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Sun, 9 Jul 2006 Charlotte Notes
Lefty
We just got back from the
SCCA
race at Charlotte’s
Lowe’s Motor Speedway,
organized by
Central Carolina Region (CCR).
This was our first time at LMS, and it might be our last, since the rumor
mill claims that things are getting too expensive and CCR won't be going
back. We’re glad we went, even if it ends up being the only chance
we get. Driving on the high-banks was a blast, though we were very slow
compared to the other drivers that knew the track better. But we got the
first finish of the season, which was the goal. More soon when we get the
article finished.
Posted at 15:21
Wow, It's been a while!
Lefty
I was just dinking around with the web site and noticed that
I hadn't posted anything here for a really long time. I guess
I'd pretty much completely forgotten about
NutNotes. I'll try
to do better in the future, and I've got some other updates for
the site, but things are pretty busy on this end of the world
right now.
Back in April, we instructed at an
SCCA
Performance Driving Experience (PDX) event over at
Carolina
Motorsports Park. Then, we worked a Porsche Club race at
Road
Atlanta. Next, we ran the Memorial Monster race, also at
Carolina
Motorsports Park, organized by
Central Carolina Region (CCR)
SCCA. The next weekend, we worked a
Mercury
event at Northlake Mall in Charlotte. Now, this weekend, we're planning to race at
Lowe's Motor Speedway
in Charlotte in another
CCR
event, called the June Jam. Hopefully we'll get a finish there. More details
soon when I get the articles completed and loaded to the site.
Posted at 15:21
Just Gettin’ Along
Lefty
Nothing much happening around here.
Righty has forwarded his comments about the
June Jam race we ran last month. So I
guess I'll be updating the article to include his notes as well as my
views of the race itself. Nothing much else going on around the
NutHatch besides working on the brakes for the
#91 car and arranging to get its engine seals
fixed.
Posted at 15:21
Atlanta Historics & ARRC
Lefty
Righty has a new girlfriend, so
Lefty has been doing the racing thing
“solo” since the Petit le Mans.
As we mentioned in the article for the 2005 Petit le Mans, the
fellow who has been doing the photography for Atlanta Region
is moving away from Atlanta over the winter. He has recruited me and a
couple of other people to take over those duties. Due to the amount of
film involved, I moved into the digital SLR world shortly after the
Petit. About three weeks ago I attended one day of the 2005
Atlanta Historics and put the equipment through its first test. Then,
this weekend, I worked the ARRC at
Road Atlanta, helping out Jack with coverage of the winners on the
podiums and general photography duties. I shot over 900 photos at the
two events, and I'm busy culling them and doing the post processing. I'll
get the ones from the Atlanta Historics up on the web site in the next
week or so. Most of the ones from the ARRC will have to wait until the
Steering Wheel has made its choices, but they'll get up on the
web eventually, too.
Posted at 15:21
Eighth Petit le Mans
Lefty
We spent the last few days attending the eighth Petit le Mans, keeping
our string intact (we've attended all of them so far).
Righty worked corners on Wednesday the
28th and we both spectated Thursday through Saturday.
This was the first year we had the NutKart (golf cart) to ferry us
around the grounds, and it paid for itself in just those three days. The
Road Atlanta grounds
are tough on the feet and legs, with a lot of elevation changes, and we came
out of this event much less tired and sore than previous ones. The cart also
made it a lot easier to get around the track property on Saturday, when
attendance and traffic were as heavy as we've ever seen them. The only
difficulty was not being able to take the cart into the pro or support
paddocks, since only team vehicles were allowed to enter those areas.
We also ran into and socialized with a number of friends, including our buddies
on the Atlanta Region
SCCA specialties teams and
Ron Zappendorf of
Discovery Parts.
Lefty also shot twenty rolls of film, including
some great shots of the wreck between three prototypes at the start of the
race (first turn of the first lap). We'll get an article of our experiences
and some of the pictures up on the site in the next few days.
Posted at 15:21
Lazy Is as Lazy Does
Lefty
It suddenly occurred to me that we hadn't done a page for our most recent
event! Lazy, lazy, lazy. Well, I'll get something put together in the
next few days and get it posted.
