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. 
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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

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...

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/

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.
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Pics from Gingerman!

Picture Gallery

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?

TSB does Gingerman w. 24 Hours of Lemons!

We got to the track w/ litte issues, the door that holds trailer ramps in, came unsecured, nothing a zip tie can't fix for now.  During tech. inspection we found an oil leak, which turned out to be a cam seal.  We replaced that but, we were unable to get any practice laps in.

"Dive Bomb" Barry came off of the track after 2.5hrs, he got nailed for passing under yellow.  Until the black flag, he got us into 1st place!

I went out 2nd, and after 2hours 20 minutes I slide off of turn 3, and went four wheels off, and got a black flag for it; next time I will attempt to save it.

Dave Hildebrant went out for three hours, he got us up to 3rd place.

End of Day one, the race was cut short by about 1/2 an hour because the corner workers can't see the cars!  The snow is blinding.  The black spray paint is from me, it is susposed to be flames, it was my penality for going off the track.

Getting the car ready.........

We have been pretty lazy this winter far as car work goes.

I finally sourced a replacement transmission!  Lemons only alloted us $100 for replacement.  See their residual value.  Basically if you show up to a race, no matter what your accounting records show, they assume you spent $500.  So if you break something (aka a transmission), one must plead to the judges "can we spend money on replacement items?"

This one was found on Craigslist (thanks Adam!).  It was in a VW Cabrio that had a 16v swap, that got yanked in favor of a VR6!  I drove down to Northfield and picked it up for exactly $100.  Hopefully it works for us...he said it was a working pull, but who know how many miles are on it?  I did find out that Adam liked to take his Cabrio to the BIR drag strip.

BTW!  I never did thank Neil T. for donating to us the Contractor grade lawn edging used for our front lip!  Thanks!  The 1/8" thick ABS plastic we originally had on there didn't hold up, might have had something to do w/ loading it on a car trailer w/o ramps long enough for lowered cars?   Or the fact that it went to a rally-x event w/ it on.  DOH!  I did find out that Cert-A-Fit bumper covers have the factory like lower lip integrated as one piece w/ the bumper, where as factory have the lip as two seperate pieces seperate from the bumper!

Chump Car & 24 Hours of Lemons car invited to SCCA races?

SCCA-LOL will be inviting Chump & Lemons cars to both of thier road races at Brainerd Intl. Raceway this year! 

A special class has been forme IT-CC.  Right now the way I understand it is:
-it will be there own session
-cars must meet SCCA GCR rules (I believe the Chump car will only need a seat back brace)
-the same Chump car rules will be used (aka DOT tires & what not)
-each race weekend will get a warm-up, practice, and four sprint races

Also they are having a Time-Trials program.  It is much like qualifying.  The driver is competing for a single fastest lap.  Passing is pretty much unrestricted except for dive bombing.  It is the closest one can come to road racing in street car (aka no cage or 5-point harness required).  So any car (especially auto-x and chump cars) are elligible!

More info WILL be found on thier website: http://www.scca-lol.org/

Lucas Oil On the Edge, 24 Hours Of LeMons

Someone was nice enought to post the entire show on youtube!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLBCgn6cS28
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNHVuRBZgbM

TSB is on TV!

Lucas Oil has a show on Speed Channel, called the "Lucas Oil on the Edge"; they have a show dedicated to the Autobahn Lemons Race.  Our little "school bus" yellow golf was shown several times!
http://www.speedtv.com/schedule/search/Lucas%20Oil%20On%20The%20Edge

2011: Chump Car & 24 Hours of Lemons

http://www.chumpcar.com/events.php
http://www.24hoursoflemons.com/events.aspx
For sure we will be at both Brainerd events...the rest haven't been decided on yet.
Road America, Autobahn Country Club, Midwest Auto Motorplex, & Gingerman are all on the marker board.