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I am a “car guy”… I love old cars.
Frequently the magic happens when you get two parts to mate effortlessly, or you save yourself from screwing up and breaking something. Other times it is when you look up and see an amazing sunset.
This happened last fall as I was swapping a gearbox between two engines, and the only camera I had handy was my cell phone. I looked up and snapped this pic. Ran inside the house to grab my “real camera” and the moment was gone.
With the Clowntown Roadshow BMW E30 out of commission indefinitely with a blown head, I’ve been catching rides as an “arrive and drive(r)” with various teams at west coast races for the past year. I drove a Humber Super Snipe (really) at Sonoma in December, a Volvo station wagon (a really fast turbo one!) at The Ridge at a “Lucky Dog racing League” event, and with The Flying Scotsmen in their expanding fleet of E30s at Buttonwillow last month. Often times these have been last-minute affairs, that have cost me very little, if nothing beyond travel costs. Right after Buttonwillow I check the 24 Hours of LeMons forums and read a plea from a new rookie team for an experienced driver willing to help them out at The Ridge. I reply, and after an email exchange with the team captain, agree to help them out. We swap lots of emails about their car, passing tech, things to bring, things I will bring, track etiquette, the paddock scene, etc. With as much wisdom imparted through ASCII and RFC2822 as possible, the day comes to drive up to Shelton, meet the team, and race.
Continue reading “Return to The Ridge”
I will post soon about my drive in the “clown car” which was a huge highlight for me, but here are some lowlights from the rest of the weekend with my teammates that pretty much sum up racing at the 24 Hours of LeMons.
I really drove the 65E today for the first time in a long time. Work. Moving. Life… it has all kept me too busy to give it (and this blog!) the attention it deserves. It fired on the first try(!), and drove really well. I always forget what an amazing machine it is if I haven’t driven it in a while. The wonderful exhaust note. The amazing view out over the bonnet. The “snick-snick” of shifts.
I had to make a run to the grocery store and figured “why not? I’ll take the Jag.” A 30 mile trip turned into 100 miles just because I could. Left the grocery and pointed the bonnet up the highway to Mt. Bachelor.. went all the way to Sparks Lake before I turned around and came home.
Of course, nothing is perfect, most of all this car. I noted a few broken things that I’ll have to fix soon. Stay tuned.
The last race of the season for my 24 Hours of Lemons team was at Thunderhill in Willows, California. Willows is within a reasonable driving distance from central Oregon, so Nick and I hopped into the M Roadster and made a mad dash down US 97 and I-5 long before the sun rose, with a pre-dawn breakfast stop in Klamath Falls. It was fun to actually drive there as opposed to fly and drive the tow vehicle – as well as a bonus to bring Nick along. We arrive around 10 am on test & tune day…
Racing cars is a lot like smoking crack. One hit of the stuff and you’re hooked – and then you can’t get enough.
I’ve loved every minute of racing with my Clowntown Roadshow team mates. However, I’m the sole team member living and working in the Pacific Northwest, with the rest being in Northern California. While I’m very in-touch with my team mates via our Facebook group, and I always volunteer to pull tow-duty on the SoCal races – I miss the weekends wrenching on the car, and have been unsuccessful in convincing my team to think about coming north for events in the northwest.
I advertised myself as a “driver for hire” on the 24 Hours of Lemons forums for any team in the PNW planning on running the Pacific Northworst Grand Prix in Shelton, WA. I had a few teams show an interest, but a group of “newbies” from Shoreline, WA seemed the most eager to have me along, so I joined their team. They had a car, and a lot of enthusiasm, but only three drivers. All had young families and hoped to make it a big outing. Nick had his Freshman Orientation the two days before the event, so I brought him along to round out the family atmosphere.
The event was at the brand new Ridge Motorsports Park outside of Olympia. Nick and I awoke at O’dark:thirty Thursday morning to drive to Corvallis – spent all day and the next attending welcoming lectures, parental-panic-soothing seminars, class registrations, and advanced placement tests at Oregon State University, before making the dash Friday night (with a stop in Portland for dinner with friends) to Olympia. Saturday morning dawned wet and gloomy – yes we were back in western Washington! We arrived at the track, paid our fee, and lapped the paddock looking for our team. I noted that street cars were lapping the track, and since we could not find our team I steered my car out onto the pit lane and decided to see this new track.
Wow!
Continue reading “Another Lemons Race. Another Track. Another Team. Another Car.”