In the meantime, Atlanta Region had
to cancel their Labor Day event at
Atlanta Motor Speedway
because they could not get commitments from enough volunteer workers to
properly staff the event. We find the situation quite unfortunate, but we
hope it will engender both discussion and action to increase recruiting
and retention of volunteer workers. We may have more to say about that,
later.
Posted at 15:21
Kershaw Again
Lefty
We're busy getting ready to run the
Carolina Cup Pro Series
event at
Carolina Motorsports Park
this weekend. We'll split the forty-five minute enduro race, getting in about
twenty minutes each with a mandatory pit stop roughly midway through. One of
these days we'll get back to
Road Atlanta as competitors, since it
seems like every time we run it's at Kershaw. But we really like the track at
CMP and we're looking forward to this weekend. More news and hopefully photos
when we get back.
Posted at 15:21
Memorial Monster
Lefty
We spent last weekend, the Memorial Day holiday, at
Carolina Motorsports Park.
The original plan, as noted below, was for
Lefty
to drive the SARRC race on Sunday, and
Righty
and
Lefty
to codrive the 45-minute CCPS enduro on Monday. The bearing on the left rear
wheel appears to have given up the ghost during the Lefty’ SARRC race on
Sunday, so we didn't run the CCPS enduro. More information and photos soon
to come.
Posted at 15:21
One More For The Goat
Lefty
Well, I was supposed to race at Road
Atlanta last weekend. It would have been the second event I needed to
upgrade my SCCA license from Novice to
Regional. Instead, it turned into a week of one goat fornication after
another. If I didn’t set some sort of record for procrastination and
lack of preparedness, I certainly should have. Nobel Prize level, even.
It actually started a month or so ago when I decided to run this race. The
first problem was that we knew that the synchros on third gear in
the car were iffy, after the way it ran last time.
Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to get it fixed. So we figured
we’d just baby it, pray over it, and hope for the best.
The next problem was that I also started procrastinating on refreshing the
car to run the event. A couple of weeks ago I got it together for a few
hours and got the new fuel pump and filter installed and tested. I thought
to myself Boy, that was easy and the procrastination got a shot in
the arm.
Last weekend, I finally got off my lazy butt and got started freshening the
car. Things started off badly when I discovered that the mats I’d put on
the garage floor meant the jack wouldn’t fit under the car. So I got the
car running, which isn’t always easy in weather that cold, and moved it
out of the garage to get the silly floor mats out of the way. I pulled it back
in, and I could finally get a jack under it.
So I got the basic freshening stuff done on Saturday. Stuff like oil and
filter, air filter, coolant, cleaning the glass and exterior, etc. On
Sunday I checked the brake pads and rotors, since Gen1 RX-7s have a habit
of cracking the rotors long before they’re worn down. The one on the
right front had huge cracks in it, so it needed replacing. It
didn’t seem like that big a deal, since we had spare rotors in the
spares bins.
So Sunday, I start disassembling the right front corner to replace the
combined brake rotor and hub that these cars use. I get the brake caliper
off, and the top bolt on the caliper mount, but the bottom bolt on the mount
is hiding behind a steering linkage and has a flange around it. Great. I
can’t get enough grip and leverage with a box end wrench to break the
thing loose, and no other wrench I have will reach it at all. After screwing
around with it for three hours or more, I finally give up.
Monday, on the way home from work, I stop off at
Sears and pick up some metric offset box
end wrenches. Arriving home I find that it’s just the ticket and the
caliper mount is off in about two minutes. Ten more and the hub is open and
the rotor off. Man, the grease in the hubs is
COOKED! Now I’ve just got to get the bearings
out of the rotor. I spend about two hours messing with this before giving up.
Eventually, I wonder if we also have bearings and seals in the spares bins.
Lo and behold, we do! Now I’m cooking with gas! I think. After
another two hours or so of dinking around, I give up on getting the bearings
seated like they’re supposed to be. At this point I’m afraid
that I’ve damaged something irreparably, so I check the
Mazda Motorsports online catalog
to see if I can order the parts and get them in time. Even with the
Mazdaspeed discount, two sets of rotor/bearings/seals runs just shy of $400.
