2012 Season Schedule

Well the 2012 season is sneaking up on us quickly!  The Central Coast Autohaus Flying Pig racing group is once again prepared to compete in both the Summit racing Series and the ANRA series at auto Club Famoso Raceway this year.  The schedule (so far) looks like this:

March
24 Open Test and Tune - Gates 7am
25 Team Famoso Summit Race - Gates 8am

April

14 Open Test and Tune - Gates 7am
15 Team Famoso Summit Race - Gates 8am

20 ANRA- arrive and pit
21 ANRA- qualifying
22 ANRA-eliminations

28 Open Test and Tune - Gates 7am
29 Team Famoso Summit Race - Gates 8am

May
19 Open Test and Tune - Gates 7am
20 Team Famoso Summit Race - Gates 8am

June
15 ANRA- arrive and pit
16 ANRA- qualifying
17 ANRA-eliminations

August
24 ANRA- arrive and pit
25 ANRA- qualifying
26 ANRA-eliminations

September
22 Team Famoso Summit Race - Gates 8am
23 Team Famoso Summit Race - Gates 8am
26-30 Summit Series ET Finals @ Bakersfield - Gates 7am (More info coming soon)


Racer Ric, Fauset Racing, is freshening the motor and making a slight change to the cam grind.  Based on his observations from last year, watching us spin the tires hard at launch and often down track, he has decided to try softening the launch and give us a little more power on the top end.  Theory is that it should improve consistency and reduce the tire spin.  I'm looking forward to that!

As far as Flying Pig race team is concerned, we'll be working with the same crew- Dave "the wrench" Lee will be handling fuel and tire pressures, as well as keeping the driver company in the lanes and turning wrenches under the direction of Dan.  Autohaus Dan will be overseeing mechanicals both at the Autohaus shop and at the track, and Ken "the nuke" Wilson will handle photography. In addition to them,  Barry "the twin" will be assuming all other duties (like making sure the beer is cold, and the dinner menu is satisfactory), oh yeah, and making sure Dan gets to the hotel safely. :)

As for me, I'll be staying at the track this year after picking up an RV during the off season!  I am stoked to be able to spend the nights at the track and not do the hotel commute thing!  This way I can devote more time to keeping the wrench focused on racing!  just kidding Dave.  Not.

That's it for now.
Remember to "keep the shiny side up"!
SLORacer out.

Flying Pig finishes 4th in ANRA points

The 2011 ANRA season came to a close on October 9th, with the Central Coast Autohaus Flying Pig Mustang finishing a respectable 4th in the season points total.  While it wasn't the finish we were looking for, you have to look back at the 2011 season as being very successful.  Given that there were as many as 80 cars registered in the Hot Rod class, and about 45 of them made every event, we feel pretty good about a 4th place finish!  I'm confident that next year we will improve on that!

Since we are now in the "off season", there are lots of things going on away from the track.  Last weekend we had the car over at the Central Coast Autohaus shop and pulled the motor for some off season freshening.  Racer Ric from Fauset Racing will be going through the 557 cubic inch mill, doing the necessary maintenance and looking at upgrading to roller lifters and a slightly different cam grind.  According to Ric, we can soften the launch a little and pick up a little more power and MPH down track.  That should help with consistency because we spent much of the season spinning the tires off the line.

We're also toying with fielding a second car!  With any luck, there could be a second Central Coast Autohaus car running in the Sportsman class at ANRA and Summit next year.  Stay tuned!

SLOracer. Out.

Central Coast Autohaus Flying Pig Heads for the final ANRA race in 2nd!

The Central Coast Autohaus Flying Pig Mustang is heading into the ANRA season finale on October 7th - 9th in second place, just 2 rounds behind the leader!  That means we need to "go hunting" for the leader in the early rounds, take him out, and then go on to win the race and the season championship!  I don't think that we're setting our sights too high!  This is totally do-able.  This season has been the best the Flying Pig has experienced in a long time- a credit to the whole Flying Pig Racing team!  Dan (Central Coast Autohaus) has provided the mechanical confidence I needed to allow me to focus on driving.  Dan gives the car the once over at the Autohaus shop before each race, and keeps his trained eye on the mechanicals at the track.  Dave "the wrench" Lee, who you can always spot standing beside the car at the starting line, manages the fuel and tire pressures in the pits and all the way through the staging lanes, and right up to the burn out box.  Dave, Dan, and I noodle last minute changes to our dial in right up to the last seconds before each run, and we've been pretty much dead on most of the year. Ken "the nuke" Wilson has been there to make the early trip in to the track on Friday nights, get the Pig off the trailer and get us through tech and ready for Saturday qualifying.  All I have to do is show up and drive!

We ran the ANRA Summer Nationals on August 27-28th and once again made it to the 4th round, racking up enough points to keep us just 20 points (two rounds) back of the leader.  Consistancy has been our key this year.  No other car has gone as far in every one of the ANRA events.  We haven't nailed a win yet, but we just might do that when we return to Famoso Raceway on October 7th for the season ending event.   We just need to go 3 rounds farther than the current points leader to secure the season championship.  That's why we do this! 

