Race Report: 2013 LeMons The Real Hoopties of New Jersey

Update: WE PASSED TECH! Woooo hooo. The actual race almost didn't matter  pffft. The Fuel Cell build out passed, so we were good to go. We were 3rd in line this time, and very prepared.

Final result: 47th out of 138 cars, 5th in Class C out of 18. Best of all: no tech flags, no black flags, NO CONTACT with other cars, and she ran all weekend during incredible weather.

Baby George even made the Official LeMons Video Recap with a "Hella Sweet" tag! See it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGvjMUzmwII

MGB-GT at speed, New Jersey Motorsports Park Thunderbolt track, August 2013, Scot at the wheel.

Some pics:



George Alexander Louis in the Royal Buggy on the way to the race
looking forward to a Gormless Weekend





Scot trimming the steel-braided fuel hose access hole in the MGB GT Battery Box cover
 (under which the fuel pump lives).





Prince George demanded the attention of the LeMons judges, so the Royal Guards stood outside the judge windows for about 5 minutes until they were noticed and a ruckus ensued. pip pip!

Ray escorting Brandon to the Technical / Safety Inspection garage. You know: the inspection that got us thrown out of Summit Point 2013... nerves were a bit frayed at this point, but the Royal Guard Never Waver! When Jay announced that we passed, all 5 Royal Guards present spontaneously lost composure (what little we had) and sent up a cheer.

We passed tech: we were already a winner. George is already hitting the sauce pretty hard.
Left to Right: Kurt, Ray, Brandon, George Alexander Louis, Carl, Scot.





Last minute repairs: had to move wheel weights so they wouldn't rub on hand brake.
The weights ended up falling off anyway, that's probably why we lost the race.

Our nearly empty garage space. The Gormless MGB GT needed almost zero work over the weekend, it was quite brilliant.



Ray in the lead, dodging the 4 foot poo that was deposited on the last turn before the straight by a Subaru. It was hilarious watching cars come around the bend pedal to the floor and then noticing a 4 foot poo on the track, then a delay, then a dodge to one side or the other.  

Stealing Ice from George Alexander Louis' beer cooler to refill the home made cool shirt cooler. Blessed, heavenly, wonderful, life giving and affirming cool shirt cooler.



Scot and Kurt check the vitals and top off the oil, which was being lost more by crankcase vent spewing than by burning as far as we could tell. A visit to AutoZone Millersville Saturday night and they scrounged an O-Ring, then shaved it to size, so the valve cover oil filler cap would not leak: it then proceeded to leak from every other place...



...while Ray and Carl strap in Brandon for his 2nd and award-wining 2 hour stint.

Gormless Racing MGB GT, quite possibly going the wrong way on the track... (it's an English thing)

Gormless Racing made Car & Driver's blog.... first and last time I assure you

Some idiot, standing guard and refilling George's bottle with Guinness every 1/2 hour.
Session beer indeed.



Refilling at the gas pump: the only way to go!!!!

It was an honor and a privilege to race against a Rolls Royce... the Rolls Royce! We were about to take down that frenchie in front of us like Nelson in the... well maybe not.



New Jersey Motorsport Parks Thunderbolt track from the air. 

It looks so innocent....

Links to Videos and Pictures of the Race:

• Official LeMons Video Recap: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGvjMUzmwII
• NJMP LeMons 2013 - THE MOVIE!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uVeA6Q5-vo
• Official Results (no pics): http://www.24hoursoflemons.com/jersey13.aspx
• Judge Phil's Uber Gallery: http://www.murileemartin.com/UG/LNJ13/LNJ13.html
• LeMons Facebook photo gallery: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151657138439495.1073741837.36766739494&type=1
• 300+ photos: http://flic.kr/s/aHsjHABuQk
• Video, a lap behind the race winner: http://youtu.be/ye4jtRNB-j8
• Near Orbital Space Monkeys spin out in T4: http://youtu.be/3FLl3mUPwgI
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWLiMWHTFbQ
• Team Cardoks #901 vs Ziegel Scheißhaus Racing #281
•  

Race Report: 2013 Capitol Offense - The 24 Hours of LeMons

Not. We failed tech.

On our home track.

On the most-fun-per-mile track on the east coast.

On a gorgeous weekend.