I send a note to a friend who runs the parts desk at a local Mazda dealer, and
arrange to meet him at work Tuesday.
Tuesday morning, I take a rotor and bearings with me to the Mazda dealer to
find out what I’m doing wrong. From my description to my buddy and one
of the mechanics, they say it sounds like I’m doing the right thing, but
maybe something’s a bit off. Since I don’t have a bearing
insertion tool, I’m using an impact socket to drive the bearing races
into their pockets. Maybe it’s a little too large or something. As we
talk, the mechanic says he’ll be happy to do it for me, since it’ll
only take a few seconds. That’s awesome.
They also show me the prices for the same replacement parts from the dealer.
Almost $700! From the local parts house, rotors are under $50. Stock ones
from Mazdaspeed are about $135. Stock ones from the dealer are over $200!
Then I realize that I only have one of the sets with me. Drat! So I drive
back to the house, get the other set, and back to the Mazda dealer, all
through morning rush hour traffic. When I finally get there with both sets,
the mechanic, as good as his word, bashes them in in nothing flat. My
problem was I was being too gentle with them. He used a several pound ball
peen hammer and quite a bit of gusto. I’d been afraid of breaking
something.
So I get home Tuesday evening and finish prepping the new rotors and bearings
with grease and seals and all that stuff. It dawns on me that the new rotors
don’t have wheel studs installed in them. So I take the studs off the
old rotors. Well, I try to. I get one out. The rest are stuck tight, even
with liberal use of “Break Free” and similar products, heat, BFH,
you name it.
OK, so I’ll just go get a new set of studs. I measure the old ones to
make sure I get the right thing. I check all of the local auto parts stores,
and they might have had them, but couldn’t tell me because they’re
not stock. If they can’t look it up by make/model/year, they’re
lost. So I get on the Internet, only to find that many of the on-line parts
stores are the same way.
After a couple of hours of searching, I finally find a vendor that has what I
need. I order eight of them and have to get rush processing and shipment to
have them in time for the race. So the $32.00 in wheel studs turns into
almost $90.00. Plus, since I’m placing the order about 10:30 in the
evening, they won’t be here until Thursday morning. :-(
After posting on the
Grassroots Motorsports
message boards,
I found out that some VWs apparently use the same type of studs. I’m
still trying to find out which models and years so I know what to tell the
parts houses the next time I have to replace the rotors. I guess I’ll
have to dig around on VW Vortex and see
if I can figure it out. They’re 12mm x 1.5 and maybe 30-35mm long, if
any of you VW guys know off the top of your head.
So, Wednesday after work, I do some more general freshening stuff while I wait
for the wheel studs to arrive. I also start gathering and packing all of the
ancilliary stuff that’ll need to go with me to the track on Friday.
Thursday morning, the wheel studs arrive by express courier before I leave for
work. Boy, I sure wish I could be “tactically ill” today! After
a long day at work, I get home to discover that I apparently don’t know
the correct method for operating a ruler. The new wheel studs are the right
thread and diameter, but they’re about 60% longer than the ones I
measured, though they are the ones I ordered. So now I have to scramble
around the local Wally World and parts stores to find eight ten (need spares)
open ended metric 12mm lug nuts. One place has five, and another place has
five more.
So now, I’m finally set. I install the studs into the rotors and the
rotors onto the car. As I’m putting the brake pads and calipers back on,
I notice the backing plate on one of the pads is bent, though they all still
have more than half of their thickness left. Just for safety’s sake, I
replace the pads with a brand new set we have in the spares bins, and
reinstall the calipers.
At this point, I’m ready to declare victory, having only to bleed the
brakes and mount the wheels to be ready to go to the track. I take the rest
of the night off and visit the local pub for a couple of brews. In the morning,
I get up and bleed the brakes and install the wheels and get it back down on
the ground. Then I go up to the storage yard and get the trailer. At home,
I get the trailer set up to receive the car, with ramps down and tie down
straps positioned.
