This was a fun race even though we had some mechanical gremlins.  Driving at night was terrifying and exciting at the same time.

Congrats to the Crazymike/Amanda team.

[I had to at least edit that one post typo to change "Eaten" to "beaten". But eating Canadians does sound funnier.]


Huge Congrats to CrazyMike and his strategist, Amanda, for bringing together a team of arrive-and-drives and speeding away with the mini-VS-mini 24hr Challenge Victory!  Incredibly well deserved.

CrazyMike's Church Farts team (which had someone in the timing and scoring tower changing his team name every 2 hours of so, at one point to "Underage Church Tarts?" and "Splattery Church Sharts" garnered 13th overall and 3rd in Class C.

As for us, well who knew that one NEW fuel pump would be better than 4 USED fuel pumps?!  No further problems during the event for us. Car drove on the trailer. We're ready for the next one.

Well, I need a good long nap, first.

Looks like Sept 9-10, 2017 will be the next opportunity for a true 24hr race at Buttonwillow with ChumpCar. //www.chumpcar.com/events.php

With 2 hours remaining we have been running an hour now on a sparkly new fuel pump from the lovely town of Shafter. We are sittig af 197 laps whereas Crazymike continues to have the race of his life with 385 laps on the board and they are contending for a podium finish in class. 

We, on the other hand, will have to settle for beating the Canadians. 
So using uniquely America Math, Spank's crew has beaten the Canadians twice and CrazyMike has only beaten them once, so I'm still winning (Thanks Common Core)!

Gah!

I got out for a solid 25 min and passed a few cars, but the darned thing started to act like it sas starving for fuel. I thing the fuel cell foam is breaking down. We're using ARCO premium and one of the fuel carriers was once used to carry recycled Waste Vegetable Oil and the fuel in it came out a little darker than it went in. Could be the acidity is munching the rotary style MrGasket pumps.

Anyway, brought it in and again went through the diagnostics and the fuel was just trickling out at the carb. Cleaned out the screen filter again and added a huge spotted D*** can sized fuel filter that was in CrazyMike's spares package. 

Not to jinx them, but he is really havin one of his best races to date. The last time he did this well was when he towed out to TX to race a 24hr race there and ended up winning his class.

For anyone who thinks they might find this stuff appealing, there's another 24hr race at this track later this year hosted by ChumpCar. I'm happy to help anyone who wants to give it a go, or if you want to run with me we can probably make it work. 4:37am and Greg is in the. Ar for his second 2-hr stint. Hope the fuel filter and pump setup hold til the end.

[crackle crackle] greg JUST reports it's starting to sputter. Fudge.

It appears that our mini was a big supporter of Brexit...


Because it takes every opportunity to exit the Tarmac Union aka the racetrack. My stint was supposed to be 2 good hours behind the wheel, instead it turned into a good 1hr 45min or stumbilg on track, stLlinc, cleaning fuel filter, forgetting to refastsn fuel cap and losing it somewhere between turn 2 and Phil Hill. , swapping fuel cell filler plates with another car that had a fuel cap, then sending the next driver out for HIS 2-hr stint.

But even THAT aas cut short with the same fuel deliver probl adter about an hour. Ended up replacing the fuel pump entirely and it's been back out for a good hour and fifteen now. I'm going to try to bead out for an hour. Ow because one driver decided to head to a hotel rather than fulfil his night stint. I'm quite proud of him knowing to not put himself and others on track in harms way by going out when he knew he shouldnt. 

Aorry foe typos-- my thumbs are not ao accurate on my old iphone nd the keys lag so much i cant even see if i misspelled anything until I'm way past it!

WEll, it seems the Russi-- i mean CANADIANs have hacked into my mini and are tampering with the lap tally.

Oh, and rhe ambulance wasnt on site at the required time so the event started late which threw off my whole mojo.

During "qualifying" i was in the car and found when i returned a bit of a wetness beneath the car. Next driver came back and there was even more werness. We actually lost. Early a qt of oul in about 30 min. Took running the car in gear at 4000rpm on jackstands at a 20 degree angle, radiator side down, to find it was crawlin up out of the speedo drive hole. Removed it, the driven gear, and packed it with goop and a 1/4" bolt and fastened that teardrop shaped troublemaker back into the trans and that solved it. But we were already an hour behind. Multiple future stops for drivers reporting soft brakes had us bleed them multiple times and finally finding a loose front right wheelbearing. New pads, retorqued cv nut and we were back out. So while we were one 62 min out behind crazymike we grew to be maybe double that. But we completed our 100th lap at about 8pm local time. I'm about to climb in thecar for my first 2 hr sting of the race going from 9:30pm to 11:30pm local. 

