Infinion Results

Well, we did it again!
For the second consecutive race, we finished without any major mechanical failures.

Sunday morning started with the team replacing the rear brakes. The passenger side rear was still dragging so we replaced the brakes. The rear caliper on the drivers side was showing a damaged rubber seal so we replaced that too. We finished bleeding the system just after the drivers meeting was over. The drivers meeting was interesting because Jay talked about the roll-over that had happened on Saturday afternoon. The driver ended up having a cracked vertebra and will be out for some time to come. Our prayers and hopes for a speedy recovery go out to him.

The links to the accident videos are here:
in-car and car following

The race started with Judy in the car. As usual, she was the only driver on our team that went on the track, drove 45 minutes and came off without getting black flagged. We continued our quest to finish the race with Bruce up next in the drivers seat. We decided to go to a longer seat time and it seemed to work in theory until he was flagged and had to come off the track. 15 minutes later, he went back onto the track and drove another 5-6 laps before ending his stint. Stevo jumped into the car and drove for 45 minutes clean and then he got into trouble, black flagged. Judge Jonny was nice and let him go back on the track - he lasted another 15 minutes and received a second black flag, this time we had to do a drivers change. I was up, I got into the car, drove less than one lap and spun out in turn 11, black flagged and the penalty this time was a 1 hour time-out.

During that time, we had a little time to talk about the car. Stevo was feeling that the car was still not braking to its full potential so after our penalty was over we brought the car into the pit and did a front brake overhaul. Nobody timed us but I think we did the front brakes in less than 15 minutes, not too bad for novice racers. I took the car back out and ran clean for an hour, the brakes were still not up to 100%, they had a little chatter going into the corners. Pat jumped into the car and drove the "hell" out of it, he did really well until he came in for his black flag. The car was missing a mirror and the whole side of the car was scraped up. I asked him what happened, he started to tell me how he got his flag and I stopped him and said wait a minute, you're not flagged for impact with another car? His comment was nope that damage was done in an earlier incident where a car slammed into the side of him and no flag was called. Well "hell" we have no mirror and the car needs a new paint job but Pat was flagged for going 4 wheels off in turn 9A! The Judges were nice to us again but told us if we come back we are done. Pat takes the car back out does one lap and Santa Claus throws a hissy fit and Pat gets flagged again. This time Pat is not a happy camper! The judges don't know why he is back in so they let him out with another warning. Time for Bill to finish up the race, we are all so happy that our car is running so well and we will get the checkered flag - until Bill gets the final black flag with 6 laps to go.

Dammit! Bill pulls into the penalty box where the judges proceed to take our manliness away from us. They stripped us of our window sticker and pulled our wrist bands off! We were sooooooo .... close. We finished 89th out of 146 cars that made it onto the track and had one hell of a fun time doing it.

Next race Thunderhill May 8-9th, hope to see you all there.

Sears Infinion the first Day

So day one is done......


The car did really well, we had only two issues that were very minor. The swirl pot vent tube broke free during Bruce's stint and sprayed water everywhere, Bruce came in and we fixed it right away. Pat had a similar issue except that the Brake and alternation light came on and when we went to test the alternator we found the cable had come loose from it's terminal and lost connection. Bill had contact with car 88 which left some door scrapes and ruined our professional paint job. All of the drivers ran pretty clean today, Bill and Bruce received the only black flags and they were minor. We are currently in 79th out of 152 so we are siting in the middle of the pact. We just need 78 cars to blow their motors and we will be sitting pretty. We have had one roll over and one car hitting a concrete wall, both drivers were O.K.
More news as happens or watch the face book page....

We need better tools

So it's less than two weeks before we have to load the car and get on our way to Sears.
In the closing moments before we go we realize we could use some better tools.

I think for our application we might just have the best tools money can buy.

What's your best improvised photo?

Center for Disease Control Warning

The Center for Disease Control has just issued a new warning about Swirl Pot Disease.
The center is claiming that the new Swirl Pot is stronger and better engineered than the last one leading them to believe that this Swirl pot will be around for a long time to come. Here are some of the symptoms of the new Swirl Pot.

As you can see the worst case symtom can be appendages that you really don't want.

As a precaution take everything you can away from the pot to prevent spreading.


The best case is to have a pressure gauge and drain valve in place to prevent seepage. Now back to your normal Lemons programing.

Special thanks to Jefferson Bello for the awesome welds he did for us.

Counting down

5 weeks to go until Sears Pointless! Geez, we'd better get going on the thematic portion of this event...

Paul and Bill are putting the motor back in after going through various sections, and replacing the water pump. The plans that Mulry came up with are 'in the mail' and we should be getting those any day now (hint hint). Tonight we'll watch the movie again (or for me, the whole thing) so we can remember some of the ... 'finer' details!

Do you realize we have to have our entry in for Thunderhill/Goin' for Broken by Feb. 27? Hmmm...

Which T-Shirt Front?

Ok, so which front do you like better? Don't let the fact that there are literally tens of hours (ok, maybe not tens) in the illustrated one and only about 60 minutes of finding the right font in the other one. Just vote on which one you like better.

Float:



Text:

Happy New Year?

Here's to wishing everyone a Happy New Year!

Now on to the important stuff. We have officially been recognize as a race team by the Judges appointed in creating the Sears Pointless race, part of that ever growing series called 24 Hours of Lemons. We are now "Stick Figure Racing/The Animal House Death Mobile." I personally want welcome two new-comers to the team for this race, Pat Mulry and Stevo to the team. These guys come to us from the TARP racing association out of Dallas, Texas. They come from similar stock as we do, broken engines, blown head gaskets and heroic fixes. So they are well seasoned racers capable of dealing with the stresses that are the Lemons series. Pat and Stevo will be doing their part by working on the theme, design and a limited amount of build based on the fact they are over a thousand miles away from the car (minor details!). We will be linking our blog with theirs so that everyone can stay on the same page. Pat has already started working on ideas, so here is the link: tarpblog.net

During the next two months we will do our best to make this theme come alive. Bill, Kirby, Judy and I will start work on getting the car prepped. After all, this is a race and not just show and tell. We have something to prove and that is that we can really compete with the rest of the crazies that are willing to throw their personal lives out the window to make their dreams happen.

So from all of the crazies that make up Stick Figure Racing / Tarp Racing,

Happy New Year!