I go start up the RX-7 and notice that the alternator may not be charging.
Even when the car is running, the tach is showing voltage instead of RPMs.
Gen1 RX-7s do this when the system voltage is too low, which it should never
be while the car is running, due to the alternator. Hopefully it’s just
the belt. If not, ISC will be at the
track and we can get a replacement from them.
I back the car out of the garage into the driveway so the exhaust gasses and
smoke won’t set off the smoke detector in the garage like they did Sunday
evening. As I sit there, I notice some gray smoke coming from the right
front wheel well. I shut the car down and check it out. All I see is a
small spill of oil or something on the exhaust header. So I get back in and
start it up again. After a minute the smoke from the front wheel well is
much worse, so I shut it down again and inspect more closely. This time I
find the hole in the exhaust header the size of a dime. Lovely.
I do some calling around, and can’t get a header before Monday. On top
of that, our experienced friends aren’t going to be at the race this
weekend, so we’d have to figure out the whole process on our own,
trackside, anyway. And the weather forecast is not looking good, calling for
severe storms on Sunday.
To top it all off, when I’m packing I can’t find either my
driver’s gloves or about eight rolls of film that I know are
around here somewhere. Eventually, I discovered my driver’s
gloves stuffed into my helmet inside the helmet bag. The film is still AWOL,
however. I wonder if it became cat toys?
So, I decide to pack it in and try again at another event. All that stuff
put together must have been some sort of omen that I
wasn’t supposed to race that weekend. :-) As it turned out, the weather
was very good on Saturday, but was horrible on Sunday, rainy all day, and
sometimes violent thunderstorms. So it would have been miserable at the track.
By now, I’ve gotten the exhaust header repaired enough to trailer the
car to our buddy’s shop to get him to work on the exhaust and fix third
gear. And I figure I’ll get it a battery, too, just in case. Or at
least have the current one load tested. Then we’ll figure out whether
to race this car one more time, or get in up for sale immediately and use the
#91 RX-7 for the next event.
Just to make matters interesting, though, it looks like the outer front wheel
bearings may not be available from Mazda any longer. I’m a member of
their Mazdaspeed support program,
so I checked their web site. None available, but that was the only notation.
I called the local Mazda dealer’s
parts desk and their computer told them that the bearings are "not available",
rather than "out of stock" or "backordered" or something like that. Hopefully,
if it’s true, we won’t have too much trouble developing another
source, or we could switch the spindles to the ones from the '84-'85 model
years. Sigh.
But, now we’ve got our eye on the next event. We’ll be scouring
our schedules and those of the local SCCA regions and we’ll get back
out there soon.
Posted at 15:21
Memorial Monster
Lefty
Our next event is fast approaching. Next weekend, the Memorial Day holiday,
we'll be heading down to Carolina
Motorsports Park for a little racing. Lefty will drive the SARRC race on
Sunday, and Righty and Lefty will codrive the 45-minute ECR enduro on Monday.
We'll let you know what happens. :-) If Lefty finishes either of these races and
gets the proper signatures, both of The Nuts
will be able to submit their Novice Licenses for upgrading to full Regional
Competition Licenses.
Posted at 15:21
Grand Prix of Atlanta
Lefty
We just got back from the Grand Prix of Atlanta at Road Atlanta. It was a
great event with lots of great racing. The weather gods even smiled. I'm
working on a page for the web site just for the event, but it will be a few
days before it's posted. When Righty went home
tonight he took the header for the #88 RX-7 with
him so Sam can install it. Hopefully the #88 will be ready to roll again
soon. We're planning to run the Memorial Monster at
Carolina Motorsports Park over Memorial Day, so stay tuned for more news.
We'll probably run the #91 since the #88 should be up for sale by then. We
go to pick up the Baby Grand next weekend, so the sooner the #88 sells the
better.
Posted at 15:21
Moving Again
Lefty
After the fiasco a two weeks ago, things are starting to go better. Last
weekend I took the #88 RX-7 up to Greenville and left
it with our friend Sam Henderson to have the trans and exhaust fixed. Then,
Righty found us a golf cart for a good price, so
we'll have a much easier time getting around the track. The only real bummer
has been that I couldn't get anyone to drop ship the new exhaust header to
Sam, so I'm going to have to receive it here in Atlanta and drive it up to
Greenville. Oh well. More news as it happens.
