[Racer Duck]

Originally Posted by Bob Tanner

Congrats on a good weekend, Charlie. Which track did you run at, the ½-mile with the concrete turns out on the Parkway?

Please watch yourself and that Texas heat.

Houston Motorsports Park on E. Mount Houston Parkway. It's a 3/8 mile with concrete turns and a drag strip behind the back straight. Is that the one you mean? (It's the only paved track I'm aware of in Houston.)

Texas heat isn't a problem .. at least not the kind we get in central Texas. But that stuff in Houston is killer. I think that's the hottest I've ever been. I've been in Phoenix when the mercury hit 120 and Las Vegas when it was creaping over 115 and I'll go back, no problem; but I don't want to do the Houston steam bath again .. ever! Think I would have preferred a little rain .. it would have messed up the racing, but myself and a bunch of other "non-natives" would have sure enjoyed the break from the steam bath!

UPDATE:

It appears we are not going to get the prize money we earned (it's not a lot, but it is something!) Seems the track screwed up and never "signed" us up. We wondered when we signed in that nobody asked for our registrations fee, but we got involved with other things and it just slipped our minds. But someone at the track should have noticed that we hadn't registered! This is the first time this kind of thing has ever happened to us.

What makes this so much worse is the series is called the "NASCAR Cricket Whelen Modified Series" (Cricket Cellular is the local sponsor) and, according to what we know about NASCAR, we're (at a minimum the driver is) required to have a NASCAR license, but no one ever asked to see it, and we don't have one. So, the track is not only guilty of allowing an unregistered car and driver compete, but they also broke NASCAR's rules by allowing a driver without a NASCAR license to compete. And that means that there was no insurance covering us or the fans while we were at the track if anything had happened involving our car!

And to make matters worse, the problem didn't come to light until my son called Graham (the track owner) on Tuesday afternoon asking about how/when he'd be getting paid!

Now, don't get me wrong, we think HMS is a wonderful place to race, and the people there have always treated us well. But, in light of these lapses by the track management, we're currently re-considering future plans to race there.

[Bette]

Let me offer my congratulations to you and your family for your second place win.
In spite of all the problems before and after, you did come in second (even if it was illegally)

[tangosnipe]

Texas heat isn't a problem .. at least not the kind we get in central Texas. But that stuff in Houston is killer. I think that's the hottest I've ever been.

Duck. This is pretty much the norm in the Houston area. This morning the humidity was 89%, but is down to 54% now, but its 97 outside.
Very sticky with a heat advisory in effect.
Hopefully things will work out and you will return to Houston. You have already proved you can run well here. I don't mind driving a couple hundred miles to watch a good race, after all, I'm retired and have time on my hands.

[Racer Duck]

OK, I think we got the prize money thing worked out (we gotta buy a license and then we get the money).

And, we've made some improvements to the car (speed secrets!)

So, we're gonna try it again this weekend! If you're in the Houston area Saturday (the 15th), come on out to Houston Motorsports Park and root for us (Pro Mod #61). Then stop by our pits afterwards (we're gonna be pitting behind the main grandstands.)

[Bette]

Good luck Duck! Wish I could see you race. Anyone here going to be able to make it?

[Racer Duck]

wellllll .. we ain't gonna make it.

We discovered a small leak in the radiator last night when we put water in it. Turns out there was one at the local speed shop that someone had ordered but never picked up (a really nice double pass .. with a big price tag.) So we dumped the penny jar and my son went to get it today. But when he got there, it looked too big. He called me and I measured the opening as best I could with the old (leaky) radiator still in the car. It looked like we might be able to get it in .. just move a couple things (steering shaft & brake lines), but when we got it home, and took the old one out, it wouldn't fit. To quote an old commercial "just a silly millimeter"...

major BUMMER!!!

next race is the 29th at our home track at Kyle. we'll have it percolating by then.

[Racer Duck]

OK, we're at Kyle (Thunderhill Raceway) this weekend. Practice Fri nite went pretty well .. until the stud holding the air cleaner on the carburetor broke and sent it rolling across the track (for those who didn't realize it or just plain didn't know, our air cleaner sticks thru a hole in the hood which means it can come off without ever disturbing the hood.) I had to make the long walk from one end of the track (turn 1), across the infield, to the other end (turn 3) to retrieve it. At least I got some walking exercise in. But, without another one available we put the car back in the trailer and went home .. it was getting dark anyway.

More Sunday .. after it's all over.

BTW: my cousin, tangosnipe, is making the trek from Houston with his grandson to watch us race. (I think he's hooked on asphalt racing! )

[Racer Duck]

WOW! I was just gonna update on the last race, but see I've been a naughty boy 'cause there's been 3 races since I've done any updates. So, what I'm gonna do is make 3 posts, one for each race.

