World Racing League at Hallett Raceway 10/19 & 10/20/2019

Hallett Raceway is a 1.8 mile long race track located in Jennings Oklahoma.  It is one of the very few tracks that can be run both clock wise and counter clockwise.  With World Racing League we ran CCW on Saturday and CW on Sunday.  

On Saturday 45 cars started, 9 cars in GP4 with us in the Gensoku 1995 Mazda Miata. Our car was able to put down the same lap times as the 1st place car but were only able to get 2nd place in class, 20th over all, completing 199 laps in 8 hours.  Sunday we also got 2nd place completing 211 laps in 8 hours, 17th over all.

Amazingly we had zero mechanical issues for the entire 16 hours of racing!  We had one small car to car contact which did have a minor affect on rear toe.

Photo credit to Jim Rowland.

Picture Album on FaceBook.

Historic Motorsports Racing @ Road Atlanta and MaxSpeed Track Days 9/29/19

I was in Atlanta for work and had a day off.  So I made the trek over to Road Atlanta to spectate some vintage auto racing with Historic MotorSports Racing.

I got meetup with the fine folks at MaxSpeed Track Days and Maxspeed GarageClub.  Which happens to be just down the road from the track.  The garage club is really interesting concept; I wish I was closer!  Basically for $100 monthly rate, one gets 24*7 access garage, tools, lift, with an air conditioned lounge with internet access.

Hennepin Restomods Open House

Not directly racing related, but close enough; see the part about the RX7.  The shop owner has also competed in some Chump Car races, so there is my justification!  I love old cars, I love them even more when they can start, stop more like modern cars.  A lot of people are nay-sayers when it comes to retro-mods (a classic car with some modern components swapped in).  I get it, somethings should be kept original for better or worse for the sake of being historically accurate.  However, once one drives a car with leaf springs and drum brakes on all four corners, requires a rain dance of pulling the choke cable, pumping the gas pedal 4 times (not three, not six) to get the thing to start, or the fact it can't do the legal posted highway speed limit, the novelty of a classic wears off. 

Hennepin Restomods had an open house so I swung in to see what projects where in the shop.

https://www.facebook.com/HennepinRestoMods/

http://hennepinrestomods.com/

 This Cheverolet is going to be a mobile bar. 

Originally a Dodge van with an ABC (Aluminum Bodies Company) shell; now sitting on shortened '02 Silverado 35000 chassis with a 6.0l LS LQ4 power plant. It's new life will be a food truck.

Dodge 

The original frame for the Dodge.  Independent rear end?!?  

Body on frame swap

GrassRoots MotorSports Challenge 2004 contender and 2005 winner.  Mazda RX7 w/ a Ford 302 swap.

Extended cab Ford? 

LS Swap

I am a big fan of these retro-fit fuel injection systems.  Restomods is a FiTech installer.

Trabant

Jack Pine Sprints; Brainerd Intl. Raceway w/ SCCA-LOL 8/24 & 8/25

My Spec Miata returns!!!  After a two year hiatus, the car returns to the track!  SCCA-LOL's Jack Pine Sprints at Brainerd International Raceway.  A big thank you to Mark Kaufman of Maaco Burnsville, Nate Gundlach, Geoff Youngdahl, SRG Autosport,and The Alignment Guy.

New fire bottle, nerve racking to install, and less than easy access!  :)

Spec Miata Central, well most of us.

Over 50lbs of ballast was needed to be installed to make my 2400lbs race weight.

Turns out my choice of blue numbers on the grey car didn't contrast enough.  Black duct tape also wasn't good enough, borrowed some orange tape.  Then later to mess with some of my corner worker friends, I made the "1"'s with white tape.  :) I really like my new Jongbloed Racing Wheels from Phill's Tire Service.

My 2nd race, the radar was giving hints of possible rain.  The question was when was it going to come and how much?  Conventional wisdom is the Hoosier SM7's are faster that Hoosier wet tires up until standing water shows up.  At the very last second I made the switch to my 6 year old rain tires.  While in grid the rain starts....the first few laps were very sketchy, as the race went on the tires got better; I assume grinding off the outside layer and getting to fresh rubber helped.  The rain got heavier, I went off the track not once but twice!  I ended up getting 3rd this race!

http://photostacy.blogspot.com/2019/11/jack-pine-sprints-2019-lol-region-scca.html

I will add in car video and more pictures later!.