Monday, September 12, 2011

Dog Daze Rally-X




Not long after the battle at BIR2, the Golf was repaired and sent out to battle in an hay field.  The mighty Golf pioleted by aaron took 1st in Modified 2wd (just barely beating the turbo charged honda del sol).  This event was held in Pine City, MN. 
more pics from facebook

Sunday, August 7, 2011

TransAM @ BIR Sept. 2~4

Open House Derhaag Motorsports Aug 25


TransAm at BIR, September 2, 3,4 (Labor Day)

We need volunteer workers for the PRO race!! Register at
http://www.motorsportreg.com/index.cfm/event/event.advert/uidEvent/14503248-9270-D0C7-41A2A764CE34F5D7

Saturday, August 6, 2011

Chump Car: Brainerd Intl. Raceway #2


<--Recreation photo.



















Barry and three "hired guns".....they did really well until an axle broken and shortly after the from driver wheel came of...






Thursday, June 23, 2011

ChumpCar Nat l Chumpionship

Greetings, National Chumpionship Chumps!


Okay, Chumps! The National Chumpionship entry list for 2011 is now closed. All of our qualifying events are now in the books... and we welcome the podium winners and our special "C4" entries from the last 5 ChumpCar events (Brainerd, Shannonville, Pikes Peak, Roebling Road and Buttonwillow).

Registration for the Chumpionship will close on Friday, 15 July. If you're coming, we need to know by that date. Get signed up on the Chumpcar registration page, just like a regular race.

Other news:
• Trophies for 1st thru 10th Place… really, really great trophies! Trust me on this!
• Cash and contingency awards for 11th thru 20th!
• Bands, live music, food… and spectators! Yep! This is a "Spectator Event" and we're getting help promoting the race from Iowa Speedway!

Lots of special stuff.
See you in Iowa!

All the best -
John Condren
"...just another chump!"
ChumpCar World Series
P.O. Box 1541
Morgan Hill, CA 95038
http://www.chumpcar.com/

Monday, June 6, 2011

Chump Car Does Brainerd Intl. Race Way 6/4~5/11

We got nailed for 3 penality laps for not having enough "Average Internet Value" on the car.   Aparently the a 1995 VW Golf is worth more than a Miata, BMW E30, or Porsche 944! 

Saturday D.Lafavor set a blistering lap of 1min57sec, which out of all the cars at the event was one of the top 5 quickest lap times!  My stint was cut short due to a failed inner, driver side, C-V joint, we replaced it w/ a junkyard spare, and got Barry out in under 36 minutes!  He came back in on his 2nd lap w/ the EXACT SAME FAILURE!  Fortunatly we had a 2nd driver side axle!  We finished 10th that day.

Sunday, we actually led the race for two hours!  We also stayed on the podium until something like 1:00, only being 3 laps down from 1st!  I battled w/ the winning BMW E30 for something like 30 laps.  We where nose to tail the entire time, we swapped places three times, when I was behind him, I was drafting so close I couldn't see his tail lights!  Again my stint was cut short by a failed rear wheel bearing that was smoking hot!  The bearing race welded itself to the stub axle.  Again we had enough spare to get us back out on the track.  We finished 9th.
Pictures
more pictures
more pictures



Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Day 2 of Gingerman

This is how saturday ended....lots of spills...apparently the corner workers couldn't even see the cars!

http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2011/04/detroit-lemons-day-one-over-snow-madness-neon-leading/

Sunday....turns out that South Haven has quiet time on sunday...no race cars before noon. We were told to not start our engines until noon, then line up and head out on track, the first 10 cars will be gridded in order....so we pulled up at 12:00:45 to find cars already doing a pace lap! The officials would not let us get into our spot, so Lafavor was in the middle of the pack, not the front.


The people's curse....the team had to climb on the car, shouting "SHAME on us", and drive around the paddock at 5mph behind Judge on his scooter, after the word shame was spray painted on the car.


Two hours left of the race......

Here is the final results...we got third!!...18 seconds behind the 2nd place car! 
2nd Place was Skid Marks Racing, the team is semi-pro...they make us look like a bunch of hacks...they have more $ into their data-aquisition & in car camera than we have into our entire setup.  A DOHC Neon weighs about the same as our Golf w/ 150hp stock compared to our 115hp, plus it has better aero.  First place was the MR2 that was a team of Toyota engineers!  MR2's are mid-engined and rear wheel drive, meaning they handle a ton better.
All in all a good race, we are content with were we ended up.   Now for the "What-ifs?"...
What if Barry & I didn't get black flagged?
What if we were gridded properly on Sunday?
What if we didn't have to replace a cam seal friday night and we got a few laps of practice time in?