End of March report

Still looking at grooving tires for the rain.  I have 2 sets of old tires, that gives me a couple of tires to practice the art of grooving.   Been kicking around the idea of having a trailer hitch added to the truck.  I could then get a small enclosed trailer for tools, parts and other race support stuff.  This would stop the many trips inside the back of the truck.  Placing the car in back of the truck on it's own is simple and not to time consuming.  It's all the other stuff that turns packing up the truck into a 2 hour project.  We'll see.
The only other project is the gearbox.  Need to replace the dogs and come up with a gear ratio for the Pittsburgh track.

Rain tires

Talked to Goodyear this morning about rain tires.  It was a short conversation, they don't make rain tires for my car.  Avon, the other tire company do have rain tires, but you know how I feel about running Avons.
I do have a third choice, groove my own tires.  I wood need to purchase a tire grooving iron,  there not much money and I could use a old set of my Goodyears.  This just might work.

Lola spare rims

The weather is so nice I had to start working on the race car.  The spare tire rims I got from Eric are in need of a little work.  Besides cleaning I need to find bolts for 2 of the rims.  The early Lola rims didn't have the safety bead inside.  So I guess someone came up with the idea of placing a bolt through the rim to hold the tire on the rim in case of a flat.  Not sure if my other rims have a safety bead. 

One of 3 bolt holes.

The bolt would be placed in after the tire was mounted...I guess

Eric's Melbourne F1 GP

Eric's engine wows continued to follow him to the Melbourne F1 GP.  His demo laps would be 20 minutes Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  On Friday he either broke another head bolt or lost the head gasket.  He still had 2 demonstration runs left, Saturday & Sunday.  The problem was terminal.  He sat out Saturday's run, but was enlisted on Sunday to drive the "Maybach special" the very car that won the Australian GP in 1952.  Quite an honor to have driven such an important car in Australian history.

I think his plane is suppose to land in Seattle on Wednesday. But I'm sure it will be a couple of more days before his feet actually touch the ground.


Photo of the "Maybach special", but that's not Eric driving.



Pittsburgh Grand Prix added

Sent in my entry for the Pittsburgh event.  That's now Pittsburgh, Lime Rock and Watkins Glen.  I look forward to the challenge of a track I've never seen.  Guess I better go look for the mufflers soon.

The video below will be my study aid for the Pittsburgh event.  The track lap is 1.6 miles.

Eric heading to the F1 race in Melbourne

Exciting news from Eric, he's been invited to have his car on display at the Melbourne F1 GP this weekend, along with one or two other F5000 cars, maybe even a demonstration lap or two.  Living the high life for sure.  He's going to be very bored when he returns to the states and finds a grid of 10 or so F5000 cars at the Calif. event this summer.

As for the past race weekend, Eric was having engine problems and never really got up to speed. 

F5000 Tasman Cup Revival Series at Australia's Phillip Island

MSC F5000 Tasman Cup Revival Series at Australia's Phillip Island circuit this weekend. Click here for Sunday's race report.

F5000 Tasman Cup Revival Series at Australia's Phillip Island

MSC F5000 Tasman Cup Revival Series at Australia's Phillip Island circuit this weekend. Click here for Saturday's race report.

Eric's on his way

Eric is on his way to Melbourne, Australia.  Should arrive Wednesday morning Australia time.  One last race this weekend at Phillip Island.  This will probably be the biggest event of all of them.

Racing in 2012

Looking at running 3 events this year.  I've come to the decision that the California F5000 race isn't going to happen for us this year.   So that still leaves me 3 races.  Lime Rock is one, Watkins Glen is two and the third is...Pittsburgh, PA(July 13-15).  That's right, Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix   Ok, I'm 90% sure on this event.  The one small road block is they have a 100db limit on the race track.  I've gotten my car under 104db with mufflers, so 100db should not be to difficult to reach.  The Vintage Racing Group oversees the race weekend and has a 1972 or older race vehicle rule.  Again I just make it. 

Pittsburgh is a lot closer than Road America and the entry fee is much cheaper.  I can attend both Lime Rock and Pittsburgh for the same cost as RA.

I like to try different things and the Pittsburgh event looks like a lot of fun.  Nothing is written in stone and no decisions need to come before April.

Justice Bros. memorabilia

Here's just a few Justice Bros. items I received.

Neon clock. 
Not real old, but it's no longer available from Justice Bros.

This now makes a pair, I can replace these with the Champion Spark plug fender covers.

A good size banner.

Lime Rock Park

Mailed in my "request for entry" as the LRP promoters states it.  No idea when I  will hear back from them. 
As for the race car, still haven't started anything yet.  Have a antique show next weekend, then a trip out to the Mid-West which will bring us into March.  Time sure is flying.

More JB stuff on the way

A guy out in Iowa contacted me a couple of weeks ago.  Said he use to be a distributor of the Justice Bros automotive products back in the 1980's.  Anyway, he still had some advertising banners, a neon clock and some other stuff.  Struck a deal and now there on a UPS truck heading to Jersey.  Hopes it good.

A new member added to the fleet

After many years of service, I retired our 1995 Bronco last year. We bought it new and mechanically it had run fine over the years. But had turned into a pile of rust. The undercarriage was just rotting away and became to dangerous to drive.

I’ve been searching Craig’s list and ebay for the last 5 months and finally came up with a replacement. It had to be 4 wheel drive.  Also, no rust and not needing a lot of work. A tall order for sure.  It would be used as a second vehicle and not travel very far. 

I found a 1999 Suburban, 1 owner, garage kept, non-smoker, no accidents, 4 wheel drive with all the service records. The only drawback was it had 224,000 miles on the odometer. The engine was replaced at 160k, and never used for towing. The Suburban was used for trips to South Carolina. 

 The owner had passed away and I was buying it from his son. After a 45 minute drive I could not find one thing wrong. The truck was in showroom condition, inside and out. So it’s now ours, the wife will use it for local trips and auctions that she attends herself. With the rear seat removed it has a vast amount of space. I think this vehicle will work just fine. 

Lime Rock Park

I'm adding Lime Rock Park to the race events.  This is the Labor day weekend race that I've had on the table for a while.  Accommodations have been made and now to start on my event application, yes application.  The LRP event is much more restricted as far as age of race cars.  The races I attend now have cars that might not even be 10 years old(Indy cars from the '90's).  This application must be in by May 15.  I really don't see any problems. 
LRP event runs 4 days. Friday-Monday with no racing on Sunday.  The following weekend would be Watkins Glen, that would give me Tuesday to work on the car and leave Wednesday. 

This will be our room at the Lime Rock event, only a couple of miles from the track.  We stayed here at the "Wake Robin Inn" back in the day when I raced FF and SV's.  But only during the fall races, in the summer we pitched a tent at the track.  Along the track runs a stream, that's where you would find the campers bathing in the morning.  Those were the days.