rear end. Otherwise, the Willey Wankel is a solid ride with great potential. I was the test driver and I might have missed a few points about the car, like say oh the rears lock up first under heavy breaking. There were sketchy moments for all 4 of the drivers so I guess I should have pushed it a bit more during testing. Being the third driver and with a good warning that the car handled this way, I still lit up the rear tires and slid into a slow corner like a bonehead. Lucky for me I caught it just short of a spin and the car behind did not cream me. (Thanks AJ)

We had a new driver this time named Ozer who got the full LeMons experience. We sent him out first, someone bumped him, and he spun. So obviously he got to meet the judges. He did a great job going out first. There was no one to warn him that the rear breaks lock up and the car is totally tail happy. He just figured it out on his own.



Cem returned to race with us and again was the fastest on the team, great driving as always. He even told off another LeMons driver in a very classy manner for speeding in the pits.. Another thing about Cem, he has this sweet helmet that I am jealous of..



The first goal was to finish the race and we did that. We also had fun and are home safely which are the most important things when it comes to racing LeMons. There was one scary moment for my pops when someone aggressively turned in on him going down the strait, but he did everything right and kept the car away from a major wreck. After a short break to calm down and look over the car, he went back out on the track. Later he laughed it off and we prepped the car for the next day. (Props to you Dad)



There is plenty of video and tons photos I have to go through, the video of the wreck will be first. Then I will look for the video of my bonehead spin to post that as well.

On to the results, the ones that matter anyway... The real winner was Rich with his IOE award for the horribly awesome IMP and his class C win with his Jag. Congrats Rich!





Good times were had and I can't wait to do it all over again.. which ever car we race. More pictures and videos to come soon. Here is the team pic with Chief Prep "Jay".. Keep it classy LeMons!