Crazymike reports fuel pickup problems so they can only run 1hr 20min stints. We wont catch up unless misfortune befalls them, which i sincerely hope doesnt.

There's NOTHING like trying to keep a mini alive on track for 24hr straight. An absolute BLAST!

Well, that seems unnecessarily aggressive...

I jut checked up on the 24h race and it would seem that Spank is currently in 24th place in car #24, it is early days so we will see where he ends up! He was tantilizingly close to the top 10 last time we did the 24 hour race with him at Buttonwillow.

Also, he is partially right, while I have not turned my back on minis, I have purchased a car from Japan with almost the exact same dimensions.

 

It is a Suzuki Cappuccino, a Japanese Kei class car, I picked it up fresh off the boat from japan on Thursday.

 

 

 

 

insert popcorn-eating emoji here (I'm sure the moderators having been building new emoji's on clay tablet's for the last few years - time to get em up boys!)

Ohhh, I get a 1hr headstart apparently!


And will have such a lead I can sit out the last hour!!

(details schmetails)



And to clear the record: While, Yes, I did supply you a motor: I didn't actually build it. It was a "rebuilt" unit in a car I bought a while ago. I simply tore it down to inspect that it was good in preparation to resell or use myself, but I kept seeing this [photo] at the track and couldn't take it any more because I ran out of eye bleach.

I did, however, put a Schneider 264 cam regrind and some tested A+ single-springs in it.

But I can no longer stake ANY claim in that as you've had it opened multiple times since. So it's more yours than anyones.


Oh, and as for the Canucks-- seems like I've made them cast off British Cars entirely and they have run to the docks to retrieve some pretentious, Starbucks-Inspired Japanese-Spec Kei Car 

Run, little chickens. Run.

There is no doubt.
It's actually Spank vs Spank in a way. The engine I'm running is a slightly worked-over one--of-his-spares.
That might make me more crazy.

AND - I have seat time available.
LuckyDog reg fee is $250. I've figured "Guest Drivers" probably cost me $50/hr.
You need a HANS type device or be willing to stick your head in a really sweaty helm.
Oh, and of course gear unless of course, um, same. share sweat.

Will Spank's engine beat Spank's engine?

Will Crazy Mikes over-steering close ratio 13" bomber outwit Spank's 10" steadfast rock-hard super-slider?
Will both be snoozing when their most-novice drivers find out how slick Buttonwillow's friction-free Kitty Litter is at 3am?

You gotta be there to find out.

Green at 11am Sat, Chequered at 11a Sun.
~final preps all nite Friday~

Mwaaahahahaaa.
Hah.

Yep, we're at it again. This time in the relatively newly formed Lucky Dog Racing League.

Last time there was mini on mini violence was in 2014, Spank's mini sent the Canadians running back across the border with their tails between their legs. They were so ashamed at their loss that they had to do a complete makeover, disguising their mini as a Wolseley and putting some BMW motorcycle head on their A-series. $500 Twinkie-powered "Wolseley"  my a$$!!1!1!!

This time, The Canadians have wisely decided to stay home rather than risk another humiliating loss. CrazyMike, however, is about to prove his namesake because he's attempting to take on Spank and his Enablers.

Can Spank solidify his dominance in 24 Hour mini-on-mini races and prove that 2014 was no fluke?
Can CrazyMike keep his car running on track for more than 3 laps without throwing a harmonic balancer? 
Will either of the cars fly off into the moon-dust while cresting Phil Hill at 2:30am at WOT in 4th gear when Lucas strikes?
If two classic minis install wipers on their $500 crapcan racers when rain is in the forecast, will it keep the rain away?
Will the Canadians redecorate their mini/Wolseley into a moke out of reverberating shame at their 2014 loss and embarrassment for not coming down to give it another go?

If you want to come by and say HI and see how things are going, the race runs from 10am Sat March 25 to 10am Sunday March 26. We're all going to be hanging out in and around Garage 5, which is just north east of the timing and scoring tower. Unlike LeMons, there's no spectator fee, but I think the track management may charge a few bucks to get in the gate.

For those of you NOT in SoCal and who would like to check out some crapcan racing, Sonoma is having their 2-day LeMons race the same weekend. As much of a LeMons fan as I am, I'm a bigger fan of the true 24hr races so I had to give this other series a go.

For those of you who prefer to rub your minis with cloth diapers slathered in carnuba, polish away!