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clifton had a minor contact and I spun the car on cold tires in the final stint. we got two minor penalties and lost a 5 or 6 lap lead over costas. I think we got the overall lead back in the last hour after I got back past costas. final two hours seemed to have each teams ringer and was some damn fine racing.
cars on track at 9:15 to noon, one hour break and on track at one till 3:30....come on out, its a hoot....20 bucks at the gate I think....
Quote:
Originally Posted by AI#97
Congratz to Team Wayne's World!
First place.
JJ
Nice!!!!!!!
Texas AI/CMC owns all!!!!!!!!!!!!
Congrats to Michael, Matt, and Clifton.
Who knew a baby blue Toyota could do so well?!?!?
We expect a write up from all the teams asap!
Congrats to ALL!
jb
http://www.texicanracing.com/nasatx/JeffBurch/photo.jpg
will do guys! eating dinner in pairland and are tired....write up to be published soon!
HUGE CONGRATS to the Wayne's World #11 POS light blue thing!!!
Our #7 POS slightly-darker blue thing was happy to take second! One of our drivers just got his comp license this year and this is his third wheel to wheel (and he had over 4 hours of stints this weekend) and the last driver (who runs an 11 second supra www.bikiniracer.com) had never been wheel to wheel or run a DE. In fact, she's only autocrossed twice!!
We had a great time (mostly) and we tip our hats to you guys!!
Costas
cars and such...
Just got everything unloaded and back to the house. Wow, what an event!!!!! I can't begin to explain how well organized and run everything was this weekend.
Huge thanks to the team, Matt, Clifton, and Jeremy!!!!! Jeremy stepped up big time during his first racing experience and didn't put a wheel wrong either day (at least not majorly). :lol: We had solid driving by all and only two small incidents.
Also, big thanks to all that helped at the track:
Frank and the Love's in the BMW
Misty's crew in the two Neon's
Chris and Bud's gang in the Mullett Mustang
and Team Blue Goose that loaned us a tire Sat. night to get through Sunday!!!
Congrats to Paul's team for an awesome finish. It was great racing on track and we look forward to doing it again in 2009!
I know I'm missing a bunch but I've got to get to bed. :) More details to follow later.
P.S. 30,000 nickles placed in the middle of a gutted hood makes a major dent! :lol:
Congrats to all that competed and big congrats to the winners. Way to go guys.
"Is that a roll of nickles in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?"
If I might draw your attention to the 10th place finisher Formula M.
2nd fastest lap time in the whole race.
Doesnt pay any nickels, but feels groovy.
We were in 6th after Saturday, a couple penalties here and there on Sunday hurt us , but overall, great success for a POS, video and pictures to follow.........
Congratulations, Team Schwing! That little car had some balls. We should have given you ours when they castrated one of our cars for an infraction.
This event was an absolute blast! There was some really excellent racing and some truly horrible cars. The judges were hilarious. One of them is a writer for Jalopnik. His stuff on LeMons can be found here - http://jalopnik.com/5065571/24-hours...ron-3-of-top-5
(Links to other updates at bottom of page)
well it sounds like our Texas AI/CMC guys represented us well. lok forward to the stories.
Congrats to everyone that ran this. Cool stuff. Looking forward to some write ups and pics.
Thanks to FFR for the chance to participate in the LeMons race... Jason and I had a blast and Mary got a lot of use out of the tripod... didn't take her long to realize how heavy even the smallest camera get after a few HOURS... AICMCTEXAS was very well represented and had great results... kind of ironic that the winners were in an import... be on the lookout for a possible POS class in our enduro...
Side note: If MFW isn't careful, he might actually win the election in 2012... Team Liir is getting lot of questions from the bumper stickers on our daily drivers...
You have the bumper stickers on your daily drivers??? That is freakin hilarious!! :lol:Quote:
Originally Posted by David Love AI27
The lemons race was a hoot! I hope they come back next year. Congrats to team Schwing, they ran a great race. One of our drivers dropped out at the last minute and Jason Love came to the rescue and did a great job driving for our team. Our car sucked in that it had absolutly no power, a faulty air meter I think, but it did well in the turns with its massive tires. Dispite the lack of power we finished 14th and were only about 10 seconds off the pace. All in all, a great time. FMR
Tremendous! Thats just awesome news. Glad everyone had a good time and congrats on the results!
I must say it was the most fun I have ever had in a car. I was lucky more than once and stupid more than twice. But in the end I had some great teammates keeping my ego under control and the tires on the track.
Thanks to all the NASA-TX guys and gals for helping us out when we needed it. NASA TX had a great showing this weekend, but more so we all came together like it was a normal track weekend. I am still convinced I am building a car for the right series!
It was great to see you guys there, until the next event!
Just an interesting tid-bit about lap times at the LeMons race. I knew we had a "quick" car with the ability to run up front. I ran the thing pretty darn hard and at mostly 95% the entire time. I ran fast time of the race for our team with a 1:19.3.