What did it? A perfect storm of:

• Old Fuel Cell (RCI, not FAI rated) and 
• Rear fuel cell protecting roll cage that tied into the front roll cage (a no-no for 2013 that we somehow missed in the rule updates, and the safety tech judge at Monticello either missed or let slide and didn't mention) AND also 
• Diagonals of rear roll cage tied from the main upper hoop to behind the rear axle (another no-no, for 2012 that we somehow missed in the rule updates, and the safety tech judge at the last 4 races either missed or let slide and didn't mention). 

We couldn't just cut out the offending sections because they were holding in the fuel cell. Another team graciously offered to stay up all night to help fix it, but as they had 2 of their own cars needing work we didn't feel comfortable leaning on them so heavily. Death before Dishonor! Still, this hurt, being our favorite track and our home track.


MGB GT Race Car : Friday Practice Session in style!

We did have some mechanical issues Friday at test day; burnt a half quart of oil driving to the track (rings? uh oh), and the accelerator cable was very hard and making grinding noises. We also could not get above 4500 RPM (redline is at 5500 RPM), which renders the weak car even weaker, to the point of idling around the track - no fun for anyone. We checked the pedal linkage (since it came off last year at Summit), adjusted the carb linkage, greased the heck out of it, and did not find the solution by the time Safety Tech came around, at which point it was moot (though it did play a role in making us decide to not stay up all night gerry rigging an unsafe roll cage fix to get past tech).


Inconsequential Drama Recap:

Lesson 1: Do not go to Pep Boys for your tires, and if you do, (1) do it well ahead of time, (2) make sure the tires you order are not discontinued, (3) make sure the team mate ordering them knows "200 treadwear" is the top priority, (4) make sure the placement of the wheel weights do not chew away your tie rod bellows, and (5) don't go to Pep Boys. We did finally get them. See: photographic proof:


All 4, we counted

Wheel weights on inner rim interfering with tie rod bellows, move and Gorilla Tape elsewhere!

Lesson 2: Be Excessive. It's best to clean out Perty Ada The Short Bus to Adventure Tow Vehicle and Pit Party House with a Roomba and a 140 MPH leaf blower:

Friggin stink bugs from hell, begone!

Lesson 3: Bring chalk. Other than that, there may be no fix for this one. LeMons said no entry Thursday night, but we had an old friend that lived nearby walk over to the main gate and he said teams were setting up and Summit Point Gate said "go on in!". So, I threw everything I could into Perty Ada The Short Bus to Adventure and drove up to Summit; the front gate said "go on in" but when I got to the bridge at Shenandoah they had just tied it off, the LeMons judges saying Summit messed up and let some teams in. But she felt bad for me (I enacted Lesson #2 and was excessively polite) and she suggested that I could, once they left, hand carry all my spare tires and big crap a mile down to the pits and  mark off 3 pit spots (I was also saving spots for our Sister teams Team Judge Phil and Ruby McQueen (aka ex the DRTy e30s). So I did, damn the Hiatal Hernia (that has knocked me out of 2 other races), luckily I had grabbed some of my kids Sidewalk Chalk and a tape measure (Judge said 20 foot spots, any more and penalties would be levied) used it to mark off spaces. I ran out of chalk, but at least had enough to mark them some:

Midnight at Summit Point 24 Hours of LeMons Pit Land Grab and Cluster Fark

The punch line being that by the time we left Thursday late at night, the Summit Point Security guard told me it was stupid to hand carry that stuff, and that he had to drive through the gate tape anyway do his rounds 3 times and hour. >:(  But, as I had given my word to the LeMons judge, I left the school bus at the gate and moved it in the morning. Whatever, it's all good.

Lesson 4: Do not be last in line for Tech Inspection. After 8 hours in the sun listening to spoiled race car people whine, the judges may be a bit grumpy. Get 'em while they're fresh & happy.



Race Report: 2013 Monticello There Goes the Neighborhood

Race Report: 24 Hours of LeMons 2013 There Goes the Neighborhood at Monticello Motor Club in Monticello, NY, April 6 & 7, 2013

Drivers: Brandon, Ruffy, Steve, Scot, Carl
Guardian Angel and Good Luck Charm: Zouneda


A 24 Hours of Lemons race at Monticello Motor Club is a rare event; in fact this will probably be the single time it will occur in the history of the Earth so it was imperative that we race there... even if it is to be very very very cold and tractionless.

A Beautiful Course, primped and proper, not at all what endurance racers are acclimated to:



Monticello Motor Club North Course



A bit more to scale I'd say



Tech and Safety Inspection: we mostly passed, with only two warnings... I lost a quart of sweat while the officials negotiated Warning (go race) vs Fail (go home).