Posted at 15:21
Our First Race
Lefty
We finally ran our first actual race after Driver's
School! On Memorial Day we co-drove the #91
RX-7 in a forty-five minute enduro at
Carolina Motorsports Park
in Kershaw. We were too busy to get any photographs, but we'll get an article
up on the web site in the next few days.
Posted at 15:20
IT7 Monoculture!
Lefty
We worked as course marshals at last weekend's Regional race at Road Atlanta. The
weather was reasonably nice during the days, especially Sunday, but the wind made
things miserable at night. We were camping at the track and the wind Friday night
was so strong it broke two of the tent poles. On a happier note, we picked up a
second IT7 car, though, so the Celica is up for sale. We got a couple of photos
of the new car, but they aren't developed yet. We'll be putting them up on the
web site in a couple of days.
Posted at 15:20
Down to Two Cars!
Lefty
We sold the Celica last weekend to a couple from Ohio. The husband restores
classic Porsches, and they needed a car to get the wife through
SCCA Drivers' School. So
now we're really an RX-7 monoculture. As soon as I get back to work, we'll
be back out on the track. In the meantime, we're working corners and attending
a couple of events as spectators (the 'drift' event at
Road Atlanta next
weekend, and the Walter Mitty historics event the weekend after.
Posted at 15:20
We're Licensed!
Lefty
The Nuts successfully completed the
SCCA “All In One”
driver's school at
Roebling Road Raceway
last weekend. It was a lot of miles and hours to get there and back, and a
busy four days, but it was worth every minute of it.
Now that we have Novice Licenses, we have to complete two Regional races to
become fully licensed. There are plenty of events nearby, so that shouldn't be
a problem.
Posted at 15:20
Getting Ready
Lefty
The Nuts are set to attend the
SCCA racing school at
Roebling Road
in February. We're busy getting both of the cars ready and up to spec
for the 2004 GCR. We're also trying to get our hides toughened so that
the cold won't do us in, since we'll be camping at the track.
Posted at 15:20
Almost Ready
Lefty
Well, both of The Nuts race cars
have passed annual technical inspection, and both of The Nuts have, too (medical). So it looks like we're
almost ready to go to SCCA
racing school at Roebling
Road next week. Now, if the cold doesn't kill us, maybe we'll come home
with our Novice licenses.
Posted at 15:20
NutHaulers, Petit, etc.
Lefty
Well, I've been slack about updating the
NutNotes but I'm going
to try to get back up to speed.
First off, both of us worked corners at the American Road Race of
Champions at Road Atlanta. We had a great time, though some of the
classes got a bit physical out on the track. We'd like to see more
racing and less “bump and grind”.
Then, we attended the Petit le Mans at Road Atlanta. For this event,
we made coveralls with the Road Atlanta track on them, plus updated
our “Panoz Hats” to the livery used by JML Team Panoz
during the 2003 season. We got a really good response, and we've put
up some photos here.
Next, we did a third HPDE event with
Turn One Motorsports
at Carolina
Motorsports Park back in November. This time we took the Celica
instead of the RX-7. We're trying to get seat time to get ready for
the SCCA double license school coming up in February.
A more complete article is available.
In addition, we've completely revamped the
NutHauler lineup.
NutHauler I is gone, donated
to the National Kidney Foundation.
NutHauler II is out of service
and up for sale. Righty replaced
NutHauler II with a 2004
Dodge Ram 1500 pickup truck with the “Work Truck Package”.
Lefty replaced
NutHauler I with a 2000 Dodge
Ram 1500 pickup. These haulers should do a lot more work with a lot
less stranding us on the side of the road, we hope.
Finally, Lefty just acquired a 1990 Mazda Miata.
The intent was to use it as a daily driver. The previous owner, however,
has done a lot of suspension work on the car, and it handles like a dream.