Oh yeah, in addition to getting me there on Friday nights, and cooking a mean linguica and egg breakfast, the nuke also shoots the video. 

Check out the August ANRA runs at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRAf4CXkSGQ  Enjoy!

SLO Racer. Out.

Flying Pig Makes Final Round at Summit #3

Talk about having fun and going rounds!  The Central Coast Autohaus Flying Pig Racing team had a huge presence at Bakersfeild's Auto Club Famoso Raceway on the weekend of April 30 - May 1.  We were celebrating my birhtday at the track, and we had quite the crew with us.  In addition to Dave "the wrench" Lee and Autohaus Dan, we had Sean, Betche and Lucas from the "friday nite live" crowd, as well as "Autohaus Jamie", and the drivers wife!

Sean, one of the best chefs on Marianela Lane, brought along a boatload of Fillet Mignon, not to mention a concoction he called an "appetizer" that consisted of a sirloin roast butterflied and stuffed with all kinds of good stuff, like garlic and basil, and marinated til it was melt in you mouth tender.  He threw the thing on the BBQ for a while and we started on the adult beverages.  The next couple hours were spent feasting on the best race track food ever.  This is going in the cookbook.  But that's another story.

On the track, we had the best day in, well, a hecka long time.  We made it to our first final round in a very long while, (longer than I care to remember) and although we came up a little short, it was a great day of racing and a nice jump in the points.  In fact it moved us up to #4 in the Summit Pro points for the year. And the car ran really consistantly. That's just so important.  Thanks to Dan and Dave, we have gotten much, much better at keeping the car in a really narrow performance window. That means that we're not changing the set up of the car at all, and all we have to do is follow the weather changes carefully and we can get a lot closer on predicting what the car will run.  We made 8 passes (2 time runs and 6 rounds of eliminations) and 6 of the 8 were within 15/thousands of a second.  That is consistency!!  That combined with a series of pretty competitive reaction times by the driver, and we strung together 5 round wins before facing Mark Kirby in the Grape Ape for the final.  Mark and I had very similar reaction times and we should have been in for a close race, but my hot rod got a little squirelly at half track and I had to pedal a little.  As a result the best we could post was a 10.62 on a 10.45 dial in.  Just way too far off the number to get a win.  But, as they say, a good time was had by all!  And I can't think of a better way to celebrate a birthday!  What a blast!

May 1st brought us to Summit Race #4, and coming off yesterday's final round appearance we had big plans for another stellar day. But that was not to be.  I went out in the first round, when my opponent absolutely chopped down the tree.  I mean a PERFECT .000 reaction time.  Another way of reading that is 1/1000 of a second from a red light (foul)!  It doesn't happen too often in competition but every once in a while someone will rip off a perfect reaction time, and it just happened I was in the other lane.  I ran a 10.53 on my 10.50 dial which is not too bad, but my .086 light left me with over 8/100 of a second to make up.  That just doesn't happen.  So we rolled out of there on Sunday having made a significant jump in points, and having proven we can race with anyone in this series.  Looking forward to climbing further up the points ladder June 11/12!

SLOracer. Out.

ANRA Season Opener a Success!

On April 10th and 11th the Central Coast Autohaus Flying Pig Racing team travelled to Bakersfield's Auto Club Famoso Raceway for the ANRA season opener. The travel team this week included Dave "the wrench" Lee, Autohaus Dan, Ken "the nuke" Wilson and yours truly.  I couldn't do it without this crew!  The "wrench" is my all around primary crew guy.  He handles the tire pressure adjustments in the lanes, manages the fuel, helps with the log book, not to mention the cooking!  Autohaus Dan provides the mechanical genius and wrenching duties not only at the track, but back home in the Central Coast Autohaus shop. And Ken "the nuke" brings his electrical expertise as well as photography skills to the track!  Oh yeah, Ken can also whip up a tasty linguica and egg breakfast! I can't say enough about how much work goes into getting to the track and making sure that everything goes according to plan.  These guys just make it happen race after race.

On the track, we had a couple of pretty good time runs on Saturday, posting a 10.390 (quickest ever) on the first pass of the day!  We followed that up with a 10.46 on the second pass.  I spun the tires a bit on that one and slowed by .06 second in the first 330 feet.  The rest of the run was fine.  So we felt pretty confident going into eliminations on Sunday. 

Sunday was a blast! There were 54 cars in my class.  That's a BUNCH! If you do the math, it takes 6 round wins to win the whole deal.  We went 4 rounds. In other words, only 4 cars went further.  The guy, Pete Chilbes III, who beat us in round 4 went on to win the event.  So after ANRA race number 1, we sit tied for 5th in season points. Below is a link to a bunch of video taken Saturday and Sunday by "the nuke".  You can also find it on my YouTube channel  http://www.youtube.com/user/flyingpigracing100?feature=mhum

SLOracer. Out.

1st Summit race a bust for Flying Pig, 2nd yields 3 quickest ETs ever!

