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: 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.

Fuel Pump Protection Relocation Program - Complete!

Back in September 2011, we relocated the Holley Red Fuel Pump to be below the fuel cell, as called for in the "Previous owner didn't bother to read instruction manual for Holley Red Fuel Pumps" Manual. That's the actual title on the book, yes.

(view from top)

All that open space bothered me; images of detached LeMons Crap bouncing off the tarmac (Dave was hit in the windshield by the National Lampoon's Vacation Station Wagon dog at Summit!) and up into the fuel pump area causing damage seemed so unnecessary... and let's face it, if destruction is to be had it better be in a location that is film-able and far more spectacular than fuel starvation due to dead pump. Yawn!

So, here's the cage we've wrapped around the old 6V MGB Battery Compartment that now contains the fuel pump. It is specifically NOT solid metal/tin/wood/plastic/kerosene-soaked-rags, as the pump tends to get HOT and I wanted to extra soothing cooling of the wind through it's hair, so to speak.

Made out of "Hardware Cloth" which is galvanized steel with 1/4 inch spacing. See, the car's English, so I'm allowed too use inches as a unit of measurement, unlike those other Eurotrash weenies that have to use "metric", whatever the hell that is.

NASCAR called with job offer, I shrugged them off:

View from bottom, or "bum" as the English call it:

Views from the top:

Race Report: 24 Hours of LeMons Capitol Offense 2011 at Summit Point WV

We survived the 24 Hours of LeMons Capitol Offense 2011 at Summit Point WV. Just barely. We placed 79th out of 102. Spent about 5 hours off track, repeatedly rebuilding the fuel system and cleaning out the gunk (once we figured out were told what it was). More on that later. By the way, did you know a Union Jack may be flown upside down, indicating you are in distress?!?! We didn't, but it saved our asses!!!

Drivers Ray, Dave, Max, Carl; pitcrew Larry, Cassie, and few judges and several tens of random strangers that used to own MGBs.

This post is a place holder for now... more later...
 
 

The theme for Capitol Offense 2011: "Goldbrick Racing" - 24 karets of slacking at your service. Son Ian selected the color.Purple bumpers by daughter Kira.