After doing a little restoration work, like replacing the soft top,
Lefty thinks it might be a good car for the
autocrosses. Just keeping our eyes open for the 2004 schedule for the
Southeast.
Posted at 15:20
NutHauler I (again ...)
Lefty
Well, I talked to the shop in SC, and they faxed me a copy of the receipt where
they purchased the alternator, and I faxed it to the shop that currently has
NutHauler I. They got back to me this
afternoon to let me know they're getting the replacement alternator under
warranty and hopefully the van will be ready tomorrow. Now I just have to figure
out how to get up there to pick it up without leaving an orphaned car behind.
Posted at 15:20
Petit le Mans
Lefty
The Nuts attended the sixth Petit le Mans at
Road Atlanta,
which keeps our string intact, having attended all of them.
MORE STUFF ABOUT THE RACE
This year we again wore
our Panoz Hats, but we
updated them to current livery.
Lefty wore #10 and
Righty wore #11. We also
“went as the track”.
PHOTOS OF THE SUITS
DESCRIPTIONS OF THE SUITS
* Shown on the TV broadcast, on the grid just before the start
* Huge reaction from the crowd
* Lots of people stopped us to get photos
* Had our picture taken in the media center with the head PR guy for
Road Atlanta
Posted at 15:20
NutHauler I, Rehabilitated
Lefty
Yesterday Dad came down an helped me retrieve the NutHauler I from the shop. They were able to get NAPA to honor
the warranty, since we had the receipt to show it was sitting around on NAPAs shelves,
not ours. So, I only had to pay the labor. Still damned annoying. But the machine seems
to be back to previous form ... which, unfortunately includes a rattling wrist pin. :-(
Posted at 15:20
NutHauler I (again ...)
Lefty
I forgot to mention that NutHauler I
crapped out again last Friday after I got to
Road Atlanta to try to
register for corner work at the Atlanta Historics. The symptoms were exactly
the same as during the Weekend From Hell
(HPDE #2 and Autocross #1).
That is, there was power enough for the radio, but the starter wouldn't even
engage.
Luckily there was a shop just a couple of miles from the track, and I
dropped it there with Righty's help. Unfortunately,
they are only open during weekdays. So I called them Monday morning and asked
them to look at it. It turns out that the alternator installed back in July
has crapped out. It's supposed to have a one year warranty, but the tag on it
indicates it was purchased a year and a half ago. I'll be contacting the guy
from last July tomorrow to see what's up and what we can do about it.
More news to follow.
Posted at 15:20
More Corner Work
Lefty
Last weekend, September 13th and
14th,
The Nuts “worked corners” at
Road Atlanta
for the
Historic Sportscar Racing (HSR)
Atlanta Historics event.
On Saturday morning, both Lefty and
Righty were assigned to work the Turn 7 station
(Road Atlanta Track Map).
After only a session or two, “control” called up on the comm
system and asked one of us to go to Turn 1 to help out.
Righty volunteered and spent the rest of Saturday
on the far side of the track at Turn 1, all alone. A very difficult day.
He'll have to post more information on that, though.
At lunch on Saturday, the Flag Chief asked me
to move over to Turn 8, and I spent the rest of Saturday and all of Sunday
out there, also alone. Sunday morning, Righty
was moved over to Turn 9, and spent all of Sunday there.
While we were at Turn 7, nothing much happened that required a response. A
couple of cars spun trying to get through the turn, but they all continued
under their own power, requiring only display of yellow flags, rather than
sending a worker out in response.
Turn 9 is the “Black Flag Station” at
Road Atlanta, so
Righty got experience handling black flags and
“meatballs” (mechanical black flags) both on the comms and
from the flag stand (flag and number board, both).
Turn 9 is also a “call through” station for starts and checkers.
That means 9 has to report in on the comms when the pack gets to the station
on starts, and how well they’re forming up for the start. On the final
lap, 9 has to report the position of the lead car as it comes by the station,
to give the flagger on the starter’s flag stand a good chance of picking
it out of a crowd.