 

1) The Kirkely Race Seat we have is a tall back, and the seat harness comes through about a foot from the top of the seat (making a weak point) - we need to add a support bar or brace behind the top part of the seat to keep it from folding back via helmet strike. Note the support does not have to attach to seat, only stop it from folding back.

 

2) One of the roll cage 'star' connection points is weak since someone cut out a section of tube years ago; never mind that the car has been in five prior LeMons races and passed tech - I see their point!

 

Thankfully, they let us race with these two points of 'oppertunities for improvement' with a deposit of promise to fix them before the next race.

MGB GT 50 - Gormless Racing, pic courtesy of official LeMons photo gallery

 

 Last minute check of the car yielded a loose bolt - THE loose bolt - that holds the brake and clutch pedal assembly on. This is the bolt that came off during the 2012 Captiol Offense race while Scot was driving. No coincidence that it is Scot's hand in the photo tightening the bolt!



More tea, Vicar?

In the first 15 minutes of the race, our driver pulled in complaining of loud clacking in the engine. We pulled off the valve cover and sure enough valves 7 and 8 were a bit off (0.016 instead of 0.013 warm), so we adjusted them and sent him back out.
Later, one of our newer drivers got into a bit of a tangle with one of Those Annoying Volvos and smashed in the front fender - luckily the tire was there to stop the steel from bending all the way in.... er....


Ruffy the MGB GT Front Fender Bender Mender - adding airspace between razor sharp jagged steel fender and soft supple race compound tire

We had to visit The Judge twice before we had bent the fender back enough to be deemed safe to rejoin the race:







 

At the end of Day 1 after 7 hours we were in 9th place in C Class and 80th place overall out of 121 entries.

 



MGB GT 50- Gormless Racing in action, pic courtesy of official LeMons photo gallery

The remainder of the race was spent adding oil, or trying to find out where the oil was spraying from, or swabbing the oil out of the engine bay, or borrowing oil from other teams, or cleaning up oil from the paddock.


Scot checking... something, while two supervisors keep him in check.

Cardboard & Kitty Litter - yep, it's British Leyland!

MGB Head Gasket bubbling like overcooked eel pie

MGB Engine Bay - now with built in rubber glove dispenser for oil cleanup!!

We ended Sunday after 14.5 hours in 66th place overall (out of 121) and 6th in C Class (out of 16) - not too dang bad for having 3 brand new drivers and taking our sweet slow time in the pits.

Race Report: 2012 Capitol Offense - The 24 Hours of LeMons

Race Report: 2012 Capitol Offense - The 24 Hours of LeMons at Summit Point Motorsports Park's Shenandoah Circuit in West Virginia

The Mighty Shenandoah - an MGB Friendly track if there ever was one... 22 turns, no waiting!

Never Mind the Bullocks Here's Gormless Racing MGB!

We had over-revved the engine at the last race and grenaded the engine, and so for this race we had installed not only a tachometer but a Rev Limiter as well, set to 5000 RPM - the suggested point at which cylinder 3 bearing starves for oil, melts down and goes all shambolic.

It worked great as far as we knew - engine didn't blow in any event. We sailed though Tech Inspection.

50 Years, 50 Horsepower, whatever

In the first 40 minutes of the race the accelerator cable popped out of the trunnion and left Driver Carl idling around the remaining 80% of the track, until pulling into the paddock. Remarkably no other teams noticed the speed difference. The FAIL was poetic justice, as Carl was the culprit that had gerry rigged the connection in the first place.

"I have NO IDEA why that trunnion would fail. Weird. Why do you ask?"

Dave and Scot hacked in an emergency repair and it lasted the rest of the race. About an hour total was lost.

"Ah HA! Here's the problem - Hamster wheel came off it's axle."

SEEMS LEGIT

We had also noted a half quart of oil "missing". No one would admit to taking it, but our sister BMW team was in the paddock beside us, and something about Germans stealing English oil rings true - they would not confess however.

2 hours and 15 minutes into the race, Scot driving... the entire pedal assembly holding the brake pedal and the clutch pedal fell off! oops. Scot was nonplussed however - explaining that one bolt was still sort of hanging on, and if he tilted the assembly correctly he could EITHER shift OR brake, but not at the same time - which was fine by him, as he swore to never use the brakes anyway. We noted another barrel of missing oil, so we tightened up the oil cooler lines at the engine and adjusted the connection angle.

