Busy

We have been busy this off season preparing the car to race. Understanding how much work goes into these cars is something that puts a new perspective on racing as a whole. Our racing program has changed so much since the days of the micro sprints.

new-car — The car, complete with a brand new body.

This year we rebuilt the entire body on the car. This was more work than we have ever tackled in an off season before. We have made body panels before. That’s the easy part. This year we decided to instead replace the entire decking on the car.

The decking on the car came apart pretty easy. I did it all myself right when the off season started. Dad was sure to remind me that I was the one who ripped it all off when we were spending long hours in the shop every day of the week for a few weeks straight. It did not go on as quick as it had come off. Decking and body panels remind me of math homework. The problems may not be that hard, but sometimes they take a while. That’s what the decking was like. But even so we progressed farther each day until we finally ended up with a brand new body.

It’s crazy to look at the car and think to ourselves, “We made (almost) everything you see here, by hand in our own garage.”

We also replaced the fuel cell, because the one we ran last year was way too small. Trust me, I ran out of fuel one (or two) too many times. With ten more gallons in the tank, our chances of running out of fuel should be slim-to-none.

Not the Rookies Anymore

It’s odd to think that we aren’t the rookie team anymore. It feels like we haven’t even scratched the surface when it comes to knowledge on these cars.

valve-lash — Hal Lusk, crew chief, sets valve lash on the engine.

And we probably haven’t. All we can do is prepare ourselves, and make sure we cut mistakes. Your mistake book will always be bigger than your book of things you’ve done right.

And we aren’t done making mistakes. Recently we experienced a fiasco searching for a washer that had been dropped near the intake of the car. We had a rag in the intake to stop scares like this, but of course it had been moved a mere ten seconds before the washer was dropped. By the time we had the intake bolts out, water drained and distributor removed, we found a washer. It looked mighty similar to the original that was dropped. Well, we figured we already made it this far, so why not rip the whole intake off anyway.

It turned out that the washer we found was indeed the one we dropped. We took the opportunity to learn how to seal the intake to the block and heads, however. Never stop learning.

Crunch Time

We are now in the last weeks before our opening race. Things are coming together now. We are under pressure to make sure everything is done, and done right. Our first race at Clinton County Motor Speedway is in two weeks. After we scale the car and put the wrap on, we will have a comfort zone to relax on.

We ran the car on Saturday. That calmed some nerves down with how our season is going to start. Not is it a relief to know our engine still works, it’s also an awesome sound.

Then, when that green flag drops, the work starts all over again – but it’s a little more hectic.