Turn 8 is one of the “call through” stations for black and
“meatball” flags. 8’s job is to spot the car for which the
flag is intended, and let 9 know when it’s coming, where it is on the
track, and where it is with respect to other traffic. Then 9 displays the
flag and a number board with the target car’s number on it.
We again had a great time, and learned a lot more about the mechanics of
putting on race events. We met some nice new people in the F&C crowd
and renewed our acquaintances with the folks we met over Labor Day. The
weather was a lot more comfortable, too. Highs were in the low to mid
80s, we had good cloud cover most of the weekend, and there was no rain.
We’re going to the
Petit le Mans
as spectators, but we’ll still stop in and say hello to
“the folks”. The next race we might work would probably be
the American Road Race of Champions (ARRC) event at
Road Atlanta on
the 7th and 8th of
November. We’d like to do the two day (single) SCCA Club Racing
Driver’s School at Virginia International Raceway the weekend before,
so we might not be recuperated enough to work.
Posted at 15:20
Corner Work
Lefty
Labor Day weekend, 2003, found The
Nuts adding another new experience to our fledgling racing careers.
We spent the weekend “working corners” at Road Atlanta for the Atlanta Region SCCA SARRC/ECR/Pro-IT event.
That specialty is called “Flagging & Communications” within
the SCCA community.
On Saturday and Sunday, Lefty worked the Turn 3
flag station (Road Atlanta Track Map)
with veterans Bob & Pat Ziner and fellow rookies Diane Jordan and Jay
???. Righty worked the Turn 4 station with ???
on Saturday and Joe Schiavatto on Sunday. On Monday, we worked together on
the Turn 10 station with “Captain Bob” and Mike Todd.
We both got to work every station position (except corner captain, of
course). That includes blue flagger, yellow flagger, communicator, and
safety observer (actually everyone on the corners is a safety observer). We
got to respond to several incidents of cars getting stuck in the gravel or
pulling off course due to mechanical problems. We luckily didn't have any
drivers injured or cars seriously damaged near our stations, though some of
the other stations did. We also had to testify to the Stewards of the Meet
(SOM) regarding some aggressive and damaging on track behaviors.
It was a great experience both to see the cars up close and to learn how the
corners work and what the corner workers do and how they do it. It
definitely gives us, as (hopeful) drivers, more of an appreciation for what
goes into making a successful and safe racing event. We plan to work more
events in the F&C specialty as we pursue our racing careers. The all
volunteer support specialties play a huge role in putting on the event and
making it a safe and enjoyable experience.
Posted at 15:20
HPDE #2 & Solo 2 #1 Online
Lefty
We have added descriptions of our second High Performance Driver's
Education (HPDE) event and our first autocross
(SCCA Solo 2) to
the web site. The descriptions include an overview of The
Weekend from Hell, so it should be a little entertaining. The
pages are HPDE #2 and
Autocross #1.
Posted at 15:20
HPDE #2 & Solo 2 #1
Lefty
The Nuts' had their second High Performance
Driver's Education (HPDE) event last Friday, 18 July. We again went to
Carolina
Motorsports Park with Turn One Motorsports. The
very helpful Janice Squires at Turn One even arranged for us to have the
same instructor that we had at our first HPDE in March, Marty Barrett.
We also competed in our first autocross on the 20th. The event was
convened by the
Central Carolina Region
(CCR) of the SCCA in Fort Mill, SC, on the 20th.
The weekend was very eventful, but everything worked out in the end, so
we can't really complain too much. We're working on putting together
pages for the events, but that will take a couple of days. Especially
since we're waiting for the film to come back. We'll post all of that
in a couple of days.
Posted at 15:20
NutHauler II
Lefty
The Nuts plan to attend two autocrosses next month to get fully
qualified for Mazda Motorsports Team Support
Program. I've registered for the 20th at Fort Mill, South Carolina, but Righty still needs
to get registered for that one. I'm also trying to register for the event the 19th at the
South Carolina State Fairgrounds in Columbia, but SC Region's web site isn't cooperating. We
hope to meet you there.