"Look MA! I made it all the way to Turn 17!"

The rest of day one was only fun fun fun for us, cranking out the laps - slow yes - but laps none-the-less. Added 1/2 quart oil here and there, while wrapping various oil lines (there seemed to be a 'mist' around the distributor side).

Our poor sister team was pulled into a mashup, and smashed up their front end, enough to moved the drive train an estimated 3 inches forward!! They spent the rest of the evening replacing engine mounts, radiator, and trying to get old Ali running again for the next day. Quite a crowd gathered to help out, late into the night.

:-(

The only 'event' we had Sunday was Dave was attacked through the Esses and the gang of cars sheared off the passenger side mirror!

Saturday Night's Race to the Emergency Room: note inebriated skateboarder hanging onto the moving Boat-Mobile... which would later hit a newish expensive car when doing donuts in the parking lot...

Barely any water loss, so maybe head gasket ok. Oil consumption may be valves, rings, leaky oil pan, or leaky oil cooler hose... or all four. Probably all four.

It wasn't raining, and so "Queenie" was mounted to the windshield wiper post and continued to disapprove of our driving the entire race:

No matter what you asked the old girl, it just wasn't good enough

The home-made Cool Shirt cooler & pump worked spectacularly; highly recommended.

All in all: we finished 64th out of 117 starters... pretty damn good for taking our time swapping drivers, having the pedal assembly succeed from the kingdom, and having only 50 horse power.

Race Report: 2012 The Real Hoopties of New Jersey - 24 Hours of LeMons

The MGB was all ready and rarin' to go for the 24 Hours of LeMons race The Real Hoopties of New Jersey at New Jersey Motorsports Park on April 14 & 15 2012.

Sometimes it takes 12 wheels to get a tiny 1500 lbs car to a race.

Nice open pit area, front row. So front row that the LeMons crew came over to inspect us early so we didn't have to wait in line! Classy! 

Those big gold "50" balloons later detached in the gusty wind and floated up into the next-door airports airspace... oops - sorry NORAD.

Safety Inspection found a few items, which we fixed pronto:

1. Some of the seat bolts were a bit loose which allowed them to move it a bit side to side, so we tightened them all up and added bolts to the back bottom of the seat for extra stability.
2. Bolts holding the seat back support to the seat itself needed spreader washers (the seat is aluminum and would tear easily).
3. Seat harness bolts needed tightening.

Since we had plenty of spare time, Bob & Scot replaced the Weber DGV Carburetor Accelerator Pump Diaphragm:

Blue engine bay, blue roll bar, blue engine, blue hands, blue shirt... gee, no wonder we blew the engine.

Poor Queenie the Solar powered forever waving monarch fell off the MGB 50th Anniversary Cake and had a bit of a mash up - we didn't recognize the portent for what it was until too late.

"I Shall Forever Wave No More Forever"

Having fun while it lasted:

Now that's what I'm talking about!

 My bad, turn 1, ran out of talent:

The tire mark is only halfway up the MGB fender - what's the problem?

Scot's first stint - came in and reported the drivers side front suspension "wobbles" at high speed. We told him to keep his elbow INSIDE the window, but to appease him we checked it out anyway... sure enough, the bolt that sealed the oil in the shock / dampener had vibrated a bit loose and was leaking oil. Yes, MGBs have dipsticks on the shock absorbers. We filled it back up and out she went, ready to rumble:

"Knock yourself out, buttplug!"

Scot was just happy that, since it was indeed the dampener, he could return to hanging his elbow out the window:

She wobbles at high speed, just like the Queen!

At the end of day 1, the car seemed a bit underpowered but was running good enough as far as we cared to admit, so we offered Steve - who had just come down to pit crew and see what was up with endurance racing - some seat time.

Unbeknownst to Steve, he prepares for the worst.

Remember that whole "If someone offers you something for free it's probably worth every penny" parable? Yeah, that... Engine Grenade in 3...2....1.... I think he only got 4 laps or less!!! Sorry about that.

The old MGB cylinder 3"Bearing Blender" maneuver.

Hey! You can't park there Steve!    Wait... why aren't you out on the track!?!

Manly tractor engines can cry too, you know.

The full extent of damage in the blown engine may be found in this post: Engine Done Blowed Up Real Good!

The other four drivers - notice the correlation between the still-running engine before the race and the smiles - 100%!

The MG is thinking: "Uh huh - put your asses on ME will you?!!? I'll show you bastages in about 7 hours!!