Well, April 2nd and 3rd marked the start of the Summit Racing season at Famoso Raceway and Flying Pig Racing was stymied!  Wow!  All I can say is WOW!  We were so pumped going in.  The best prepared in years.  The car is looking great.  The mechanicals are perfect.  The driver has been beating up the practice tree...

But as is often the case in drag racing, some little thing that you just didn't anticipate sneaks up and bites you in the butt.  This time it was 2 psi of air pressure.  Yep.  That's it- 2 psi. 

Here's the deal.  Before the race we installed a new set of rear slicks.  Up til now we had been running a Hoosier slick. We found the optimal tire pressure for the Hoosiers to be about 10.5 psi.  Then... this year I found a M&H slick on the market that has about 4/10 of an inch more contact patch.  That's just what you want- more rubber on the track...better traction...quicker ETs.  Yahoo.  We mounted the M&Hs and hit the track. 

On the first pass on Saturday morning, the car launched really hard.  Felt great.  But then it started going right, and THEN started shaking like a wet dog!  By half track I had gone right, left, then right again, and shook so hard I could hardly hold the steering wheel.  So, I wisely aborted the run.  Went back to the pits and reported to "the twins" and the "wrench", who went over the car with a magnifying glass and made a slight adjustment to the toe in on the front wheels, and proclaimed the Pig mechanically fit.

Back out for the second time run, and the same sashay and shake down the track led to the second aborted run of the day.  Back in the pits again, we decided we were missing something, and it likely had to do with the new tires.  So off we went to find the guy we lean on alot- Ric Fauset- engine builder extraordinaire and all around racing guru from Fauset Racing . As soon as I mentioned the new M&H slicks, he pointed out that the M&H tires always seem to require more air pressure than the Hoosiers.  Bingo!  We ran the pressures up to 12.5 psi.  Unfortunately, it was now time for the start of eliminations, and we had NO IDEA what the car would do.  So we dialed a conservative 10.90 and figured IF the car was on a good pass, I would just have to hit the brakes and slow it down so as not to break out.

We were paired with perennial contender and National Champ Mark Simonian in the first round.  I approached it just like any other round and nailed the tree with a .010 light, against his respectable .028.  What happened next was crazy.  The car launched perfectly, and ran flawlessly! No shake, no drifting around.  Just as straight as a string!  So at about half track Simonian was nowhere near me and I realized I had better slow this thing down.  So I hit the brakes... and started to celebrate the fact that the problem was solved!  About that time Simonian flew past me.  I jumped back on the gas, but too little and too late!  What a way to lose! At least we were able to walk away feeling good that the car was back on track.



Sunday, April 3rd.
Started the day knowing the car would run well.  The weather was perfect and we were comfortable with the air pressure.  Actually we bumped the pressure up a quarter to 12.75 psi.  The first time run was a blast.  The car ran the quickest 60" time ever- a 1.475, and the quickest ET ever 10.399!  Man that was cool.

We followed that up on the second pass with another 10.399! And then eliminations started.  1st round loser!  We dialed a 10.41 because the conditions had gotten a little worse, and we had lost the slight tailwind we had earlier. I felt like I had a decent light but it turned out I was WAY late.  I kept it hammered right on out the back door but never caught the other car.  In the end I ran a 10.407, 3/1000s too quick, but it didn't matter, I was never gonna beat the other guy with the poor light.  So, we left with the 3 quickest passes the Flying Pig Has ever made.  And that ain't bad.

Oh, and we learned another drag racing lesson. Don't make major changes (tire brand) unless you have time to test them BEFORE race day.  So having learned that lesson, we had a discussion back in the pits about the upcoming ANRA  race, and decided rather than running D-Gas and "learning at the track" we are going to stick to what we know, and run in the Hot Rod class, which is just like Summit ET racing.  So now it's just 3 days til I'm back at the track!  Me and Ken "the nuke" are going to head out on Friday to get pitted and tech'd, and then "the twins" and "the wrench" will join us on Saturday.

SLO Racer. Out.

Flying Pig has never looked better!

We spent the morning Saturday (well, the wrench did) waxing the Flying Pig Mustang!  Since Barry completed the paint on the quarter panel the rest of the car was looking pretty bad...So Dave was over, under, and inside the Pig making it the cleanest I have seen in years!  No lie.
As I always say, "ya won't always run good, but ya can always look good"!  I was relieved when the thing didn't fall apart after all the dirt was removed.  Now I'm thinking we probably will pick up a half of tenth just because it's lighter and slippery-er!

Oh check out Dan's Camaro in the background!

After the buffing we had the first annual pre-season Central Coast Autohaus Flying Pig Racing BBQ at the driver's house. (that's me)  In spite of the rain we had a blast.  Drug two webers out to the driveway so we could cook from under the garage overhang.  We BBQ'd 3 dozen oysters, 4 1/2 racks of baby backs, and a 2 pound slab of salmon. Everyone chipped in by bringing some side dishes.  It was quite the pig out! (pun intended)
So, we are fully prepared to go to Bakersfield this weekend and kick some butt!  Look out Famoso.  Here comes the twins, the wrench, the Nuke and the driver!

SloRacer. Out.