Hallett Comma 2020

Hallett doesn't disappoint! "Dad-that was Fun, when is the next race and I want to come back here next year" Dax says as we pull out of the gates on the way home. That's all a dad really needs to hear especially when it's not just a weekend for him. But yeah Dad had an absolute blast all weekend!

Huge thanks to Jerry and the Hallett staff for an excellent event. Another huge thanks to OIF and the great meals we had as well as all the people who brought something. Dax has also said many times the midnight rib was "Good".

I have tried to tell Dax why it's 'different' at Hallett but you just have to go to find out and now it has great AC in the bathrooms so there really isn't an excuse to miss. But I think he gets it now even though he isn't a fan of the Chicken song. So here is my rundown.

Packed and ready to leave Sunday without my son who comes down saying his Xbox Fortnite deal has been delayed and now wants to go-which means I have to unload the truck and repack-then change up the car trailer to fit the four wheeler. Great drive up and so good to come in and see so many happy Thunder racers getting setup. Hung a window unit on the side window of the suburban and some reflectix and it was cold all weekend-worked great.

Friday session bed brakes and tires. Ran the next two sessions but felt off in a few spots but at least no issues as cars were starting to drop with issues like a small cooking fire and broken axle. Enjoyed a great dinner, later and later introduced Dax to the outdoor showers and went to bed maybe the earliest I ever have at Hallett. Saturday I try the Nankangs in warmup and was scared to push them really hard as they were a little slicker than old RR's and I didn't want to have a mishap as most know I need to be clean there but sometimes things happen but you just have to be at Hallett to know what happens.

Needless to say the racing was awesome and clean as far as I could tell. Throughout the weekend I had some great runs with so many but first time visitor to Hallett Robert Weston and I always seemed to mix it up at some point. Great to have two CO guys come down just hate we missed English and others this year. I think Robert enjoyed getting to run with us and how hard but clean we raced everyone so hope he comes back. The only thing was it was HOT all weekend and especially Saturday. But the schedule was awesome and we were done before it got super hot which was just in time for the kids to play slip n slide for a few hours.

Then came a big ol mess of Brisket, sides, and table full of desserts. More riding around the track which was what Dax was looking forward to the most and then see the finals of the 3rd Annual Slip n Flip which is a sight to see. While it was a smaller group for midnight ribs I think we came close to wiping them out. Funny my son was deadset on wanting to stay up for them and didn't want to miss out of a trademarked tradition.

Sunday brought in a nice breeze that seemed almost cool. The new covered pavillon was a great place for a meeting. I tell people going to Hallett is like going back in time to the way things used to be and still should be. Nobody got sent to the back of the field because their starter broke and we all agreed on how long the main race should be which was at 12:30 and to allow an earlier departure. During the event I told my boy it would be hard for me to get a top 5 on RR's from 2016 but that was still my goal. I had solid 4,5 place finishes but still don't understand the points system as it's obviously better if you aren't in the top three in early races to come in early to try and get a top 3 in another heat race. Never understood how a car that doesn't finish one of the prior races still starts in the top three. Oh well.

The champ race is of course a standing start which I love. But guess I was too focused on the start and turn one as going up the hill I have some mental fart when tapping my brake and grabbing fourth all that same/wrong time. Thankfully I was ahead of the group behind me enough that it was fine I just lost some ground on lead pack. But it's a 30 minute race and on the next lap a car is facing the wrong direction after bus stop so I pick up a place. Few laps later another car is slow after 6 so pick up another. Meanwhile Weston and me are dogging it out and he makes a clean move to get ahead. I see the temps start climbing and move out to get air. Figure out I'm in 5th and nobody is behind me so pedal back a little to cool the car/tires/driver off and start working on a few things. yeah I wait till R4 to try a different gear in a part of the track I was awful and felt like a huge difference. Can't figure out what the yellow is going into the bitch for several laps but I'm extremely cautious at this point. Finally see another car way off track to the right under the shade trees so now I'm in fourth. Then I'm thinking dang that podium wasn't that far away from me and should have tried to push. But all I have done all weekend is add some gas/oil/change tires and never put a wrench on the car so I'm smiling and happy getting the checker.

Congrats to Records for a great run, Crumpacker for showing up and getting his car running on all 8 Saturday night for second and Weston rounding out the podium in CMC. AI I heard was a great battle with Craig claiming the top spot with Smith and Reed rounding out the podium.

Just an awesome weekend. Excellent that we had several who haven't been on track with us for awhile so kudos to Liebbe, Richardson, and Crumpacker for getting your cars ready and hope you get the bug back again. Of course I'm leaving out so many people and stories. But a smooth drive home and three days at the track with the best group at the races is Winning all the way around.

I'll close by adding Comma runs in September and over Halloween...

Halloween.......... I like that way better than COTA in July or Eagles in August.

JJ

I would have been there if the military didn't put me on a 200 mile leash. It was excruciating to miss this event. Happy to hear it went well though.

"The new to you 88..."

The 39a car and crew had a good time as well. For those that don't know, I ran out of talent at MSRH after somebody nameless splashed a bunch of water into the line I wanted in the last turn. "Nope, not gonna hit the wall... well, actually I am going to hit it, but not too hard. Nope, it's gonna be hard. WOW that was hard." I was supposed to be on a big boat enjoying all things Alaska this weekend so we thought we had a couple months to finish the car up.

But really, how long does it take to pull the frame rail, replace the strut tower and radiator support, rewire the fuse panel/switch panel, replumb the front brake lines and master cylinder, add a fire bottle, replace the harness, convert to big brakes, etc???