Posted at 15:20
Passenger Prep
Lefty
The Nuts' spent the Fourth of July weekend getting
the RX-7 ready for a day of HPDE and two days of SCCA
Solo 2 autocrossing in mid-July. This involved all of the normal stuff, like
checking the brakes and fluids, but also required installation of harness and
seat for a passenger, to do check out rides at the HPDE and similar. All in
all, it took about eight hours, mostly on the seat and harness. As usual,
everything possible got in the way of the installation. But we got it done
and the car is ready.
We'll be at Carolina
Motorsports Park in Kershaw, SC, on the 18th of July for a day of HPDE.
Then we'll got to Columbia, SC, for an SCR
SCCA autocross on the 19th, and an autocross convened by
CCR SCCA in Fort Mill, SC, on the 20th.
Hope to see you there.
Posted at 15:20
Trying Something New
Lefty
The Nuts' web hosting provider just recently
added support for the Blosxom 'blogging package to their (minimalist) account
type, so The Nuts thought they'd try the thing
out. It looks like it will be easier than maintaining a page, so they'll be
migrating the current News from the home page to the 'blog.
Posted at 15:20
NutHauler II
Righty
I've acquired NutHauler II this week, so The Nuts
can now easily transport both the RX-7 and the
Celica track cars to events. This one is a 1978 or 1979 Ford
F-250 crew cab pickup truck with a 351 c.i.d. engine. I'm also going to check out a
Gen2 RX-7 street car the same fellow has for sale.
Posted at 15:20
Parking Lot Practice
Lefty
I visited Righty and we used the “new” tow vehicle to drag the Mazda to an
abandoned parking lot near Righty's house. We got about an hour and a half of learning the
car, done fifteen or twenty minutes at a time. We're going to have to work on upper body
strength for steering the beast. Between a lack of power steering and the grippy race
slicks, moving the steering wheel was real work, especially at any speed.
Unfortunately, we had a right front brake pad disintegrate, so we had to cut the session
short. After replacing the front pads and bleeding the brakes, the car is back to normal and
ready for the next session.
We also got some photos of the Celica, and they'll go up on the site in the next few days.
We still need to do a little work on the Celica to get it read for its first session with
us.
Posted at 15:20
The Mitty, 2003
Lefty
The Nuts spent the weekend crewing for their friend Greg
Kimbrough at the 2003 Historic Sportscar Racing (HSR)
The Mitty event (formerly known as the Walter Mitty Historics) at
Road Atlanta.
The 2003 Mitty item on the menu to the left will take you to the photos and
descriptions of the weekend.
Posted at 15:20
NutHauler I
Lefty
I picked up the first NutHauler yesterday. It's a 1988 Dodge
Ram 250 LE full size van. It goes to the shop tomorrow for a thorough going over. If it
survives that, we'll use it to drag one or both of the track cars to an abandoned parking lot
for some practice next weekend. [The next day] I dropped it off this morning for a check out
and basic maintenance. No major problems, so we're off.
Posted at 15:20
New Tow Dolly
Lefty
I picked up a tow dolly over the weekend. This should keep us covered for
towing both cars until another trailer makes it into the budget.
Posted at 15:20
Track Car #2
Lefty
Righty picked up the second track car yesterday. It's a Toyota Celica GT-S
retired from the Toyota Celebrity Challenge that runs at the Long Beach Grand
Prix CART event. A 250cc “pit bike” was part of the deal, so I
need to get some two-wheeled practice. We'll get more information up on the
web site pronto.
Posted at 15:20
Righty's HPDE Notes
Lefty
Righty has gotten his notes on the Kershaw HPDE event together, and we'll
get them incorporated into the HPDE pages ASAP.
Posted at 15:20
HPDE #1
Lefty
The Nuts just got back from three days (14-16 Mar
2003) of driver's school at
Carolina Motorsports Park.
They had a blast! The HPDE links in the menu to the left will take you
to pages that tell the whole story.
Posted at 15:20
Tow Vehicle Bust
Lefty
Well, The Nuts thought they had a deal on a tow
vehicle. Then the previous owner sold it out from under the accepted firm
offer. The Nuts haven't decided whether to make
the issue more public than that. But the Super Happy Fun Bus is gone.
Posted at 15:20
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