This post is finishing up the story on the 8/29 race.

We seemed to be making improvements in our handling and were very encouraged. But at qualifying we just didn't do well: 7th of 18 cars, but only 11 actually started the race. We pulled out of impound to make some changes for the race in hopes we could improve the performance (which meant we moved to the back of the grid.) But to no avail. Early on we got hit in the back and, tho we didn't know it at the time, our right rear spring fell out. Raced about 10 laps before we discovered why Cory kept complaining something was dragging the ground tho we never saw anything (it was the lower part of the body!!!) A quick trip into the pits under caution put in a new spring and dragging went away... By the time the race was over, we hadn't regained the laps we'd lost in the pits, but it was obvious to everyone there that we were one of the fastest cars on the track at the end. So, while the car got torn up a bit, the rear tires were cut by the fender when it was running without the spring and the right front shock was damaged, we were very encouraged by our overall performance.

[Racer Duck]

Unfortunately, we weren't able to get all the right parts in time to make the 9/19 race in Houston. Kind of a bummer, as we were having trouble finding the right shock package. Also, we ordered replacement front and rear bumpers and the new ones required some fabricating to get them mounted. We decided not to use the new rear bumper since the required fabrication would be pertty painful. so we just bent the old bumper back into shape so it would fit. And, because we'd been having some cooling issues, we replaced the electric fan with a mechanical one (that did the trick.)

For the 9/26 race in Kyle we weren't able to practice Friday, so had to make do with Saturday practice. We seemed to be oscillating around a good setup, but never hit on it. Luckily there were only 6 cars in the show, so we were hopeful of a decent finish

We qualified 5th; but on the drawing for positions (the top 6 qualifiers always draw for starting position) we ended up getting to start in 3rd! Early on in the race we moved up to 2nd and were clearly ensconced in that position .. until the tires started going away. After that, Cory allowed each car that challenged for position to pass to ensure there wasn't a wreck or spin while "fighting" for position. In the end we finished back where we started, in 5th. In post race inspections, the 4th place car was DQ'd which moved us up to 4th.

We were also priviledged to have my daughter, Kim, and her family in attendance including Kim's granddaughter, Samantha, who brought her mommy & daddy all the way from Jacksonville, Texas! (Yes, that makes the Duck a great grandfather!)

We think we're getting closer to a winning setup, but we're still not sure if our shock package is right so will be working on that before the next race, 10/9-10 in Kyle. Yes, it's a 2 day show, but I believe our feature race will be on the 10th. AND we're gonna buy some new tires!!!

[Racer Duck]

13th Annual Texas Stock Car Spectacular @ Thunderhill Raceway, 10/10/09

What was supposed to be a 2 day show ended up being a 1 day event. And what was supposed to be reasonable weather turned down right unreasonable.

Better start from the beginning, right?

Well, Thursday was to be an "Open Practice" day .. from 4PM 'till 8PM. We were slow getting our stuff together so we didn't arrive 'till 7PM .. decided just to park the trailer, talk to a few folks and leave. And we did .. sorta.

Turns out first on the agenda was to secure a new set of tires. But it wasn't to be. Seems the "tire man" had sold most of the tires to 3 teams and there were no complete sets left. We spent about an hour letting the track people know that without tires, we weren't going to race. And we doubted many other teams would be racing if they were also expecting to get tires when they got to the track and found none to be had. Fully expecting this to turn into a fiasco we finally headed home.

Then it rained. All night and most of Friday morning. We had 2" in our rain gauge at the house and we only live about 12 miles from the track so we knew it wasn't good there. But the folks at the track never say die, so got busy getting rid of the water and trying to get everything dried out so we could race. Because of the wet conditions, they decided to reschedule Friday's events to Saturday. That's right, they "smushed" both schedules into one. Friday was re-titled as "Open Practice".

When I arrived Friday about 5PM, the first thing I noticed was some large sewage pumping trucks roaming around. Turns out they are giant wet vacs and they were vacuuming up all the little puddles. Since they seemed to have the puddles under control, we set about getting the car ready to practice. We'd also managed to get first dibs on some new tires that were being transported to the track. We seemed to be fast, but things weren't exactly good, but not bad either. By the time we left Friday, we knew we had to do something to make the car better, but were scratching our heads as to what the exact plan should be.