I looked on mylaps and this was 20th fastest for the event!! :shock:
We definitely learned ALOT about endurance racing. :D
Hehe, anybody sore today :shock: 8) ??????
jb
Funny, I just got back from a 90 minute massage to fix my muscles! :lol: Sore as hell today and TIRED!!!Quote:
Originally Posted by jeffburch
My back muscles are screaming at me and I didn't have to carry any boxes of nickels. Also, have a bruise in the middle of my back from the race seat. Totally worth it!
Matt and Clifton were both complaining about their butts being sore! :shock:
TMI !!
jb
Team Schwing was awesome! A big thanks to my team for getting the car prepped, it ran flawlessly all weekend.
MFW has longer arms than the rest of us and I had to drive with the bottom of the steering wheel during the race because I couldn't reach the top. I could barely reach the key to start the car!
Winning the race was the closest I hope to ever come to being a celebrity. I didn't have my picture taken that many times at my wedding.
If you don't race in this event next year then you need to at least go to watch and crew for someone.
Well, my legs and arms were bent most of the time in the car which put all my weight on my tailbone and after getting drilled in the rear bumper from the Ranger and then the Merkur, I am quite sore all over especially my neck and lower back. I was impressed I was able to go for an hour and 50 minutes on Saturday and thankfully only had to do an hour and 40 on Sunday. I think next year we may try the trash bag and "stuff it" foam to make seat inserts for the smaller drivers so I don't get all scrunched in.Quote:
Originally Posted by michaelmosty
The ranger hit the back of our car while I was driving also. The biggest SFB drivers were the Ranger, black 240Z and Merker.
And yea, my back and ribs are hurting.
You guys need to work out more.
I did 8 laps at the end of day before POS black mustang turned into me and wrecked our front bumper and radiator.
His comment " I didnt think you were going to pass me there"
Dropped in new radiator , taped up front bumper and ran 58 more laps to checkered.(Passed the schwingers 3 times)
Too late to matter though.
Set fastest lap time with car all taped together . Pictures to follow.
Was ready for more.
Good job Team Schwing.
CL
And 2nd fastest lap of the whole race.Quote:
Originally Posted by cjlmlml
We had an absolute blast! It was everything we thought it would be... until we began removing ourselves from contention via penalties. We knew that we were out there with lots of people who have never raced wheel-to-wheel before. We knew the judges would not listen to any excuses. We knew we had to run a clean race, and yet... we were not quite able to pull it off.
Friday was test-n-tune day. Almost right away we blew a power steering O-ring and did not have a spare. A fellow LeMons contestant was at our car within minutes with an enormous assortment O-rings - problem solved! Great karma here. We had fun in our 70's vintage, lightly-modified Harley Davidson golf cart. Favorite pastime: pull up to a group of people sitting in an $8K golf cart, challenge them to a race, wait for them to finish laughing, then leave them with two black stripes and a wheelie. Never got old. :-) Strangely, not everyone appreciated this.
We had an early, casual visit from one of the judges to our pit area. He proceeded to tell us that our documentation sucked and that we had better come up with something extraordinary to appease him. Said our current story would probably be good for a 100 lap penalty. Was he serious? Doubtful, but we decided not to chance it. At Formula M Racing, we believe in the old addage "Go Big or Go Home" and to that end we got busy and bought the makings for a giant shrimp cocktail (12" across) and a couple of pounds of filet mignon. When it was our turn for the BS inspection, we brought the gas grill over and treated the judges to Surf 'N Turf on the spot. They bought our bribe hook, line and sinker. Even after hearing the lumpy cam and seeing the Holley 4-barrel carb they only assessed us a 2-lap "symbolic" penalty for having a crappy fake Craigslist ad (which incidentally was not fake). Score: Mullets 1, Judges 0.
Saturday our second driver got a ten minute penalty for hitting a cone while exiting the track. He claimed it was the car in front of him, but of course it didn't matter. In the words of Jay Lamm, "You're Boned". Sad mullets. Score evened. The air brake, which had been very popular, suffered a broken cable at about 2pm and was strangely silent the rest of the day. Other than that, Saturday turned out okay and we ended the day in, I believe, 6th place.
Sunday the proverbial roof caved in. We had repaired the air brake overnight (and changed the picture to something more, um... "interesting") but it only lasted one hour before breaking again. It began flapping wildly at any speed over 30mph and we were sure a black flag was imminent so we pitted and cut the brake off of the car. Then our second driver incurred a 3-wheels-off penalty which we dispatched with a get-out-of-jail free card, only a minute or two lost. With no lifelines left, our next driver went off track briefly and was assessed a 15 minute penalty. To add insult to injury, the owner of the track assessed a team penalty for doing golf-cart wheelies in the pits! That hurt. Another 15 minutes in the penalty box. At that point we could do nothing but stand there and watch our 5th place standing slowly erode. Seeing as there was no longer any hope of a podium finish we did what all red-blooded Texans would do and "stepped 'er up a notch". A little later, two cars, one apex... you can probably guess the rest. We suffered a crunched fender, popped radiator, bent core support and another 30 minute penalty. After the penalty was served, we needed another 20 minutes to repair the car. The score was now solidly in favor of those acursed judges and we were forced to hang our mullet-clad heads in shame. Hmmm, nice sandals Bubba! You too, Cletus! Payless? Nope, red tag at Pick 'N Save! Etc.