Friday was show up and see if the car runs day. We pulled whatever camber/caster we had into the car and bedded the brakes. Front spring perches were too low so raised those a bit and started wearing up some older tires. Just older than the other set of less-older tires we brought to race on.

Racing was fantastic all around. Robert Weston and I had a couple deja vu moments with him passing me into 2; both were fine and clean, the first one caught us both as "that might have been a little close/aggressive" but certainly nothing out of line and I was just holding him up anyway. Video will be interesting since in two laps i went from wondering if I was gonna hit the #5 to wondering if I was going to hit the wrecker that would then hit the #5. I need to watch the video and look for some racing data condition input device deployment. I do feel the car and the driver got more comfortable all weekend. Only one significant off after T1 due to driver talent error and other than the thing running "hot" (though it never pulled timing) and some minor brake fluid loss, the car held up.

Let's talk food. I think we now know that we need one small dish of potato salad, and probably no coleslaw. I think we got away with not having bread but maybe we keep some. In my best Simon Cowell, if I'm being honest - we needed 2lbs more brisket. In no particular order, and potentially missing something here's what we ate:

grilled chicken/grilled squash/pb&j sammich/chips/chaffles/cashews/almonds/raisins/cranberries/pulled pork/tortillas/roasted corn on the cob/brisket/onions/pickled jalapeno/dain bramage margarita/Randy's Beans^tm /McFall Baked beans/pinwheels/jalapeno poppers/jalapeno popper dip/tortilla chips/quacamole/ranch dip/salsa/meatballs/blueberry-cherry-apply-peach cobbler/nanner puddin/double stuffed Oreos/cheesy taters/green beans... what'd I miss? Duh, Midnight Ribs^tm.

Glad we cut down the last race a bit, simply to save the driver for the ride home that night. I don't know if it's good or bad that Hallett is such a haul but still the first race on my list every season.

Now, on to the video. If you have something (which you should since you have a camera for official AI/CMC races) get it trimmed and posted on the AI/CMC YouTube channel. If you need help, please just ask and we'll get something figured out.

It was too hot for this old man but Sunday was cooler and getting on the road home by 2:00 PM was great. I wish I could tell you guys how many time Connie and Scott told me how much they love this group. Scott said he had never seen such a close group (racing, helping each other eating and drinking together). I'm really proud of all of you. I really Missed Dustin, Gary, Pranav, Sook, Randy and Michael (sorry if I missed anyone). What happened to Corey Jones? It was so cool to have Sam at the track again. He working on his car all weekend with different issues until he found at least one injector stuck wide open and hydro-locked the engine so bad that it broke the starter nose cone! Then he makes it to a second place in the Championship race. Robert is a good racer and he kept saying how good you guys are and how fun you all are to race with. I'm almost Sure Jay could have made it a race with Daniel as I finally figured out what was wrong with the car 10 minutes prior to R4. All weekend the car would light up the right rear in the three righthanders. The Bitch was impossible to get through with any power added at all. We had to coast through the turn then wait to add power after the turn was completed. We noticed some oil on the top of the left strut and Sam had a spare so I changed it. While installing the last bolt and nut I saw the real issue and I should have known all along. The left end link spacer had punched through the washer meaning we had no front sway bar! I rigged it back together and Jay was fast as hell through The Bitch for two laps then something broke. Knocking when you start the engine even when not moving. Sounds like it's in the transmission. We will see. Either way the weekend was fun and as always I enjoyed the racing and the company.

JJ

Great weekend for #34. Car was absolute junk after descending from the top of Craig’s stacker on Thursday. Had a weird rev limiter feeling issue that was resolved with a MAF change and the car had a nasty push and a tire rub. Jacked with all that and got it sorted to qualify 3rd behind Martin and Curtis for R1. Martin put 4 off out of 5 and I slid by him and Curtis missed a shift out of 1 the next lap and I got the lead. Managed to hold the two of them off for the rest of the race. R2 I started dead last With Curtis starting in first and managed to make it up to 2nd by the end of lap 2. Got lucky choosing a lane and getting some great runs on lap 1. Managed to reel Curtis in but he made the mistake I needed to get by about a lap too soon and couldn’t do anything with him. Just about burned down my only set of tires for the weekend trying to catch him — but I really wanted to win. Race 3 I’d just assume forget (because hangover) but managed to get the 5th place I knew I needed to start the champ race on the pole. BTW ... The points used for the weekend are in the rules...first time I’ve been in a position at Hallett to worry about that. Lol...

R4: managed to clear Martin out of turn 1 to hold onto the lead. Curtis got around him and was all over my back bumper. Around lap 10 I made a mistake into the bitch and slid wide and he got under me. Decided I’d hang out behind him and see if I couldn’t force him into a mistake. A few laps later he slowed up out of 6 due to an engine problem and the rest is history. I dropped lap times ~2s to reduce the stress on the car so she’d last the rest of the race and was watching the gap to Crumpacker in the mirror. Managed to keep it clean and finish in 1st...absolutely was mentally wasted and couldn’t think straight until about 30mins later.

Unloading from the trailer yesterday it sounds like something’s gone in the bottom end of the engine — it’s running like it’s missing some compression and making some noises that sound terminal. Oh well ... that explorer bottom end had a good run and thankful it broke after the championship race!

Thanks to all for a great weekend and good clean racing and to Angie and the AI/CMC ladies for organizing the slip n flip and prizes.. Special thanks to OIF for cooking again this weekend...that’s no small amount of work and it was awesome as usual. The midnight ribs this year were even more spectacular than I remember!

I'll echo everyone's sentiments about this being a great weekend. Well, except for my ability to complete a track session...

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