Saturday came, and we arrived with a game plan: change everything!!! We would only get 2 ten minute practice sessions before we had to qualify so whatever we did had to produce some results. In the 1st session we were kinda better. So we huddled again to decide what to do. Decided to change the rear shocks (again) and put the race tires on .. and hope. After warming up the tires and getting one good lap under green in the 2nd practice session .. we ran out of gas!!! And with only 6 or 7 minutes left in the practice we didn't have time to get more gas and get it in the car before time ran out. So we were baffled whether our changes worked or not .. we'd have to find out during qualifying.

We were the 5th car out of the blocks in qualifying and our time temporarily put us 3rd. But we'd been there before .. there were plenty of fast cars to go and we were sure we'd loose several spots by the time it was over. But I kept noticing that the fast cars seemed to not be going as fast as us. And by the time qualifying was over we were solidly in 5th. The best is yet to come: the top 6 cars draw for starting position immediately after post qualifying tech, and we drew the pole!!!

Then followed a severe drop in temprature and I got chilled, even tho I was wearing 4 layers of warm clothing and staying out of the wind. It took some nasty chili cheese nachos and a cup of hot chocolate around 9PM to knock the chill out (yes, I had them together .. it was the only thing the concession stand had that was hot!)

Our race finally started about 10:45PM. Cory said he was turning the rear view mirror up so he couldn't see what was behind him. And he did a marvelous job of starting the race .. twice. The first time, the other car on the front row lost control coming out of turn 4 to take the green and ending up wrecking about 5 cars. The race was red flagged. Just about every race up 'till then had also had red flags so the fans were pretty resigned to seeing lots of delays in the racing .. what few of them that were still huddled together for warmth in the stands.

When the race restarted, Cory took the lead and lead for the next dozen or so laps. Then the fastest car on the track (#5) caught him but was having trouble getting around. Finally Cory went a hair wide on the front straight and the #5 car slipped under him for the lead. But he didn't drive away as in the past. Cory managed to stay with him until about 10 laps to go, then we reached the limit of our handling and came home about half a straightaway behind .. in 2nd place!

On the one hand it was disappointing, but on the other hand we were actually 2nd and nobody on the track, except the winner, was a quick as us! We now are a Top 5 car and one to beat! And we aren't running a crate motor which is what all the fast cars are running. We got'em worried...

There's a write up about the race at the Thunderhill Raceway website. You can see it here. (And, by the way, the #5 car was one of those who bought out the tire man's supply of tires...)

[Racer Duck]

And so after coming away with a 2nd in the last race of the season at Kyle's Thunderhill Raceway, we headed off to Houston the following weekend hopeful that our good luck would continue.

We got started a little late because of everyone's jobs and my doctor's appointment, but we got to the track around 9PM. And they had the drag strip going like gangbusters. We saw several of what we called "big boys" (those with all out drag racers .. even saw a couple Pro Stocks.) Since the pits was clogged with drag racers, we decided not to fight trying to get our car thru the pits into the oval track. It became a "day of rest"...and enjoying the drags. We found out those RX7's with the rotary engines make a wickedly loud noise when they're doing their burn outs and staging. Kind of a cross between a string of M80s and a bunch of mad mosquitoes on steroids. I don't remember ever hearing a sound like it...

And so Saturday started bright and sunny .. but we slept in .. 'till 9AM. We were the first car thru tech after it opened and the first onto the track for open practice. The car seemed to be both good and not so good. Couldn't quite put our finger on it. Then we had a little altercation with a newbie in the class .. we guessed either he didn't have a spotter (not a good thing) or one of them plain screwed up 'cause as we were following him around in practice, he pushed high going into T1. Cory moved under him and when we got beside him he just pulled down on us, spinning both of us .. just like he didn't know we were there, though it's kinda hard to miss a tire next to the driver's door, or somehow thought we should back out and give him the lane. I guess it didn't matter that we were way faster than him and had caught him easily .. some people really need a classroom education on how to drive before the come to the track.

We kept making little changes but nothing was changing much. We were 6th fastest in open practice, slowed .01 seconds in P1, and another .01 in P2. Qualifying would be via heat race .. we were starting on the 2nd row inside. And then things started going bad.

On the first lap, going into T3, the leader (who had started very slowly) moved a little wide and Cory ducked under him (can't waste time following someone who won't get up to speed quickly.) We were 3 wide and going for the lead. Then the leader shorted out between the ears and pulled down into us causing a 5 car pile up (this was a different guy from practice, but the same kind of stupid move!) Cory was able to drive away, but said the steering wheel was wrong meaning something had bent in the front end. He came into the pits .. we found the problem and sent him back out .. but they wouldn't let him return to the track 'cause they were "1 to go" for the restart. (They'd stopped the race so their one wrecker could haul away the cars, but wouldn't let us back into the race with almost half the field involved in the wreck .. I guess if we'd been the points leader, it might have been different.