We did manage to claw our way back up to 10th place by the end of the race and so just barely met our goal of a top-ten finish, and we snagged the "Best use of Banned Technology" award for the FULLY ARMED AND OPERATIONAL air brake, so everybody went home happy. Unlike those nutty East and West-coasters, we did NOT drop our car off at the junkyard after the race. After 6+ months of work, that car is part of the frickin family and will more than likely be back to compete next year. We'll be older and wiser. Mullets will be longer. Golf cart voltage will be higher.
-David
Formula M (as in Mullet) Racing
http://motorheads.net/formula_m
Chris, we were running maybe 85% at the end just to make sure we didn't hand over the race. I did get a kick out of you driving the shit out of the mullet machine! you were hanging the tail and driving it like you used to drive the AI car before the aero work. you were noticeably faster than the rest of the day and were hauling ass!!! I saw you come up behind me with the nose hanging down and was thinking shit, they might have to slow down and about 5 seconds later you went by me like I was standing still!!!Quote:
Originally Posted by cjlmlml
I think the formula for the event is to have a medium paced car so you don't over drive and get into trouble or draw too much attention to yourself. I just wish we had more horsepower. Our motor only had 110 hp when it was new and I am sure after 203k miles, it's probably down to like 95 or so! We either need to do some weight removal or find some ponies if we plan on winning it again next year! ;)
We went into LeMons just hoping that both cars would finish most of the race. By midday Saturday, we realized that one of the cars had a real hope of a top 5 finish, so we changed the strategy. Our formula for a top 5 finish - http://www.mydeo.com/videosavecopy.a...225&CID=227127
Apparently, our strategy drew attention away from the #97 faster, manual car and had the judges (and other drivers) focused on the #96 slower automatic. It also put the #96 in 3rd place for the People's Curse, but the judges weren't too much of a worry after our bribes on Saturday evening. I was called shameless by one tech inspector who witnessed our team at work and had to readily agree. We gave them a bucket of candy that I stole from a team member's wife (She protested very loudly. The judges loved it!), bagels and lox for breakfast, swag from the team, and rides in the Enzo on Sunday (click http://www.autofiends.com/index.php/...azy-backstory/ for one judge's story)
http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/k...lepinballs.jpg
The #97 was in 5th and the #96 in 18th place at the end of Saturday. The poor #96 car was in and out of the paddock all day Sunday with problems. There were times when it wouldn't go over 35mph, so we threw our craziest team member in the car and told him to run it till it died or he was worn out. The #96 made it through one more paddock stop for a quick repair (we unplugged the MAF) and driver change and with an hour to go in the race had to be towed off course after the motor died and refused to restart. Meanwhile, the #97 was performing way beyond our expectations. With penalties to other teams taking up their time, we were running solid. We did have 2 quick penalties. One for hitting a cone while avoiding contact (we now have a cone semi-permanently attached to the roof), and the other for going off course while avoiding contact (resulted in the formerly mentioned castration of the car and a really old tin of sardines being emptied on the manifold. Helluva stink!) Neither took more than 5 minutes and worked out perfectly for our fueling and driver change schedule. Sunday's finishes were #97 in 5th and #96 in 35th and we're already planning for next year.
Some pics can be seen here - http://picasaweb.google.com/jacy.legault/MoreLemons# and here - http://picasaweb.google.com/jacy.legault/Lemons#
Corn got something like 4000 pics from this weekend. When he gets them all loaded on his website, I'll link them.
come on Misti.... fess up about the three way going on with the Pinball Team.... :twisted:
if you don't tell I will...... :P
Funny thing is, they never hit me in the rear... must have been those slow lap times Matt :PQuote:
Originally Posted by AI#97
LMAO... nice video, nice moves, but completely unethical :shock:Quote:
Originally Posted by rpoz27
It was like being a celebrity for a day... Awesome experience, a little weird tho, especially for a first race experience... may never get that much attention again! and like MFW and GL, I like attention...Quote:
Originally Posted by Waco Racer
The SCHWING movement has arived!! found this listing under "race car" :shock:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Toyot...mZ270287866745
David, that car is too cherry with only 44k miles.
Misty, sweet move on the shark car!! He was one of the only cars that "frustrated" me with his blocking. I guess he got what he deserved! :lol:
Pictures are up at http://teamschwing.com
Race Write-up is done
Videos soon
Enjoy!
http://www.autofiends.com/index.php/...udging-part-2/
I guess these judges dont know what a 302 with a cam sounds like?
Anyway, read the article
Nice site and some cool pictures. This one however scares the crap out of me....Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeremy Gunter
http://teamschwing.com/files/PA191785.jpg
That's possibly the '09 ROTY :lol:
"What's the world comin to?"
jb