Summit Races #1 and #2

Central Coast Autohaus Flying Pig Racing had a big weekend at Famoso Raceway on March 23rd and 24th!  It was the first Summit Racing points race of the year and the debut of the "blue car", Autohaus Dan's 1968 camaro.

Saturday morning we headed out at 5:30 AM.  Yikes, it's been a while since I was up at 4 AM on purpose.
Since I rarely go fishin', I guess drag racing is the only thing I get up that early for!  But that's what we needed to do...the Summit race was being combined with the West Coast Hot Rod race so with that many cars and classes the racing was scheduled to kick off a little earlier than usual.  Fortunately, B-Dawg was able to keep breakfast down this time. ;)  So the sunrise drive over to "the Patch" was pretty uneventful.

We breezed through tech, and got camp set up, and then it was time for our first time runs.  I was sweating it a little bit since this was the first pass on the re-built transmission, and I was hoping for no slippage down track. (Driving to tech I was able to hit all three forward gears so that was a good sign).  It all worked out just fine, I ran a 10.47, which was spot on for the conditions.  It was like we never missed a beat.  Thanks to JC and Dan for doing the overtime thrash to get the tranny back in Friday night!  You guys rock!



Dan made his first time run and despite running out of gas ran an 11...  When I say running out of gas I mean the tank was half full but since he has a stock fuel tank the pickup is in the front of the tank, hence under acceleration all the fuel rushes to the back and none gets picked up by the fuel system, which starves the engine of fuel and sputter-pop you go.  When I say acceleration I mean the Camaro had both front wheels off the ground!  We call that "hangin' the hoops" as yer ol dad Gray Baskerville would say. So Dan is shopping for a fuel cell this week!  Oh yeah, and a firewall 'tween the trunk and the passenger compartment to meet tech/safety requirements. It's either that or fill that stock tank to the brim so the stuff has nowhere to go!

Dan is running the camaro in the Sportsman class which has a low limit of 12.0 seconds, so Dan has to slow the car down for that class. He made some adjustments to the throttle linkage and slapped a 12.00 dial on the window. Then he proceeded to go out and WIN his first round of drag racing.  Don't that beat all!

Me on the other hand...running in the Pro class dialed a 10.48 and proceeded to lose the round by 3/10,000 of a second.  Yep 3 ten thousandths of a second.  Can you believe those beams can measure to that 4th digit past the decimal point?

Dan returned for round 2 but lost on a close one to another rookie driver.

So, we wrapped up the racing for the day and settled into the BBQ mode. We had way too good a selection  of munchies as usual, and I had marinated some fat juicy sirloins for dinner.  Like the man said you can't always run good but you can always eat good.  Or something like that!  Anyway, we whipped up some baked beans, salad, and some awesome BBQ sirloins and ate like winners! Oh yeah and Mrs. SLO Racer's brownies!!  Yeehah.  At some point the twins split for Deepa's place, the wanderer wandered and The Wrench and I decided it was time for a nap...

Oh, but just for Barry, here's a picture of his perfect hood being used as a bar!

"this little piggie"...

SLORacer. Out.

2013 KICKOFF

The Central Coast Autohaus Flying Pig Racing team kicked off the 2013 season with a test and tune session at Famoso Raceway on Saturday March 16th! We had most of the crew with us- Me, Dan, Jamie, Barry, Dave the wrench Lee, and JC the wanderer.  The only "regular" missing was Ken "the Nuke" Wilson.  Something about working 6 12s at the plant. Talk about misplaced priorities...

We got off to a little bit of a rocky start when one of the twins got a little car sick on the way over.

Little did I know this would be an omen of things to come.  But anyway we finally rolled in to the patch and unloaded our stuff, set up some shade, and headed for tech.  There is a reason we go to "test and tune" prior to the first race.  It gives you a chance to dust off the cob webs and not only get the cars tuned, but get the drivers and crew re-acquainted with the procedures needed on race day.  Right off the bat I headed over to tech but forgot my helmet and jacket.  First fubar of the day.  Well second, if you count when the Twin burped up breakfast.  Omen.  (Actually, B-Dawg was faking it.  That's really bird poop running down the door)  So, let's get on with it...

But first things first.  Just look at these two hot rods, all fresh and shiny, with the new Central Coast Autohaus decals. Dan and his twin Barry, along with Dave" the wrench" Lee and others put in a ton of work getting ready for this year. It's really cool to see all the work pay off in some really stout runs.  Like I say, "you can't always run good, but you can always look good".  It looks like Dan and crew have that one covered on both ends!  Who says Fords and Chevys can't get along?!

As for the red car- Barry whipped the hood back into shape with a little fiberglass work, lot's o' elbow grease and some fresh red and white.  Now I can really see how bad the rest of the car needs paint....next year.  But I'll tell ya, at 125 MPH it looks GREAT!  I'm just the lucky one, cause I get to sit at the wheel and look out over that perfect hood!

So, we headed up to the lanes, Dan and I, and set up an awesome first run of the year, the blue car in the left lane and the red car in the right lane.  Dan looked like a natural, staging the blue camaro for the first full pass ever!  Me knowing I had to get the better of him at the tree or never live it down!  So when I saw the second amber, I twitched and red lit by something like -.028 seconds.  Omen.  Haha!  The Blue car made a clean, straight pass down the quarter mile, clocking an 11.57!  Not bad for the first squirt down the track, eh?!

The red car? Now that's another story.  It seemed to leave pretty good, with none of the porpoising and spinning I was so stuck with last year.  But then when I pulled second gear there was this long pause while the engine spun up and then finally started pulling.  Hmmmm... Not so good.  About the time I was maxing out second gear I realized for sure the tranny was slipping bad, so I pulled third gear and watched the tack go to 6400 but no go power.  Drat!

Back in the pits, Dan crawled under the pig, loosened the tranny blanket and had the wrench re-shape the linkage cotter pin just in case that was hanging up somewhere... and we went back and made another pass.  Unfortunately, the result was the same so, the piggy is going back to the poke...ehr, the transmission doctor. with any luck at all, we'll get it out, re-built and back in the car in time for next weekend- Summit race 1 and 2.

So with the red car sidelined, I got to watch Dan make his final tuning passes of the day.  He even let his twin take a shot behind the wheel.  It was impressive!  B-Dawg ripped off an 11.50 ET on his first go down the quarter mile!  Since Dan is going to be running in the Sportsman class this year which has a quick limit of 12.00 seconds he will be having to slow the car down. On his last pass he recorded a nice 12.08 ET, so he's got a feel for where it'll need to be for competition.  It will be fun being one of the quickest cars in the class and getting to race from the catbird seat...chasing down the opponents and spanking them at the stripe!  Go Dan!

I'm looking at next weekend. Famoso or Bust.

SLORacer. Out.