Following the "clique" thought for a second: we put a decal on the back panel of our car about 6 weeks ago that says "Not I.T.C" .. sort of a protest against the way the tracks are playing favorites. What does it mean, you ask? Well, says I, "It means: 'Not In The Clique'."

Oh well, back to the race. We started the feature from the back .. with a guy who had been DQ'd 3 times this year for rough driving and had gotten a letter from the track saying no matter where he qualified for the race, he would be starting every race the rest of the season from dead last .. and the super bright light bulb from practice was starting right in front of us (when it rains, it pours.)

Thru the course of several yellows, we had to give back every advance we'd made 'cause we made it right before the yellow flew meaning we had to go back to the position we were in when we last crossed the finish line. Talk about luck .. bad or otherwise!

Still, once the racers finally settled down, we made progress toward the front .. but had a bad vibration from the flat spotted tires (locked up avoiding one of the wrecks that happened right in front of us.) Still, at the end we were running strong and finished 7th out of 10 starters (the two cars that were outside us and wrecked in the heat race never made it back.)

So, except for some cosmetic damage the car is OK (believe it or not, we have a scrape on top of our hood and a small dent on our engine air cleaner shield from one of the wrecking cars - really weird!) We also think we've figured out what's been wrong with the car: we think the rear brakes are the problem - the pads are too soft and the caliper pistons are too small causing the brakes to apply too hard when going into a corner. We'd also found the pull bar loose between practices, which didn't seem to make any difference to the clock but sure stabilized the car after we got it tightened back up.

And so now we're getting lots of advice about what to do to get ready for the Snowball in Pensacola the first weekend of December. One engine builder says to run our current motor and don't do anything to disturb a good working setup, while another one is telling us to put together our big (9:1) motor and run it .. we'll need to get permission from the Kyle track owner to go test the motor so that we don't go to Florida without knowing how it's gonna "handle", but he also says not to make the last Houston race and take a chance of breaking the car. If we do the latter, we'll need to haul our regular motor along so we have a spare should the big one go sour .. which means we also need to take our engine hoist (good thing it can be taken apart!) And we've had one of the Houston guys offer to help us get our car set up for Pensacola as soon as we get our brake problem taken care of. He's crew chiefed one of the Late Models that regularly runs (and wins) in the Pensacola and Mobile shows, so he knows the track well.

Now all we need to do is figure out how to pay for it. It's an especially perplexing problem since my son, Cory, just started a new job this week, with monthly paychecks rather than bi-monthly .. and he had to take a small cut in pay, but will have much better benefits. Still he won't get a paycheck until the end of October and it will be small .. then the next paycheck comes at the same time as the Snowball.

Ain't racin' FUN?

[kkfan91]

Originally Posted by Racer Duck

Ain't racin' FUN?

no actually it makes me depressed to think how much its going to cost when I get out of college and try to start racing lol

[Racer Duck]

Originally Posted by kkfan91

no actually it makes me depressed to think how much its going to cost when I get out of college and try to start racing lol

hey, if nobody has told you, I will: you don't have to go to college to race .. but it does offer a good fall back if you don't make it

[kkfan91]

Originally Posted by Racer Duck

hey, if nobody has told you, I will: you don't have to go to college to race .. but it does offer a good fall back if you don't make it

hey i wouldn't be here if my mom had let me race when i asked back when i was 8 but hey i'm here get this done and become the next David Reutiman get to cup by the age of 30

[Racer Duck]

Unfortunately we have come to a stone wall as far as sponsorship for the Snowball, and have reached the point of no-return.

We're announcing that we will not be in Pensacola for the Snowball this year.

We just don't have the money (and have no prospects for getting any.) Plus the time has past when we had to order parts needed to comply with the rules and we have no money to pay for them, nor to pay all the travel expenses involved.

Needless to say, we're kinda bummed....

On a brighter note, we've found that Tuscon has rules that fit our cars .. and a Modified race in Feb. We're working toward making the modified race, and we're putting our SLM back together to race there as well .. much later in the year (we'll need some serious testing here before we drag it that far to race.)

And, we've been invited to come race at Lucas Oil I-10 Speedway in Blythe, CA. Dunno if we'll make it or not, but it looks interesting...and a fun trip!

On the near term (this coming weekend) we plan to be in Houston with the modified. It's the last race of the season and we just happen to be in the last money paying position in the points championship so we HAVE to defend that spot!!! (Isn't it amazing that we only made 2 races and can still end up in the money? )