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!

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...

RX7 - Track Day - Streets of Willow Springs- 2/9/2013

Well we had a great test day with the RX7 at the Streets of Willow Springs Raceway. The car ran great the whole time and was enjoyable to drive. The day was pretty uneventful which is a good thing on a test day. I drove the car for 4 20min sessions and became comfortable with how it handles. Sears Pointless is going to be a lot of fun with this car. My pops did a great job prepping this RX7.

Here is a video of the full 3rd session. Mid part of the video you can here me spazz out. I can't for the life of me remember why...



I also had some fun taking pictures of the other cars on track...



Here is a link to all the photos I took that day, except for the ones taken of the RX7, my pops took those.

Streets of Willow Springs - Track Day Photos

Sears Pointless is March 23-34.. can't wait!

Going to a track day on 2/9/13- Quick Update

Well the Spitwad has not moved from the garage since I parked it in December... and it will stay there a bit longer before I roll her out to begin working on her again. I am going to be racing with my pops in his RX7 at Sears Pointless this year. We will not be fielding the Team Sex Pistons Spitfire at Sears Pointless.

There is testing to be done on the RX7 so my pops and I are going up to the Streets of Willow Springs Raceway on Feb 9th 2013. I get to do the driving!

It will be a calm, early shifting, early braking, and point by only passing test day.. but it will still be a lot of fun to be at the track.

Will post pictures and maybe some gopro video from the day next week.


The Spitwad should be racing again later this year....

Oh and there is some videos from my last race I made on my youtube account, I forget if I posted them in the blog yet.. they are the latest ones.

Link to my Youtube Channel

Work Days - 10/27/2012 and 11/3/2012

Well we have been working on the car every weekend as usual. Got a lot of little things done. We got the windscreen mesh securely mounted, we got a shift light installed, we are working on getting the spares together, and my Fiance has been practicing driving.

The car itself is pretty much ready to go, besides simple maintenance like an oil change, fluid checks, bleeding and adjusting the brakes, spark plugs, and swapping the front brake pads. The rest of the work is just getting the spares built and sorted. The spare left rear axle is proving to be a pain, I am having trouble getting the broken drive hub off even with the hub pulling tool.

On November 13th my Pops and I hop in his RV and head out to Austin Texas for the Formula 1 race which is going to be awesome! The only problem is it eats into prep time for the 24 hour LeMons race coming soon on Dec 8th. Totally worth it though.



I have a few videos I made playing with my GoPro and the video editing software on my Mac. You can see the shift light and our circle track windscreen mesh. The main reason I made them was to show the difference in the air noise with and without my homemade wind noise reducing cover. The first one is using no windscreen in the normal GoPro case and the second has the homemade windscreen cover. You can really tell the difference when at speed. The cover currently is just foam and tape, but when I am done it will be made from fake fur, foam, and will be held on with velcro.





(if you are on a mobile device and can not see the video go to the bottom of the page and click "View Web Version")

Video from Arse-Sweat June 2012 - 24hr @ Buttonwillow

Finally I have compressed and uploaded one of the videos from our last race. It was the best one that we had. It is of my teammate Justin driving from daylight into the night at the Full 24 hour race - Arse-Sweat-Apalooza @ Buttonwillow raceway June 2012.

It is about an hour long, sorry I did not take the time to trim it down. Enjoy!



(if you are on a mobile device and can not see the video go to the bottom of the page and click "View Web Version")